Learning from the good guys and the bad guys...Matthew 2:1-12

 

Funny but true.  Honestly, sometimes it has come back to bite me.  I would like it to be that I am always looking for the good and not noticing so much the bad.  In Gaylord, Michigan, I gave out pineapples to people who I caught doing something that was kinda hidden from others but not from my eyes.  That was a pretty public acknowledgement of it but how we need to show appreciation on the private level like the guy behind the counter at the coffee shop who remembered my name.  

This week we find ourselves focusing on Herod the Great, the religious leaders, and the wise men from the East.  

• Herod is antagonist toward this Baby born King of the Jews.  
• The religious leaders are apathetic to the Baby's birth as old news.  They already knew His birthplace, Bethlehem.
• The wise men from the East are in adoration to find the Baby.  A God-made star led them from the East to bow down and worship Him.

We see these three today.  We find those antagonist or against anything that has to do with religion, church, or Christ.  We find those apathetic, even annoyed, toward an ultimate truth and an exclusive salvation found only in Christ.  We find those whose eyes are opened by God and are seeking more of Him through His word, in adoration and awe.  I am thankful we have the example of Paul who was antagonistic but came to adore.  I am also thankful we have Acts 6:7b (LSB) that states, "...and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith."  

We learn from the bad and the good.  From the bad...

Herod used God's words to carry out harm and he also used others to do his dirty work.  In the next passage he uses exaggeration to protect himself.  1) We should never use God's word to harm others.  It hurts sometimes as God chisels away what needs to be corrected so we are more like Christ but it is never to be used as a weapon to destroy someone else.  2) We should never use others to advance ourselves.  Others are there to love, not to fulfill our own selfish man-made agendas.  3) We should never exaggerate to make a point or to preserve ourselves.  We should always stand on the truth that comes from God and allow His promises to be fulfilled because we have done so.  

From the good...

The wise men brought treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  I love all the connections you can make with this.  Gold is fit for a king.  Frankincense is used in the temple by a priest.  Myrrh is used at a burial and Israel buried a lot of God's prophets.  The king leads the people.  The priest intercedes for the people.  The prophet teaches to the people.  Jesus is our prophet, priest and king.  He is our gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Jesus, the greatest prophet, speaks and teaches the words of God and will eventually die for saying them.  Jesus, the greatest priest, intercedes for us before the Father and also provides the holy example to follow.  Jesus, the greatest king, leads us to eternity with Him and also defends us from the evil one.  

The wise men eventually stop following (k)ing Herod and his instructions and start following (K)ing Jesus and the instructions given by God and go home another way.  Christians are to do the same.  We are a people of obedience and sometimes that obedience will be tested to see if we are following our present day (k)ings or our eternal day (K)ing when their messages collide.

I will finish with the link to the sermon but I also will give the link to an old skit video that has been remastered (The Skit Guys) that I thought of when I spoke of not using God's word to harm others but sometimes it hurts when God is using it on us.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QCkBL2DfVg

Adam