Mission 66 (English podcast)
Matthew 02 A Star is Born
Because if someone reads the Bible with a rationalist view of it and a limited view of the contents, then they're going to try to explain all of the incredible phenomena found in it without considering them to be miracles. And as a result of that person will never be able to understand. Today we continue our focus on the Gospels. Mission 66 originates from the Ministry of Bible Teacher and Pastor Dr. Louis Ciao and is produced and heard in multiple languages around the world in partnership with Transworld Radio. Let me remind you to download your free study guide of the Gospels. You'll be able to go deeper into God's Word and follow along with each day's program. It's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Susullo. To get your free study guide of the Gospels, visit Mission66.org. That's Mission66.org. John Matthews is our teacher, his co-host, Esther Susullo, gets us started today. We are currently exploring the New Testament of the Bible and I'm your host Esther and our teacher John Matthews is at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 with our theme "A Star is Born." And you know when I think about that phrase, I remember the title of a movie made in Hollywood some years ago and the movie makers, you know, they refer to leading actors or actresses as "a star" in quotation marks. Well, a much more important star has come along. And as we'll see in Matthew chapter 2, this star was announced by a star which appeared in the heavens. You know, I just keep imagining how extraordinary that night might have been. The shining of that star which brought so much hope after so many prophecies and so much time waiting, the day had finally come. God made a promise and He will always keep His promises and we can absolutely be sure of that. Well, Esther, very warm welcome to you and also to you our listeners listening wherever you are today, a really warm welcome. Great to be with you for the second chapter of Matthew and Esther, you know, you're right. What comforting words and truth to hear today. This is the account of the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, the Son of Mary. And Matthew chapter 2 verse 1 says this, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem." And they were saying, "Where is He who has been born, King of the Jews?" And what else did the Magi say? We saw His star when it rose and so we've come to worship Him. That's pretty surprising, but why? Well, because these Magi or wise men, they were foreigners, they were considered outsiders, they were men who had dedicated themselves to the divination of arts of ancient times. And then they'd seen this star in the sky and we're going to talk more about divination in a few minutes, but the point is, this star meant something to them, possibly of prophetic significance, but what it did do was prompt them to pack up their stuff and travel all the way to the region of Israel to be more specific. It sends them to Bethlehem and they go there to worship. And as well as the star in the sky, they arrive at this place where the greatest star in the history of humanity had just been born. Again by this, we mean in the language of movie makers, you know, a star, it's an important person, a movie star perhaps. This star was our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And when King Herod and there were several Herod's, but this one was known as Herod the Great when he found out about this, well, he was greatly disturbed and he decided to call together the chief Jewish priests and the teachers of the law and he asked them, "Where was the Messiah to be born?" and they answered him according to the prophecy of Micah, which says this, "But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel." Now Herod was power hungry, so when he heard of this Christ that was going to be born, that is the Messianic King, boy did he feel threatened. And so he sends the Magi to Bethlehem and he says this to them, "Go and search diligently for the child and when you find him, bring me word so that I too may come and worship him." But you know, Herod had no intention at all of worshiping this king. There was only room for one king in Herod's kingdom and that was Herod himself. So he actually plotted to kill this baby before he could grow up. But during the birth of this great star of humanity, a star in the sky led the Magi to Jesus, even though Herod's intentions were the worst possible. And so the Magi, the wise men, went on their way following this star in the sky and it leads them to a place and verse 11 says this, "And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him, and then they opened their treasures and they offered him gifts." You know, every Christmas we're reminded of these gifts, aren't we? Gold, frankincense and Mer and it's been suggested many times that these three gifts remind us that Jesus was three things. He was a prophet, a high priest and a king. Now opposed to Herod's expectations, the Magi had been warned via a dream that they should not head back to where they'd come from. And so they returned to their country through a different route. And what happens after all of this, well, Herod was enraged and he wanted to destroy this star that had just been born. And at this moment, Joseph has a dream, a very special and different dream. An angel of the Lord tells him to take the newborn boy to Egypt in this dream. And so Mary and Joseph obey and they take baby Jesus and they leave Bethlehem heading for Egypt. And at this moment, a prophecy of the Old Testament is fulfilled. Hosea chapter 11 says, "Out of Egypt I called my son." When Herod became conscious that the Magi had taken another route to avoid him, he was furious. And based on this rage and this hatred, he decided to do something horrific and his actions are well known in history. He orders that all boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and nearby cities are killed. What madness. He knew that the Messianic king had been born in Bethlehem. And once again, Matthew is writing these words, having in mind that the Jews would be looking back at the Old Testament, trying to confirm all this. And Scripture then continues to talk about the prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15, which says, "A voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more." John, I find it so interesting how the Old Testament prophets who lived hundreds of years before Christ and I'm referring to Hosea and Jeremiah. How both of them were quoted here with reference to Christ in Matthew. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, that is interesting Esther. Hosea said, "Out of Egypt I called my son." And this is significant in three ways because in the Bible, ancient Egypt is a type or a representation of a world system filled with idolatry and life apart from God. And Scripture describes how God works to call his people out of Egypt. That is to call them away from the slavery of a godless world system so that they could become his distinct people. In Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers, no less. And yet because of this, he rose to a position of authority and his entire family then was able to go to Egypt to escape famine and they multiplied and they became numerous. And in Exodus, we read another pharaoh arose that didn't know Joseph. And he was afraid that the Hebrews were getting too numerous and so he sought to repress them by enslaving them, making them work hard all day. So they cried out in misery and God finally redeems his people taking them out of Egypt miraculously with incredible miracles and leads them eventually onto the promised land to serve him there. And now we read in Matthew where Jesus was taken first to Egypt to escape being murdered and then coming out of Egypt and it reinforces this picture of God's people being led out of their bondage to sin and into a brand new life. Well, as the Jeremiah who had spoken these words some 700 years before Christ, well, he was foretelling how the godless powers would one day try to snuff out the Messiah's life. And in Matthew then, we see its fulfillment, how Herod's murderous campaign would cause the descendants of Rachel to weep and mourn over the dreadful murder of their innocent little children. And so the account in Matthew continues and Herod dies. And after all of this, an angel of the Lord shows Joseph that it was safe to return because the killers that tried to kill Jesus had now died. And see how the birth of this great star is being supervised by God all along. He's the one making it all happen and not only the birth of the Savior itself, which was a miracle, but also the way that God protected baby Jesus and the way in which he guided the Magi to help announce the birth of Christ. These magi who were probably astrologers were looking at the sky seeking signs and omens in the stars and the planets as was very common in ancient times. So in this case, God worked in spite of faulty human methods of understanding reality. And so he leads the Magi to the one true Lord, Savior and King who had just been born. And notice in this account how God also uses dreams to guide people. Joseph had this happened to him several times, didn't he? The first time he'd been warned to take the child to Egypt to escape Herod's assassins. And then a second time he's told in a dream when it was safe to return with his family. And then Matthew writes in verse 21, "And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that our chalice was raining over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream. He withdrew to the district of Galilee and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled and he would be called a Nazarene." So there you have Esther this third time that God warns Joseph in a dream and by use of a dream. Excuse me, John, it seems that we have another Herod spoken of here. Yes Esther, this Herod that shows up here is Herod's archalia. And he is the son of the first Herod, that is Herod the Great. And this family of Herod's originally came from Edumiah as the New Testament says it, or in other words, they had Edomite origin. Now the Edomites were the descendants of Esau and the Edomites were the often enemies of old Israel. And this may help us just to understand why Herod didn't know the prophecies about the Messiah and had to then ask the priests about them. Anyway, Herod the Great Son Archalius took the throne and he was also a terrible ruler over the region just as his father had been. And Jesus then, along with Mary and Joseph, returned to Israel. And as soon as they get there, we read that they go to Galilee. Now the region of Galilee is up to the north near Samaria. So since there were many Gentiles living in that northern region, the Samaritans were despised by most Jews at the time. And so the city Jesus lives in is called Nazareth. And this is why he was known as Jesus of Nazareth. He grew up there and was called the Nazarene. And it was, to be honest with you Esther, it was no compliment whatsoever because Nazareth had a pretty bad reputation then. Yeah. So where was it written then in the prophets that Jesus would be called Nazarene? I couldn't actually find any reference of that being mentioned. Well Esther, the short answer is there is no direct reference for it. Matthew's making what's called a phonetic association, meaning words that sound alike. And there's a verse found in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 which refers to a chute or branch that will come up. And this is a reference to the Messiah. Now bear with me a second because in the Hebrew text, the word chute or branch is netzer or netzer, which sounds like the name Nazareth. It's a stretch for us, but Matthew didn't specify which prophet he just said. It says in the prophets, plural. Now this could be an indirect connection made from a play on words, or it may have been a prophecy issued through New Testament era prophets whose words were not added to the canon of scripture, but who spoke sometime between Jesus' birth in Bethlehem and then his arrival in Nazareth. All right, John, well, I'd like for us to just take a minute to go back and examine who these magi were that show up here in chapter two. Yeah, good point, Esther. These magi have been a mysterious part, haven't they, of the Christmas story? And we don't really know too much about them. Giancarlo Manotti wrote an opera based on the magi called Amal and the night visitors in which he suggested there were three magi. He even gave them names. Tradition says there were three because I think there were three gifts, gold, frankincense, and mer, but the fact Esther is we don't know how many there were. There may have been many more than three. Now, it seems that they were magi that came from Persia. This is where the prophet Daniel spent time in his later years, and it's thought that the magi may have been influenced by Daniel and his teachings, which would have included prophecies about the coming Messiah. But that, of course, is speculation, but it is possible. Yeah, it's interesting that you would say that how they were inspired or influenced by Daniel's teachings because weren't the magi pagan magicians and astrologers? Well, back in ancient times, people commonly practiced divination of all sorts, including astrology, which originated in Mesopotamia thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Divination is forbidden in the Bible, but ancient people that didn't know the truth about God, they were looking for answers and solutions for the questions of life just as people are today, and God in all his power and sovereignty sometimes used pagans in their limited understanding to bring about his purposes. So think about this. These magi going on what they knew traveled 1,000 miles. I mean, that is remarkable, isn't it? Traveling 1,000 miles to seek the Messiah based on a star in the heavens, whilst the priests and the Pharisees who had the prophecies right there in their hands and had Messiah born right there where they lived didn't even appear to be interested. Now, let's actually take a look at that star in the heavens. It seemed to be like a one-time occurrence, and it also seemed to move, which is quite interesting. Yeah, it is interesting, isn't it, Esther? Now, astronomers have investigated this from many sides, and have tried to explain this star from a scientific point of view, and the truth is there are no firm answers. Some believe it was the alignment of the planet Jupiter with some other planet, and the combined brightness made it stick out as especially visible. Others think that it was a supernova kind of explosion that caused the birth of the star. You know, these attempts at explanations are interesting for sure and have value, but Scripture does make it really clear that this star was a miraculous and extraordinary thing that was way outside of human knowledge, outside of our capacity to explain it. So why is it so important that we understand this? And I think it's this, if someone reads the Bible with a rationalist view of it all and a limited view of the contents, then they're going to try to explain all of the incredible phenomena found in the Bible without considering them to be miracles. And as a result, well, that person's never really going to be able to understand what is written in the Bible. It's possible that God used a natural phenomena to do this, but we need to understand that the star that led the Magi to the place where Jesus was born was something that was supernatural. All right, well, I think we should go from outer space and return right back to Earth, John. You know, this Herod character that shows up in this passage, Herod the Great, who was this man, and how can we truly understand his cruelty deciding to murder innocent children? Yeah, we've mentioned that Herod's family were from the Edomites who were long-time enemies of Israel. You know, Herod was a greedy egomaniac and demonstrated the old adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. God is the one who installed authority figures, and we are expected to honor the rulers that God puts in place. But Herod was a picture of what happens when human rulers start thinking more highly of themselves than they should. And they not only oppose God, they actually try to do away with him. This is what happened with King Saul in the end, wasn't it? You know, he disobeyed God. He became actually so crazed that he tried to kill David, thinking that he could somehow keep his grip on power. Perhaps Herod thought that if he killed Jesus, he could retain his throne. But God, as we know, overruled in both cases. Oh, that is so good. Oh, thank you so much, man, John, for your expertise on some of these very complicated questions. So why don't we wrap up today's lesson as we study Matthew chapter two? Yeah, let's do that, Esther. Today on Mission 66, we've read and looked at Matthew chapter two. Now you've seen how the Magi made it all the way to Jesus and visited him, guided by this star. They were led all the way to Bethlehem, where Jesus had just been born. Our Lord and Savior, the one righteous and just Lord, the star, the star, the most important person that has ever lived brought us salvation, the only true star that there ever was or ever will be on earth. And many people think that God only exists inside the church or inside the Bible or in religious environments. But in Matthew, we see how God is at work throughout history, right throughout history and up to the present day. Sometimes he intervenes in people's dreams. He can intervene in the lives of pagan Magi. He's even in control of international politics and even more than that. He is also God over you and over me. Oh, praise be to the one who is sovereign over all things. Well, you know, John, I think that it's time to say goodbye. It's been such a wonderful study through the book of Matthew chapter two. This is mission 66 and I appreciate you joining us here friend. Please be sure to join us again next time as we continue our journey as we study the life of Jesus. So until then, goodbye and God bless you. Let me remind you to download your free study guide of the gospels. You'll be able to go deeper into God's word and follow along with each day's program. It's a great companion resource of the audio teaching of John Matthews and Esther Susullo. To get your free study guide of the gospels, visit mission 66.org. That's mission 66.org. It's a great resource. You can also support the ministry of mission 66 when you visit the site. You'll help continue the program here and around the world. Mission 66 is a ministry of trans world radio in partnership with Dr. Louise Cial. I'm Rob Dempsey. [BLANK_AUDIO]