Sound The Trumpet : Matthew 2:1-12 Pt. 1

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“Matthew 2:1-12 Pt. 1”
by Art Sadlier
April 4th, 2010

Introduction

Jesus Christ is the theme of the New Testament, He is the object of the four gospels. Each of the gospel writers portray Jesus in a unique way. They all cover His life, but each one covers it in a unque way. In Matthew, He is the king who comes to rule and reign. In Mark, He is the servant who comes to serve and to suffer. In Luke, He is the Son of man who comes to share and sympath In John, He is the Son of God who comes to reveal God and redeem man.

Each one of the Evangelists approaches Jesus in a very special way. The contrasts are extreme, in Matthew He is the king. In Mark He is the servant, you couldn't have greater extremes! In Luke He is the Son of man, in John He is the Son of God, what a contrast!

Matthew presents Christ as king, and everything in Matthew focuses on His rulership. He is shown to be the one who has the right to rule, He is shown to have the power to rule, He is shown to have the credentials to rule.

Because Matthew is presenting Christ as king he traces the lineage of Christ through the royal line of David. Mark presents Christ as servant, because he presents Christ as a servant he has no genealogy at all, It is irrelevant. Luke presents Christ as the Son of man, so He takes the genealogy all the way back to Adam. John presents Christ as the Son of God, and bypasses all human genealogy and simply says in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John goes directly back to eternity past and establishes the eternal essence of Christ.

So each of the gospel writers matches his genealogy with his emphasis concerning Christ. So in Matthew He is the Messiah, the annointed sovereign and thus comes to us through the line of David.

"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David", Matthew 1:1

Matthew 1: Establishes Christ as King by His lineage.

Matthew 2: Establishes Christ as King because of the recognition men give to a king. Christ is shown to be a king as men pay Him homeage as a king.

So in Matthew 2: Matthew tells the story of certain wisemen who came to proclaim that Jesus was indeed a king as they bowed at His feet and worshipped Him as a king.

``Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.`` Matthew 2:1

"Wise Men" = Greek = "Magi" The Magi were a priestly tribe among the peopleknown as the Medes (todays Kurds). The Medes were a large group of people made up of many tribes, one of the tribes was the Magi. It was a heriditary priestly tribe, much like the Levites were in Israel. The Medes rose to the place of being the advisers to the kings of Babylon and to the Medio-Persians.

They became so influential that no king ever took the throne of the Persian Empire except they were trained by the Medes in their laws, the Laws of the Medes and Persians. No king was crowned that was not approved by the Medes. They were the great king makers of the empire to the east of Israel, by this time known as the Parthian Empire. It was their business to recognize and crown kings, they had been in the courts of kings for centuries, they were the king makers of the East.

It is out of this significant background that they made their way from the east to recognize and honour Christ as king. So Matthew makes his point that Christ is king in Matthew 1, by virtue of His lineage and in Matthew 2, by virtue of the recognition of men.

The question arises, Where did ther Magi get their information about Jesus? Remember in 586 BC Israel was taken captive into Babylon. It was at that time and in that situation the Babylonians learned of the great Jewish King that would someday be born.

One of those Jews, Daniel rose to great prominence among the Medes, we read about Daniel at that time. "There is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzer thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers." Daniel 5:11. Daniel was made chief of the Magi,(master of the Magi) so great was Daniel`s wisdom and revelations, that the Magi would study and revere his teachings for centuries that followed. That is how the Magi were ready for this event, through the centuries they had been watching for this event, the great king to come. They had passed down the information and when the time came they were ready. God had prepared the Magi to come and worship His Son.

When Christ came, there were two great powers in the world.

1 - The Powers of the East - the Persians (Parthians), they had had ruled the world a few hundred years earlier. They were in decline, but they still aspired to rule the world again.

2 - The powers of the West - Rome dominated the West, including Israel, but had never dominated the Persians.

First - I suspect, that the Magi had hoped that this great king, whom they understood, would one day rule the world, would also be their king as well as Israel`s.

Secondly - They understood that this King was God`s King. They had some spiritual understanding and desire concerning the Messiah of Israel.

So they came to Jerusalem, a group of official Persian king-makers, longing for a new king.

Next week we will see five acts in the drama.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13