Notes | December 12, 2021

Let Earth Receive Her King | Sean Patterson 

Matthew 2:1-16
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

King Herod’s reaction to Christ is a picture of us all.

“According to the Bible, the evil of the world ultimately stems from the self-centeredness, self-righteousness, and self-absorption of every human heart. Each of us wants the world to orbit around us and our needs and desires… In every heart, then, there is a little King Herod that wants to rule and that is threatened by anything that may compromise its omnipotence and sovereignty. Each of us wants to be captain of our own soul, the master of our own fate.” – Tim Keller

Psalm 2:1-3
1 “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, 3 “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” 

Romans 8:7
“For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.” 

Jesus Christ, when rightly understood evokes extreme responses.

When you think about the Lordship of Jesus, if you’re not mad or bowing down in worship, then you don’t understand His claims on you.

Psalm 84:5
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” 

Anyone who wants God must go on a journey.

 John 6:44
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.”

We will never find God without God’s help.

3 Gifts: gold, a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense, a symbol of deity, and myrrh, a symbol of death.

They worshipped him as King, they worshipped Him as God, and they acknowledged what it would cost Him to hold those titles.

“See, all human beings are, in their natural condition, in a state of warfare against God. We’re all hostile towards God. We’re all fighting against God. And that’s just the way it is. The proof of that? 
The only time God ever became vulnerable, the only time God ever became weak, the only time God ever became touchable, we killed Him.” – Tim Keller