Jesus - The Good of All

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Well, to you, that's okay. We're going to have the verses on the screen, but feel free to follow along in any capacity that you want or can. Our sermon series this year for Advent is we're talking about the coming King, that Jesus is doing something new. He's ushering in something new. He's inaugurating a new kingdom. Last week, we looked at how Emmanuel means God with us. And really, when God came as as a baby, it really blew everybody's conceptions out of the water of what salvation was supposed to be or what their lives could be. And you know, anytime you are reading the Christmas story, you have to try to see it with fresh eyes. This is a story that we hear and read every year. Last week, Daniel Oster did that really well. He really tried to plant our feet into the events and the people and to kind of see it from their perspective. Today as we continue in Matthew, we're going to go Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12,

what we're going to try to do to see it differently, we're going to try to see it through three lenses at once. We're going to look at the same kind of set of circumstances, but we're going to do it through three lenses, maybe putting on our trifocals as it were, where we are going to to be able to see near, intermediate, and then see for distance. We do this kind of thing every day. For parenting, if we have a child who's not living their best life in that moment, we see near. So we see the actual action. We see what they're actually doing. We see them reaching for something, knowing they shouldn't, looking at you and still reaching for it anyway, okay? So we see that action, but we also see, maybe the intermediate, we also see the pattern of behavior. We're asking ourselves, is this indicative of how they've been acting lately? But we also see for distance, we also see,

okay, who are they becoming? That he's or she is reaching for something they shouldn't reach for, but then as a parent, I need to see that action, I need to see a pattern, and I need to see who they're becoming. It works the same way maybe for conflict resolution or a job. For a job, you see the task, but you also see the company and the co-workers that you have, and then you also look at your career as the arc of your career. Conflict resolution, you see the argument at hand, you see the problem at hand, but then you also can step back and see the contributing factors. Then again, you can go further back for distance and say, Who has God calling me to be as a peacemaker? So what does the Lord call me to be? What's the contributing facet? What's the situation? And then what's the actual thing at hand? What we're gonna do in Matthew chapter two verses one through 12 is that same kind of exercise,

but we're gonna do it from the other direction. We're gonna start big, we're gonna start macro, okay? We're gonna start gigantic. And then we're gonna move into what's happening in the story. And finally, we're gonna get into up close What's going on? And we're gonna begin in Matthew two verses one through two. These are our verses. It says, now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. And it's really interesting if you look at what they're saying. They were saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. All right, wise men from the east, these are also called magi, right? You might have heard of them called the three magi or the three wise men. We actually don't know that there's three per se, but we know essentially there's probably more than two, but probably not a big group.

So we just kind of settle on three, all right? These wise men from the east are astrologers by profession, okay? So they study the skies. They pour over star maps, okay? just all these different scrolls. And it's not like they just do this on the weekend. Okay, they're not hobbyists. This is their job. This is what they do. It's their professions, their trade. And when they say, we saw his star when it rose, they are referring to a specific star. They had to know, for example, they had to know, or putting it a different way, had to know which star, they had to know where that star was supposed to be. And they had to know what that star meant.

They had to have a lot of background information for them to be able to make this statement. We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. Now, theories abound as to which star, and I mean, astronomers have really tried to recreate this moment and say, okay, maybe it's these two stars and it's like Jupiter and Saturn. It's fine. We don't need to know that. But what we do need to know, what we do not need to miss, is that this knowledge that the wise men had to begin with needed to be discovered.

In other words, it wasn't like when that star rose it had a sign on it. Like, hey, hey, you know, like big blinking neon, this is for the king of the Jews, okay? That's not how it was. They needed, the information that led them them to that needed to be discovered. It needed to be discovered by astrologers before them, and it needed to be passed down and accepted within the astrologer community. Okay. Do you hear what I'm saying? It wasn't like, it wasn't like these wise men had a vision or a dream or anything like that. These wise men, these astrologers are saying, okay, we're pouring over star maps all the time, and something weird has approached something changed in the sky, and we know that when that change happens, we know it's going to mean that there's a king that's going to be born to the Jews. They are studying astrology textbooks, scrolls, teacher's notes.

And when they realized this star was coming, they got on their camels, and they headed west. They're not asking anybody. There's no dream. There's no vision. There's no angel. There's no nothing. They knew that this star was for the King of the Jews. In other words, the plan that set in motion, them coming West, was set generations before that moment. So when the wise men say, we saw his star rise in the East, that is the culmination of a lot of planning, a culmination of a lot of information. And we see it again in verses four through six, Matthew chapter two, verse four through six, it says, and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, this is Herod doing this, Herod inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they, the people, the chief priests and all these scribes, they told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet,

And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Okay, you see the quotes around here, right? In other words, they are quoting Old Testament prophets. Okay? So when they're saying, and so it was written by the prophet, again, we need to focus on when this information happened because the people in Jerusalem knew about a Messiah because they are quoting prophets, the prophets Micah and Ezekiel. Micah and Ezekiel both wrote their prophecies at least 400 years before this moment in time. So here we have these wise men, generations in advance. We have the people that know when the Messiah is coming because of a document of documents that were written 400 years before that moment. And this is our first lens. This is the first kind of macro, the first step back we need to see,

is that God has tectonic timing. I say tectonic because tectonic plates move extremely slowly, painfully slow sometimes. But the implications of those plates moving are gigantic. God's timing is tectonic. In other words, we can't really wrap our minds around the whiteboard that God used to make all this happen. He is laying down astrology precepts in order for all of this to happen. Think about that. That's a long-term plan. And we've already seen it. We've already seen it in Joseph and Mary and Jesus' genealogy. We've seen it all over the place. Matthew shows even in the contrast. I want you to consider Herod. So verses 3 and 4 of Matthew 2, it says, When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Drew some with him, and assembling all the chief priests and scribes the people he inquired them were the crisis to be born. So Herod here is surprised. is afraid, Herod is threatened. God is none of those three. He has planned this moment

from eternity past. And this is not, look, this is not just a neat observation. This is God's character. What we are seeing in the Christmas story is a result of God's character that God, by his nature, in his being, arranges things in their order. That God, for example, calls people into being. He sets them on a trajectory and he gives them a purpose and he draws them toward that purpose.

What I'm trying to say is that whenever we look at what the wise men are doing, when we look at what the people know, when we are able to kind of see God's timing from this macro view, we need to understand that God does the exact same thing in the constellation of your life. That God's big timing, it's not like he's just busting out this attribute about himself for Christmas. This is who he is. It flows out of his identity. God orders things, and he even orders things in your life. He has arranged your relationships, your successes, your trials, your dreams, everything. So intricately ordered is your life that verses like Ephesians 2:10 makes sense. Ephesians 2:10 says this, it says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them. Listen to that verse. Your life is carefully ordered,

although you can see and feel, got a power surge, you can see and feel, we'll just keep going, just pretend like it's so normal that there's lights flickering, it's fine. We'll just keep it going. You know what, here, look, illustration right here. The Lord knew these lights would be flickering and that Sean couldn't do anything about it and that David was gonna try and David was gonna try to do something about it. It's fine, we'll figure it out. There you go, okay. And a solution was at hand.

Look, it doesn't always feel like things are in order, like things are intricately placed. sometimes things feel very haphazard, right? In fact, it's exactly what Leah was talking about in her testimony where she's like, I'm getting mommed all day, I'm getting, you know, like, teetered all day, I'm getting, right, I'm getting it from different directions and it feels haphazard. It feels chaotic. I don't feel like I'm in control of what is happening around me. And I don't think you have to be a kindergarten teacher to feel that way. I don't think you have to be a mom to feel that way. I think being a kindergarten teacher and a mom, probably helps you feel that way more than the average bear, but it is still, in and of itself, it is still something that we all feel, this chaos, this lack of control, this seeming

inability to guess at what's going to happen next. What I wanna say, I just wanna boil it down to three things for you, whenever we're talking about God's tectonic timing, and I wanna talk about it in pain and confusion and doubt. In pain, in pain, ask for embrace, not escape. In pain, ask for embrace, not escape. Your pain has a use. Father God wants you to hold on to him, and this is your time to draw close, not just languish until it's over. When you are in pain, don't just curl up in a ball and wish it away or hide and let it pass like a storm. In pain, use that moment to reach out to the Lord and say, I am in pain and I need to know that these things are ordered for me. In your confusion, ask for sight, not solutions. Confusion, let me just help you. Confusion is inevitable. It is inevitable because we don't have the plan. When we don't have the plan, we're not supposed to have the plan, and the plan is still happening

around us, confusion will ensue. Ask like it says in scripture, ask for eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive. Perceive what? Perceive that God is in control of the events in your current state. this wheel that fell off your car or this relationship that suddenly went sour or this thing that won't get resolved that God is Not gasping. He's not wondering what to do next. You are but he's not and These things are going according to plan in doubt

doubt asked for healing not answers your doubts are not the result of Finding some deep flaw within the Godhead, okay? Your doubt is not you finally discovering after millennia that like the Bible has problems with it or some version of that. Doubt is the result of people being hurt and wanting to keep their distance typically. In your doubt I encourage you ask for healing and speak openly about it with people that can help with people that will listen. If all you do in your doubt is watch YouTube videos about how these doubters are wrong or how these doubters are right, it's not going to help. Promise. I've talked to too many people that have gone down that road, either one, and it doesn't help. And it's because their problem wasn't philosophical. Their problem was relational. It took them going down the philosophy rabbit hole to get there, but their problem was

relational. Your doubt, ask for healing, not answers. Learn to see what God is doing in your life. This is what the Bible calls living by faith. It's not some grand secret, man. It's not, you know, I don't have like, you know, four ways to like ninja your way into spiritual maturity. It's not, it's very, it's simple, man. In your pain, in your doubt, in your confusion, run to the Lord. Ask for healing, ask for embrace, ask for sight. Don't get confused. This is our first lens. The other two are quicker, I promise. This is our first lens. We're seeing it from way back, God's tectonic timing. Here's the second, Matthew chapter two, verse one. I know we read it, but I wanna read it again. It says, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Wise men from the east. Let's kind of talk about that for just a second.

I just mentioned they were astrologers, but I really wanna elaborate on that. Where's the east? Okay, the east, from Israel, The East is where people didn't know God, basically. Whenever saying like men from the East, people from the East, these are not people that fear God. They're not God's people at all. And when you look at the word magi, or wise men, it's magi, it's the Greek word, for astrologers. But really, that's maybe like a sugar-coated way to say it. These men are men that are associated with what we would call the mystic arts. So think palm reading, think zodiac sign, think Ouija board.

Kids, if you don't know what any of those are, ask your parents later, they'd love to tell you. These are men that are associated with things that I would not want my family associated with, to just put it mildly. This isn't just weird stuff. This is like, it feels like borderline demonic. Okay, I mean, it's like, whoa, you know, I'm taking a step back. That is though, what these men were about. These men were not heroic figures among Jews or Christians.

And they actually, whenever it talks about a Magi, scripture actually kind of gives us the impression that Jews and Christians looked upon them with suspicion. In fact, the only other mention of a Magi in the New Testament, this is great trivia, the only other mention of a Magi in the New Testament is in Acts 13, and it's a guy named Bar Jesus, and he's a magician, and he's proven to be false, like a false magician, a false prophet. Okay, that's the only other Magi in the New Testament, and these guys who find Jesus. Okay, what I'm trying to help you understand is that God is specifically, whenever he He calls wise men from the east, he is specifically using outsiders. And that God had plenty of people in Jerusalem to choose from. Plenty. Scribes who genuinely love God. People who are not outsiders. People who are not involved with Ouija boards a poem reading.

People who are not kind of suspect. He chooses them and he calls outsiders to speak to his people. The positioning here should give us pause, right? As we read Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 and following, what we should understand is that outsiders are willingly seeking out, willingly worshiping, willingly offering gifts to the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah that they barely know anything about. But Herod and the Jews, where are they? They're clearly not seeking him out. And we know that they know exactly where he's supposed to be born. So Herod gets all the scribes and the teachers together and says, where's the king of the Jews gonna be born? And they tell him where? And then they tell the wise men where. But does anybody go with the wise men? No. Herod just says, hey, look, when you find him, let me know. God's people, I mean just look at it, God's people are not seeking Him on

purpose and outsiders who are getting their answers from a Ouija board are the ones seeking out the Messiah. You think about how nuts that is. And God is doing this in particular and this is kind of our second lens that that God has these these overriding purposes that oftentimes we can't see. We don't really understand. We don't get until we kind of look at that, that his overriding purposes are at work. Look at verses 9 and 10. Verses 9 and 10, this is about the wise men. It says, after listening to the king, the wise men went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them. This is a moving star at this point. Went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. They saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Look, these are outsiders who have no reason to be excited, and yet they are overflowing with joy.

And that God is personally leading these outsiders to his son. Look, when we see here that there was a star, okay, there's really no other way to interpret this. This was a moving star, okay? It wasn't like they saw the star and they kind of like, like sailors use a star, you know, and they're like Moana, you know, they're like doing that number. And they're okay. No, this is saying that the star came to rest over the place where the child was physically moving, resting on something. This gives you, it makes you think of the Old Testament, whenever God personally led his people, whenever he appeared to Moses in a burning bush, whenever he led his people in the wilderness with a cloud by day and a fire by night, a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. And here, God is doing the exact same thing, but He's not doing it with His people. He's doing it with some outsider wise men.

God is in complete control. He takes outsiders who have no business being there, and He sets them apart to behold the Messiah. One of the most precious things in human history, to behold the birth of the God-Man. He reserved that. He reserved that. Well, he reserved outsiders to do that. Matthew chapter two verse 11, the wise men, going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. God calls these outsiders to find Jesus and they worship him. And this is our story, is it not? Is this not us? Anybody claiming to be God's covenant people today? No? Not by birth anyway. We're outsiders, man. We're outsiders. And God called us toward Jesus to find Him and to worship Him. This is our story. And this is the story that we hope to see in other people.

disciples of Jesus, our responsibility is to point people to Jesus like this. Like so whenever Jesus says, go and make disciples, he's doing that, saying that to everybody that follows him. And yet we mishandled this in two ways. We kind of fall into two ditches. The first ditch is that we don't think we know enough to point people to Jesus, right? The other ditch that we fall into is to think that we're the only ones who can do it. We're the only ones who can point people to Jesus. Here's our comfort today. Our comfort is that God the Father will make disciples, that God will move whether you give permission or not, whether you cooperate or not, that if you don't want to do it, He's going to get outsiders to come in and do it. If you don't want to praise Him, He's going to make the rocks cry out. That God the Father is going to make disciples, that God will move among His people and

his complete authority. He will win the day. And this is the meat of our prayer. Is it not? This is not what we pray for? That we say, God, please lead people to Jesus. And my encouragement is, yeah, let's depend on that. Let's throw ourselves on that and say, yeah, God, what you're doing, I want to be about that. Whatever that looks like in my life, whatever part You want me to play. Let me play it well. Let me do that. Let me be a part.

And this is the same way that we grow in spiritual maturity, that that God is directing your path in complete authority and overriding purposes. And he uses the unexpected in your life to bring you where he wants you to go. The story of the wise men finding Jesus is the story of us finding Jesus. Trust God's authority in your life. Follow him in obedience and he will not let you down. I know that life doesn't always look like you want, but it is something that we can trust the Lord with. His overriding purposes are gonna win the day. Last lens, Matthew chapter two verse 12.

This is the wise men again. It says, and being warmed in a dream, not to return to Herod. they departed to their own country by another way. I just want you to see, this just feels like an add-on to the story, but we see this all over the Christmas story, we see this all over the New Testament, where God is warning Joseph in a dream, he's talking to Mary through angels, he's warning these wise men to go a different way, that God cares for everybody, to everybody that God cares for outsider, poem reader astrologers. He cares about them. In the same way he cares about Joseph and Mary, quite literally, and really this is God's character. In other words, God didn't just use the wise men and throw them away. Sometimes, sometimes when we behold God's enormity, Our concerns, our little concerns, can feel like they can take a logical back seat. Let me just give you an example.

And I think Leah's testimony is great. I'm doing this like she's here, but this is where she gave it, so that's why I do it. When Leah gave her testimony, she was essentially saying like, Like, I just, I feel like I can be drowning in concerns and cares. Is that fair? Is that a good, okay. Kind of losing control or feeling overwhelmed, right? And sometimes in that moment when we feel that overwhelmed, when we hear, hey, God is big, God is in control, God is sovereignly not worried about whatever is going to happen next. He's in control of everything. hear that, sometimes our reaction is, okay, well then, you know, why am I worried about how I feel today? Or, you know, why am I concerned with this little thing over here or that little thing over there? But that's not how God operates. That's not how God operates. The big and the small matter to God, right? Just because he's big and sovereign and transcendent does not mean

that he doesn't care about what shirt you're going to wear today. Or how you're concerned about your kid, you know, just kind of, you know, going off track a little bit, like you're worried about him. And so you pray for those things. When you pray about those little things, it's not like God is just so, it's like, Oh, I just can't worry about this little thing over here, this little thing over here. That's not, that's not how it works.

That God gives detailed attention. He gives detailed attention. He looks at your life, it more, more specifically than you do. The Lord says He knows the number of hairs on your head. Anybody got that count besides Kenneth? Okay, all right, just saying, or Bob, okay. Few of you, few of you might have that number, just saying. Most of you though, you're such good sports, thank you. Kim walks out. Sorry. The number of hairs you have on your head, right? You don't know that number, but the Lord does. You don't know it. You can't know it, but the Lord does. The Lord knows how many hairs you've ever had. He knows every time that your heart's been broken. He knows every time that you felt like a total failure or that you actually totally failed. He knows that. He knows how many relationships have gone in the ditch. He knows all of that. He knows your heart and your motivations on a level that you can't even fathom.

The Lord knows. He gives detailed attention. There's a song that we sing called Canvas and Clay. I really love it. And I just want you to, I want to read some words to you. We're actually going to, we're going to sing it in a bit, but I want to just read these words to you. It says, when I doubt it, Lord remind me I'm wonderfully made. So when I doubt that I'm wonderfully made, Lord remind me that you have made me wonderful, or you have wonderfully made me. It says, you're an artist and you're the artist and the potter, I'm the canvas and the clay. And then the chorus says, you make all things work together for my future and for my good. I want to stop there for just a second. when we read the Bible and when we're talking to God and in our prayer life as we're thinking about what he's doing in our life, all we think of is that first set of lines. We say, you make all things work together for my future and my good.

Well, let me just tell you, that's 100% true. It's just not the end of the chorus because the other part of the chorus is you make all things work together for your glory and for your name. God's name and his glory and your future and your good are not opposed to one another. Do you understand me? They are not opposed. It's not like your best life is over here and God's glory and his name and his renown and the good of all humanity is all over here. No, no. The Lord in his goodness, in his sovereignty, in his complete control, in his detailed attention brings it all together. You make all things work together for my future, my good. You make all things work together for your glory and for your name. Jesus says that his eyes on the sparrow.

Jesus says the number of hairs on your head are numbered. He cares for people that do not acknowledge him at all. all and more, God the Father invites you into a relationship where all his glory and all your good collide. This Christmas we can remember that. We can remember that God leads people, me and you included, leads people to Jesus for the good of of all humanity, not just for you to feel better about your weekend, but for the good of all humanity that you are a part, even your little choices are a part of a magnificent plan. That again, that whiteboard, we couldn't even begin to fathom it. We don't know that plan, but we can still trust God's heart. Leading someone to Jesus is their supreme blessing. It is for their good. It's not just, following Jesus is not just one option to achieve personal happiness. Just say it that way. Following Jesus is where we find our true identity,

where we find our true selves. We find out what we were made for. God uses our perspectives and our motives even in his grand purposes. Not that we're robots. We're not robots, but we are this. It is true that even in our attempts to rebel and thwart that plan or to not cooperate that plan or ignore that plan that we just end up like Jonah, right? We just end up accomplishing God's plan even though we're kicking and screaming. We accomplish it.

This Christmas, help wrap your minds around. You know, as you're looking at scripture, as you're reading the Bible with your family, as you're at church services, as you're singing Christmas carols. Put your mind around the fact that you are part of this big, long tapestry. The Christmas story that we celebrate is part of that tapestry. Today, I wanna encourage you, as we move into our time of response, I want you to think about your life, what you're dealing with, what you're going through, and how the Lord is using that. I'm not saying you gotta figure it out, okay? It's not a Sudoku puzzle, okay? This is not crossword. You might not get the solution, but there is a point that you can sit down and go, okay, I trust. Wherever comes next, I trust.

And that's not an information issue, that's a hard issue. As we sing and pray, let's let that be our hard issue. Let me pray for us. Jesus, thank you for today. Thank you for the, for really everything that you give us. Everything that you put in our path, every way that you love us, that you reach out to us. All these little things, even when it feels like you aren't close, you are. Even when it feels like there's some distance between us. You, you know, Lord, you hear it, you see it. Help us to trust you in that. As we continue singing, I'm just gonna be right up here. If you wanna come and pray, if you wanna, If you want to do anything, if you're interested in being baptized, why don't you come up to the front and like I said I'm just going to be sitting here and you can come and just sit next to me and we'll talk as we're singing. Let's stand and sing. But this one, you fooled me with your hands,

known and loved by you, I took a breath. And I doubt it Lord, remind me, I'm wonderfully made. You're an artist and a part of I'm the canvas and the clay. And You make all things work together for my future And for my good You make all things work together for Your glory And for your name, for your living life Just beyond the clouds, oh I walk through fire Cast it clearly now I know nothing has been wasted No failure or mistake You're an artist and a part of the canvas and the clay You big old things work together for my future And for all my good you make all things work together For your glory, for your need, for your need When I doubt it, listen up When I doubt it, hold on my heart is a little part of the canvas and the clay I know nothing has been wasted, no failure or mistake You're an artist and a part of the canvas and the clay You make all, you make all things together

For my future and for my good You make all things work together for your glory And for you make all things work together for my future And for my good you make all things work together Wonderful He made. You're an artist and a potter. I want to care for sin and play. I know nothing has been wasted. No failure or mistake. You're an artist and a potter. I want to care for sin and play. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine nakedness or danger or sword as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the

day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Amen. Guys, stay for Pollock. It's going to be a good time.

I think you're on, but still you're alive You can take what the enemy and me are pouring evil And you turn it