Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Do You Respond to Jesus? | Christmas | Matthew 2:16-23

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Odds are you don't respond to Jesus with hostility (like King Herod), but do you respond with indifference? Do you recognize Jesus for who he really is? In today's episode, Keith uses Matthew 2:16-23 to evaluate three different responses to Jesus's birth. Which do you relate to most? Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast Passages: Matthew 2:16-23 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're in the middle of our Christmas series. But starting in January, we're getting back to the basics. We're going to go through the first books of the Bible. And, of course, we're going to start in the first book, the book of Genesis.

Invite a friend to join you on the journey. It all starts January 1st. You're familiar with the Grinch who stole Christmas? Well, Herod is the king who tried to kill Christmas. The very sad, very heartbreaking story is told in Matthew chapter 2. If you've been listening to our Christmas devotional series, you've already heard some stories about Herod's ego, his lust for power, and his willingness to kill people.

He had been given the title King of the Jews by the Roman Senate, and he was willing to do whatever was necessary to keep that position. He killed his wife, sons, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, and many, many more people. You see, above everything else, Herod the Great was a killer. That was his nature. He killed out of spite and he killed this day in power. Human life meant nothing to him. The great historian Josephus called him barbaric. The magi were astrologers from the east who came looking for the one who had been born King of the Jews and they weren't referring to Herod. They were looking for Jesus. But the idea that he had a rival that drove Herod into a rage. So Herod told them, Magi to go worship Jesus and then stop by on their way out of town and tell him where Jesus was, so he could go worship him too. Then Herod called the priests and scribes together and asked them about the prophecies concerning the Messiah, which means king. The priest told them that the prophets say that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. That's exactly where the Magi had gone to.

The Magi went to Bethlehem to worship Jesus. Afterwards, God told them in a dream that Herod wasn't planning on worshipping Jesus, but killing him. So they sneaked out of town. Herod realizes the Magi have tricked him that they've left, and so he's got to come up with some sort of plan to eliminate the threat of Jesus' kingship. So would Herod really try to kill the Messiah? Yep. The Bible says that when Herod saw he had been tricked by the Magi, he was enraged. See, the trickster had been tricked, the con man had been conned, the liar had been double-crossed. Instead of being the wise king, Herod is now the fool. So at this point, Herod is about 69 years old. He's very old, very sick. He's slowly losing control of his kingdom. He's dying and he knows it. He's angry over being tricked by the magi.

He must do something to eradicate that threat to his throne. He must do something to get rid of that baby. So here Herod is out of his mind with rage, frustration, fear, and pain, all the worst instincts of his life of cruelty come out to the surface. It's only with that in mind that you can make any sense out of what is about to happen. In the history of the church, this is called the slaughter of the innocence. After 2,000 years, we remember Herod for this act. You see, when Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and so he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time that he had learned from the Magi. Harrod had lost his mind, and he did something worthy of Hitler or Stalin or

other despots. He ordered the cold-blooded murder of male babies under two years of age. Can you imagine the scene? Soldiers coming in on death squads, breaking into Bethlehem homes in the dead of night, killing kids while their parents are screaming. Those soldiers have their orders. Kill every baby boy. Don't miss one. They did their job well. By morning, the slaughter is over. The soldiers are gone. The children are no more. Could Herod really have done this? It is absolutely consistent with everything we know about Herod the Great. Killing was how he stayed on top.

There's no reason to think he wouldn't do something like this. So now here we are at Christmas. And we see in this story different ways that we can respond to the one who's been born, King of the Jews. We could respond with hostility. God knows that so many people have over the centuries. Herod represents the world's welcoming, committee for the son of God. It's not the way you thought it would be, is it? You see, Jesus is born a

king? And everyone who feels threatened by Jesus' kingship tries to kill him, tries to eradicate him. The Bible says in John 111, He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. You see, Herod is dead, but his spirit lives on. To this day, there are those who are offended by Jesus' kingship, even by the mere mention of his name. So if the first response to Jesus is hostility, the second response we see in this story is indifferent. And that's represented by the priests and the scribes. They are religiously indifferent. You see, they know all the facts, but they don't care.

They're not moved by the facts. They're not moved to believe and submit to the king. They don't care enough to get excited at all. When Harriet asked where the baby was to be born, they knew the answer. They knew where to look for the Messiah, but they didn't care enough even to investigate for themselves. Bethlehem was only six miles from Jerusalem, but that was too far to go. You see, it was all academic to them. It was all intellectual knowledge. It was things they knew to be true that had never really moved and gripped their heart. You can imagine the priests and the scribes saying,

have a nice trip. If you find the Messiah, let us know. Those priests, those scribes, really, everyone who believe that Jesus was the Messiah, they should have been singing and dancing because that Messiah had come. Instead, they ignored his birth. The third response to Jesus is worship. That's what the magi or the wise men do. They sought out Jesus. They traveled a long distance to get to him. They offered him gifts. They bowed down and they worshipped him. It's an ironic twist in the Christmas story that it's the pagans who recognized Jesus for who he really is. You see, Herod knows about Jesus and tries to kill him. The scribes and priests, they know who Jesus is, but they ignore him. But the Magi, when they found Jesus, they worshipped him. These three responses

of Herod, the priests and scribes, and the Magi, well, they kind of represent the responses that people have today to Jesus. Some will be hostile, some will be indifferent, and some will worship him. But the most important question is not how other people respond to Jesus, but how you respond to Jesus. Now, if you're listening to me, you're probably not responding to Jesus with hostility, but you might be responding to him with indifference. You might know a lot of facts about Jesus, like the priests and scribes, but those facts haven't grabbed your heart. You might be good at Bible trivia, or you might have the trappings of a religious life, but you're not excited about surrendering your life to Jesus.

Wherever you are as you listen to this, what we want to do, what you and I want to do, is be more like the magi, these wise men who searched out Jesus, surrendered their life to him and worshipped him. May Jesus be the center of your worship this Christmas. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content,

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