By Kevin Shrum
Pastor, Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville
Focal Passage: Matthew 2:1-12
Five major events outline God’s redemptive plan.
First, in creation God created all things good. Second, in the “fall,” mankind ruined God’s goodness through sin. Third, in redemption God became a man (the incarnation), dying a substitutionary death for sinners and rising from the dead victorious over sin, death and hell. Fourth, in His ascension Jesus intercedes for individual believers and His church, empowered by the Spirit to fulfill God’s mission until His return. Fifth, in the consummation of God’s plan Jesus returns to gather His Church and reign eternally.
With Christmas approaching, we are focusing on Jesus’ incarnation that would lead to His death and resurrection, the centerpiece of God’s plan to save everyone who would ever repent and believe the gospel. But God did not invade the world through an army bent on the destruction of rebellious sinners. Instead, God wrapped Himself in the human flesh of a baby, living the perfect life we could not live and dying a death He did not deserve so that we might receive what we could not earn — salvation.
Kevin Shrum
Arrival, Matthew 2:1-3: Jesus arrived on the scene in the small town of Bethlehem yet visited by the elites of the day — wise men from the east. King Herod ruled Judea as a self-centered, destructive King who killed many in his own family.
The arrival of Jesus was the most anticipated but unexpected event in human history. It was anticipated because all the Old Testament Prophets spoke and wrote of the Messiah’s coming. Yet, the way Jesus came was unexpected — He came humble, lowly, with no fanfare or trumpet sounds.
The wise men came seeking this new King asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” (v. 2) As the scientists and astronomers of their day, they had observed an unusual star in the east.
They connected their knowledge of God’s people and their Scriptures from Israel’s Babylonian captivity and their interest in astronomy to lead them on a divinely appointed “star struck” journey.
The questions they asked caused Herod to be “deeply (and murderously) disturbed,” v. 3. The arrival of Jesus would lead to the slaughter of all two-year-old baby boys in the region, a foretelling of the type of wickedness and sin Jesus came to conquer.
Direction, Matthew 2:4-8. Herod gathered the intelligentsia of the day — scribes and chief priests — to inquire of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They quote to King Herod Micah 5:2, identifying the birth of Jesus as in the region of Judea, in the town of Bethlehem; further, Jesus would be one of the “rulers of Judah,” a ruler who would “shepherd my people Israel,” verse 6.
In other words, Jesus fit every descriptor necessary as the Messiah of God, the Savior of God’s people. While the wise men wanted to worship, King Herod faked his desire to worship Jesus so that He might destroy Him. King Herod was into “fake news.”
Discovery, Matthew 2:9-12. When the wise men discovered Jesus, they discovered what we must discover in Jesus: (1) they discovered joy, verse 10, (2) experienced worship, verse 11, (3) practiced generous giving, verse 11, and (4) received a warning: go home a different way as different people, verse 12. Merry Christmas! B&R — Shrum is pastor of Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville, and is a past president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.