O Worship The King

Text: Matthew 2:1-12

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (12/23/01)

Introduction:   

The first two chapters in the New Testament introduce us to the birth of the King.  No matter how many times we go over the birth of Christ, it still captures our fascination, fills our hearts with joy.

I'd like us to focus this morning along with Matthew on the birth of the King...emphasizing the royalty of Jesus Christ.

We sing "Joy to the World, The Lord is come, let earth receive her King." And then there is "It came upon a Midnight Clear," in which we sing, "Heavens all gracious King." "Angels We Have Heard on High" says, "Christ the Lord, the newborn King." And, "Hark the Herald, Angels Sing" says, "Glory to the newborn King."

The wise men who came seeking asked, "Where is He who is born King?"

John, says He is King over all kings and Lord over all lords.

Christ’s Kingship – His right to rule – is certified in a variety of ways….

I. His Royal Heritage 1:1-17

We have the genealogy of Jesus.  A king has to have an authentic lineage.  Royal blood!  You don’t become a King, you are born a king!!  And, in fact, that is precisely true of Jesus.

The racial line was promised through Abraham in Genesis 12. The royal line was promised through David in II Samuel 7.

And so, to qualify, Jesus needs to be son of Abraham, son of David. And the genealogy begins with these words, verse 1, "The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

The detail of this genealogy is very important. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. Certification is essential to them.

For EXAMPLE: - Whenever there was the need to sell or transfer or exchange property, it required a knowledge of family trees in order to ascertain to whom the property really belonged. And in the Jubilee Year, the fiftieth year when land all went back to its original family.

At the end of the 70 years captivity in Babylon, when they went back into the land, Ezra tells us it was necessary for people to prove their descent in order to lay claim to the land which was rightfully theirs.

In Luke 2, all of the Jews in Palestine went to the place of their ancestry to register for a taxation being imposed upon them by the Romans.

We should note, however, that today all of that has changed. And there is no Jew alive on the earth today who has any idea of his lineage.  All of the records were destroyed in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was sacked by Titus.

Anyone who showed up today and claimed to be Messiah, and have justifiable lineage could never under any circumstances prove that to be true.  Christ is the last claimant!

It is through Mary, descended from David, that Jesus is the real son of David.  On the other hand, Joseph's line is the line of the legal right to the throne.

Notice in verse 16 the emphasis.  "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom (...that's in the feminine form in the Greek, referring only to Mary...)  was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”

The flow of names takes us to verse 11 where we have an interesting inclusion, "And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon".

Jeremiah 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Now God said no son of Jeconiah will ever reign in Israel.  And yet, Jeconiah is in the Messianic line. How then can Jesus be the King?  That seemingly hopeless dilemma is resolved in the virgin birth.  There was no taint of the blood of Jeconiah in Him because He had no blood from Joseph in Him either.

So He has impeccable credentials. Now that is His royal heritage.

II. His Royal Nature

We don't know a lot about kings in our society, kings aren't a part of our understanding. But put yourself in a situation where one man rules absolutely unilaterally and you have an understanding of what it is to be under a king.  And by the way, that's the best form of government if you have the right king. It is the worst if you have the wrong one. It is the form of government in which we will live in the millennial Kingdom.

Kings were then the source of grace.  In fact were often referred to as “Your Grace”.  If you wanted mercy, you bowed before the king and pleaded for mercy. If you wanted grace, you bowed before the king and pleaded for grace.

ILLUS: Esther before Ahasuerus.

Jesus will be a King of grace.  He will be a King to whom sinners can go for pardon, forgiveness, and favor, even those who have violated His very law and despised His very name.                      It's bound up even in the genealogy.  Look at verse 16. It says that Jesus was born of Mary...of Mary.

A. One Woman

Mary was not a perfect woman. She was not sinless. She needed salvation from death and hell like all others.

Luke 1:47, "And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

And isn't it something that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords allowed a sinner to be His own earthly mother?  You see His grace as He arranges for His mother and chooses a sinner.

B. Two Men

Vs. 1, "Son of David, son of Abraham." Now Abraham was called the friend of God, he was a man of great faith.  But Abraham also was a man who was known by his sin. He lied blatantly and flagrantly about his own wife to try to protect her when he was in Egypt. He doubted the power of God. He committed adultery because he didn't believe God could really give him a child.  Abraham was a sinful man...liar, doubter, and adulterer.

Abraham yet was the source humanly of the Messiah. And God's grace is seen again in the choice of Abraham.

David though he was a man after God's own heart was also a man who was well-known for his sin.  He was a failure as a father, losing his children and allowing them to fall in evil and even rebellion. He was exceedingly sinful in his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband.

And yet both Abraham and David are in the royal line. They're in the line of Messiah. That speaks of the grace of the King.

C. Three Eras

This genealogy has three sections of fourteen names.  Each of those three sets out a different period. The first fourteen names include the patriarchs...Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.  The second fourteen names are the kings, the monarchy, David and Solomon etc.  The third fourteen deal with the captivity period.

The age of the patriarchs and judges was an age of sinfulness.  The age of the monarchy was an age of decline, degeneracy, apostasy.  And from the captivity to the coming of Christ was a time of evil, a time of hostilities, a time of war in the land of Palestine.  It was a Spiritually and Scripturally dark age.

D. Four Outcasts

Four sinful women for whom God provided grace.

Tamar (vs.3) Genesis 38  Tamar was a prostitute.  Perez and Zerah born to Tamar were born out of incest.  Not only is she in the line but so are her two sons. Now that will tell you something about the grace of God.

Rahab (vs.5). A man named Salmon married a Canaanite woman. Rahab was a prostitute who ran a brothel in Jericho.  In Joshua chapter 2 you will read that Rahab came to believe in the true God and hid the spies who were spying out Jericho.  She is given the privilege of giving birth to Boaz who is a really a pattern of the redeemer himself.

Ruth (vs.5). Ruth again was a Moabitess. The Moabite people had come out of incest as a people. They were cursed by God in Genesis 19.  She marries Boaz and becomes the great-grandmother of David. So God takes two prostitutes and an idolatrous Moabite and puts them in the Messianic line.

Bathsheba (vs.6). "And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias." Who is that? Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11, the adulteress.  Incredible!! But True!!  Indeed a King of grace!!

III. Royal Birth

Vs. 18 says, "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph" that means to be engaged. And by the way, that was a binding engagement by legal contract, not like engagements today.  This period of betrothal was 9-18  months, at the most.

In the case of Joseph, he was betrothed to Mary, "before they came together" that is before the consummation physically of their union, "she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."  Mary must have been the most beautiful of young women in terms of character. This would have been something Joseph never in a million years would have imagined to be true.

And so it says in verse 19, "Joseph her husband being a just or righteous man, a man of integrity and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to divorce her secretly. And he had the right to do that when he had been violated by the one in whom he had put his entire life. love, trust and purity.

But he loved her also.  The law permitted that he could put her away in a private ceremony, rather than in a public one. If his assumptions were correct he had every right to publicly disgrace her, to publicly charge her with adultery in an act of public dishonor that would label her the rest of her life.

But before he could go about doing it, verse 20 says, "But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream”  and he is given some information that is absolutely so far beyond his imagination; “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”

Matthew says, "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet" This should be understood because this is what the OT said, "a virgin shall be with child"                                                                                       "Joseph …. took unto him his wife: NOTE THIS - And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS."

That's a royal birth, folks.  And it says in Isaiah 7:14, " Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." God in human flesh. He was born royally.

The manger wasn't royal and the stable wasn't royal and the animals, and the shepherds weren't royal, but it was a royal birth for God infinitely rich had become utterly poor.  What a truth!!

IV. His Royal Worship

Matthew 2:1, "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea" And it was some time after, perhaps the young couple and the child were now living in a house rather than in the stable.  "behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem."

Now, who are the Magi?  They came from the Persian Empire east of Palestine.  And they really were descendants of the Medes and the Persians.  They were unusually capable and gifted people. And they had risen to great leadership in the Middle East.  They appointed the kings, and the judges, they dominated in terms of authority. They had vast knowledge of astronomy, history, architecture and agriculture.

The Magi had been around since Daniel.  These Magi were greatly influenced by those devout Jews and no doubt Daniel himself.

So, they had come to understand that there was coming a great king to that part of the world. They no doubt were familiar with Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9.

Their great enemy was Rome.  One of the things they wanted back was the land of Palestine which Rome now occupied. And so when the prospect of a great king rising in the Middle East came about, they were very anxious to come and see that king.

You can only imagine what it was like when they rode into Jerusalem. They probably came in on fine Persian horses. There's no reason in the world to believe there were only three of them. They brought gold, frankincense and myrrh but that doesn't have anything to do with how many of them there were. Estimates go into the hundreds and some say they were probably accompanied by about a thousand men on horseback. This is an army, folks, and it's little wonder that Herod was a little nervous when they arrived.

Now notice verse 2, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?"  "When Herod the king heard it he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." He was troubled because he couldn't stand competition.  He killed his mother. He killed his wife. He killed all his sons. And he said, "Just before I die, massacre every noble in Jerusalem because when I die nobody will mourn and I'd like to have some people mourning even if they're not mourning for me."

If Herod was troubled, so was everybody else because when Herod got troubled he started killing people.

So Herod secretly called the Magi, ascertained from them the time the star appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also" But He didn't want to worship Him, he wanted to kill Him.

They never went back to tell Herod where he was. Herod was so furious he massacred every male child under two years of age thinking he'd catch the king in the killing of all of the children.

These magi acknowledged that this is the promised Messiah.  And the people of Israel missed what these Gentiles saw. They worshiped Him.

And opening their treasures, they presented Him gifts ; Gold for a king; Frankincense which is a pure incense rising speaks of deity, it was offered to God as a sweet fragrance. Myrrh speaks of His humanity, it's a perfume to make life more bearable and life more pleasant...also used in embalming – speaks of His death.

V. By Royal Decree

He was decreed to be the King by God Himself. Through Prophecy

Matt. 1:23 - God said the King would come born of a virgin.

Matt. 2:6 -  The prophet said speaking for God, He would be born in Bethlehem, that's exactly where He was born. Matt. 2:15 "Out of Egypt have I called my son" Cf (Hosea 11:1). In order to escape the wrath of Herod, they were told to go to Egypt where they stayed. And then out of Egypt they came on their way to Nazareth.

Matt 2:18 - Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled, "  Rachel is sort of the mother of all Jewish mothers and they're weeping and crying at the massacre of all their little babies. And so, the decree of God was given in that passage in Jeremiah 31:15 that when the Messiah came there would be a weeping of Jewish mothers over the loss of their children at the time of His birth.

Matt. 2:23 -  He resided in a city called Nazareth that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazarene.

CONCLUSION:

He is King in every sense. He is King by birth. He is King by decree. He is King by lineage. He is King by character. He is King by worship.

And the carols say it, don't they?  Over and over again. "Christ the newborn King." But what kind of King?  Is He a king over an earthly nation? Is He a king over many nations of the earth?

The Bible tells us that He is a divine king. The Bible tells us that He Himself said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." He said, "The Kingdom is within you...or among you, or in your midst."

And we learn it is a spiritual kingdom. He rules the hearts of those who believe in Him. He is King over those who accept His death and resurrection for their salvation. And some day He will be King over the earth and the whole universe will submit to Him. He is King now in the spiritual sense, He is to be King in the earthly sense and He is to be King in the eternal sense.