Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: With such familiar texts, they can be so familiar to us that we miss the questions that would have been obvious.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: To the original audience.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Like this one.
Why wise men?
That's so weird.
Like, do you ever stop and think about that part of this story? I mean, listen, there's a lot of supernatural intervention going on in the Christmas story. God is being born as a human. It's already weird, right? But. But most of the set pieces of the story makes sense.
Poor people in Palestine go and hang out with other poor people in Palestine. There's sheep involved. Like, we're all like, yeah, that kind of works. Shepherds get in there. Like that all kind of makes sense. But then random magicians from a different country show up with presents. That's a weird left turn.
That's strange.
Our English Bibles, most of them say wise men. The word here is magi, which is where we get the word. It's the plural of magus, which is where we get the term mage.
Right? These are magicians.
It's a weird term. It's an umbrella term for educated folk who in this day, often through the religious practice of Zoroastrianism, would mix together science and cultic practices. Oftentimes these dudes were highly educated in mathematics and astronomy, but they mixed that together with astrology and divination.
They were a common feature in king's courts, even in the Roman Empire. They were especially valued in the Persian Empire, where they were their own kind of social caste and social setting. Matthew says they're from the East. This almost certainly means that they came from what remained of the Persian empire in that day, east of Palestine.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: They likely hail from Babylon or Susa, two of the bigger cities in that region at that time.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Almost certainly what we know of these.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Dudes, they're probably practitioners of astrology and.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Divination, and they're probably Zoroastrian priests.
That's weird. That's a weird thing to have enter into the story. Why the heck did they show up in Palestine some 900 miles away from their home? Not 900 miles in a straight line, by the way, but there's a desert.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: In between those two places. So the path to get there involves going like this. And it is 900 miles. It's long.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Why the heck are these guys showing up looking for a king in Palestine? Well, strangely enough, this actually wasn't that outside of the cultural norm for the.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Practice of the Persians.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: When a neighboring kingdom had a new king, it wasn't uncommon for them to send political emissaries to bring gifts and.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: To try and bolster political ties.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: That wasn't all that strange. You'll notice they said they were coming to worship. That's what the text says. But in English, that's not quite accurate. Because this word worship could mean religious worship, but it could also just mean.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Honoring or acknowledging someone like a king and of just giving honor.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: So it makes sense sort of, that they will be coming to meet this new king and to honor him.
What's strange is that they didn't hear news of a king being born.
These aren't like the political emissaries officially of the king. These aren't the ambassadors of Persia.
These are magicians who saw an astronomical.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Sign they say saw a star and.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: They gave it earthly significance.
So if it was something in the.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Stars, we saw a random star up in the sky.
How did that connect to Palestine or Jerusalem?
[00:03:36] Speaker A: And that's where this story goes from.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Strange back to interesting.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: So you have to remember one of Matthew's goals in writing is to make sure that you see the Old Testament connection of Jesus's ministry of all the four gospels. Matthew is really concerned with you understanding.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: That Jesus's ministry is a continuation of what's been going on in the Bible the whole time.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: He continually stops and goes, this was.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: In fulfillment of this prophecy.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Like he wants you to see that.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Jesus's ministry is not separate from the rest of the Bible.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: And he's the only gospel writer who saw fit to include the magi narrative. And, and this is probably why, because.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: There'S some pretty interesting Old Testament connections here.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Two that I want you guys to actually see. The first one is this. There's a connection to Balaam.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Now you need to draw on your Sunday school knowledge here for a minute.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: If you don't remember Balaam, that's the guy who talked to his donkey. That's that dude. Remember that story? It's a weird one.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: The thing about Balaam that we may not remember is that he wasn't Jewish. He was a pagan prophet hired by Israel's enemies to put a curse on Israel. That's where the whole story of his talking donkey comes from. And where was his home?
[00:04:46] Speaker B: Where did he hail from?
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Well, he hailed from the place that during the time of Matthew would have been part of the Persian empire.
All the way back in Numbers 24.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: He prophesied a star will come from Jacob and a scepter will arise from Israel.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: So would the wise men all these.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Generations later still been aware of Balaam and his prophecy?
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Maybe we have no way of Knowing how.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: How much he worked his way into the lore of that region, we just don't know.
But we know that Matthew knew the connection.
That's the kind of scholar and the kind of writer Matthew was.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: But something the magi almost certainly knew was Daniel.
Daniel, if you don't remember, that's the lion's den guy.
He was a Jewish refugee who ended.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Up in charge of the Magi in.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Persia because rather than engage in divination like they did, he trusted God to prophesy through him and to bring truth.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: And interpret people's dreams and those sorts of things.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: And so in this weird, strange story, Daniel got put in charge of all the Magi.
And this is a special and privileged class in Persian society.
It's very likely that they would have remembered Daniel and his prophecies in the same way, like, we keep track of presidents and, like, the big projects of their administration.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Like, and you have to understand, remember, Daniel very specifically prophesied about the timeline of the coming Messiah.
And so it's very. Well, very easily. It doesn't say this right. We're inferring, but it very easily could have worked out that these Magi were already looking for a sign to validate the prophecy they had from Daniel.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: And when they saw a star, they automatically assumed it was connected to Palestine until this prophecy they already had.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: But that brings us back to a bigger issue, which is the problem of the Magi being in the story, period.
Because these dudes are pagans.
They practice astrology and magic and divination, all practices condemned by scripture, condemned by Jewish conviction and by the way, Christian conviction.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: By the way, if you ever hear. It's a really common thing to say that Matthew's the only one who included this story. So it's probably not historical.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: This is a really bad story to.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Make up if you are writing this for early Christians to try and validate your faith.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Our Messiah, he was validated by pagan magic people.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: That's a. That's not something you would make up. It would hurt your case if you were trying to make it up.
But here's the thing. It's a problem. It's problematic that they're in there.
These men were spiritual outsiders.
They would have been heartily rejected by the Jews of their day and by the Christians reading this later.
Of all people, why would God choose these men to show up and honor his son as the true king?
I think the answer is simple.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Beloved, our God calls all the outsiders and lost into his love.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: I mean, that's the truth of the gospel.
Our God is on the hunt for.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: People who are lonely and isolated and outside the truth, he's calling them unto.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Himself, from darkness into light. In fact, in his sovereignty as God seeks us out, God can use even the things that we rebel against him with to draw us unto Him.
God met these magicians, these practicers of dark arts, and met them through their astrology and divination.
Use that in his sovereignty to draw them 900 miles away.
The birth of his son, a sinful act he condemned. But in his love, he still sought them out in their context.
Beloved.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: God can use anything in this world to draw his own unto Himself.
Anything.
God's love is seeking and calling. And hear this, beloved. It is seeking and calling you today.
No matter where you are, no matter how far you may feel from him, no matter how alone you may feel in your own heart, in your own mind, in your own practice of faith, in the behaviors or addictions you feel stuck in, no matter how alone you feel, how separate you feel, the love of God is calling you today, beloved.
It is.
It is.
He is seeking you out. He is inviting you to seek him. In Acts 2, when Peter's giving his sermon at Pentecost, he said, God is calling those who are far from him, calling those who are far from Him.
But the reality is, guys, the love of God will always require a response from us, as beautiful as it is, to be reminded that he is seeking you and he is calling you, it still requires a response.
And by the way, not just those who are seemingly far from God, but even those who are deep into their religious practice and comfortable within their religious practice, they have to respond to the love of God as well. Look how our text continues in verse three.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born. In Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, because this is what was written by the prophet. 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.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: And asked them the exact time the star appeared. 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 now Herod enters into the story. Who was Herod?
Well, first off, this is Herod the Great.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Not Herod Antipas, who's part of Jesus's condemnation in the order of the death of John the Baptist.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: This Herod the Great. Is that Herod's dad?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: And by the way, little worse, A little worse. He's actually, interestingly enough, an incredibly important.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Figure in Jewish history for good and bad reasons.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: To understand Herod, you have to know that he was sort of Jewish, but completely Roman.
Like, that sums up this guy in a way that is actually really helpful. See, by birth, he was actually Idumean.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Which is the region at the very bottom, most part of Palestine in this time.
This is a region that had been conquered by Jews a few generations earlier, in the era of the Maccabeans.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: They were descendants of the Edomites, if you want to dig out your Old.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Testament history, descendants of the Edomites.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: But at this time, just a few generations previous to our text, they had been forcibly converted to Judaism. And so by the time Herod was born, he likely was as genuine in his Jewish faith as any cultural practitioner of their faith.
But he wasn't Jewish by birth, right?
Genetically, he was outside, even though culturally he was inside. And he ended up getting a Roman education. And in the midst of his Roman education, he ends up befriending a little guy named Mark Antony, who has a little bit of importance in world history. He did a couple things, and all of this led him to getting assigned to be the vassal king over all of Palestine. And by the way, I'm not going.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: To derail us too much here, but I just kind of geek out on this stuff.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: He was assigned king over Palestine in the most Roman way possible, which is that the Senate said, you're king of Palestine. Here's an army.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: And that was it. That's all they did. And so he had to go. He got the kingdom, but he had to go conquer it first, right? And he did. He showed up with a big old Roman army. He conquered everything he needed to conquer, married a whole bunch of people strategically, and he unified Palestine into actually a really important part of. Of the Roman Empire. And by the way, that's kind of from the rest of the world's perspective, that's kind of Herod's legacy is that he took this backwater, rebellious era and he unified it and made it an important and vital part of the empire. He built up using the Romans, the Roman knowledge of the day. He built up massive amounts of infrastructure all throughout the area and made it vital to the functioning of the easternmost.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Part of the empire.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: He's Actually really good at that stuff. He was a really good leader in a worldly sense. It's why he's called Herod the Great.
But his worldly success as leader was never quite able to just quiet down the restlessness of his soul.
He never got past the reality that he wasn't fully Jewish.
He constantly feared that he would be overthrown by someone who had a better.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Claim to the region.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Which, by the way, helps explain why.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: He reacted the way he did with the wise men.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: This is late in his reign and.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Late in his life. He is obsessed with powers and the systems of this world. He will do anything to keep his power.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: When I say anything, I mean anything. Within a few years of the story we're reading, he actually assassinated his own.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Wife and then killed the children he'd.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Had by her because he thought maybe.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: There was a plot coming from that section of his family.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: This is a dude who's pretty intense. He has no desire. He's not excited when these Magi show up and tell him, a son of David, a Messiah has been born. He has no desire for a native born son of David to challenge his authority. So he takes this news deadly serious.
He helps the Magi zone in on their goal. He brings in the Sanhedrin and the religious scribes and theologians of the day, and it helps them figure out where exactly they're supposed to go via prophecy and then ask them to report back to them. He's not doing this, by the way, so that he can actually go and joyfully meet the new king, right? He's doing this so that he can crush the competition.
And look, by the way, at the contrast of the response from the Jewish leaders.
These religious leaders of the day had access to the scriptures and were able to find the birthplace of the Messiah through study. After hearing the message of the Magi, I think that part's really important to note here, right?
These are educated theologians with access to the Word. And here it goes, where will the Messiah be born? They go, well, let's go look. And they study and come back and go, that's crazy right here, Bethlehem. That's the deal. Like they pinpoint it and yet, and yet they have no response to it beyond that. I think it's interesting noting that we're.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Talking about like a five mile journey from Herod's palace to Bethlehem.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Imagine I walked what, 900 miles to get there. The actual religious leaders in charge of.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: The spiritual care of Israel here at.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: This, here at the Savior, the Messiah has been born five miles away. And they don't go.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: They don't go. They're apathetic about it.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: I mean, it could be that they're like dismissing it because, you know, consider.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: The source of these pagan magicians are telling us about this, who cares?
[00:15:50] Speaker A: It could be that they see how wound up Herod is and they don't.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Want to get into the middle of.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: A mess that might mess up the.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Power structure, those sorts of things.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: But regardless, what we see in this story is that those who claim to know God, who claim to study his Word, passively ignored their opportunity to engage.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: The love of God entering into the world.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: And by the way, in the strangest part of this whole text, I really think Herod's response and the religious leaders.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Response is functionally the same response.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: I think it's almost identical.
See, for those who are deep in the throes of this world, the love of God seems more like a threat than a rescue.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: In Second Corinthians 2, Paul reminds us that the Gospel is a stench of death to those who are outside it.
By the way, even deeply religious people, you get so caught up in the throes of the world that they miss the gospel love of God as a stench to be avoided rather than a blessing.
It's a great gut check for us today, right? Like we're sitting in a moment in history, in a culture where our religious practice has been incredibly privileged.
We have insane amounts of access, insane amounts of access to our religious practice. We are sitting in a climate controlled building in a public gathering with dozens of copies of the Word of God spread around with no fear of the police showing up, right?
[00:17:22] Speaker A: And that's not me trying to guilt you guys, praise God for that. But that's to remind us that the vast majority of our brothers and sisters in faith throughout the world today and for the last 2000 years have not.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Had this kind of access to our practice of faith.
And so looking at this response, guys.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: This is a good gut check for us.
Are we so caught up in the.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Things of this world, the things of this life, the busyness of this world, the things going on in our heart.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Are we so caught up in them?
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yet the invitation, the presence of the love of God feels less like an invitation to freedom and more like a threat, more like a stench.
Does your heart push him away?
Long for him?
Read on with me. Let's see how this text ties all this together. Verse 9.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: After hearing this, after hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was, the star they had seen in its rising it led.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child of Mary, his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: To their own country by another route.
Okay, first we have to address the star shaped elephant in the room.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: What the heck did we just read regarding a star?
Did you catch that part again? This is one of those things where it's like, it's so familiar we cannot stop and think about it.
But actual astronomers have discussed this part of the text for literal thousands of years, trying to figure out what the heck is actually being described here.
That's a really weird thing.
They meet with Herod, they walk outside. Oh, look, the star's back, it's moving. And then they follow it. Oh, look, it's hovering over that one specific house.
Let's go in there. I don't know how when the last.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Time you guys looked at a star was, but if you wait till tonight.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: And you go outside and look at a star, I want you to pick any star you see in the sky and then just decide which house is that one over.
I'm going to tell you something.
All of them that makes no sense. That's a nonsense thing. And here's the thing. The word that gets translated as star in our bibles, it can actually mean various different astronomical things.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: It could mean a shooting star or a comet. It could mean, what's it called when the planets like go in front of each other? You know what I'm talking about?
[00:19:57] Speaker A: It can mean that part too. It can mean a lot of different things in astronomy. Here's the problem.
None of them do what we just read in the text, right? Have you ever gone out and watched a meteor shower? Have you ever seen a shooting star?
You can't identify which house, it's over.
That's not how it works. You couldn't go, I'm going to follow that comet for five miles and see.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Where it leads me.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: That's not a thing.
Here's why I, I think what's going on here is just this.
I think something weird and supernatural is going on here.
I think they saw a cool star.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: And went, oh, wow, look at that.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Whether it's a shooting star or planets crossing over or a star, whatever it is, they saw it. They saw it as an astrological sign. They connected the prophecy. They came here, now they come out and they're surprised to see the star again.
But in this context, for whatever reason, they are able to follow it and identify it as being over the top of a house.
I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm just going to say this. That's probably something these guys have never experienced before, right?
These are trained dudes who have spent their lives studying the stars. And this is a really weird thing that stars don't generally do.
Why else would they take seriously the.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Idea that a poor peasant child in a random house is this prophesied king.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Rather than the living, breathing princes living in the palace in Jerusalem where they just were?
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Right?
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Palestine has a king right now. His name is Herod. There are princes living in his palace, waiting their turn at the chair. Why would these guys who are educated, who understand this world, who are here to meet a king, assume that a random toddler in poor people's house is the actual next king?
[00:21:55] Speaker B: That's again, strange.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Something supernatural happens from when they leave.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: The palace till they get to the house.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: And I would say that it's that God made a star do a weird.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Thing stars don't do.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: So they could be led to this.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: House and when they get there, when they get there, they respond in a really surprising way.
In following that star, God did something in their hearts.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: See, they thought they were entering this.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: House as political emissaries, but they left as worshipers.
You guys don't realize this. The story is so familiar to us, but if it wasn't, it would be ridiculous.
The image of kingly emissaries and all their wealth and all their pomp with their servants and their train and all their people and their camels and everything loaded up, showing up at a random blue collar worker's house and walking inside to see their toddler and bowing down on their knees. Not in glorifying a king, but in actual worship and then presenting gifts to this toddler as though he's a king.
It's a ridiculous image.
It's a silly image.
But guys, this story is so illustrative of how God's love affects the world.
God's love invades this sinful and broken world in ways that are unexpected to turn this world on its head.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: The main reason we celebrate Christmas, out of all the aspects of Jesus life that we could consider and celebrate, is that the incarnation of Jesus, that Jesus taking on flesh and blood and becoming one of us, is an amazing act of love.
In Philippians 2 in the Christ hymn, it gives this act context. It says Jesus is God, but he chooses to pour himself out and become one of us.
To go from being the Almighty, all present, all knowing, all powerful God of the universe who exists everywhen and everywhere and knows everything and goes from that to being a helpless baby, goes from everywhere to somewhere, everywhen to somewhen, everything to nothing.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: That's the choice Jesus makes for us. Beloved, that is a sacrifice we cannot fathom.
That is an act of love that.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Is beyond the ability of our language.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: To comprehend, to give up heaven for the likes of you and I.
That's why we celebrate Christmas.
Because guys, Jesus is bent on saving us.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: John 3:16 is one of the most.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Famous verses in all scripture.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: You may not have been in church.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: In years, and I'm pretty sure you can come close to quoting it, right?
For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Right?
We know that one.
Jesus became humanity because he loves us so much.
Because God's love for us is real and genuine.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: It invades this broken and sinful world. And look at this guy that has purpose. See, most of us know John 3:16, but if you look how it continues.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: In verse 17, you find out that he didn't enter into this broken and sinful world to condemn it, but rather to save it.
Beloved, God's love is bent toward your redemption.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: He has focused the aim of his love on your redemption, entered into this world with purpose that you might be drawn away from death, that you might be drawn away from your own rebellion and brought into new life and forgiveness and redemption and healing and restoration.
His love requires a response because it's.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: Just too massive to not affect you.
You need to respond to it.
That's why our story is so illustrative. We, because we all must respond to God's love.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: We saw how the religious leaders of.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Jerusalem tried to ignore it.
Well, if you know the rest of Jesus's story, how it goes on even in Matthew, that doesn't work out very well for them.
Many of us, especially us church brats that grew up in church, can take this route.
We become confident in our religious practice and our knowledge.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: And we can do our best to.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Ignore the love of God in action in this world.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Because we're good.
Got a handle on this.
I figured out my spiritual and emotional lives. I've gone to enough Bible studies, I've.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Been to enough worship services.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: I've Been to enough Sunday school classes.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: I know the songs. I know the stories.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: I've got it figured out. I'm good.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: I'm good.
We don't really want or need God to intervene or challenge us in our life today.
If that resonates with you, I would urge you to look afresh at God's love in this world and in your life.
Beloved, God is for your redemption. He's for your freedom. Don't ignore him today.
Don't coast through your faith assuming that your rote traditions and disciplines will be sufficient.
Don't allow your faith to remain an intellectual exercise where you sign up for Bible study so you can grow in knowledge and trivia, but keep your heart closed off.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Don't do that, beloved.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: God sees you.
He sees through the walls and barriers you put up.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: He knows you.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: He knows fully the parts of you that you're hiding behind those barriers, the parts of you that you don't want to see changed and restored. The sin patterns that you're comfortable with.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: The hurts and traumas that are too painful to go near and touch. He already sees all of it. And he wants his love to invade your person.
Change it from the inside out.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Beloved. Open your heart to him today.
Don't ignore a response to him.
Now, Herod, on the other hand, he definitely responded. By the way, this text, it continues in one of the most haunting verses in scripture. In verses 13 through 18, it tells how when Herod realizes the Magi had dumped him, he goes and he calculates the approximate age of this king based on when the star appeared. And he has a group of his soldiers slaughter every child in the region of Bethlehem within the age range.
It's brutal.
Joseph and Mary are forced to flee and to hide in Egypt until Herod's death shortly thereafter.
Caesar Augustus, like that, that one Caesar, he actually knew Herod personally. There's a famous quote about Herod's violence and paranoia. He always thought it was strange that Herod was so outwardly religious but also so violent, right? Like, he kept kosher the way he lived, but he was willing to murder his own family to secure his power. And so Caesar reportedly said, you know, it's better to be Herod's pig than Herod's son, right?
[00:29:07] Speaker A: He was essentially pointing out the hypocrisy.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Of a faith that wanted the trappings.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Of faith, but nothing else. When it came to engaging as God, God's call upon the heart to submit to God's loving ethics, Herod could care less. Or more specifically, he cared more. About his earthly power than. Than whatever expectation God might put on him.
Beloved, I would say boldly that many.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Of us in this room are so.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Invested in the systems of this world that the love of God is a genuine threat to the way we want.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: To live our lives.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: You don't want to give up the pleasures and structures of this sinful world and submit to God's rule in your life because that would mean you leaning.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Into the power of God instead of the power of this world.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: And you genuinely don't want to give.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Up those sin patterns, those positions you've built for yourself.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: It have to be submitted to the.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Love and authority of Jesus.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Or by the way, it could be.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: The exact opposite of that.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Rather than being the bully who doesn't.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Want to give up your sinful fun, you might be so beat up and beaten down by this world that you simply don't trust God to be any different.
His power in your life might be as bad as every other person who is supposed to offer you love and care. Both of those. Both of those are being caught up in the systems of this world, either through power or through hurt. And the gut reaction of those of us who are caught in the systems of the world is to react to God's love with rebellion, to push him away, to reject Him.
I have to share the story anonymously, as anonymously as possible.
Have to change the names to protect the innocent and the guilty.
In my family, we make a pretty big deal out of our family devotion time during Advent.
We go all in on it. It's like a whole thing. I buy the little chocolate Advent calendars, you know, for the one for each of the kids. But I do more than that. We get the Lego Advent calendars too. You know what I'm talking about? So we do this whole thing where each night of Advent, our family worship before bed. We get together, we read some scripture, we talk about the theme of that week, we pray together, they get to eat their chocolates, they build their little Lego thing, and they kind of build out this thing over the course of Christmas, you know, and then we sing some Christmas hymns, we go to bed. It's just kind of a long bedtime ritual. It's fun. It's Christmassy.
Recently, one of my children, who shall remain nameless, got in trouble.
And in their trouble, their consequence was they were going to miss out on their chocolate that night at Advent.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Hey.
So this child, unknown, mysterious child that.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: Night sat through our Advent time and was very mad that they didn't get their chocolate and so they waited till we all went to sleep, and about 2 in the morning, they got out of their bed and went and got their Advent calendar out of the fridge and took it back to bed and ate all of it and then hid it under their. Under their sheets.
[00:32:09] Speaker A: So the next day the crime is discovered, right?
And I'll be honest, I'm not a good person.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: And I was very mad about that. It was very frustrating, and I was.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: Fine, you're gonna go the whole rest Advent and not have any candy. And you can just sit there and be sad while we do Advent.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Which is, by the way, not a good response. But that's where my heart went in the moment. It was very frustrating to me.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: And so I leave and I go about my day. And again, this is not me.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: I'm the one who just responded. But the Holy Spirit impresses upon me deeply just thinking through this kid, who.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Is choosing in their anger and their.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Rebellion, who is choosing to isolate themselves from the rest of the family.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: And the thought of them sitting in.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Anger and isolation while the rest of us are joyful and worshipful before Christmas.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: The Holy Spirit just drew me back.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: To the truth to say, hey, hey. Think about your own self and how you respond to my love. Perhaps you should invite them back in instead of pushing them away. And I go, okay, Holy Spirit. So I go to Walgreens and I buy another Advent calendar.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Unbeknownst to me, because I had to.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Leave early that morning for a meeting. Unbeknownst to me, that night, my daughter, who was angry about being grounded from the chocolate and not getting it for the rest of adventure, got up in the middle of the night again.
And this time, she ate her sister's Advent chocolate and dumped out some of her brother's Advent chocolate and opened up the Legos and spread them over the room and in response to me, goes, in the middle of the night, I'm the boss and I can do what I want. You can't stop me.
And had this Advent calendar that I bought to invite the child back in. And my response was to go, fine, stuff it in the trash, blow up on him in anger, right?
[00:33:55] Speaker A: Because now it's not just, you're like.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Now you're punishing your siblings.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: You're ruining this family thing. And I get all.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: All this anger up in me, right?
[00:34:04] Speaker A: But again, the Holy Spirit, not me.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Please hear that, Holy Spirit, not me. Draws me back to this child is choosing isolation.
They're lashing out in their anger.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: They're hurting and punishing the rest of the family, but they're choosing to isolate themselves. And how do you respond to me?
[00:34:24] Speaker B: I think about the way I respond to God in my flesh, in my selfishness, in my anger, the ways I put up walls, the way I push God away, the way that I convince.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Myself that when I lean into the flesh, when I lean into my sin.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: That I'm actually winning, that I'm actually getting what I want.
When in reality, I'm sneaking off in the middle of the night to eat Walgreens chocolate.
Can I tell you guys something?
Walgreens Advent chocolate.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: It's bottom tier.
It's not great.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: But I convince myself that when I go off in rebellion and I push God away and I do what I want and I live my life how I want, that that's winning.
But that's so isolating.
It's not how God has wired you. It's not what God has called me to. It's not what God has called you to.
He has called us to unity, to.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: Restoration, to redemption, to life, to Lindt.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Truffles, not Walgreens Advent chocolate.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: You know.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: You know what I'm saying?
[00:35:38] Speaker A: So after I respond to my flesh.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: And the Holy Spirit meets with me and challenges me, I come back to her and I. We bring all our kids together, we talk about it. There's weeping, there's gnashing of teeth. Everyone's sad. There's division.
We say, we need to hit reset.
We need to hit reset.
So I go to Walgreens a second time and I buy a bunch of chocolates. This time I have to buy a bag because I don't know if you know this. They stopped selling the Advent calendars two weeks into December. They don't have them anymore, right?
[00:36:07] Speaker A: So we go in and get a big bag of chocolates and just say, okay, reset, come back.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: This isn't the competition.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: This isn't about justice.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: This is about connection, about our family. This is about grace. This is about coming together.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: I'm here to tell you guys that didn't work.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: It's been very, very difficult. That was this week been very difficult because kids are hurt and they're angry.
But it's worth it.
It's worth it. Worth it to push through and go, nope. This time is about connection. This time is about worship.
And I could put my heels down injustice and say, you just get to be miserable every night till we're done because you did this. Mean stuff to us. And that would be justified in some ways, right?
That is not gospel.
That's not how Christ has treated me or my rebellion.
Beloved, I would encourage you to consider your own heart.
This is what sinful and hurt hearts do.
The love of God enters into our world and it requires response. It requires that we submit that we bow the knee to the Lord of our life. And how many of us, when faced with the choice, choose to push away and rebel?
[00:37:25] Speaker A: How many of us are tearing up our Advent calendars and griping about how we're the boss of our lives.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: When our Heavenly Father just wants to pull us in and hug us and remind us that we need not fret, that he has so much better for us in life than Walgreens chocolate.
That's you today. Beloved, I urge you, consider the love of God afresh.
He made you.
He considers you.
He sees you.
He has good for you.
Yes. That means surrender. Yes. That means you have to respond.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: It means trust. It means repentance. It means Jesus and not this world.
But let's be perfectly honest here, this world does not have enough to satisfy you in the first place.
Who wants the cheap chocolates anyway?
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Is there any other time of year.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: That makes this truth more astonishingly clear right now than right now?
[00:38:26] Speaker A: That no amount of traditions, no amount of gifts, no amount of service to.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: Others, no amount of time with family.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Or friends or parties where you have to wear ugly sweaters, none of it is enough to leave you full and satisfied. You were made for more than the best this world has to offer, beloved.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: The wise men, the magi, the outsider pagan astrologers experienced this.
They came to meet Jesus, expecting a new king in a neighboring kingdom. And who they met was a poor toddler who was also God in human form.
They met the love of God in action. And like the shepherds before them, they were impacted by it and led to genuine worship. Man, if you want to come back up, this is the best way we can respond to God's love invading our world.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: Not by trying to ignore it, not by trying to push it away, but with all our mess, with all our.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Hurt, with all our brokenness, embracing the love of God. For you, coming to Jesus is worship.
It's receiving the amazing gift of his love.
So I invite you guys today to consider just that.
I'm gonna invite you to take just. I mean, just a minute to sit in your seat, to find a posture of your own heart where you can connect with the Lord. If you can do that in your chair, if you want to get on your knees, if you want to come forward to the altar or find one of the pastors you're in vid or.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Whatever that looks like for you.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: But I want to encourage you to take a moment to connect with Christ, consider his love for you today, what that might mean for you.
And for those of you who are in Christ.
I would encourage you, when you, when you've taken that minute to meet from them, to consider what it might look like to respond through communion.
You know, Scripture says when we take of the elements, that we're proclaiming the death of Christ until his return.
That's like a fancy Bible way of saying, when we take of the elements, we remember the body broken and we remember the blood poured out. But we're saying that Jesus work for us that perfect life he lived, the life he was born to, the sacrifice he made for us, that that work is sufficient to meet the needs of our heart.
When we come and take the elements, we are preaching the gospel to our own heart.
God, your work is sufficient.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: We're preaching it to our brothers and sisters around us.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: God's work for me is sufficient.
We're proclaiming it to the world.
God's work is sufficient.
So when you've met with Christ, I'd encourage you to just come up, those of you who are in Christ, take the elements, proclaim the sufficiency of Jesus, and we'll land out reflecting on the love of God for us. Love it, take a minute, do the work with Christ you need to do.
