April 1, 2025 • 43 mins
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Have you ever wondered how two despised women in their time, Rahab and Ruth, managed to find their names in Jesus's genealogy? Get ready to quench your curiosity as we peel back the layers of the Old Testament, exploring the lives of these intriguing women, the significance of the Leverite law, and the role of Joseph, the husband of Mary. We'll debunk some common misconceptions, particularly about Mary's virginity, thanks to the definitive Greek term 'Parthenos.'
As the episode unfolds, we navigate the intricacies of Herod's lineage, the scriptural knowledge of the Wise Men, and the divine guidance of the star that led them to Jesus. We'll unwrap the symbolic significance of the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, leading us to a deeper understanding of God's divine love. And as we close, we ponder on the rewards of obedience, illustrated by Joseph's unwavering response to the angel of the Lord. This episode promises to be a captivating blend of biblical narratives and insightful commentary, broadening your understanding of the profound complexities of Jesus's genealogy and birth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
David is way up high, and Bathsheba.
is in her home is below thedeck David, .
Scholars there.
who she knew what she wasdoing, enticing David.
And David took the bait.
(00:20):
And not only that, he killed aninnocent man, right, and that's
why Samuel It him It him athing it flattering; was an act
of pure wickedness.
But David repented, and Davidhad a loving heart for God.
(00:47):
And if we back up a little bitto verse 1-5, and read 1-5
before we get back into David,we gotta remember Rahab, right?
We gotta remember Ruth, right,and Solomon the father of Boaz
(01:07):
by Rahab and Boaz the father ofObed by Ruth, you know.
And if you think about Rahab,right, she was a Canaanite
prostitute.
If we go back to Joshua 2, thisis what it says about Rahab,
the scriptures, the OldTestament.
And Joshua, the son of Nun,sent two men secretly from
(01:32):
Shetem as spies, saying Go viewthe land, especially Jericho.
And they went and came into thehouse of a prostitute whose
name was Rahab and lodged there,and it was told to the king of
Jericho Behold, men of Israelhave come here tonight to search
out the land.
(01:53):
And the king of Jericho sent toRahab saying Bring out the men
who have come to you, who enteryour house, for they have come
to search out all the land,right?
And if you think about this,these two women are in Jesus's
genealogy, a Moabite right,which the incident with the
(02:21):
Leverite law, with Boaz, andthen Rahab, a Canaanite
prostitute, which they weredespised, and the Bible does not
hide this at all in any type ofway.
So when we go down through theBible, through Matthew, and get
(02:45):
to verse 17, it says there areverse 14 generations right, and
it talks about Joseph, thehusband of Mary, of whom Jesus
was born, who is called Christ.
And it's interesting how thisgospel that Matthew never calls
Joseph the father of Jesus,matthew says Joseph the husband
(03:07):
of Mary, because God is thefocus here, god's the ultimate,
ultimate father, and that's whatthis is about.
So there's no hiding thewickedness in Jesus's genealogy,
because Jesus is not wicked andhuman beings are fallen and
(03:30):
human beings are fallible,beloved.
And if we go all the way downto verse 18, and we talk about
the birth of Christ, let's readwhat Matthew has to say Now, the
birth of Jesus Christ tookplace in this way, when his
(03:51):
mother Mary has been betrothedto Joseph before they came
together, meaning they had nosexual relations.
She was found to be with childfrom the Holy Spirit.
Now, remember this, rememberwhat we just are reading she was
found to be with child right bythe Holy Spirit.
(04:15):
Not like the Mormon say thatGod had sex with Mary and
produced Jesus.
That's blasphemy, that's notwhat the scripture says.
And her husband, joseph, beinga just and willing man and he
didn't want her to put her toshame, so he resolved to divorce
(04:36):
her quietly.
She could have got stoned, shecould have been killed, but
God's in control.
So just remember, when you'regoing through something in your
life, when you're going througha rebellious child, a health
condition, cancer, when it feelslike all hope is being stripped
(04:57):
from you and you have nothingleft, cry out to Jesus, cry out
to God.
God is in full control.
The Lord knows.
I've had my trials recently,but I put my faith in God
because there's nothing elsethat can or has saved me when I
(05:18):
cry out besides Christ.
So Joseph resolves to put heraway quietly.
But as he considered thesethings, behold, an angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dreamsaying Joseph, son of David, do
not fear to take Mary as yourwife, for that which is
(05:42):
conceived in her is from theHoly Spirit.
She will bear a son and youshall call his name Jesus, for
he will save his people fromtheir sins.
The angel says you shall callhim Jesus and he will save his
(06:08):
people from their sins.
His people are those that trustin him, that have faith in him,
beloved, that accept his name,that have become regenerated,
that repent for their sins daily, that love him, that do his
(06:28):
work.
Beloved, do you really thinkthat a self-professing Christian
that has no works at the end oftheir life belong to the Lord?
I'm not talking about education, starting a huge ministry,
building something justmonumentus.
(06:49):
I'm talking about loving Christ, giving him your all, not being
perfect, but trusting in theone who is perfect, beloved.
So if we scroll down to verse22 in the book of Matthew, all
(07:11):
this took place to fulfill whatthe Lord had spoken through the
prophet Right, behold, thevirgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and they shall call hisname Emanuel.
(07:32):
Now, what's fascinating isthere's a movement out there
that deny the virginity of Mary,and it's a very wrong thing to
do.
Beloved, because she didn'tknow a man Right, and they like
to focus on certain words andcertain terminologies.
(07:53):
But when we look up that wordvirgin and how it's written in
Greek, it's Parthenos.
Parthenos is the Greek word andit means a virgin.
It could be used as a maiden,but it's particularly used in
the sense of a woman who has notknown a man.
(08:14):
And if we scroll back up, theHoly Spirit conceives Jesus
Christ, right With the trinity,the God of the trinity.
The Holy Spirit conceivespasses over her, if one can say
so, we don't have to dispute theword virgin in the book of
(08:35):
Isaiah or in the book of Matthew.
Okay.
So when we go to verse 24,matthew writes when Joseph woke
from sleep, he did as the angelof the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife, but knew hernot until she had given birth to
(09:00):
a son, and he called his nameJesus.
And Jesus was just a commonname back then.
But Jesus fulfilled the meaningof that name.
And if you read about Joseph,right, he was faithful what the
(09:20):
Lord commanded him.
Ladies and gentlemen, let'sstop right there and provide
some application to that verse.
Let's read it again, Verse 24,when Joseph woke from sleep, he
did as the angel of the Lordcommanded him.
He took his wife, but he knewher not until she had given
(09:44):
birth to a son.
A lot of times the blessing isin obedience.
Sure, god has blessed whenpeople have not acted
appropriately, because Godfulfills his will.
But if you want the trueblessing, as God intends it, it
needs to be an act of obedience.
(10:04):
And just because you'reobedient doesn't mean you're
going to get a new car, doesn'tmean you're going to get a new
house.
Doesn't mean if you donate 10%or 15% or 20%, if you tithe your
wages, it doesn't mean you'regoing to get blessed back
financially.
I've known people who've losttheir homes, who've lost their
real estate, who's lost a wifeor a child, figuratively
(10:29):
speaking, and literally right.
So what I'm saying is badthings happen to people.
If you notice, I didn't saygood people, because none of us
biblically deserve anything butcondemnation but we are pardoned
(10:50):
, made right and made good if weare in Christ.
So Joseph did what the Lordcommanded him and it was a good
thing, and he got to experiencehis blessing, and his blessing
was with God, with Christ, withhis wife Mary.
(11:14):
So let's take a look at chaptertwo, right, and that's a visit
from the wise men.
And then, after we play this,we're going to segue into a clip
and then, when we get done withthis clip, we're going to wrap
the show up.
Beloved, because I've reallymissed being here.
(11:35):
I've really missed having timewith everybody and I've been
gone for a long time doing a lotof different things lately.
So let's just jump right intoit, feet first, and let's get
into this chapter two Now, afterJesus was born in Bethlehem of
(11:57):
Judea, in the days of Herod theKing, behold, wise men from the
east came to Jerusalem.
Now, what's fascinating is Herodwas a heretic.
He didn't even qualify to be atrue king of the Jews.
He was a vassal king.
He just did whatever the Romanswanted him to do, and that was
(12:21):
to oppress the Jews, to oppressGod's people, because he did it
for financial gain.
And if you really trace yourHerod's roots way back deeply,
we can get in some real deeptheology.
We can go way back, and we'lldo that another day, but we'll
(12:42):
do that on a separate show,maybe the next one we'll do
We'll talk just about Herod andwe can all learn some great
things together.
Right, all these wise men, andthey call them magi.
They were from Persia and wehave our nativity seen and
sometimes it looks like threewise men, but when you really
get into the story there's nonumerical value on it.
(13:05):
There could have been hundreds,there could have been thousands
, and these wise men werebasically a cultist, they were
heretics.
They came from Persia.
But you know what was thebeautiful thing Is God still
made the secular world.
God still made the heretics andI'm not saying not any of them
(13:28):
believed or were converted, butGod still brought the devil
under submission by the secularworld coming in that was
anti-God, kind of like the daysof Noah as far as them,
practicing sin and had to bowdown to a child King Jesus.
(13:49):
How beautiful is that beloved?
Now let's continue to read on.
So the wise men from the eastcame to Jerusalem saying where
is he who has been born king ofthe Jews?
So apparently they came fromPersia and all these distant
(14:09):
lands and they had to have hadthe scriptures and they had to
have had astrologers watchingout, astronomers watching out
for this star, for Christ, right, for the king.
For we saw his star, his starwhen it rose, and have come to
(14:32):
worship him.
So think about Herod.
Herod is looking at it like athreat.
He doesn't want to lose histhrone and he's looking at it
like it's a big insult.
So when Herod the king heardthis, he was troubled and all
Jerusalem with him and,assembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, heinquired of them where the
(14:55):
Christ was to be born.
The Christ, the savior, theMessiah right, because that's
who Jesus is.
He doesn't want this Christ, hecan't stand this Christ.
He wants to plot to kill him.
The Christos, the anointed oneof the Old Testament.
(15:20):
He was appointed to be thesavior within the Trinity right.
They told him in Bethlehem ofJudah, for so it is written by
the prophet and it's in the bookof Micah, the prophet right.
(15:44):
So when we continue, ladies andgentlemen, to go on and we
continue to read this beautifulbook, of course Herod knew about
the prophet and pretty sure hehad his own wise men which
weren't wise at all.
There are probably fools thatknew about it.
And this is the scripture.
(16:05):
And you, o Bethlehem and 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, and that was Jesus
Christ.
And then we see Herod going tohis frenzy and start going to
(16:29):
work, in verse 7, when Matthewrecalls the incident of Herod
and the scripture says thenHerod summoned the wise men
secretly and ascertained fromthem what time the star had
appeared, and he sent them toBethlehem saying go and search
diligently for the child.
Now look, it doesn't say baby,does not say baby.
(16:53):
Actually, the scripture says gosearch for the child.
And that's fascinating becausewe in America we try to make him
a little baby, infant, whichmost scholars agree that he was
probably anywhere from sixmonths to two, to two and a half
(17:15):
years old.
So it wasn't a little baby.
Jesus Christ probably was atoddler.
So if we continue reading, hesays go search for the child.
And he says when you have foundhim, bring me word that I too
may come and worship him.
(17:35):
So Satan is speaking throughHerod, looking to kill Christ.
After listening to the king,they went on their way and
behold the star that they hadseen when it rose, went before
them until it came to rest overthe place where the child was.
Now they want to talk aboutnavigation and navigation skills
(17:56):
, which the kings of the eastwere probably trained in.
Herod's men also are not kingsof the east, the wise men of the
east.
And that was a super naturalevent that that star was guiding
him.
I believe it was just beyond astation, every star.
God was probably just guidingthem supernaturally, even though
I can't, you know.
(18:17):
Basically, commit, I said Jesusand read more into the text
what it is, you know.
But we're looking at asupernatural event here.
When they saw the star, theyrejoiced exceedingly, great joy,
and going into the house, theysaw the child, don't say the
baby.
They saw the child with Maryand his mother and they fell
(18:38):
down to worship him.
Then, opening their treasures,they offered him gifts gold and
frankincense and myrrh, andbeing warmed.
In a dream, not to return toHerod, they departed to their
own country by another way.
And, ladies and gentlemen, it'sa beautiful story because we see
(19:02):
from the beginning, christcalls all.
The reason he went to the Jewsfirst, beloved, is because the
Gentiles didn't know the OldTestament and the Jews did.
They were prepared for theMessiah.
That's why Jesus didn't go tothe Gentiles, not because he
(19:23):
didn't care, he didn't love them, he didn't want to help them.
He healed a lot of them, butthe fact of the matter is they
weren't prepared to hear hismessage.
And that's why the disciplesand Paul, the Apostle to the
Gentiles, carried on the work,because Christ's ministry wasn't
(19:44):
that long Three years, threeand a half years.
This is why it was imperativethat Christ went to the Jews.
And if you notice who came toworship him, was it Jews?
It was Gentile, wise men,beloved.
(20:05):
Think about that.
God calls all.
And they fell down andworshiped him, possibly hundreds
, even thousands.
But in America we say a baby ina manger and three Right.
(20:27):
That's what we do.
That's how we corrupt ourscriptures to make it fit a
western template beloved.
So what I want to do is stopright here, and I want you to
hear Pastor Greg Laurie as hearticulates this beautifully and
beloved will close the show outafter this.
Gregg Laurie (20:54):
So three wise men come from the east.
It doesn't say three wise guys,you know, like Vinnie, tony and
Nunzeo.
Hey, what was the king of theJews?
What, forget about it?
Wise guys?
That was my imitation of amafioso type character.
Okay, so they're not wise guys,they're wise men, strange men.
(21:18):
Well, this strange question.
They're looking for the king ofthe Jews.
Now, those were fighting wordsas far as Herod was concerned,
what was this title?
Again, king of the Jews.
So along come these royalpowerful men saying we're
looking for the king of the Jewsand obviously you're not him.
(21:39):
Effectively, they were sayingto Herod hey, man, there's a new
kid in town.
Or, more to the point, there'sa new king in the town and we're
looking for him.
Where is he?
And so Herod was really agitatedby this.
In fact, we read in verse threehe was troubled and all
Jerusalem with him.
You've heard the expressionwhen mama's not happy, no one's
(22:02):
happy, right, when Herod wasupset, everyone was upset,
because that meant that headswere going to fly, that meant
that people were going to die,that meant that Herod was going
to go on another one of hisrampages.
In fact, the word that is usedhere for trouble means to shake
violently, you know, like whenyou're washing machine gets in
(22:22):
that mode.
That's how Herod was and that'show everyone else was as well.
These people come with thisquestion what does it all mean?
So he gathers the clergy, whoare effectively on the payroll,
the theological scholars, and hesaid you guys know anything
about this?
Some king that's supposed to beborn?
(22:43):
Well, yeah, as a matter of factwe do.
They said, and they quote Micah5.2, you bet the hymn, though
you be little among thethousands of Judah, yet out of
you shall come forth one whoseorigins have been from
everlasting.
There's going to be a rulerthat will be born.
Herod winces when he hears theword ruler.
Things are getting serious.
(23:04):
He must stop this fromhappening.
So he says to the wise men I'lltell you what guys.
Go and make a careful searchfor him, and when you have found
him, come and tell me that Imay come and worship him as well
.
And off they went, and the starthat had already led them 800
(23:24):
miles to the desert miraculouslyreappeared and led them to the
exact house that Jesus was in.
See, the star didn't lead themto Jerusalem.
If they would have followed thestar, they would have made
their way to Bethlehem.
The star was like God's GPS,you know, like when you're on
course and you're following aGPS device in your car and so
(23:46):
you take a detour and it saysrecalculating, recalculating,
recalculating, and then when youget back on the path again,
you're good.
So they kind of got off thepath that God was leading them
on, and now they're back on itand the star leads them to the
house where Jesus was.
Now let me just blow apart abunch of mythology that has been
(24:10):
built up over the years aroundthe wise men.
As I've already pointed out,the Bible never says there were
three.
We assume there were threebecause they brought three gifts
of gold, frank and cents andmyrrh.
Hey, they may have been nineand they might have pitched in
on three gifts.
I don't know.
I know this could make yournativity set very expensive.
You want me to go out and buylike six more guys.
(24:31):
I don't think that's necessary.
We certainly don't know theirnames, though.
Tradition gives names to themand I love how they're always
depicted.
They're always in these.
Their outfits are differentcolors, you know, ones in green,
the others in blue, the othersin gold.
They're writing their camels.
They have their own song.
(24:51):
We three kings of orient arebearing gifts who travel afar.
Well, first of all, the Bibledoes not say that they rode
camels.
I don't know where the camelscame from because, to the point,
the Bible identifies these menas magi.
Who were the magi?
The magi were magicians.
(25:12):
They were very powerful in theMedo Persian Empire.
They were highly educated, hada superb knowledge of math,
science, astronomy, agricultureand the occult.
These were astrologer, slashastronomers.
They were like the Jedi, if youwill.
(25:33):
They were into the mysticalthings of the universe and
therefore they would have wornhats appropriate to their office
, which would have been longcone shaped hats, not unlike
what a wizard would wear.
They certainly would not haveridden on a camel.
They would have ridden on anArabian steed, a fine horse.
(25:54):
They probably had a small armyaround them.
I know I'm messing everythingup for you.
I'm sorry, but this is how itwould have been more accurately.
Now, one final thing the wisemen never came to the stable
where Jesus was born.
Again, this is tradition.
I want you to go back to verses9 to 10.
(26:15):
When they heard the king,that's Herod, they departed the
star which he had seen in theeast, went before him and came
and stood over where the youngchild was, and when they saw the
star, they rejoiced withexceeding great joy.
And when they came to the housenot the stable, the house they
saw the young child again withMary, and they brought their
(26:38):
gifts of gold, frankincense andmyrrh.
The word used here for child isa word used to describe a
toddler or a small child, not anewborn baby.
Plus, it's a house, not amanger.
This may have been three months, up to two years after Jesus
was born.
So they bring their gifts.
(26:59):
I want you to notice the giftswere not wrapped.
There's two reasons for that.
Number one they were wise.
No-transcript Number one theywere wise.
Number two, they were men.
Generally, men don't like towrap gifts.
There are exceptions.
I have no wrapping skillswhatsoever, be it in a package
(27:22):
or in hip-hop.
You see, I cannot wrap.
You would never want somethingthat I wrapped.
It would be a complete mess.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I would never want something that I would never
wrap.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
(29:19):
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap and he
(30:09):
is jealous.
David Crowder (30:10):
For me, love's like a hurricane.
I am a tree bending beneath theweight of his wind and mercy
when, all of a sudden, I amunaware of these afflictions,
(30:33):
eclipsed by glory, and I realizejust how beautiful you are and
how great your affections arefor me.
And oh, how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us, how heloves us all, and he is jealous
(31:17):
for me, love's like a hurricane.
I am a tree bending beneath theweight of his wind and mercy
when, all of a sudden, I amunaware of these afflictions,
(31:40):
eclipsed by glory, and I realizejust how beautiful you are and
how great your affections arefor me.
Oh how he loves us.
Yeah, he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
(32:02):
Oh how he loves us.
Oh, how he loves us, and we arehis portion and he is our prize
, drawn to redemption by thegrace in his eyes.
(32:24):
If his grace is an ocean, we'reall sinking and heaven meets
earth like an oaf of sinkess,and my heart turns violently
inside of my chest.
I don't have time to maintainthis grasp when I think about
(32:51):
the way, oh how he loves us all.
Oh how he loves us, how heloves us all, how he loves us.
(33:12):
Oh how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
Oh, I love how he loves us.
(33:36):
Yeah, he loves us how he lovesus.
Oh how he loves us all.
David is way up high, and Bathsheba.
is in her home is below thedeck David, .
Scholars there.
who she knew what she wasdoing, enticing David.
And David took the bait.
(00:20):
And not only that, he killed aninnocent man, right, and that's
why Samuel It him It him athing it flattering; was an act
of pure wickedness.
But David repented, and Davidhad a loving heart for God.
(00:47):
And if we back up a little bitto verse 1-5, and read 1-5
before we get back into David,we gotta remember Rahab, right?
We gotta remember Ruth, right,and Solomon the father of Boaz
(01:07):
by Rahab and Boaz the father ofObed by Ruth, you know.
And if you think about Rahab,right, she was a Canaanite
prostitute.
If we go back to Joshua 2, thisis what it says about Rahab,
the scriptures, the OldTestament.
And Joshua, the son of Nun,sent two men secretly from
(01:32):
Shetem as spies, saying Go viewthe land, especially Jericho.
And they went and came into thehouse of a prostitute whose
name was Rahab and lodged there,and it was told to the king of
Jericho Behold, men of Israelhave come here tonight to search
out the land.
(01:53):
And the king of Jericho sent toRahab saying Bring out the men
who have come to you, who enteryour house, for they have come
to search out all the land,right?
And if you think about this,these two women are in Jesus's
genealogy, a Moabite right,which the incident with the
(02:21):
Leverite law, with Boaz, andthen Rahab, a Canaanite
prostitute, which they weredespised, and the Bible does not
hide this at all in any type ofway.
So when we go down through theBible, through Matthew, and get
(02:45):
to verse 17, it says there areverse 14 generations right, and
it talks about Joseph, thehusband of Mary, of whom Jesus
was born, who is called Christ.
And it's interesting how thisgospel that Matthew never calls
Joseph the father of Jesus,matthew says Joseph the husband
(03:07):
of Mary, because God is thefocus here, god's the ultimate,
ultimate father, and that's whatthis is about.
So there's no hiding thewickedness in Jesus's genealogy,
because Jesus is not wicked andhuman beings are fallen and
(03:30):
human beings are fallible,beloved.
And if we go all the way downto verse 18, and we talk about
the birth of Christ, let's readwhat Matthew has to say Now, the
birth of Jesus Christ tookplace in this way, when his
(03:51):
mother Mary has been betrothedto Joseph before they came
together, meaning they had nosexual relations.
She was found to be with childfrom the Holy Spirit.
Now, remember this, rememberwhat we just are reading she was
found to be with child right bythe Holy Spirit.
(04:15):
Not like the Mormon say thatGod had sex with Mary and
produced Jesus.
That's blasphemy, that's notwhat the scripture says.
And her husband, joseph, beinga just and willing man and he
didn't want her to put her toshame, so he resolved to divorce
(04:36):
her quietly.
She could have got stoned, shecould have been killed, but
God's in control.
So just remember, when you'regoing through something in your
life, when you're going througha rebellious child, a health
condition, cancer, when it feelslike all hope is being stripped
(04:57):
from you and you have nothingleft, cry out to Jesus, cry out
to God.
God is in full control.
The Lord knows.
I've had my trials recently,but I put my faith in God
because there's nothing elsethat can or has saved me when I
(05:18):
cry out besides Christ.
So Joseph resolves to put heraway quietly.
But as he considered thesethings, behold, an angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dreamsaying Joseph, son of David, do
not fear to take Mary as yourwife, for that which is
(05:42):
conceived in her is from theHoly Spirit.
She will bear a son and youshall call his name Jesus, for
he will save his people fromtheir sins.
The angel says you shall callhim Jesus and he will save his
(06:08):
people from their sins.
His people are those that trustin him, that have faith in him,
beloved, that accept his name,that have become regenerated,
that repent for their sins daily, that love him, that do his
(06:28):
work.
Beloved, do you really thinkthat a self-professing Christian
that has no works at the end oftheir life belong to the Lord?
I'm not talking about education, starting a huge ministry,
building something justmonumentus.
(06:49):
I'm talking about loving Christ, giving him your all, not being
perfect, but trusting in theone who is perfect, beloved.
So if we scroll down to verse22 in the book of Matthew, all
(07:11):
this took place to fulfill whatthe Lord had spoken through the
prophet Right, behold, thevirgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and they shall call hisname Emanuel.
(07:32):
Now, what's fascinating isthere's a movement out there
that deny the virginity of Mary,and it's a very wrong thing to
do.
Beloved, because she didn'tknow a man Right, and they like
to focus on certain words andcertain terminologies.
(07:53):
But when we look up that wordvirgin and how it's written in
Greek, it's Parthenos.
Parthenos is the Greek word andit means a virgin.
It could be used as a maiden,but it's particularly used in
the sense of a woman who has notknown a man.
(08:14):
And if we scroll back up, theHoly Spirit conceives Jesus
Christ, right With the trinity,the God of the trinity.
The Holy Spirit conceivespasses over her, if one can say
so, we don't have to dispute theword virgin in the book of
(08:35):
Isaiah or in the book of Matthew.
Okay.
So when we go to verse 24,matthew writes when Joseph woke
from sleep, he did as the angelof the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife, but knew hernot until she had given birth to
(09:00):
a son, and he called his nameJesus.
And Jesus was just a commonname back then.
But Jesus fulfilled the meaningof that name.
And if you read about Joseph,right, he was faithful what the
(09:20):
Lord commanded him.
Ladies and gentlemen, let'sstop right there and provide
some application to that verse.
Let's read it again, Verse 24,when Joseph woke from sleep, he
did as the angel of the Lordcommanded him.
He took his wife, but he knewher not until she had given
(09:44):
birth to a son.
A lot of times the blessing isin obedience.
Sure, god has blessed whenpeople have not acted
appropriately, because Godfulfills his will.
But if you want the trueblessing, as God intends it, it
needs to be an act of obedience.
(10:04):
And just because you'reobedient doesn't mean you're
going to get a new car, doesn'tmean you're going to get a new
house.
Doesn't mean if you donate 10%or 15% or 20%, if you tithe your
wages, it doesn't mean you'regoing to get blessed back
financially.
I've known people who've losttheir homes, who've lost their
real estate, who's lost a wifeor a child, figuratively
(10:29):
speaking, and literally right.
So what I'm saying is badthings happen to people.
If you notice, I didn't saygood people, because none of us
biblically deserve anything butcondemnation but we are pardoned
(10:50):
, made right and made good if weare in Christ.
So Joseph did what the Lordcommanded him and it was a good
thing, and he got to experiencehis blessing, and his blessing
was with God, with Christ, withhis wife Mary.
(11:14):
So let's take a look at chaptertwo, right, and that's a visit
from the wise men.
And then, after we play this,we're going to segue into a clip
and then, when we get done withthis clip, we're going to wrap
the show up.
Beloved, because I've reallymissed being here.
(11:35):
I've really missed having timewith everybody and I've been
gone for a long time doing a lotof different things lately.
So let's just jump right intoit, feet first, and let's get
into this chapter two Now, afterJesus was born in Bethlehem of
(11:57):
Judea, in the days of Herod theKing, behold, wise men from the
east came to Jerusalem.
Now, what's fascinating is Herodwas a heretic.
He didn't even qualify to be atrue king of the Jews.
He was a vassal king.
He just did whatever the Romanswanted him to do, and that was
(12:21):
to oppress the Jews, to oppressGod's people, because he did it
for financial gain.
And if you really trace yourHerod's roots way back deeply,
we can get in some real deeptheology.
We can go way back, and we'lldo that another day, but we'll
(12:42):
do that on a separate show,maybe the next one we'll do
We'll talk just about Herod andwe can all learn some great
things together.
Right, all these wise men, andthey call them magi.
They were from Persia and wehave our nativity seen and
sometimes it looks like threewise men, but when you really
get into the story there's nonumerical value on it.
(13:05):
There could have been hundreds,there could have been thousands
, and these wise men werebasically a cultist, they were
heretics.
They came from Persia.
But you know what was thebeautiful thing Is God still
made the secular world.
God still made the heretics andI'm not saying not any of them
(13:28):
believed or were converted, butGod still brought the devil
under submission by the secularworld coming in that was
anti-God, kind of like the daysof Noah as far as them,
practicing sin and had to bowdown to a child King Jesus.
(13:49):
How beautiful is that beloved?
Now let's continue to read on.
So the wise men from the eastcame to Jerusalem saying where
is he who has been born king ofthe Jews?
So apparently they came fromPersia and all these distant
(14:09):
lands and they had to have hadthe scriptures and they had to
have had astrologers watchingout, astronomers watching out
for this star, for Christ, right, for the king.
For we saw his star, his starwhen it rose, and have come to
(14:32):
worship him.
So think about Herod.
Herod is looking at it like athreat.
He doesn't want to lose histhrone and he's looking at it
like it's a big insult.
So when Herod the king heardthis, he was troubled and all
Jerusalem with him and,assembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, heinquired of them where the
(14:55):
Christ was to be born.
The Christ, the savior, theMessiah right, because that's
who Jesus is.
He doesn't want this Christ, hecan't stand this Christ.
He wants to plot to kill him.
The Christos, the anointed oneof the Old Testament.
(15:20):
He was appointed to be thesavior within the Trinity right.
They told him in Bethlehem ofJudah, for so it is written by
the prophet and it's in the bookof Micah, the prophet right.
(15:44):
So when we continue, ladies andgentlemen, to go on and we
continue to read this beautifulbook, of course Herod knew about
the prophet and pretty sure hehad his own wise men which
weren't wise at all.
There are probably fools thatknew about it.
And this is the scripture.
(16:05):
And you, o Bethlehem and 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, and that was Jesus
Christ.
And then we see Herod going tohis frenzy and start going to
(16:29):
work, in verse 7, when Matthewrecalls the incident of Herod
and the scripture says thenHerod summoned the wise men
secretly and ascertained fromthem what time the star had
appeared, and he sent them toBethlehem saying go and search
diligently for the child.
Now look, it doesn't say baby,does not say baby.
(16:53):
Actually, the scripture says gosearch for the child.
And that's fascinating becausewe in America we try to make him
a little baby, infant, whichmost scholars agree that he was
probably anywhere from sixmonths to two, to two and a half
(17:15):
years old.
So it wasn't a little baby.
Jesus Christ probably was atoddler.
So if we continue reading, hesays go search for the child.
And he says when you have foundhim, bring me word that I too
may come and worship him.
(17:35):
So Satan is speaking throughHerod, looking to kill Christ.
After listening to the king,they went on their way and
behold the star that they hadseen when it rose, went before
them until it came to rest overthe place where the child was.
Now they want to talk aboutnavigation and navigation skills
(17:56):
, which the kings of the eastwere probably trained in.
Herod's men also are not kingsof the east, the wise men of the
east.
And that was a super naturalevent that that star was guiding
him.
I believe it was just beyond astation, every star.
God was probably just guidingthem supernaturally, even though
I can't, you know.
(18:17):
Basically, commit, I said Jesusand read more into the text
what it is, you know.
But we're looking at asupernatural event here.
When they saw the star, theyrejoiced exceedingly, great joy,
and going into the house, theysaw the child, don't say the
baby.
They saw the child with Maryand his mother and they fell
(18:38):
down to worship him.
Then, opening their treasures,they offered him gifts gold and
frankincense and myrrh, andbeing warmed.
In a dream, not to return toHerod, they departed to their
own country by another way.
And, ladies and gentlemen, it'sa beautiful story because we see
(19:02):
from the beginning, christcalls all.
The reason he went to the Jewsfirst, beloved, is because the
Gentiles didn't know the OldTestament and the Jews did.
They were prepared for theMessiah.
That's why Jesus didn't go tothe Gentiles, not because he
(19:23):
didn't care, he didn't love them, he didn't want to help them.
He healed a lot of them, butthe fact of the matter is they
weren't prepared to hear hismessage.
And that's why the disciplesand Paul, the Apostle to the
Gentiles, carried on the work,because Christ's ministry wasn't
(19:44):
that long Three years, threeand a half years.
This is why it was imperativethat Christ went to the Jews.
And if you notice who came toworship him, was it Jews?
It was Gentile, wise men,beloved.
(20:05):
Think about that.
God calls all.
And they fell down andworshiped him, possibly hundreds
, even thousands.
But in America we say a baby ina manger and three Right.
(20:27):
That's what we do.
That's how we corrupt ourscriptures to make it fit a
western template beloved.
So what I want to do is stopright here, and I want you to
hear Pastor Greg Laurie as hearticulates this beautifully and
beloved will close the show outafter this.
Gregg Laurie (20:54):
So three wise men come from the east.
It doesn't say three wise guys,you know, like Vinnie, tony and
Nunzeo.
Hey, what was the king of theJews?
What, forget about it?
Wise guys?
That was my imitation of amafioso type character.
Okay, so they're not wise guys,they're wise men, strange men.
(21:18):
Well, this strange question.
They're looking for the king ofthe Jews.
Now, those were fighting wordsas far as Herod was concerned,
what was this title?
Again, king of the Jews.
So along come these royalpowerful men saying we're
looking for the king of the Jewsand obviously you're not him.
(21:39):
Effectively, they were sayingto Herod hey, man, there's a new
kid in town.
Or, more to the point, there'sa new king in the town and we're
looking for him.
Where is he?
And so Herod was really agitatedby this.
In fact, we read in verse threehe was troubled and all
Jerusalem with him.
You've heard the expressionwhen mama's not happy, no one's
(22:02):
happy, right, when Herod wasupset, everyone was upset,
because that meant that headswere going to fly, that meant
that people were going to die,that meant that Herod was going
to go on another one of hisrampages.
In fact, the word that is usedhere for trouble means to shake
violently, you know, like whenyou're washing machine gets in
(22:22):
that mode.
That's how Herod was and that'show everyone else was as well.
These people come with thisquestion what does it all mean?
So he gathers the clergy, whoare effectively on the payroll,
the theological scholars, and hesaid you guys know anything
about this?
Some king that's supposed to beborn?
(22:43):
Well, yeah, as a matter of factwe do.
They said, and they quote Micah5.2, you bet the hymn, though
you be little among thethousands of Judah, yet out of
you shall come forth one whoseorigins have been from
everlasting.
There's going to be a rulerthat will be born.
Herod winces when he hears theword ruler.
Things are getting serious.
(23:04):
He must stop this fromhappening.
So he says to the wise men I'lltell you what guys.
Go and make a careful searchfor him, and when you have found
him, come and tell me that Imay come and worship him as well
.
And off they went, and the starthat had already led them 800
(23:24):
miles to the desert miraculouslyreappeared and led them to the
exact house that Jesus was in.
See, the star didn't lead themto Jerusalem.
If they would have followed thestar, they would have made
their way to Bethlehem.
The star was like God's GPS,you know, like when you're on
course and you're following aGPS device in your car and so
(23:46):
you take a detour and it saysrecalculating, recalculating,
recalculating, and then when youget back on the path again,
you're good.
So they kind of got off thepath that God was leading them
on, and now they're back on itand the star leads them to the
house where Jesus was.
Now let me just blow apart abunch of mythology that has been
(24:10):
built up over the years aroundthe wise men.
As I've already pointed out,the Bible never says there were
three.
We assume there were threebecause they brought three gifts
of gold, frank and cents andmyrrh.
Hey, they may have been nineand they might have pitched in
on three gifts.
I don't know.
I know this could make yournativity set very expensive.
You want me to go out and buylike six more guys.
(24:31):
I don't think that's necessary.
We certainly don't know theirnames, though.
Tradition gives names to themand I love how they're always
depicted.
They're always in these.
Their outfits are differentcolors, you know, ones in green,
the others in blue, the othersin gold.
They're writing their camels.
They have their own song.
(24:51):
We three kings of orient arebearing gifts who travel afar.
Well, first of all, the Bibledoes not say that they rode
camels.
I don't know where the camelscame from because, to the point,
the Bible identifies these menas magi.
Who were the magi?
The magi were magicians.
(25:12):
They were very powerful in theMedo Persian Empire.
They were highly educated, hada superb knowledge of math,
science, astronomy, agricultureand the occult.
These were astrologer, slashastronomers.
They were like the Jedi, if youwill.
(25:33):
They were into the mysticalthings of the universe and
therefore they would have wornhats appropriate to their office
, which would have been longcone shaped hats, not unlike
what a wizard would wear.
They certainly would not haveridden on a camel.
They would have ridden on anArabian steed, a fine horse.
(25:54):
They probably had a small armyaround them.
I know I'm messing everythingup for you.
I'm sorry, but this is how itwould have been more accurately.
Now, one final thing the wisemen never came to the stable
where Jesus was born.
Again, this is tradition.
I want you to go back to verses9 to 10.
(26:15):
When they heard the king,that's Herod, they departed the
star which he had seen in theeast, went before him and came
and stood over where the youngchild was, and when they saw the
star, they rejoiced withexceeding great joy.
And when they came to the housenot the stable, the house they
saw the young child again withMary, and they brought their
(26:38):
gifts of gold, frankincense andmyrrh.
The word used here for child isa word used to describe a
toddler or a small child, not anewborn baby.
Plus, it's a house, not amanger.
This may have been three months, up to two years after Jesus
was born.
So they bring their gifts.
(26:59):
I want you to notice the giftswere not wrapped.
There's two reasons for that.
Number one they were wise.
No-transcript Number one theywere wise.
Number two, they were men.
Generally, men don't like towrap gifts.
There are exceptions.
I have no wrapping skillswhatsoever, be it in a package
(27:22):
or in hip-hop.
You see, I cannot wrap.
You would never want somethingthat I wrapped.
It would be a complete mess.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I would never want something that I would never
wrap.
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap.
(29:19):
I would never want somethingthat I would never wrap and he
(30:09):
is jealous.
David Crowder (30:10):
For me, love's like a hurricane.
I am a tree bending beneath theweight of his wind and mercy
when, all of a sudden, I amunaware of these afflictions,
(30:33):
eclipsed by glory, and I realizejust how beautiful you are and
how great your affections arefor me.
And oh, how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us, how heloves us all, and he is jealous
(31:17):
for me, love's like a hurricane.
I am a tree bending beneath theweight of his wind and mercy
when, all of a sudden, I amunaware of these afflictions,
(31:40):
eclipsed by glory, and I realizejust how beautiful you are and
how great your affections arefor me.
Oh how he loves us.
Yeah, he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
(32:02):
Oh how he loves us.
Oh, how he loves us, and we arehis portion and he is our prize
, drawn to redemption by thegrace in his eyes.
(32:24):
If his grace is an ocean, we'reall sinking and heaven meets
earth like an oaf of sinkess,and my heart turns violently
inside of my chest.
I don't have time to maintainthis grasp when I think about
(32:51):
the way, oh how he loves us all.
Oh how he loves us, how heloves us all, how he loves us.
(33:12):
Oh how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
Oh how he loves us.
Oh, I love how he loves us.
(33:36):
Yeah, he loves us how he lovesus.
Oh how he loves us all.
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