January 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Ultimately, there are only two groups of people in the world: (1) those who revere Jesus as the King of their life, and (2) those who reject Jesus as the King of their life. In this Christmas Eve message from Matthew 2:1–12, David Platt challenges us to consider which group we are in. Will we be like Herod and try to rule our own lives, or will we trust in Christ and submit to lordship? The good news of Christmas is that Christ, the true King, laid down his life so that whoever trusts in him can be forgiven of their sins and have eternal life.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a
weekly podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
We've gathered together tonightto celebrate history.
We're not retelling a fairytale with fictional characters a
real baby who was born in areal town, about 6,000 miles
(00:24):
away from here, at a real pointin history that divided history
into two eras.
And it not only divides historybut divides humanity into two
groups.
I'll put this up here on thescreen.
You think about that last songwe sang All Hail King Jesus,
nate mentioned.
(00:44):
We're singing truths that havebeen sung for 2,000 years, ever
since Jesus was born.
Think about humanity.
It's been divided ever sincethat day into two groups One,
those who revere Jesus as kingof their lives and those who
reject Jesus as king of theirlives.
All of humanity, includingeverybody in this room,
(01:10):
everybody listening online, allof us fall into one of these two
groups, and there's no ridingthe fence here.
No matter who you are, nomatter where you come from, no
matter how old, young you may be, no matter what you have done
or not done at this moment, youeither revere Jesus as king of
(01:39):
your life or reject Jesus asking of your life.
So, if I could, I'd like to askyou a question, obviously not
to answer out loud, but I dowant to encourage you to answer
this question quietly andpersonally and honestly, meaning
not just in your head or evenjust in your heart, but look at
your life and answer thequestion which of these two
groups am I in?
(02:01):
And I'm guessing there are some,maybe many, who would say and
I'm guessing there are some,maybe many, who would say yeah,
honestly, I've never reveredJesus as king of my life.
And if that's you, again, I'msincerely really glad you're
here.
I don't believe it's anaccident you're here and I want
to invite you to consider thepossibility, just the
(02:23):
possibility, of changing yourposture toward Jesus on this
Christmas Eve.
Others of you might say youknow I've revered Jesus as king
of my life at different pointsin the past, but if I'm honest,
I'm not living like Jesus is theking of my life in the present.
(02:44):
I'm doing things my own way.
I'm not looking to Jesus eachday as my king.
The reality is, I feel prettydistant from Jesus and if that's
you, I believe God's broughtyou here to bring you back to
(03:05):
knowing and enjoying Jesus asthe king of your life.
And then some of you might saywithout reservation or
hesitation yes, I'm living withreverence for Jesus as my king,
and if that's you, I hope Itrust that will only deepen in
the next few minutes.
(03:29):
Regardless of who you are, Iwant you to just think with me
for a moment about the firstpeople on this planet to call
Jesus king, because they weren'tthe people you would expect.
We know them as the wise men,but we have a few misconceptions
about them that we probablyneed to clear up.
Wise men, but we have a fewmisconceptions about them that
we probably need to clear upFirst.
(03:52):
We often talk about or picturehow many of them in the
Christmas story Three, but theBible never tells us there were
three of them.
We know they brought threegifts to Jesus.
We're never told there wereonly three people.
For all we know it could havebeen three or 17, or 25?
We don't know.
In addition, we sing songs likethe first Noel to talk about
these wise men looking up andseeing a star shining in the
(04:14):
east, beyond them, far.
The problem is they wereactually in the east and they
saw a star shining in the west.
They saw a star shining east ofthem and traveled in that
direction, they would havemessed up the whole story.
So we don't want the wise mengoing the wrong way, so just be
careful when you get to thatline in that song.
(04:34):
And finally, a note on timing.
These wise men traveled a longway to get to Jesus.
Some estimate hundreds, if notup to a thousand miles.
And they were not doing it onUnited Airlines, which means
they got to Jesus a long timeafter the shepherds who saw
Jesus on the night he was born.
By the time the wise men gotthere, joseph and Mary had
(04:57):
likely settled into a home.
Jesus was probably months old.
So check your nativity scenesthat you have set up in your
homes, where we usually have thewise men around the manger with
the shepherds.
It's not true.
So just go home tonight, takethe wise men kids, put them on
the other side of the room.
It's going to be a little whilebefore they make it.
(05:20):
Maybe just actually just waitand pull them out in late spring
, early summer.
It'll be a little more accuratethat way.
But when these wise men dofinally arrive, it is an
astounding scene.
Listen to this story of thefirst people to call Jesus king,
starting in Matthew, chapter 2,verse 1.
After Jesus was born inBethlehem of Judea in the days
(05:43):
of Herod the king, behold Now,these guys were not your
ordinary fellows.
They almost certainly had a highposition wherever they came
from.
It was evident in the wealththey brought with them.
(06:04):
They likely didn't travel alone, likely traveled with a caravan
, had a high position whereverthey came from.
It was evident in the wealththey brought with them.
They likely didn't travel alone.
Likely traveled with a caravan,possibly even with soldiers to
protect them, which is part ofwhy their presence in Jerusalem
later in this passage is soobvious.
When they arrived there, youknow what's interesting.
A few days ago, I was prayingspecifically for the Parsi
people of Iran and India.
There's about 150,000 in thispeople group.
(06:26):
They're one of the oldestsurviving Zoroastrian people
groups.
They worship Ahura Mazda, whichthey believe is the creator God
, and as I read about them, Ilearned that Persian kings like
Cyrus and Darius were likelybelievers in Ahura Mazda as well
as these wise men.
It's pretty amazing to thinkabout this people group that
(06:48):
exists today as descendants fromthese men who traveled to
Jerusalem to see Jesus 2,000years ago.
So let's keep reading theirstory.
When Herod the king heard this,this story about these wise men
following a star to worship theking of the Jews.
He was troubled Remember thatword, troubled, and all
(07:09):
Jerusalem with him, andassembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people.
He inquired of them where theChrist was to be born, and they
told him in Bethlehem of Judea,for so it is written by the
prophet.
And you, o Bethlehem, in theland 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.
(07:30):
Let's pause here.
Did you know?
This is a quote from the OldTestament, here written by the
prophet Micah, micah, chapter 5,verse 2.
Did you know that this is oneof 300 specific prophecies,
predictions, references to thecoming of Jesus that we read in
(07:52):
the Old Testament?
Think about that for a minute.
Over a thousand years spanningthe history of the Old Testament
, 300 specific prophecies,predictions, promises that were
fulfilled in detail in the life,promises, and they were
fulfilled in detail in the life,death and resurrection of Jesus
.
Mathematicians say theprobability of one man
fulfilling 10 of thoseprophecies is about one in 100
(08:14):
billion.
Jesus fulfilled all 300 of them.
This is no coincidence.
Now some have asked is this madeup Like?
Did New Testament writers likeMatthew just change the facts
about Jesus to fit Old Testamentprophecies?
But the reality is these bookswere written and circulated
right after Jesus' death.
People easily could have saidhey, matthew, you know that
(08:37):
wasn't true.
Historically, all thisfulfillment was verifiable.
Others have asked well, is itmanipulated?
Some claim Jesus just arrangedthe details of his life so that
he would fulfill certain thingshe'd read in the Old Testament.
But let's just think about thatIn just the first two chapters
of Matthew think about this onein Micah, chapter 5, that Jesus
(08:59):
would be born in Bethlehem.
I'm not thinking Jesus was inMary's womb saying hurry up, we
gotta get there before thishappens.
Before this, in Matthew,chapter one, isaiah 7, 14,
prophesied that a virgin wouldgive birth.
Well, that was obviously notsomething in that sense as a
(09:19):
baby that Jesus was controlling.
Later in the chapter Matthewquotes from Hosea, chapter 11,
verse 1, about how Jesus, as ababy, would have to flee to
Egypt with his family.
I'm pretty sure as a parent,I'll just say my two-year-old is
not making the decisions onwhere we move or how we travel
(09:41):
Like.
Jesus was following theleadership of Joseph and Mary in
that decision.
In fact, this whole story abouta star appearing to appoint
leaders from the east to a kingwas promised in one of the
earliest parts of the Bible,numbers, chapter 24.
And then later, in Isaiah,chapter 60, we see a promise
(10:02):
that a light will shine andpeople will come from the
nations to worship, specificallybringing gold and frankincense.
This is no accident.
Every detail here, and it's notmade up or manipulated.
This is God saying to us asclearly as possible.
Jesus is the one who, throughdifferent people over the course
(10:24):
of centuries, I promised wouldcome.
So the story continues.
Then Herod summoned the wisemen secretly and ascertained
from them what time the star hadappeared, and he sent them to
Bethlehem saying go and searchdiligently for the child, and
when you've found him, bring meword that I too may come and
worship him.
Now we'll pause there, becauseKing Herod had no intention
(10:49):
whatsoever of worshiping Jesus,or anybody else for that matter.
King Herod believed he was theking of the Jews.
He'd been given control ofJudea around 40 BC and his title
was king of the Jews.
He'd been given control ofJudea around 40 BC and his title
was king of the Jews.
He was a bloodthirsty tyrant ofa king.
Whenever he suspected anybodywas plotting to overtake his
(11:12):
rule, he would have them killed,even to the point of murdering
his wives and his sons atvarious times when he didn't
trust them.
This is why he was so rememberthe word troubled by this news,
because he was the king.
And all Jerusalem, it says, wastroubled with him, likely
because they didn't know whatHerod was going to do.
(11:33):
And if you know the rest of thestory in Matthew, chapter 2,
and what he does to baby boysall throughout the city, they
had good reason to be concernedabout what Herod might do.
So Matthew continues Afterlistening to the king, they went
on their way and behold thestar that they had seen when it
rose, went before them until itcame to rest over the place
(11:55):
where the child was.
This is actually the first timethat we see the star move,
literally, supernaturally,leading them to Bethlehem, god
arranging the constellations tolead these men to the place
where Jesus is.
We can only imagine what thislooked like, like you don't
normally picture okay, now I'mright under this star, but it
was clear to these wise men whostudied the stars they were in
(12:17):
the right place and they weregiddy.
Listen to what Matthew says.
When they saw the star, theyrejoiced exceedingly with great
joy.
Don't you love that?
That's like quadruple joyRejoiced exceedingly with great
joy.
And then watch this.
Going to the house, they sawthe child with Mary, his mother,
(12:41):
and they fell down andworshiped him.
That's shocking.
Prominent, high-ranking,influential, powerful men from
nations beyond Israel bowingdown and worshiping a Jewish
baby.
You bow down when you're in thepresence of someone who is far
(13:02):
superior to you and you bow down.
You're saying I am low, you arehigh, and that's what these
prominent men are saying.
And then, opening theirtreasures, they offered him
gifts, gifts gold andfrankincense and myrrh, just
(13:27):
like Isaiah 60 had said.
Gold, a picture of royalty fitfor a king.
Frankincense an offering givento deity.
In the over 100 times we seefrankincense mentioned in the
Old Testament, it's almostalways referring to offerings to
God himself.
And then myrrh this is aninteresting one, a perfume that
(13:49):
was often used to prepare a bodyfor burial.
It's an interesting baby gift.
Ladies, take that to the nextbaby shower you attend.
Pull out a perfume used forburial.
There's so much more going onhere than even these wise men
realize, because they don't knowthat this baby boy, this king
(14:15):
God in the flesh, will one daybe hoisted onto a cross, where
he will be offered wine mixedwith myrrh to dull the pain,
which, by the way, he willrefuse.
They don't know that once thisbaby dies, a man named Joseph of
(14:37):
Arimathea will use myrrh toprepare his body for burial.
Don't miss the point here,friends.
This baby all sinned againstGod.
(15:04):
It looks different in every oneof our lives, it's played out in
every one of our stories, butwe have all turned aside from
God and his ways to ourselvesand our own ways, and as a
result of our sin, we areseparated from God.
And if we die in this state ofseparation from God, we will
spend eternity in judgment dueour sin.
(15:27):
But God loves us so much thathe has not left you and me in
this state.
God has come to us in theperson of Jesus, who lived a
life of no sin, which means hedid not deserve to die.
(15:50):
But the whole reason he came?
He chose to die on a cross.
Why?
To pay the price for our sins.
He died the death we deserve todie.
And then the good news doesn'tstop there, because he didn't
stay dead for long Three dayslater, he rose from the grave in
(16:13):
victory over sin and death, sothat anyone, anywhere, no matter
who you are, no matter what youhave done, if you will turn
from your sin and yourself andtrust in Jesus as the Savior and
King, who died on the cross foryour sins, rose from the dead
(16:36):
so that you could have life, godwill forgive you of all your
sin and restore you torelationship with him now and
forever.
This is what the Bible callsthe gospel, the good news, and
it is the greatest news in theworld, and it leads every single
person, within the sound of myvoice, to a choice, within the
(17:01):
sound of my voice, to a choiceWill you revere Jesus as king or
are you going to reject Jesusas king?
I want to urge you, on thisChristmas Eve, not to reject him
.
I urge you to not, as Herod did, to live as king over your own
(17:25):
life.
Do not choose to live inopposition to the only king who
can give you life.
As I stand before you right now,I have two people really close
to me who are suffering withterminal diseases.
I went to visit one of them acouple of weeks ago.
He's in the hospital thisChristmas, the other I'm going
(17:49):
to visit, lord willing, laterthis week.
He's about to receive hospicecare at home and I'm guessing
I'm not the only one in thisroom who's feeling the weight of
this fallen world on thisChristmas Eve.
So how do you rejoiceexceedingly with great joy in
(18:11):
this world of sin and sorrow andsuffering and death?
Here's how.
And death?
Here's how?
You know and you trust in theking who came 2,000 years ago to
conquer sin and death.
And you know and you trust inthe king who's coming back one
(18:32):
day to usher in a kingdom wherepeople from every nation, tribe,
people and language will bowaround his throne and on that
day there will be no morehospitals and no more hospice
and no more cancer and no moretumors, no more sickness, no
more disorder, no more disease.
On that day there will be nomore sin, no more strife, no
(18:52):
more war, no more sorrow, nomore suffering and no more death
.
For all who know and trust inJesus, the King, you can rejoice
exceedingly with great joytoday, because you know that one
day he will wipe every tearfrom our eyes and God will be
with us.
And we will be with God forever, free from all the effects of
(19:12):
sin and death in this fallenworld.
This is the hope for all whorevere Jesus as King, who revere
Jesus as King.
So what is keeping you fromrevering Him as King?
(19:34):
I want to lead us into a time ofprayer and I want to offer two
specific invitations to all ofus.
The first invitation is forsome of you to say in this
moment, for the first time, Ichoose to truly revere Jesus as
king of my life, as some of youup until this point have
(20:00):
rejected Jesus as king of yourlife for a variety of different
reasons.
Others of you may have givenlip service to Jesus as king.
Maybe you've gone to church,maybe you've even called
yourself a Christian, but, truthbe told, you've not truly,
(20:22):
authentically, personallyworshipped and submitted to
jesus as the king of your lifein such a way that, if you were
to stand before god right now,it would be clear like jesus is
not reigning in your heart asthe king over your life.
(20:44):
And when we pray in a moment,I'm going to invite you to say
to Jesus on this Christmas Eve,what better time to say I want
to revere you as king of my lifefrom this point forward, not
only Christmas Eve.
What a time, what more urgenttime is there?
Not one of us is guaranteedtomorrow.
(21:05):
What are you gonna be glad?
Five minutes in eternity intoeternity that you held onto that
kept you from revering the onewho could give you eternal life.
And then the second invitation Iwanna offer is for others of
you to say in this moment forthe first time in a while, I
(21:29):
choose to return to Jesus as myking.
Like there are some of you herewho, at a point in your past,
made the choice to revere jesusas your king.
But over time and for a varietyof reasons, you've become
distant from him and, truth betold, your life hasn't
(21:54):
necessarily looked like you'reworshiping and trusting and
following.
Jesus is king of your life.
And if that's you, I wannainvite you to return to Jesus in
this moment, to turn from sinin your life, to turn from
yourself, from living your ownway, and to say Jesus, I wanna
(22:14):
return to you as the king of mylife.
Tonight, oh, I want to urgeevery single person within the
sound of my voice don't be herodin this story.
Don't choose to let the prideof herod be the mark of your
(22:35):
life.
I'm king, I do things my way.
Don't do that before the Godwho loves you so much.
He's made a way for you to havelife with Him, now and forever,
through Jesus, the King.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's episode of Radical with
David Platt.
For more resources from DavidPlatt, we invite you to visit
(22:55):
Radicalnet.
You are listening to Radical with David Platt, a
weekly podcast with sermons andmessages from pastor, author and
teacher David Platt.
We've gathered together tonightto celebrate history.
We're not retelling a fairytale with fictional characters a
real baby who was born in areal town, about 6,000 miles
(00:24):
away from here, at a real pointin history that divided history
into two eras.
And it not only divides historybut divides humanity into two
groups.
I'll put this up here on thescreen.
You think about that last songwe sang All Hail King Jesus,
nate mentioned.
(00:44):
We're singing truths that havebeen sung for 2,000 years, ever
since Jesus was born.
Think about humanity.
It's been divided ever sincethat day into two groups One,
those who revere Jesus as kingof their lives and those who
reject Jesus as king of theirlives.
All of humanity, includingeverybody in this room,
(01:10):
everybody listening online, allof us fall into one of these two
groups, and there's no ridingthe fence here.
No matter who you are, nomatter where you come from, no
matter how old, young you may be, no matter what you have done
or not done at this moment, youeither revere Jesus as king of
(01:39):
your life or reject Jesus asking of your life.
So, if I could, I'd like to askyou a question, obviously not
to answer out loud, but I dowant to encourage you to answer
this question quietly andpersonally and honestly, meaning
not just in your head or evenjust in your heart, but look at
your life and answer thequestion which of these two
groups am I in?
(02:01):
And I'm guessing there are some,maybe many, who would say and
I'm guessing there are some,maybe many, who would say yeah,
honestly, I've never reveredJesus as king of my life.
And if that's you, again, I'msincerely really glad you're
here.
I don't believe it's anaccident you're here and I want
to invite you to consider thepossibility, just the
(02:23):
possibility, of changing yourposture toward Jesus on this
Christmas Eve.
Others of you might say youknow I've revered Jesus as king
of my life at different pointsin the past, but if I'm honest,
I'm not living like Jesus is theking of my life in the present.
(02:44):
I'm doing things my own way.
I'm not looking to Jesus eachday as my king.
The reality is, I feel prettydistant from Jesus and if that's
you, I believe God's broughtyou here to bring you back to
(03:05):
knowing and enjoying Jesus asthe king of your life.
And then some of you might saywithout reservation or
hesitation yes, I'm living withreverence for Jesus as my king,
and if that's you, I hope Itrust that will only deepen in
the next few minutes.
(03:29):
Regardless of who you are, Iwant you to just think with me
for a moment about the firstpeople on this planet to call
Jesus king, because they weren'tthe people you would expect.
We know them as the wise men,but we have a few misconceptions
about them that we probablyneed to clear up.
Wise men, but we have a fewmisconceptions about them that
we probably need to clear upFirst.
(03:52):
We often talk about or picturehow many of them in the
Christmas story Three, but theBible never tells us there were
three of them.
We know they brought threegifts to Jesus.
We're never told there wereonly three people.
For all we know it could havebeen three or 17, or 25?
We don't know.
In addition, we sing songs likethe first Noel to talk about
these wise men looking up andseeing a star shining in the
(04:14):
east, beyond them, far.
The problem is they wereactually in the east and they
saw a star shining in the west.
They saw a star shining east ofthem and traveled in that
direction, they would havemessed up the whole story.
So we don't want the wise mengoing the wrong way, so just be
careful when you get to thatline in that song.
(04:34):
And finally, a note on timing.
These wise men traveled a longway to get to Jesus.
Some estimate hundreds, if notup to a thousand miles.
And they were not doing it onUnited Airlines, which means
they got to Jesus a long timeafter the shepherds who saw
Jesus on the night he was born.
By the time the wise men gotthere, joseph and Mary had
(04:57):
likely settled into a home.
Jesus was probably months old.
So check your nativity scenesthat you have set up in your
homes, where we usually have thewise men around the manger with
the shepherds.
It's not true.
So just go home tonight, takethe wise men kids, put them on
the other side of the room.
It's going to be a little whilebefore they make it.
(05:20):
Maybe just actually just waitand pull them out in late spring
, early summer.
It'll be a little more accuratethat way.
But when these wise men dofinally arrive, it is an
astounding scene.
Listen to this story of thefirst people to call Jesus king,
starting in Matthew, chapter 2,verse 1.
After Jesus was born inBethlehem of Judea in the days
(05:43):
of Herod the king, behold Now,these guys were not your
ordinary fellows.
They almost certainly had a highposition wherever they came
from.
It was evident in the wealththey brought with them.
(06:04):
They likely didn't travel alone, likely traveled with a caravan
, had a high position whereverthey came from.
It was evident in the wealththey brought with them.
They likely didn't travel alone.
Likely traveled with a caravan,possibly even with soldiers to
protect them, which is part ofwhy their presence in Jerusalem
later in this passage is soobvious.
When they arrived there, youknow what's interesting.
A few days ago, I was prayingspecifically for the Parsi
people of Iran and India.
There's about 150,000 in thispeople group.
(06:26):
They're one of the oldestsurviving Zoroastrian people
groups.
They worship Ahura Mazda, whichthey believe is the creator God
, and as I read about them, Ilearned that Persian kings like
Cyrus and Darius were likelybelievers in Ahura Mazda as well
as these wise men.
It's pretty amazing to thinkabout this people group that
(06:48):
exists today as descendants fromthese men who traveled to
Jerusalem to see Jesus 2,000years ago.
So let's keep reading theirstory.
When Herod the king heard this,this story about these wise men
following a star to worship theking of the Jews.
He was troubled Remember thatword, troubled, and all
(07:09):
Jerusalem with him, andassembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people.
He inquired of them where theChrist was to be born, and they
told him in Bethlehem of Judea,for so it is written by the
prophet.
And you, o Bethlehem, in theland 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.
(07:30):
Let's pause here.
Did you know?
This is a quote from the OldTestament, here written by the
prophet Micah, micah, chapter 5,verse 2.
Did you know that this is oneof 300 specific prophecies,
predictions, references to thecoming of Jesus that we read in
(07:52):
the Old Testament?
Think about that for a minute.
Over a thousand years spanningthe history of the Old Testament
, 300 specific prophecies,predictions, promises that were
fulfilled in detail in the life,promises, and they were
fulfilled in detail in the life,death and resurrection of Jesus
.
Mathematicians say theprobability of one man
fulfilling 10 of thoseprophecies is about one in 100
(08:14):
billion.
Jesus fulfilled all 300 of them.
This is no coincidence.
Now some have asked is this madeup Like?
Did New Testament writers likeMatthew just change the facts
about Jesus to fit Old Testamentprophecies?
But the reality is these bookswere written and circulated
right after Jesus' death.
People easily could have saidhey, matthew, you know that
(08:37):
wasn't true.
Historically, all thisfulfillment was verifiable.
Others have asked well, is itmanipulated?
Some claim Jesus just arrangedthe details of his life so that
he would fulfill certain thingshe'd read in the Old Testament.
But let's just think about thatIn just the first two chapters
of Matthew think about this onein Micah, chapter 5, that Jesus
(08:59):
would be born in Bethlehem.
I'm not thinking Jesus was inMary's womb saying hurry up, we
gotta get there before thishappens.
Before this, in Matthew,chapter one, isaiah 7, 14,
prophesied that a virgin wouldgive birth.
Well, that was obviously notsomething in that sense as a
(09:19):
baby that Jesus was controlling.
Later in the chapter Matthewquotes from Hosea, chapter 11,
verse 1, about how Jesus, as ababy, would have to flee to
Egypt with his family.
I'm pretty sure as a parent,I'll just say my two-year-old is
not making the decisions onwhere we move or how we travel
(09:41):
Like.
Jesus was following theleadership of Joseph and Mary in
that decision.
In fact, this whole story abouta star appearing to appoint
leaders from the east to a kingwas promised in one of the
earliest parts of the Bible,numbers, chapter 24.
And then later, in Isaiah,chapter 60, we see a promise
(10:02):
that a light will shine andpeople will come from the
nations to worship, specificallybringing gold and frankincense.
This is no accident.
Every detail here, and it's notmade up or manipulated.
This is God saying to us asclearly as possible.
Jesus is the one who, throughdifferent people over the course
(10:24):
of centuries, I promised wouldcome.
So the story continues.
Then Herod summoned the wisemen secretly and ascertained
from them what time the star hadappeared, and he sent them to
Bethlehem saying go and searchdiligently for the child, and
when you've found him, bring meword that I too may come and
worship him.
Now we'll pause there, becauseKing Herod had no intention
(10:49):
whatsoever of worshiping Jesus,or anybody else for that matter.
King Herod believed he was theking of the Jews.
He'd been given control ofJudea around 40 BC and his title
was king of the Jews.
He'd been given control ofJudea around 40 BC and his title
was king of the Jews.
He was a bloodthirsty tyrant ofa king.
Whenever he suspected anybodywas plotting to overtake his
(11:12):
rule, he would have them killed,even to the point of murdering
his wives and his sons atvarious times when he didn't
trust them.
This is why he was so rememberthe word troubled by this news,
because he was the king.
And all Jerusalem, it says, wastroubled with him, likely
because they didn't know whatHerod was going to do.
(11:33):
And if you know the rest of thestory in Matthew, chapter 2,
and what he does to baby boysall throughout the city, they
had good reason to be concernedabout what Herod might do.
So Matthew continues Afterlistening to the king, they went
on their way and behold thestar that they had seen when it
rose, went before them until itcame to rest over the place
(11:55):
where the child was.
This is actually the first timethat we see the star move,
literally, supernaturally,leading them to Bethlehem, god
arranging the constellations tolead these men to the place
where Jesus is.
We can only imagine what thislooked like, like you don't
normally picture okay, now I'mright under this star, but it
was clear to these wise men whostudied the stars they were in
(12:17):
the right place and they weregiddy.
Listen to what Matthew says.
When they saw the star, theyrejoiced exceedingly with great
joy.
Don't you love that?
That's like quadruple joyRejoiced exceedingly with great
joy.
And then watch this.
Going to the house, they sawthe child with Mary, his mother,
(12:41):
and they fell down andworshiped him.
That's shocking.
Prominent, high-ranking,influential, powerful men from
nations beyond Israel bowingdown and worshiping a Jewish
baby.
You bow down when you're in thepresence of someone who is far
(13:02):
superior to you and you bow down.
You're saying I am low, you arehigh, and that's what these
prominent men are saying.
And then, opening theirtreasures, they offered him
gifts, gifts gold andfrankincense and myrrh, just
(13:27):
like Isaiah 60 had said.
Gold, a picture of royalty fitfor a king.
Frankincense an offering givento deity.
In the over 100 times we seefrankincense mentioned in the
Old Testament, it's almostalways referring to offerings to
God himself.
And then myrrh this is aninteresting one, a perfume that
(13:49):
was often used to prepare a bodyfor burial.
It's an interesting baby gift.
Ladies, take that to the nextbaby shower you attend.
Pull out a perfume used forburial.
There's so much more going onhere than even these wise men
realize, because they don't knowthat this baby boy, this king
(14:15):
God in the flesh, will one daybe hoisted onto a cross, where
he will be offered wine mixedwith myrrh to dull the pain,
which, by the way, he willrefuse.
They don't know that once thisbaby dies, a man named Joseph of
(14:37):
Arimathea will use myrrh toprepare his body for burial.
Don't miss the point here,friends.
This baby all sinned againstGod.
(15:04):
It looks different in every oneof our lives, it's played out in
every one of our stories, butwe have all turned aside from
God and his ways to ourselvesand our own ways, and as a
result of our sin, we areseparated from God.
And if we die in this state ofseparation from God, we will
spend eternity in judgment dueour sin.
(15:27):
But God loves us so much thathe has not left you and me in
this state.
God has come to us in theperson of Jesus, who lived a
life of no sin, which means hedid not deserve to die.
(15:50):
But the whole reason he came?
He chose to die on a cross.
Why?
To pay the price for our sins.
He died the death we deserve todie.
And then the good news doesn'tstop there, because he didn't
stay dead for long Three dayslater, he rose from the grave in
(16:13):
victory over sin and death, sothat anyone, anywhere, no matter
who you are, no matter what youhave done, if you will turn
from your sin and yourself andtrust in Jesus as the Savior and
King, who died on the cross foryour sins, rose from the dead
(16:36):
so that you could have life, godwill forgive you of all your
sin and restore you torelationship with him now and
forever.
This is what the Bible callsthe gospel, the good news, and
it is the greatest news in theworld, and it leads every single
person, within the sound of myvoice, to a choice, within the
(17:01):
sound of my voice, to a choiceWill you revere Jesus as king or
are you going to reject Jesusas king?
I want to urge you, on thisChristmas Eve, not to reject him
.
I urge you to not, as Herod did, to live as king over your own
(17:25):
life.
Do not choose to live inopposition to the only king who
can give you life.
As I stand before you right now,I have two people really close
to me who are suffering withterminal diseases.
I went to visit one of them acouple of weeks ago.
He's in the hospital thisChristmas, the other I'm going
(17:49):
to visit, lord willing, laterthis week.
He's about to receive hospicecare at home and I'm guessing
I'm not the only one in thisroom who's feeling the weight of
this fallen world on thisChristmas Eve.
So how do you rejoiceexceedingly with great joy in
(18:11):
this world of sin and sorrow andsuffering and death?
Here's how.
And death?
Here's how?
You know and you trust in theking who came 2,000 years ago to
conquer sin and death.
And you know and you trust inthe king who's coming back one
(18:32):
day to usher in a kingdom wherepeople from every nation, tribe,
people and language will bowaround his throne and on that
day there will be no morehospitals and no more hospice
and no more cancer and no moretumors, no more sickness, no
more disorder, no more disease.
On that day there will be nomore sin, no more strife, no
(18:52):
more war, no more sorrow, nomore suffering and no more death
.
For all who know and trust inJesus, the King, you can rejoice
exceedingly with great joytoday, because you know that one
day he will wipe every tearfrom our eyes and God will be
with us.
And we will be with God forever, free from all the effects of
(19:12):
sin and death in this fallenworld.
This is the hope for all whorevere Jesus as King, who revere
Jesus as King.
So what is keeping you fromrevering Him as King?
(19:34):
I want to lead us into a time ofprayer and I want to offer two
specific invitations to all ofus.
The first invitation is forsome of you to say in this
moment, for the first time, Ichoose to truly revere Jesus as
king of my life, as some of youup until this point have
(20:00):
rejected Jesus as king of yourlife for a variety of different
reasons.
Others of you may have givenlip service to Jesus as king.
Maybe you've gone to church,maybe you've even called
yourself a Christian, but, truthbe told, you've not truly,
(20:22):
authentically, personallyworshipped and submitted to
jesus as the king of your lifein such a way that, if you were
to stand before god right now,it would be clear like jesus is
not reigning in your heart asthe king over your life.
(20:44):
And when we pray in a moment,I'm going to invite you to say
to Jesus on this Christmas Eve,what better time to say I want
to revere you as king of my lifefrom this point forward, not
only Christmas Eve.
What a time, what more urgenttime is there?
Not one of us is guaranteedtomorrow.
(21:05):
What are you gonna be glad?
Five minutes in eternity intoeternity that you held onto that
kept you from revering the onewho could give you eternal life.
And then the second invitation Iwanna offer is for others of
you to say in this moment forthe first time in a while, I
(21:29):
choose to return to Jesus as myking.
Like there are some of you herewho, at a point in your past,
made the choice to revere jesusas your king.
But over time and for a varietyof reasons, you've become
distant from him and, truth betold, your life hasn't
(21:54):
necessarily looked like you'reworshiping and trusting and
following.
Jesus is king of your life.
And if that's you, I wannainvite you to return to Jesus in
this moment, to turn from sinin your life, to turn from
yourself, from living your ownway, and to say Jesus, I wanna
(22:14):
return to you as the king of mylife.
Tonight, oh, I want to urgeevery single person within the
sound of my voice don't be herodin this story.
Don't choose to let the prideof herod be the mark of your
(22:35):
life.
I'm king, I do things my way.
Don't do that before the Godwho loves you so much.
He's made a way for you to havelife with Him, now and forever,
through Jesus, the King.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's episode of Radical with
David Platt.
For more resources from DavidPlatt, we invite you to visit
(22:55):
Radicalnet.
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