Written by: Gareth Wroe
Matthew 2 v 1-2
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea during the time when Herod was king. When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
Notes
I reckon you need time with God at Christmas more than any other time, staying godly is tough but dead important so, I challenge you, stick with God’s Word this week.
Imagine you’ve spent your whole life as a member of a church, now you’re the wrinkly that “lovely old man” or “gorgeous old lady”. You’re 99 years old and it’s Christmas and this passage from Matthew is the reading. You’ve heard it 99 times before and it’s about to pass in one ear and out the other...BUT this year something makes you sit up and listen. Is it the near arctic temperatures in church since the central heating broke? The sound effects from the Buzz Lightyear that the Jones twins got for Christmas ? Or the fact Mrs Smith who was reading managed to keep her dentures in this year? No, it’s something else. You’ve just had a twinge of something the wise men felt 2000 years ago... It’s a mixture of excitement and scariness, a feeling that something big happened that night in Bethlehem. Herod knew it and we’ll found out tomorrow how much it bugged him, the wise men were probably giddy and if you were a Jew reading Matthew’s gospel this was the wake up call. “Oi you, WAKE UP! the one who’s really in charge has arrived”
Matthew wrote about Jesus the rescuer king of God’s people and he’s writing to God’s people. The Jews got their wake up call from this passage, and you’ll see they get plenty more. Whatever you do, don’t wait ‘til you become that wrinkly in a pew before you realise that Jesus is king and he deserves our everything.
“Where is the baby who was born to be King...we have come to worship him?” How are you going to go about this task today?
Matthew 2 v 3-6
When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, as well as all the people in Jerusalem. Herod called a meeting of all the leading priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Christ would be born. They answered, “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this in the Scriptures:
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are important among the tribes of Judah. A ruler will come from you who will be like a shepherd for my people Israel.’ ”
Notes
What a bunch of spanners! The leading priests and teachers are always getting it wrong even though they’re supposed to be God’s chosen people. Not only do they give the game away and tell Herod where to find Jesus, but worse they’re the ones who instigate his eventual death on the cross. Why on earth they couldn’t recognise all the signs, like this about being born in Bethlehem, defeats me. And then there’s Herod. It says he was “troubled”, he was probably worried sick and fairly angry too. A king arrives unannounced; you’re the on who’s supposed to be in charge, what is going on?
But how often do you say you’re a Christian, a member of God’s family, and then mess up big time and forget who Jesus is all together? How often does it bug you that Jesus is in your life to take control when you just want to stay in charge yourself? You see we’re just like the teachers of the law and Herod. Hold that thought for a moment.
Wouldn’t you find it a bit scary if someone told you something that was going to happen in a few years time? 800 years before Jesus appeared Micah said that He would turn up in Bethlehem, that’s where the quote from the passage is from. It’s OK predicting something will happen, but it’s nothing special until it does happen. This time it did! We could all start trembling and get spooked by this, but I reckon it comes at a good spot to remind us that God has been, is, and always will be in control. People, including Herod, priests and us, will always ignore Jesus, just look around this Christmas, but remember that ultimately God is in control. Thank heavens for that!
Matthew 2 v 9-12
After the wise men heard the king, they left. The star that they had seen in the east went before them until it stopped above the place where the child was. When the wise men saw the star, they were filled with joy. They came to the house where the child was and saw him with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their gifts and gave him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by a different way.
Notes
Happy Christmas! I love Christmas day but isn’t most of this traditional Christmas a load of bobbins! There was an e-mail last year about Father Christmas...
There are over a million species on our planet, but as yet no one has come across a flying reindeer.
Leaving out all children who don’t celebrate Christmas there are still 91,800,000 homes for Santa to deliver to. That’s 822.6 visits a second, a sleigh doing 650 miles per second. NB reindeers move at average speed of 15 mph.
The sleigh and presents would weigh 321,300 tons not counting Santa who is reputed to be overweight.
321,300 tons travelling at 650 mps, the air resistance would be so great the lead reindeer would burst into flames and Santa would be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times the force of gravity.
Conclusion: There was a Father Christmas, but he’s dead now!
I have no problem with the fun bits of Christmas, pressies and spending time with the family is good, but what filled you with joy this morning? The stuff you were going to get, the fun you were getting or the reminder that today marks the arrival of the person who saved you? Not only were the wise men filled with joy, at the gift of a saviour but they gave treasures of gold for a King, frankincense for God and myrrh for a mortal man.
We’ve had a wake up call, an old prophecy has been fulfilled, and now this...
2000 years ago something special happened. 2000 years ago God became man for us. Don’t forget to make him your king even on Christmas day and remember, unlike Santa and flying reindeer he’s alive and very real indeed. He likes fun stuff too but don’t leave him out today of all days.
Matthew 2 v 13-15
After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, because Herod is starting to look for the child so he can kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return.” So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother. And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: “I called my son out of Egypt.”
Notes
Have you ever been in a position where things are going off around you and you just get the feeling that something is going on.
I was once on a train traveling from Sheffield to Manchester when we began to slow down fast in the middle of nowhere. Nothing strange there you may think, but then as I looked out of the window I spotted the driver of our train rolling down a grass bank! When I was thrown out of my seat and landed in the lap of a rather good looking young lady who was sat opposite I began to feel that something was going on. Needless to say I was involved in a train crash. Fortunately people only sustained minor injuries.
If you were sitting in the common room or pub in Palestine 2000 years ago and you overheard some of the rumours I guess you’d probably think that something weird was going on...
“ I heard Joseph and Mary did a runner... Did you know Herod has gone bonkers, scared of a baby or something... That Joseph must be making it up there’s no such thing as angels”.
That sort of stuff doesn’t happen every day. Put it all together with Hosea saying 500 years before that God’s son would appear out of Egypt and that feeling that something is going on is becoming fairly obvious now.
I don’t know where you are coming from Christian wise, but the evidence is mounting up now. If you don’t believe in all this Jesus stuff then you’re going to have a job explaining away some of what we’ve been reading since Saturday, and if you are a Christian then these things should confirm that this chap really was quite special.
Matthew 2 v 16-18
When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he was furious. So he gave an order to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and in the surrounding area who were two years old or younger. This was in keeping with the time he learned from the wise men. So what God had said through the prophet Jeremiah came true:
“A voice was heard in Ramah of painful crying and deep sadness: Rachel crying for her children. She refused to be comforted, because her children are dead.”
(Jeremiah 31v15)
Notes
Herod has lost it now. Tricked by the wise men he blows a gasket and gives the order for what must be one of the biggest atrocities ever committed. The weird thing here is this fulfils yet another prophecy about God’s rescuer coming.
Jeremiah flagged up this weeping a long time before it happened. You’d think all this stuff had been planned in advance or something, wouldn’t you? You’re dead right.
Recently Luis Palau came to Sheffield (He’s an evangelist type chap a bit like Billy Graham) a couple of other youth workers and myself were given the task of organising all the schools work for the whole of Sheffield and the surrounding areas!
Youth workers don’t always have the best of reputations as far as being organised is concerned, but the three of us slogged and prayed our guts out ages before the actual mission weeks to get everything in place. It was a nightmare, and afterwards I overheard one person saying...
“the schools work went very smoothly, it’s almost as if it were planned well in advance”
Me and my colleagues were suprised how well things went, but it should have been no suprise things happened as planned.
God had done all his preparation too, it should be no suprise to anyone that Jesus turned up when he did. When God’s plans something no one’s going to alter those plans, not even a mad as a hatter king Herod who was prepared to go to terrible lengths to try and get his own way.
Isn’t it good to know that no matter what we, or others, do to try and mess things up, no matter how terrible things get, no matter what dodgy plans humans come up with, we will never be able to make a mess of God’s plans.
Matthew 2 v 19-20
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream while he was in Egypt. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, because the people who were trying to kill the child are now dead.”
Notes
We use bells at school, fanfares at royal occasions and big musical intros at the cinema to introduce important people and happenings. God sends the odd angel. Obvious you may think, and probably the mention of angels doesn’t phase you too much. Wait a minute though ... Angels, real live angels talking to a man! WOW!
Angels are spiritual beings from heaven and they’re not exactly common. If a trainspotter defected and collected angels names instead of engine numbers his book wouldn’t be very full. You don’t see angels every day and yet this is the second time Joseph has had an encounter with one. At this time in history they seem to just keep popping up all over the place.
After God’s people were scattered in the old testament God goes quiet. There’s about 400 years where we have no record of God speaking to His people and then BANG! Prophecy starts being fulfilled and Angels flock down from heaven. I guess we’re supposed to take notice of that.
The other thing worth spotting here is what happened to Herod. Not a difficult question really... he died, simple as that and just like the rest of us. This first Christmas may cause us to think Herod was a bit of a problem for God, but we need to sort our perspectives out. The big picture that we so often miss, is that God is the beginning and the end, not us. Herod didn’t worry God one bit. As far as God’s concerned he was here today gone tomorrow.
We keep saying it, but that’s what this chapter of Matthew is all about, something special is going on, God’s in control of it and nothing is going to stop Him. Why not spend some time thanking God that nothing did.
Matthew 2 v 21-23
So Joseph took the child and his mother and went to Israel. But he heard that Archelaus was now king in Judea since his father Herod had died. So Joseph was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee, to a town called Nazareth, and lived there. And so what God had said through the prophets came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Notes
I watched The Matrix for the second time recently. For the uninitiated it’s about a world ruled by machines, humans are grown only to power the machines, and kept in control by plugging their brains into a vast computer generated world known as the matrix. A few people have somehow managed to escape and are looking for “The One”, who is supposed to save the human race.
The Jews, were on the look out for a similar individual. God had promised a rescuer King who would free them. They were waiting for some amazing leader who would defeat the empire they hated so much. They were right partly, God had promised a king, but he said he would be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53 v3). The Jews wanted a great leader, but couldn’t understand how someone from Nazareth could be “the one”.
Prophecy, Angels, stars, wise men, kings who are scared and now a man from Nazareth, a nobody who we have been told is King of the Jews, God’s rescuer. The evidence has mounted up, the jury is out and the verdict is on it’s way...
As I’ve looked carefully at these snippets of that first Christmas I have been bugged by a couple of things. I sometimes forget how real Jesus is and how little I allow him to be in control of my life.
My verdict : Jesus of Nazareth is the rescuer that the Jews, and me, searched for and need. He is the despised King Isaiah wrote about. He is God in a body. He is “THE ONE”. And that’s only from one small chapter of Matthew, keep persevering with the Word on the Web in 2001 and who knows where it will take you! Hope you’ve enjoyed these studies. God bless you TONNES!
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version
(Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes