Mat 2:1-12; The Sure Cure for a Sick Heart.

Class Outline:

Tuesday November 14, 2023

 

Many view Mat 1-2 as a myth.

 

Myth - an untrue discourse which images the truth in an effort to explain some natural or social phenomenon.

 

Myths are often associated with origins. Myth of Zeus, Romulus and Remis, Alexander the Great.

 

Theme: The reality of Christ as the God / Man fulfills our need to worship God.

 

Since God tells us of our origins (Genesis) many simply count them as myths.

 

Gen 1-2 and Mat 1-2 are so counted.

 

MAT 1:1

The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

 

The first word in Matthew is biblos (book).

 

MAT 1:1

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ [ESV].

 

GEN 5:1

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

 

Mat 1-2 a new Genesis?

There is a new humanity.

 

There is a new humanity in Christ, of which the NT is very clear on. We are no longer in Adam, but all believers are in Christ. Knowing what we know of the full revelation of the NT, from Christ came a brand new creation (2CO 5:17).

 

2CO 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

 

A new origin demands a new search.

 

MAT 2:9-12

After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.

 

The magi were looking for something new and they found Him. They fell to the ground and worshiped a child.

 

We are also seeking for something new (someone new).

 

What did Israel seek after before the coming of Christ? They sought after the law, as they were commanded to keep it. While we keep the moral law, we do not seek the law. We seek Christ.

 

ROM 7:4-6

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

 

We keep the moral and ethical demands of the law like Christ did, but it is Him we follow. We died to the law as our master. Now Christ is our Master.

 

MAT 16:24-26

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

 

[Conditional clause that is a general statement - if you are going to follow after Him you have to be crucified with Him and live as you are such.]

 

“his cross” - this cross is yours.

You live always in the truth that you’ve been crucified.

 

Deny and take up are aorist imperatives - past decision (made often).

“follow Me,” is a present imperative (lifestyle).

 

As Israel was to follow the cloud in the wilderness, which was the glory of God, so the magi followed the star to the place where the Lord Jesus was, and so we follow the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and the word of God.

 

There is one to follow - only one.

 

It is a journey of discovery that never ends.

 

What we find is not a myth. We know this because we believe the word of God to be inspired and inerrant. We also know this because the manifestations of Christ in us are as tangible as anything opaque and solid.

 

Faith, truth, love, wisdom, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gratitude, graciousness, temperance, and more are real within the believer who follows the Lord. They are the true rewards of traveling His path and laying aside every encumbrance (denying yourself).

 

We also find something we’ve always been longing for and never knew that we needed it - someone to truly worship.

 

God has made us in His image. He is also worthy of all honor, praise, and glory. Something goes terribly wrong in our souls when we do not worship Him.

 

PSA 1:4

The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

 

JOH 4:23

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”

 

Some call religion the opiate of the masses. Or as Marx stated it:

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." [Marx]

 

If you were worshiping a myth, over time you would see and feel the lack of fulfillment.

 

MAT 2:10-11

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

 

The magi: saw, fell, worshiped, opened, and presented.

To be whole:

We must see Him, worship Him, present to Him.

 

REV 4:8-11

And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,

 

"HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."

 

9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

 

11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

 

You live in a world of relative truths while you have to live out absolute truths. You live in a world that receives origins as myths when you live them out as absolute truth.