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Jesus, God with Us, Will Reign Forever God with Us: Christmas according to Matthew Advent 2019

Kenwood Baptist Church Sermon Series Pastor David Palmer December 22, 2019

TEXT: Matthew 2:1-6

Merry Christmas. This Sunday, we continue in our Advent series “Christmas According to

Matthew” as we follow the Christmas story according the first Gospel writer. As we turn to our

text this morning, we begin with a illustration, if you will, an illustration of listening attentively

for communication. A project called Breakthrough Listen was launched in January 2016. It's a

project that is searching for extraterrestrial, intelligent communication in the universe. With

over $100 million in funding, thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time, it is the most

comprehensive listening to the universe. Breakthrough Listen is based in the Berkeley Research

Center in the Astronomy Department at the University of California. The project Breakthrough

Listen uses radio wave telescopes, one in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the other in Australia.

Targets for the project include one million nearby

stars and the centers of 100 galaxies. All of the

data generated from project Breakthrough Listen

is available to the public. The Green Bank

telescope that you see here is a giant dish. It's as

tall as the Washington Monument, and it you

could fit two acres of land inside the central dish.

The radio telescope works by tracking and reading

energy waves that come from stars or gases. If

you visit the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, you have to make sure you

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know where you're going, because as you get close, going through the George Washington and

Thomas Jefferson National Forest, all the sudden you will lose your cell phone signal. There's no

sound allowed around this because they're listening attentively and don't want anything to

interfere. If you search for the Green Bank Telescope on Google maps, you will find a little tag

that says: massive, radio telescope with tours. So you can go, but know where you're going. The

radio telescope is listening attentively, searching for some signal or evidence of communication.

Is there intelligent communication that can be heard, detected from outside of this planet?

Karen O'Neil, the director of the Green Bank Telescope site, describes the size of the energy

that they're looking for. She says:

“It's a huge collecting area and it's what allows us to see these incredibly small energies that

we're trying to study. The types of energies we look at are less than the energy of a single

snowflake falling on the earth."

That's what they’re trying to detect. They are listening more closely than is humanly possible.

The northern hemisphere uses the Robert Green telescope. The southern hemisphere uses the

Parkes Observatory. The Parkes Observatory is known informally as “The Dish.” Its primary

observing instrument is 210 feet across, a

movable dish telescope. The Parkes

Observatory is positioned, again, isolated

from radio interference. The site looks into

the dark sky with optical light. In this image

from June 2017, you can see the Milky Way

galaxy overhead. The Parkes Observatory

was one of the telescopes that was used to

receive signals back from the Apollo 11

landing. The principal role of this telescope

is to conduct a survey of the Milky Way galactic plane – over 1.2 to 1.5 GHz and to do a targeted

search of approximately 1000 nearby stars. The closest star to us, Proxima Centauri, is about

1.3 parsecs away from the sun. One parsec, if you're unfamiliar, is about 31,000,000,000,000

km – just next-door! Many of us are thinking about parsecs these days, remembering that

spacecraft, the great millennium falcon, that Corellian ship that made the Kessel run in 12

parsecs, which isn’t a unit of time. It’s a unit of distance. That's what was so compelling about

the millennium falcon, because Han Solo had illegally modified the ship so it was able to escape

the black hole. The millennium falcon is in George Lucas’ 12-page short story about Star Wars.

Who knew you could make nine movies out of 12 pages? The search for communication is the

right one, isn’t it? Is there a word from outside the system coming to us? Could we detect a

radio signal of energy the size that would be produced by the drop of one snowflake? Would

our most attentive ear to the universe find some signal of intelligent life? Even more than

intelligent life, would there be intelligent communication? What if instead of just a blip of

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energy emitted from a radio signal, we heard a word, or a sentence, or a paragraph? What if a

word outside the system was spoken and actually had an effect on the events, places, and

times in which we live? That’s what takes us to our text this Christmas Sunday.

According to Matthew's Gospel, in Matthew 2:1, we read:

“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold,

wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.”

I want you to notice that Matthew begins with a place, a real place, Bethlehem of Judea.

Bethlehem is a small village about six miles southwest of Jerusalem. Matthew tells us of a real

time. Locating this event in real time, in the days of Herod the king. Herod reigned from 37 BC

to 4 BC, a long reign of 33 years: a real place, a real time. Then, real visitors arrive from the East.

A group of scholars show up in Jerusalem. They arrive with a question in Matthew 2:2a:

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”

Where is He? They explain their sudden arrival in the city in Matthew 2:2b:

“For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”

Some translations render this: “We saw His star in the east.” Matthew’s expression literally

indicates a real astronomical term: “We saw His star at its rising, and we have come to worship

Him. Where is He?” they ask. These visitors, these scholars, arrived from the East from either

Persia or maybe Babylon. Babylon was the NASA of the ancient world. Babylonian astronomers

were professional. Do you know that we have Babylonian records of observing the stars that go

back to the eighth century BC? They are careful observations of celestial phenomenon carefully

observed. Some people read this account of the star, the star of Bethlehem, and suppose that

this was a miracle, something beyond the laws of physics. But, that's really not how Matthew

describes it. Matthew describes it as something real, that they saw, that prompted a journey—a

journey that led them to Bethlehem. Some have supposed that what they saw was a

supernova, an explosion of a new star. In fact, Chinese astronomical records record a supernova

in 5 BC. Others suspect that what they saw was actually a conjunction of visible planets. In

October 2014, in the Netherlands, at the University of Groningen, they hosted a conference

celebrating the 400th anniversary of a colloquium

on the Star of Bethlehem. Papers were presented

from various fields, and at this conference, one

scholar suggested that what the Magi may have

seen was a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

in the sky that took place around 7 BC. Johannes

Kepler, the famous astronomer, actually calculated

that this triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

had occurred. He calculated that in the 16th century. Prof. Molnar describes that this triple

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conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was observable in the night sky, and it happened three times

in 7 BC. Jupiter is associated with kingship, and the planet Saturn is associated with the seventh

day, or the Sabbath day, in antiquity, and so this conjunction of the star of kingship and star

associated with Israel coming together may have prompted their journey. Colin Nicholl has

written a recent book, The Great Christ Comet, with another compelling theory. Matthew's

terminology for celestial phenomenon could include a comet. It's a generic word for a star.

Colin Nicholl, an Irish New Testament scholar, has posited that what they actually saw was a

great comet, a comet that would have

arisen in the eastern sky and been

seen again with the striking tail

pointing just to the place where the

Child was born. I commend this book

to you. It's a compelling read even if

you have only an amateur interest in

astronomy. It provides a lot of data to

suggest how a comet could have been

seen in the East and then even that the tail of the comet could have pointed to the very

location where the Messiah was born. Looking into the night sky is a legitimate place to look. Is

there a word? Is there a sign? Is there a sentence from outside the system? When these visitors

arrived with a question, “Where is the one who's been born King,” Matthew tells us that Herod,

the king, was troubled. You see, he was the king, and these men showed up and said: “Where is

the newborn King?” Matthew says in Matthew 2:3:

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;”

He was troubled, or literally, he was stirred up. Herod had reigned for nearly 30 years as king.

He had accomplished extraordinary things: tremendous building accomplishments, cities,

temples, and aqueducts. Herod left the most visible fingerprint on the land of Israel of any

builder. He had accumulated tremendous wealth, and yet, despite all these public

accomplishments, Herod's domestic life was filled with tragedy, and that tragedy revolved

around the question of succession. Herod had married the last of the Hasmonean descendants,

Miriam, and yet, in a fit of rage, when she was accused of being unfaithful, he had her killed.

For the rest of his life, he lamented it. He was heard often walking around his palaces calling

out her name. Herod changed his will seven times, even killing three of his own sons—one of

them five days before Herod died, because he saw that his sons were eager for him to move on.

They were ready to take their place. Matthew's account in this detail that Herod would be

stirred up by one who was born King is so authentic. It rings so true historically. Herod had been

born an Idumean. His father had provided assistance to Julius Caesar who gave him Roman

citizenship, and in a tremendous, unexpected turn, Herod's father became governor of Galilee

as a young man and suddenly became king by decree of the Roman Senate. His kingship was

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won by decree of a foreign power. He was not born king, and yet, these men arrive in the city,

and they ask a question that goes right to the foundations of his throne and identity: “Where is

the one who was born king, the legitimate king?” Herod was stirred up, and he was resolved to

secure grief at the end of his reign. He added into his will, his last formulation of his will, that all

of the nobles of Jerusalem should be assembled in the hippodrome at Jericho and that the

moment that Herod died, all those leading citizens would be killed.

Matthew's account rings true. That's why all Jerusalem was troubled when Herod was troubled,

and yet Herod then moves with this news, and he inquires of the leading scholars in Jerusalem.

He assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people, and he inquired of them the same

question that the wise men, the Magi, had asked: “Where is He who has been born King of the

Jews?” Herod asked the scholars close to him where the Messiah would be born. Where. The

scholars answered him without hesitation in Matthew 2:5:

“They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:’”

Here is where the search for communication finds its resolution. Here is the right inquiry that

we make: Is there any evidence out there that someone exists outside of planet Earth? Is there

any indication, not just in a radio signal, a blip of energy like a snowflake falling to the earth?

What if there was a sentence? What if there was a paragraph? What if there was a promise?

What if there was plan, a promise spoken, written, and recorded, a word that could be

understood from outside the system—evidence, not just for intelligent life, but evidence for a

person, a God, a God who speaks, acts, and determines the course of this world, the events, the

movements of people, our lives? What if our lives are not random collisions of molecules? What

if there is a Super Intelligence outside the system, speaking, willing, planning, proposing,

determining to save? That’s what Matthew wants us to see. This is the God that he introduces

to us in the Christmas story—a God who speaks and acts, a God who says in Isaiah 55:8-9,11:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the

LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your

ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. . . so shall My Word be that goes out from My

mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and

shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Praise God! In Isaiah 46:9-10, the Lord says:

“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end

from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall

stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”

In Isaiah 14:24, we read:

“The LORD of hosts has sworn: ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed,

so shall it stand,’”

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In Isaiah 45:19, the Lord says:

“I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,

Seek Me in vain. I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

What did He say?

I'm glad that the radio telescope’s data is open and available to the public. I don't know what

they’ll hear. If there's life on other planets, then I would like to be among the first to sign up for

missionary service. It just means that there are others that we had not yet known that need to

hear the Word of what happened here. What did He say? So far, Breakthrough Listen hasn't

provided any evidence, any sound, any ripple of energy the size of the snowflake falling, to

suggest that there are other civilizations or planets, but what we have heard in sentences is the

voice of the Lord God Almighty speaking, and what did He say? The scholars that Herod

assembled told him what he had said. The question: “Where do we look, where would the king

be born?” Matthew 2:6 quotes:

“And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of

Judah; for from you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.”

God said that the King who would reign forever would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David,

which seems so small, but God spoke through the prophet Micah that from this town, this

village, would come forth the greatest of all. The prophet Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah.

Micah's name in Hebrew is Mi-ce-yah. Mi is the question word who, ce is the comparative

particle as or like, and yah is the short form of Yahweh.

I applied to graduate school from China. I’d been there for a couple of years after my

undergraduate studies. I went to teach English in the foreign language department. It was a law

school Xi-bei-Jun-Fa-Xue-Yuen. Now it’s a Da-Xue, a university. It was an institute when I was

there. I went to teach there with a love for Jesus and a desire for some international

experience. I remember meeting with a professor just after I had arrived in Xian. She taught

English at the university across the street, the Teachers’ College. She knew English grammar so

much better than I did, but she needed to grow in her conversation skills, which is common.

She came and asked me, right after I arrived: “Would you be willing to meet with me and I will

teach you conversational Mandarin for an hour, and then you can teach me conversational

English?” I said: “That be great,” so the first week we met, she brought her basic Chinese

reader. We started: my name, ni hao, and then that critical phrase to survive. You can live

forever in China as long as you can say: zai-lai—whatever dish you just brought, you can bring

that again! Don’t worry about trying to read the menu, just say zai-lai—bring that again. Then

you can live forever there. Lesson one, and then I turned to her and I said: “You know English

grammar very well, but you need to practice speaking, and the best way to do that would be to

choose some topics to talk about.” So I asked her, the first time we met, what she would you

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like to talk about. She looked this way and that way, and then she looked straight at me and she

said: “I'd like to talk about Jesus Christ. I've heard a little bit about Him, but my whole education

as taught me that the only people who believe in Jesus Christ are ignorant peasants. You have a

college degree. Are the places in the Bible real? Is Jesus Christ real?” So, we talked about Jesus

Christ for an hour a week for two years. She had so many good questions. I don't know what

your questions are this morning. All of us have questions. The question of Breakthrough Listen

is: “Is there any evidence out there, is there anyone speaking in a way that we could hear?”

Matthew wants us to know this Christmas that there is One speaking. He spoke through the

prophet Micah, whose name means: Who is like Yahweh? He had a plan and a saving purpose,

and said that the King, the Savior, would be born in this place. Wherever you look for meaning,

for help for salvation, you must look to Bethlehem. Matthew quotes a line from Micah 5, but he

intends for us to the know the paragraph. Micah 5:2 begins:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, (the region around Bethlehem)who are too little to be

among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in

Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

He goes on in Micah 5:3:

“Therefore He shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth;

then the rest of His brothers shall return to the people of Israel.”

This one, this Ruler who is to come, is from of ancient times and yet will be born, and at His

birth, He will gather in, reconcile, and return those who were estranged from God. This Ruler

who is from of ancient times, who yet will be born, will gather the people to the Lord, and in

Micah 5:4-5:

“And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of

the name of the LORD His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great to

the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace.”

That's what Micah promised, not of his own doing, of his own will, or of his own imagination.

The prophets of Israel wrote what they were told. This is what God said, that the Savior to

come would be born in Bethlehem. Ancient readers of the Bible understood the passage in this

way. One of our earliest readers of the Bible that we have from antiquity is the Aramaic

translation called the Targum. It's a paraphrase of the Bible, and the Targum for Micah 5:2

describes that: “from you shall come forth for Me the Messiah.” That's how they explain it.

Josephus, in the first century, similarly says: “An oracle is found among our sacred writings how

about this time, the first century, one from our country would become ruler of the inhabitable

world.” Even Roman historians picked up this news. Suetonius says: “There had spread all over

the East an established belief that was fêted at that time that someone from Judea would come

and rule the world.” Tacitus similarly, in his annals of Imperial Rome, says that the majority of

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Israelites believed that their ancient priestly writings contained a prophecy that this was the

very time, the first century, when the East should grow strong and that one from Judea should

possess the world.

Brothers and sisters, I have good news for you this Christmas. The effort to search for intelligent

communication is a right. It’s actually one that we all should share. Whether you use a 210-foot

diameter radio telescope to listen or you just open the text that has been faithfully transmitted

to us, I can assure you, not of my own authority but on the authority of God's Word, that there

is intelligent communication to be found, and it comes to us in words and sentences and

paragraphs that describe that there is intelligent life, super intelligent life, with a plan of

purpose for planet Earth that includes you. It includes me. Matthew wants us to see that God

wrote directions in the stars for ancient astronomers to follow, but even more importantly, he

wants us to see the evidence of the prophetic Word that means that God is come to us in Jesus

Christ and that He had to be born in Bethlehem, because God said that He would be born in

Bethlehem. If God can be trusted in that detail, He can be trusted with all of the details.

Our image for this series is the famous Baroque painting, the inspiration of St. Matthew by

Caravaggio. At the epicenter of Caravaggio's famous

painting is Matthew at work with the angel speaking,

prompting. The angel's hands seem to be tied

together, pointing, as though he's just enumerating

detail after detail. Peter tells us that the birth of Christ

was something into which angels long to look. It's one

of their favorite subjects, because when Christ is born

in Bethlehem, God has come back to us. When Christ is

born in Bethlehem, all of God's promises can be trusted, and when Christ is born in Bethlehem,

it always produces divergent responses. The Magi see the evidence of the stars and come.

People from Jerusalem stream. Shepherds arrive on the scene directed by the angels, and yet

some respond with indifference and even animosity. Herod felt that his tenuous throne was

being shaken, and it was. You may this morning sit on the throne of your life and be content to

be in charge and think you have your life planned. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem means that

Someone else belongs on that throne. Christ's birth in Bethlehem produced divergent reactions

in antiquity and divergent reactions today. Our Christmas concert this year was called

“Wisemen Bow.” I love that title, because the right response to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem

is to bow in worship. This Christmas, Matthew wants us to know that the events of Christmas

are real: a real place, a real time, a real plan, a real Savior who can be trusted, and I want you

this Christmas to entrust your life to Him. That could happen in a simple prayer, a simple prayer

like this: Lord, I want to step off the throne of my life and invite You to take Your rightful place.

Let’s pray.

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Lord Jesus, we thank You that You have come. You have come to this world by the plan and

purpose of the Father. You have come to this world in real time, in real space, a real king at

birth. Lord, You had to be born in Bethlehem, and You were. Your birth means that God is with

us, God is for us, Emmanuel. Father, I pray for those who are here this morning, or who will

listen now or later, that they might step off the throne of their lives and invite You to take Your

rightful place. Lord, You said that the Messiah would be great to the ends of the earth, King

born in Bethlehem, born to save His people from their sins has come. Lord, would You rule and

reign over us forever. Help us to sing Your praise. We love You, Lord Jesus. We worship You.

In Your Name we pray, Amen.