Responses to Christ: Worship, Fear, and Indifference

"Herod right now is currently the king of the Jews, okay? They just, these men are coming and saying, where is the one who was born who is king of the Jews? Herod is the current king of the Jews right now, right? And so he fears that the Magi are here to worship the king, this baby who was just born. And so he's disturbed, right? Because now his throne is in jeopardy, right? His way of life is in jeopardy. And it says that all of Jerusalem was disturbed as well. Now, why is all the other people disturbed? Likely because of how Herod is going to react to this news, right? That feeling of kind of walking on eggshells when someone is really mad and you don't want to do anything. Maybe they're not mad at you, but you don't want to do anything to like have their anger directed towards you, right? You don't want to catch any strays. That's how the Jerusalem feels right now, knowing that Herod is distressed and angered and disturbed about these people asking, where is the king of the Jews, right?" [00:28:26] (53 seconds)


"Herod, again, the current king, he was not of Jewish descent, okay? He's married to a Jewish woman and was made king of the Jews. He did do some good things as a king. He wasn't all bad. But Herod was also incredibly paranoid and incredibly jealous. And he would do whatever he needed to do to remain in power, to hold on to his power. He had the high priest killed, okay? And the high priest was his brother -in -law, actually, his wife's brother. He had the high priest killed. He also had his wife killed." [00:30:13] (30 seconds)


"So whatever Herod needed to do to remain in power, he did, to remain in control. That's what Herod did. And so you can understand why he is disturbed now when these magi come and say, well, where is the king of the Jews? And you can understand why all of Jerusalem is disturbed because they're like, uh -oh, Herod's heard this. What's he going to do now, right? And so you can imagine the threat Herod feels when he hears the magi come and recognizing Jesus as the king of the Jews. Verse four, when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, where the Christ was to be born?" [00:30:56] (33 seconds)


"The seemingly insignificant town of Bethlehem is in fact significant because a ruler will come from there. But again, the slight difference in Matthew 2 .6, it says that this ruler who's going to come out of Bethlehem is going to be the shepherd of my people Israel." [00:33:01] (14 seconds)


"Jesus would later call himself the good shepherd. The good shepherd cares for his sheep. The good shepherd knows his sheep, lays down his life for his sheep. And so Jesus has come both with you. The authority of a king and the care of a shepherd, right? Jesus would be a legitimate king of the Jews, unlike Herod, right? He would also be the final and perfect ruler of Israel. He would be a king who cares for his people, a king who knows his people, and ultimately a king who lays down his life for his people, unlike Herod, who takes their lives for his sake, right? Verse 7." [00:33:15] (38 seconds)


"After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was." [00:35:16] (9 seconds)


"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him." [00:35:24] (9 seconds)


"Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. And so the star supernaturally brings them exactly, exactly to the place where Jesus was, right? God." [00:35:50] (17 seconds)


"They knew what the prophecy said, right? They knew the scripture. As soon as Herod asked them, they were, well, he's in Bethlehem, right? They knew. When Herod asked about where Jesus was, they were able to quote the scripture. They knew, and yet they did nothing, right? There was no excitement. They were indifferent to the birth of Jesus. They knew, but they did not believe. They knew, but they didn't do anything. They didn't go to worship him like the Magi did. They could have went, right? They were indifferent to the birth of the Messiah. And we see this throughout their life as their initial indifference to Jesus eventually leads to their eventual rejection and persecution. Right? It was always the religious leaders who were persecuting and attacking Jesus, right? So initially they were indifferent. They knew, but they did nothing." [00:37:14] (45 seconds)


"Jesus is still a threat to our way of life today too. But what Herod failed to realize is that Jesus being a threat to our way of life is actually a good thing. Right? Jesus is a threat to our way of life and that is a good thing. When we are the king of our own life, our way, the Bible says, leads to destruction. Leads to death. Right? Apart from Jesus, our way of life leads to death and destruction. When we allow Jesus to be king of our life, it leads to joy and leads to eternal life. Right? Jesus offers freedom. Right? We never have to worry about being good enough. Right? For so long, when I was a kid, I would always worry about like, am I saved? I don't feel like a Christian. I don't feel very close to God. And so at every like retreat, youth retreat or everything, I would always raise my hand to accept Christ. Because I always thought like, man, I'm definitely not good enough. I'm not sure if I'm saved. I'm not sure if I'm loved. Right?" [00:38:46] (53 seconds)