We turn today to the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 1 and verse 1.
This is the beginning of the New Testament
portion of the Bible, and it's very significant
that it begins with these words, the book
of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son
of David, the son of Abraham.
If you turn to the Old Testament, we
can say in a sense, with the beginning
of creation and the fall of man, there
is the record as we read in Genesis
5, verse 1, of the book of the
generations of Adam.
Here are two generations, the book of the
generations of Adam and the book of the
generations of Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 1.1, two different races, one
human, the other divine.
Everyone originally begins in the book of the
generations of Adam, but some, by repentance and
faith, are transferred to the book of the
generations of Jesus Christ.
And here in Matthew's Gospel, we actually have
a record of the genealogy of Joseph, the
husband of Mary, as we read in verse
16 of Matthew 1, of whom was born
Jesus.
And we see that Joseph was of the
kingly line of David, and the other kings
that followed David on the throne, that we
read of.
Verse 6, we read of David, and verse
7 onwards, the other kings, Solomon, Ezra, Uzziah,
Hezekiah, Josiah, and then after the deportation to
Babylon, Zerubbabel, verse 12.
These are the leaders, the kings and the
leaders of God's people, Israel in the Old
Testament.
And in a sense, we could say that
if there was a kingdom and a king
in Israel at that time, Joseph would have
been entitled to it, and after his death,
his legal son, Jesus.
So this is to prove that Jesus is
the heir to the throne of David, legally,
through his foster father, Joseph.
In Luke's Gospel, chapter 3, we have another
genealogy, slightly different, because that is the genealogy
of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who also
descended from David.
There we read in Luke chapter 3, in
verse 23, Jesus himself was about 30 years
of age, being supposedly, or as it was
being thought, the son of Joseph.
And then it says, in the rest of
that verse, the of Eli.
And the word son, in italics, means that
it's been filled in.
He was actually the son-in-law of
Eli, who was born of Mathat, who was
born of Levi, and so on.
That goes all the way up to David,
in verse 31.
But this time, as we read in verse
31 of Luke 3, not through David's son
Solomon, as we read in Matthew 1 and
verse 7, but through David's son Nathan.
And so, from Adam to David, the genealogies
were the same for Joseph and Mary.
But at David, they branch off into two
trees, Mary coming through David's son Nathan, and
Joseph coming through David's son Solomon.
So, Jesus was physically born of the seed
of David, which is an important thing, because
in Romans chapter 1, Paul says, this has
some connection with the gospel.
In Romans, in chapter 1, he says, in
verse 1 to 3, that this gospel of
God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures, concerns his son, that
is, Jesus Christ, who was born of the
seed of David, according to the flesh.
So, from these two genealogies, in Matthew and
Luke, we find one thing, and that is
that Jesus was the legal heir to the
throne of David, through Joseph, at the same
time, physically, of the seed of David, through
Mary.
He came in the flesh of David, which
is our flesh.
And turning back to Matthew 1, we see
the genealogy beginning with Abraham.
Matthew was primarily writing to the Jews, and
so he begins with Abraham.
Luke, writing to the world in general, begins
with Adam, in his genealogy.
And in Matthew 1, verse 2 onwards, we
have the genealogy of Joseph, all the way
up to verse 16, and we don't want
to look at all the names, but there
are some significant ones that we could look
at.
There are four women mentioned here, and it's
very significant to see something about these four
women mentioned in this genealogy.
The first woman mentioned is Tamar, in Genesis
1, in Matthew 1, verse 3.
And it says here that to Tamar was
born Pyrrhus, and to Pyrrhus was born Hesron.
Now, if you turn to the Old Testament,
in Genesis chapter 38, you read the story
of how Pyrrhus was born to Tamar.
And it's a pretty unsavory story of how
Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and committed
adultery with her own father-in-law, Judah,
and had a son called Pyrrhus.
And it's very significant that Jesus, who came
to save sinners, who did not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, chose
to come through such a line.
We must remember that none of us ever
had the choice as to which family we
would be born into.
When we were born, we were born into
a family which we had no choice of
at all.
There was only one person ever born into
this world who could choose the family and
the place and the time where he would
be born, and that was Jesus Christ.
And he chose a family line, a family
tree, which consisted of a shameful event that
produced a son through Tamar.
The second woman mentioned here in Matthew 1
is verse 5.
In verse 5, Salmon was born Boaz by
Rahab.
Rahab we know from the book of Joshua,
and the first six chapters, was the town
prostitute of Jericho, who later on married Salmon.
And to Rahab and Salmon was born Boaz,
who married Ruth.
Here is another woman mentioned, and again, one
who had a very evil background.
A third woman mentioned is Ruth, in Matthew
chapter 1, verse 5.
And the significant thing about Ruth was that
she was not even a Jewess.
She was not an Israelite.
She was a Moabite.
You read that in the book of Ruth.
And if we were to look back into
Genesis chapter 19 in verse 34 to 37,
you find there how Moab was born, the
ancestor of Ruth.
Again, a very shameful origin with lots of
daughters committing adultery with their own father.
That was how Moab was born.
And through Moab came Ruth.
That's part of the family tree of Jesus
Christ.
The fourth woman mentioned here is in verse
6.
Her name is not mentioned.
We know it's Bathsheba, who had been the
wife of Uriah.
And we know that shameful story from the
second book of Samuel, where David committed adultery
with Bathsheba and killed her husband Uriah.
This is a very significant thing, that there
is some form of immorality in the line
of these four women mentioned in the genealogy
of Jesus Christ.
The reason I mention that is because many
Christians are very often proud of their family
line.
They are proud that they belong to a
particularly significant and dignified family line.
Here was one person who could have chosen
the most dignified family line in Israel and
who didn't choose it, chose to come through
a sinful line because he came to save
sinners, because he came to help the least
and the lowest.
And that should shatter any pride that any
of us have in our family line.
Jesus humbled himself to the lowest place to
bring salvation.
And he says to us, follow me.
Here is where we can profitably examine ourselves
so that if we really want to be
disciples of Jesus Christ, we never again think
in terms of what makes us superior to
other human beings.
Anyone who has such feelings can never be
a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Let's turn again to the Gospel of Matthew
and chapter one.
In our last study we were considering the
genealogy of Jesus Christ described in these first
sixteen verses of the New Testament.
And we saw how Jesus chose a line
marred by sin with the four women mentioned
here having either some immoral relationship in their
history or in their ancestry.
Tamar, verse three, Rahab, verse five, Ruth, the
descendant of Moab, verse five, and Bathsheba, verse
six.
Another significant thing we see in the genealogy
here is that among the kings of Judah
mentioned here, commencing with David, Solomon, Rehoboam, verse
seven, Mabijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
Hezekiah, Manasseh, Ammon and Josiah.
The line was alright up to this point.
But when it came to the next person,
Jeconiah, mentioned in verse eleven, also known as
Jehoiachin, that was at the time of the
deportation to Babylon.
There is a statement concerning Jeconiah who is
also known as Coniah in Jeremiah twenty-two,
which is very significant.
In Jeremiah twenty-two, in verse twenty-four,
the Lord declares, As I live, even though
Coniah, the son of Jehoiachin, king of Judah,
were a signatory in My right hand, yet
I would pull you off.
And He goes on to say in verse
twenty-eight, Is this man Coniah despised, shattered,
jar?
And verse twenty-nine, O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord, Write this man down
childless, that is, to have no more children
than he already had, a man who will
not prosper in his days.
And listen to this, in the last part
of verse thirty of Jeremiah twenty-two, No
man of his descendants will prosper, sitting on
the throne of David or ruling again in
Judah.
The fact that it speaks of his descendants
proves that he did have descendants and that
the earlier part where it speaks of his
being childless meant no more children than he
already had.
Otherwise, there wouldn't have been descendants if he
didn't have any children at all.
He had children, but he wouldn't have any
more.
No man of his descendants will prosper.
In other words, anyone descending physically through Coniah
could not prosper sitting on the throne of
David or ruling in Judah.
So if Mary had come through that line,
there would have been a curse on anyone
who sought to sit on the throne of
David.
See how that was bypassed, that it was
Joseph who came through Coniah.
But Mary, as we saw in our last
study, came through another line, through the son
of David, Nathan, as we saw in Luke
chapter 3, the genealogy of Mary, that Joseph
is referred to actually as the son-in
-law of Mary's father, Heli.
And so we see how wonderfully God protected
the line through which Jesus came, that he
came of the flesh of David, and yet
he did not come through that cursed line
of Coniah, and yet he was the legal
heir to the throne because he was the
eldest foster son of Joseph, his foster father.
And therefore, if Jesus was not born of
a virgin, it would have been impossible for
him to have prospered sitting on the throne
of David.
According to Jeremiah 22.30, he had to
be born of a virgin before Joseph was
actually married to Mary.
It's very beautiful to see this in Scripture.
In Matthew chapter 1, we read in verse
17, Therefore all the generations from Abraham to
David were fourteen, David to the deportation to
Babylon, fourteen, and the deportation of Babylon to
the time of Christ, fourteen.
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as
follows.
When his mother had been betrothed or engaged
to Joseph, before they came together, she was
found to be with child by the Holy
Spirit.
The details are not described here.
We read of that in Luke chapter 1.
But it's very significant what we read here
in the very first chapter of the New
Testament.
Something very significant about righteousness.
The New Testament deals with righteousness.
The righteousness of the law being fulfilled inside
of us as opposed to it being fulfilled
outside in the Old Testament.
And what we see here is that Joseph,
her husband, verse 19, that is, the one
who was engaged to be her husband, her
fiancé, we would say in today's terms, being
a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace
her, desired to put her away secretly.
Notice how his righteousness manifested itself.
He was not yet married.
He was only engaged.
And he did not realize that Mary had
become pregnant through the Holy Spirit's work.
Certainly, you couldn't blame him for being suspicious
when he found that the girl he was
engaged to was pregnant for considering that she
had been immoral.
But notice his righteousness that he does not
go broadcasting that information all over Nazareth.
He kept quiet about it.
He did not want to disgrace her.
And that is a primary characteristic of New
Testament righteousness that we do not want to
disgrace others even if they have sinned.
And the other thing we see here is
how easy it is for us to misunderstand.
Mary had not sinned.
Think how bad Joseph would have felt if
he had gone around speaking to everyone about
the immorality of Mary and then later on
discovering that this was the work of the
Holy Spirit.
He could never have forgiven himself for spreading
evil without any foundation for it.
And very often, dear friends, when we speak
evil of others, it's usually the result of
our own suspicious evil nature more than it
is the result of evil in other people.
So, there is a lesson we can learn
from the first page of the New Testament
that even if you think somebody is immoral,
keep quiet about it.
Do not seek to disgrace others.
There is a tremendous lust in our flesh
to disgrace others because we want to show
that we ourselves are better and superior.
And there we can learn a lesson from
the very first page of the New Testament.
This is how the New Covenant begins.
The very first action mentioned in the New
Testament by a human being is this action
of a God-fearing man not wanting to
disgrace his fiancée.
Desire to put her away secretly.
I wish we would meditate on that verse
and learn a lesson that would transform our
attitude when we find ourselves in such situations
because very often we may find like Joseph
that our suspicions are all unfounded that we
are totally wrong.
We may think we are absolutely right.
Joseph could have thought that.
He could have said how in the world
can a woman be pregnant without being immoral
and yet he was wrong.
How much more we in circumstances where there
is much more the possibility of being wrong.
When he had considered this, he was thinking
about it.
He didn't act suddenly.
Another lesson we can learn.
He who believes will not make haste, the
Bible says.
A righteous man doesn't impulsively act on the
spur of the moment.
He thinks.
It says he considered it.
He thought about it.
In other words, he prayed about it.
And it's good to pray about it before
we take serious decisions in life.
Making an engagement or breaking an engagement.
Think about it seriously.
When he had considered this, think about how
it would affect the other person.
And then God speaks.
And when God sees a man like that
who is willing to think about it and
pray about it, God speaks to such a
person.
An angel of the Lord appeared to him
and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be
afraid to take Mary as your wife for
that which has been conceived in her is
of the Holy Spirit.
And she will bear a son and you
shall call his name Jesus.
For it is he who will save his
people from their sins.
Now all this took place that what was
spoken by the Lord through the prophet might
be fulfilled saying, Behold, the virgin shall be
with child and shall bear a son and
they shall call his name Emmanuel which translated
means God with us.
God coming down in human form.
In the first page of scripture, we read
of the deity of Jesus Christ that it
was God indeed who came in the form
of Jesus Christ and yet he came through
the flesh of David.
And Joseph arose from his sleep and did
as the angel of the Lord commanded him
and took her as his wife.
He set aside his suspicions.
He set aside what his reason said and
obeyed God and kept her a virgin until
she gave birth to a son and called
his name Jesus.
Joseph is a tremendous example for us to
follow in this area.
And may God help us to learn the
lesson that we should from his example.
Let's turn now to Matthew's Gospel chapter 1
and verse 18.
In our last study, we concluded with thinking
of how Joseph was such a righteous man
that he did not want to disgrace Mary
publicly even though in his own mind he
was convinced that she had been immoral.
And we saw how he was totally wrong
in his suspicions.
But he didn't do anything foolish because he
had this good habit of not acting impulsively
on the spur of the moment, but considering
it, as it says in verse 20, and
no doubt praying over it.
And as he prayed, God could speak to
him.
An angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream.
There were one or two other things that
we could notice here and one is this,
that Mary was found with child by the
Holy Spirit and perhaps nobody in Nazareth could
understand it initially, perhaps not even her parents,
certainly not Joseph or any of the others.
Everybody was suspicious.
And that can teach us that sometimes the
Holy Spirit can do a work in us
that other people can never understand or explain.
When the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, it
brought not popularity, but misunderstanding and reproach.
We must remember this too that when the
Holy Spirit comes upon us, it need not
bring popularity, very often it will not, but
misunderstanding and reproach.
That is the lesson we learn from the
first page of the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, the working of the
Holy Spirit through Samson, through David killing Goliath,
etc., brought them honor.
But in the New Testament, we read about
the first person in whom the Holy Spirit
did a work.
Matthew 1.18, Mary, it brought her misunderstanding
and reproach.
There is a shift of emphasis.
It is not the external power now, but
an inward work of the Holy Spirit that
is going to be the distinctive feature of
the New Testament age.
The Holy Spirit came upon Mary not to
help her to tear lions to pieces like
Samson did, not to help her to slay
giants like David did, not to help her
raise the dead like Elijah and Elisha did,
but to give her body so that Jesus
could be born through it.
And this is why the Holy Spirit has
come even today, that we might give our
bodies to Him so that Jesus Christ and
His character might be formed afresh in us.
But this will lead not to popularity, but
to misunderstanding and reproach as it led Mary
too, as we see.
And so we see here in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 1, that even Joseph, who was closest
to her, could not understand.
Many who are very close to us may
not be able to understand what the Holy
Spirit is doing.
But those who get revelation from God, like
Joseph who got revelation from God, he understood.
That, verse 20, which has been conceived in
her, is of the Holy Spirit.
And so we see that it is only
by revelation that people can understand the work
of the Holy Spirit.
And this significant factor must be borne in
mind.
The Holy Spirit comes in us to produce
Jesus, His character in us, just like He
came upon Mary to produce Jesus.
It's not that we go doing some stupid
foolish thing which brings misunderstanding and reproach and
say, well, that's because we are filled with
the Holy Spirit.
There can be misunderstanding and reproach because of
our own folly too.
But if the Holy Spirit is working in
us to transform us into the likeness of
Christ, then we need not fear any misunderstanding
or reproach that comes as a result of
that.
Those who have revelation like Joseph will understand.
The rest will not understand.
And it says here that the Lord, the
angel of the Lord told Joseph that this
child to be born to Mary must be
called Jesus, meaning Savior.
For He will save His people from their
sins.
This is the first promise in the New
Testament.
Jesus will save His people from their sins.
It's very significant that the New Testament's first
promise deals with salvation from sin, not salvation
from hell.
Many people are more interested in being saved
from hell than in being saved from sin.
And that's why we need to go back
to the first promise in the New Testament
and see what it says.
It doesn't say that Jesus will save His
people from hell, though He does save us
from hell and from the wrath of God.
But that is, as it were, a by
-product of His saving us from sin.
The primary emphasis is on His saving us
from sin, saving His people from their sins.
We need to understand that salvation from sin
is more than forgiveness of sins.
God can forgive our sins and yet we
may be defeated by sin day after day
after day.
To use an illustration, if I have warned
my children not to go near a pit
being dug outside my house and one of
them disobeys me and falls into that pit
and cries out for me and I go
to him and I see him fallen in
that pit and he says to me, Daddy,
I'm sorry for disobeying you.
If I were to say him, All right,
son, I forgive you.
Goodbye.
I would have forgiven him but I would
not have saved him out of that pit.
Jesus didn't come only to forgive but to
save.
As a true father, I should not only
forgive him when he repents but also deliver
him from the pit into which he has
fallen.
There is a difference between forgiveness and salvation.
He has come to forgive us but also
to save us from our sins, to save
us from our lustful thoughts, to save us
from our love of money, to save us
from our covetousness, to save us from anger
and bitterness and an unforgiving spirit and jealousy
and strife and every other evil.
He has come to bring salvation.
He came to save his people from their
sins.
Further, we see something else and that is
in verse 24, Joseph arose from his sleep
and did as the angel of the Lord
commanded him.
There we see Joseph setting aside what his
reason told him and simply doing what God
said in faith.
It was the obedience not of reason because
reason told him Mary must have been immoral.
It was the obedience of faith that what
God has said must be true though I
can't understand it.
Never mind, even if I can't understand it.
God has said it and I believe.
And he did.
Obedience to all that Jesus, all that God
spoke through his angel is what we see
again in the first page of the New
Testament scriptures.
And he took her as his wife.
That was a very big step.
It was a lifetime decision and he was
willing to base a decision that would affect
the rest of his life on the basis
of faith in God's word.
Setting aside what his own reason told him.
A blessed example for us to follow.
The New Testament speaks about this obedience of
faith.
And he kept her a virgin until she
gave birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus.
In other words, after Jesus was born, they
lived normally as husband and wife.
And we read from Mark chapter 6 that
Mary had other children who were the younger
brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
In chapter 2, verse 1, we read of
wise men or magi from the East who
came to worship Jesus, the King of the
Jews.
One significant thing we see here is that
right at the beginning of the New Testament
again, we see that the first people mentioned
who came to worship Jesus, not the first
people who came.
The first people who came, as far as
we know, from Luke chapter 2, were the
shepherds who were out in the fields of
Judea.
But the first ones mentioned in the New
Testament are here in Matthew chapter 2.
Wise men from the East who were not
Israelites at all.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the
days of Herod, behold, magi from the East
arrived in Jerusalem.
This was much after the shepherds came.
But they came from the East and the
significant thing we see here is that it
is the Gentiles who are mentioned first.
This was the stumbling block that Jesus was
to the Jewish people.
That it's the heathen also whom He had
concern for.
The New Covenant was bringing in a breaking
down of the distinction between Jew and Gentile.
Jesus had come to unite them in one
body.
And this is the significance of the wise
men being mentioned as the first ones in
the New Testament who came to see Jesus.
We praise God that God opened the door
in the New Testament to both Jews and
Gentiles.
Let's turn today to Matthew's Gospel chapter 2.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea
in the days of Herod the King, behold,
magi or wise men from the East arrived
in Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has
been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star in the East
and have come to worship him.
And when Herod the King heard it, he
was troubled in all Jerusalem with him.
It's very significant that all the scholars, the
chief priests, the high priests, the high priests,
the priests, the Bible scholars, we know that
Gamaliel was running a Bible school there.
Or there were others running a Bible school
certainly.
And all these men never knew when Jesus
was born in Bethlehem.
But far away, many hundreds of miles away
in the East, perhaps in the land of
Persia, there were people, God-fearing people perhaps,
who sought God and who got a revelation
from God, which all these people who had
the written Scriptures never got.
Those who had the Scriptures, those who knew
the Scriptures, those who studied the Scriptures did
not get the revelation that God gave to
people who didn't have one word of God's
written Scriptures in their own language.
This is a very humbling thing and a
very fearful thing because today it is we
who have the written Scriptures as Christians.
And it is possible for us to have
the written Scriptures, to study it in our
Bible schools and yet to be completely ignorant
about Jesus Christ Himself.
And that those like these Magi who have
no written Scriptures can come to a knowledge
of Him because they fear God and are
seeking Him.
God is no respecter of persons, but in
every place where people seek Him and fear
Him, He reveals Himself to them.
This is the message we learn right at
the beginning of the New Testament.
And God revealed Himself to them and they
saw a special star and they followed that
star and that star led them all the
way to the land of Israel.
And when they came to Jerusalem, the star
had not disappeared.
And if they had continued to follow the
star, they would not have had to consult
anyone.
The star would have led them straight to
Bethlehem.
But here was the first mistake that the
wise men made.
They followed the star for hundreds of miles
and when they came to Jerusalem, they thought,
well, now there is no need for us
to follow the star because the King of
the Jews must be born in the capital
city of Israel, which is Jerusalem, of Judah,
which is Jerusalem.
And no doubt, He must be born in
the palace.
So they go to the palace where King
Herod lives.
And that was the mistake the wise men
made and many people make today as well.
The star is a picture of the Word
of God, a type and a picture of
God's Word that is like a light that
leads us.
In 2 Peter chapter 1 we read that
the prophetic Word is like a lamp shining
in a dark place, 2 Peter 1.19,
which is to lead us until the morning
star rises in your hearts and the day
dawns, which is the second coming of Christ.
For Christ is called the morning star in
Revelation 22.16. Until we see Jesus face
to face, we read in 2 Peter 1
.19, we must let the prophetic Word guide
us as a lamp in a dark place,
just like the star led the wise men
to Jesus.
But this is the mistake we too can
make, like those wise men, that we can
follow the Word of God up to a
certain point and a certain point comes where
we can think, well, here I don't need
the guidance of God's Word, my reason is
good enough.
And the wise men went astray.
They thought Jesus should be born in the
palace and they were mistaken.
We too can think according to our reason
that God should act in a certain way
and He doesn't.
The things of the Spirit of God are
foolishness to the natural mind.
The wise men would never have imagined that
Jesus was born in a stable.
This was some days after He was born
and He was not in the stable then,
but He was still in some little house
in Bethlehem, but not in the palace.
If only we can learn this lesson that
we considered in our last study also, that
Joseph had to go by the obedience of
faith in God's Word and not by what
his reason told him concerning Mary's being pregnant.
The same thing we learn at the beginning
of Matthew chapter 2, that our obedience to
God's Word must come apart from reason, like
we read in Proverbs 3.5, trust in
the Lord with all your heart and do
not lean upon your reason or your understanding.
And so when they sought for Jesus' birth
in the palace, Herod had never even heard
about it.
But he was troubled when he heard that
there was a king born.
His position was threatened.
People were not rejoicing.
They were troubled when they heard that a
king was born.
Here is a picture of an old religious
system that is disturbed by revelation of new
truth.
People who are secure in their thrones that
they have built for themselves in their religious
Christian empires, like Herod, are troubled by the
fact that Jesus is seeking for something else.
Their throne is threatened by the new covenant
message and they are disturbed.
And we know that Herod the king wanted
to kill this baby later on, as we
read.
And that is how it is even today
that those who have comfortably settled themselves in
thrones in their religious Christian empires are threatened
by the new covenant gospel of simplicity that
they would like to kill and get rid
of those who proclaim such a message.
And gathering together all the chief priests and
scribes of the people, he began to inquire
of them where the Christ was to be
born, where is the Messiah to be born.
And they said to him in Bethlehem of
Judea, for so it has been written by
the prophet.
They knew the scriptures, but they had no
revelation.
Revelation was given to these wise men who
had no written scriptures.
A tremendous warning for us that an academic
knowledge of scriptures accumulated through years of Bible
school study or personal study is quite useless
apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
We can know the scriptures so that we
can answer promptly any question asked like these
scribes could do.
They even could quote the verse from the
book of Micah.
And you Bethlehem, land of Judea, verse 6,
are by no means least among the leaders
of Judea, for out of you shall come
forth a ruler who will shepherd my people
Israel.
Then Herod secretly called the Magi and ascertained
from them the time the star appeared.
He appeared to be interested and actually he
was only trying to safeguard his own kingdom.
We are not to be deceived by many
people who claim to be interested in the
gospel, the new covenant gospel, when they are
not willing to give up their private kingdoms.
Herod could not be a disciple of Jesus
Christ unless he is willing to give up
his kingdom.
And this is why many cannot be disciples
of Christ today because they cannot give up
their financial kingdoms or their religious kingdoms.
And so he sent them to Bethlehem and
said, Go and make careful search for the
child and when you have found him, report
to me that I too may come and
worship him.
What a lie!
He wanted to kill him.
But he pretended to be interested and the
Magi were so gullible, they believed him.
Till they were warned later on by God
not to believe him.
We too need to be wise, wise as
serpents, harmless as doves.
And having heard the king, they went their
way and lo the star which they have
seen in the east went on before them.
If only they had followed the star all
the way, they need not have consulted the
scribes or Herod.
There is no need for us to consult
scholars.
They will only give us theoretical knowledge.
The star, the inspired word of God revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit is sufficient.
And where does the star lead them?
To Jesus.
The star, the God's word will always lead
us to Jesus.
Not to a doctrine, but to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit has come not to reveal
doctrines to us, but Jesus Christ in the
fullness of the glory of God and the
fullness of his word.
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced
exceedingly with great joy.
They were depressed when they went to men.
They were depressed when they leaned upon their
own reason.
And many today are depressed because they leaned
upon their own reason.
They went astray because they leaned upon their
reason.
They are depressed when they listen to the
scribes and to kings.
But when they come back to God's word,
then comes that exceeding great joy which no
man can give.
And the star led them straight bang on
top of the house.
Not the stable now.
They had moved out of the stable, obviously.
It was a small little hut somewhere.
And they saw the child with Mary, his
mother.
And they were very wise.
They did not fall down and worship Mary
like some do today.
They worship the child, Jesus Christ.
And they opened their treasures and presented to
him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Prophetic gifts speaking of him as a king,
gold.
As a priest, frankincense.
And as a suffering prophet and servant, myrrh.
Bitter, speaking of suffering.
And so we see that these men, when
they sought for revelation from God, they were
led aright.
A warning for us, never to lean upon
our own reason, but always to lean upon
the revelation of the Holy Spirit given to
us from God's word.
Let's turn now to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 2.
We were considering in our last study how
the wise men or the Magi from the
East came and worshipped Jesus.
We don't know how many there were among
them.
But we know that they brought gifts of
gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And we saw that they went astray when
they followed their reason and looked for Jesus
in the palace in Jerusalem when he was
actually born in a stable in Bethlehem.
And if they had followed the star, we
saw that they would have gone straight to
the house where Jesus was and would not
have gone astray.
A warning for us, not to follow our
reason, but to follow the star of God's
written word revealed to us by the Holy
Spirit.
But we also read that after they had
worshipped the child, verse 12 of Matthew 2,
they were warned by God in a dream
not to return to Herod.
And there we see the need again not
to lean upon our own reason.
Herod had told them when you find the
child, come back and tell me because I
also want to come and worship him.
And according to human reason, the Magi could
have thought, well, that would be a very
wonderful thing if we could get the king
of this land, Herod, the great king Herod,
to come and worship this child Jesus.
What a wonderful thing it is!
What a lust there is in the flesh
of many Christians to get great men and
rulers and leaders to come and acknowledge Jesus
Christ.
If only they would listen to the voice
of God, we will find that God is
not so interested in Herod that it would
be for quite another reason why Herod wants
to come actually to kill the child.
And so again we see how our reason
can lead us astray.
They were very wise men, very intelligent, clever
men, but their reason would have led them
astray.
And so God warned them and they followed
the warning of God in a dream.
And they departed for their own country in
another way, not fearing what Herod would do.
We have to be careful that we are
not fooled by great people and big people.
But to listen to God, this is what
we find again and again and again in
the beginning of the New Testament.
God is seeking to lead us to live
by faith in His word and by His
leading and not by our own reason.
And when they had departed, behold, an angel
of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a
dream, saying, Arise and take the child and
his mother and flee to Egypt and remain
there until I tell you.
Again we see God warning Joseph through a
dream.
Notice how often this happens.
We saw that in chapter 1 where God
spoke to Joseph in a dream concerning taking
Mary as his wife.
We saw that in chapter 2 where the
Magi were warned by God in Matthew 2
.12 in a dream.
And we see again in Matthew 2.13
Joseph being warned in a dream, saying, Arise
and take the child and his mother and
flee to Egypt and remain there until I
tell you.
Don't go by your reason now.
Go by My word.
For Herod is going to search for the
child to destroy him.
And look at the implicit obedience of Joseph.
He doesn't say, No, he won't do any
such thing.
He doesn't go by reason.
He doesn't argue with God and say, Lord,
why don't you kill Herod?
That would be easier.
And when you come to think of it,
we wonder why God didn't kill Herod.
Because it says here later on how all
the male children in Bethlehem below the age
of two years were killed by Herod.
Why did God permit that?
It would have been easier for God to
take away Herod's life.
We read in Acts chapter 12 of another
Herod whose life God took away.
Very quickly when He didn't give the glory
to God He could have done the same
thing.
Worms could have eaten up this Herod the
Great.
That we read of in Matthew chapter 2.
And there is where we have to admit
that as human beings we can't understand God's
ways perfectly.
No doubt there was a very good reason
which we may not be able to explain
properly.
Many people ask this question, Why doesn't God
destroy Satan?
For all the havoc He causes in the
world.
Certainly, that's another thing that we don't have
the full answer to though we may have
a partial answer.
We don't understand God's ways.
We see that in the beginning of the
New Testament.
But it's good for us to humble ourselves
and obey.
God doesn't ask us to understand His ways.
He has only asked us to obey.
He has told us very clearly in Isaiah
55, verse 8 and 9 that His ways
are not our ways.
The way He does things is quite different
from the way man does.
If we were there in God's place we
would have wiped out Herod, but God doesn't
do it that way.
There are many things concerning suffering in the
world.
It's not that God is ignorant.
It's not that God doesn't care.
But there is a wisdom in God which
is way beyond our wisdom.
And it's good for us to humble ourselves
and accept that fact.
And so, Joseph, without any questioning, again, the
obedience of faith, how often we have seen
it in these two chapters, the beginning of
the New Testament.
Took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
And went.
It's a long way to go with a
small baby.
And yet God in His wisdom ordained it.
And they went and they were there until
the death of Herod.
See the provision that God made for this.
It's very wonderful to see God's provision.
Joseph, we know, was from a poor home.
We read in Luke chapter 2 that when
they brought the child to be circumcised, to
be offered in the temple, that they didn't
even have money to buy lambs.
They brought two turtledoves, we read in Luke
2.
The offering of poor people.
How could such poor people go and live
in Egypt for such a long time?
He had his home in Nazareth.
He had to go and live in a
strange country.
Was God going to make provision for it?
He certainly did.
The Magi had just brought gold and frankincense
and myrrh, expensive gifts which would be more
than sufficient to take care of the financial
needs of that family during their stay in
Egypt.
See the wonderful way God provides the needs
of His people without their having to depend
on men or to borrow or beg.
God knew their needs and provided for it
before the need arose.
Wonderful to see that in the beginning of
the New Testament.
How God provides our needs.
And that is to encourage faith in us.
That before a need arises, God will make
provision for it if we trust Him.
All things are possible if we trust Him.
And Joseph stayed there, verse 15, until the
death of Herod, so that what was spoken
by the Lord through the prophet might be
fulfilled, saying, Out of Egypt did I call
my son.
That's a verse from Hosea 11, verse 1,
and it's actually referring to Israel coming out
of Egypt in the time of Moses.
But here we see another illustration of the
wonderful dual fulfillment of prophetic scripture.
That scripture sometimes has more than one meaning.
One reading, Hosea 11, one would never dream
of thinking that it refers to Jesus coming
out of Egypt.
It refers to Israel coming out of Egypt
in the days of Moses, and yet it
had more than one fulfillment according to Matthew
2, verse 15.
No, we cannot understand scripture with our natural
mind.
We need the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Some verses mean something much more than what
our analytical human mind thinks that it means.
Then when Herod saw that he'd been tricked
by the Magi, he became very enraged, and
he sent and slew all the male children.
He was determined to wipe out this threat
to his kingdom, but he did not succeed.
No man can fight against God and succeed.
When God wants to establish His testimony, no
man sitting on the throne of a business
empire or financial empire, religious empire, can ever
crush the work of God.
He may think he has, when he slew
all the children below the age of two.
He may have thought, well, that's finished off
that, and he didn't finish it off at
all.
God had already protected His son, and God
protects His testimony even now.
Throughout the centuries, God has protected that pure
testimony of the church in every age, even
though, just like Herod, many have sought to
wipe out a pure testimony for Christ in
every generation, but they've never succeeded.
He thought of two years, because he had
ascertained that time from the Magi.
Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah, the
prophet was fulfilled.
Even that was a fulfillment of prophecy.
God knew it beforehand.
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, she
refused to be comforted because they were no
more.
When Herod was dead, behold, an angel of
the Lord appeared again in a dream.
It is the third time Joseph has a
dream.
The fourth time.
Dreams are mentioned here in the first two
chapters of the New Testament.
Saying, Arise and take the child and the
mother, go to the land of Israel.
For those who sought the child's life are
dead.
And he arose and took the child and
his mother and came to the land of
Israel.
Notice the implicit obedience of Joseph in chapter
1, verse 24, in chapter 2, verse 14,
in chapter 2, verse 21.
He didn't go by reason, went by God's
word.
And when he came to Judea, he heard
that Achilles was reigning over Judea in the
place of his father Herod.
He was afraid to go there.
And a fourth time, he was warned by
God in a dream and he departed for
the regions of Galilee, came and resided in
a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken
through the prophets might be fulfilled.
See how dangers in the way, like Achilles
reigning in Judea, only helps in the fulfillment
of God's word, again in a dream.
And he moves.
And he comes to Nazareth.
Even that's in fulfillment of scripture.
Everything that God does in His sovereignty, is
to fulfill what is already planned for us.
And we too can walk exactly like Jesus
and be protected like He was and cared
for like He was if we live by
faith in God's word.