Day 25 / The King is Coming

Read This: Matthew 3:1-6; Mark 1:1-6; Luke 3:1-6

The story of Jesus now reaches a turning point. All the prophecies, announcements, and marvels of His coming lead to this point. Jesus, the Promised Deliverer, is about to go public. The King is coming!

As with all approaching monarchs, His coming is announced by a messenger — John the Baptist (see Day 5 & Day 11). John’s coming was prophesied hundreds of years earlier by Isaiah (40:3-5), so there was no mistaking his message or purpose.

True to his prophetic calling, John shunned all attachments to the society he came to “prepare.” Dressed in animal skins, living in the wild, and eating locusts and honey, John drew a crowd. The entire region of Judea and Jerusalem trekked out to the wilderness to hear him.

John’s message cut straight to the heart:

Repent!
There’s no other way to peace with God than through brokenness. Turning from sin to God. Repentance.

Demonstrate your repentance!
John baptized all who repented. This was not Christian baptism as we know it. The only baptism practiced at that time was the baptism of Gentiles converting to Judaism. Since Jews were considered God’s people, non-Jews who wanted a relationship with God had to be baptized “into” that relationship by joining “God’s people.” That’s not what John was doing. He was baptizing both Gentiles and Jews into relationship with God through repentance. This was huge. For a Jew to acknowledge he was no better than a Gentile — that both were separated from God by sin — was world-changing.

Think of Isaiah’s prophecy. John, crying in the wilderness — far from the ways of men — announcing the ways of God. Humility, repentance, healing, and relationship. For the Jews? For the priests? For the rich? No. For all people.

Day 24 / Jesus’ First Words

Read This: Luke 2:39-52

Most tales of heroism pitch circumstance against character with all hope gone and time running out.

That’s not how it is with Jesus. The Old Testament prophesied His coming as certain and His victory as sure. Why such confidence? Because Israel’s Deliverer isn’t just another Abraham, Moses, or David. He’s not some human hero rising to the challenge before it’s too late. God’s Deliverer — the Messiah — is none other than Himself.

As the New Testament opens, Jesus is announced by the angels and celebrated by Elizabeth, Mary, Zacharias, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, and the wise men. They know who He is. But what about the Boy Himself? Did Jesus understand His role — or grow into it?

Luke provides our only window into the years between Jesus’ birth and public ministry. It’s a crucial piece of the story. What does it reveal?

It reveals Jesus, at age twelve, knowing exactly who He is and what He came for. His first recorded words declare His deity. He’s God’s Son and He came to do His Father’s business. By calling God His Father, Jesus claimed equality with God. Oneness.

Jesus was no reluctant hero growing into self-awareness. He was God, born into humanity to save the race. No wonder He sat in the Temple dialoguing with the teachers. No wonder Luke describes the exchange as between equals, with the Boy Jesus pressing them for answers. No wonder the bystanders were amazed at His understanding. He was the fulfillment of everything they’d ever studied — and He knew it.

Luke also fills out the rest of Jesus’ early years. He grew in strength, grace, wisdom, and favor with God and man. His parents carefully observed the whole law (as evidenced by their trek to Jerusalem for the Passover), and Jesus lived in complete submission to them.

But the most important point is that He knew who He was and why He came. He was the Son of His Father.

Day 23 / Double Opposition

Read This: Matthew 2:19-23

Opposition to Jesus took two forms — threats and ridicule. As a child, the threat of being killed by Herod sent Him fleeing to Egypt in the middle of the night.

Some time later an angel announced it was safe to return home, but Joseph didn't take the family back to Bethlehem. That would have put them too close to Jerusalem where Herod's cruel and bloody son, Archelaus, sat on the throne. Instead, he took Mary and Jesus back to his home town. Nazareth.

This brings up the second form of opposition Jesus faced. Nazareth had a terrible reputation. People from Nazareth were considered rough, rude, violent, crude, and disreputable. The term Nazarene was a derogatory epithet. That’s why Nathanael said of Jesus, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth” (John 1:46)? When people referred to Jesus the Nazarene, it was meant as a reproach. When Tertullus called the apostle Paul “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,” it was a slur (Acts 24:5).

Many of the Old Testament prophecies depict Jesus as scorned, despised, and hated (e.g., Isaiah 53:3; Psalm 22:6). Part of that opposition came with the territory — He grew up in Nazareth. Many of us can sympathize with this. Even more important, He can sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15-16).

Day 22 / Foreshadowed and Foreshadowing

Read This: Matthew 2:13-18

It’s easy to learn lessons from Herod, the priests, and the magi, but there’s more to these stories than wisdom. They were real men. Herod was insanely jealous and quick to rage. The wise men came boldly and left by stealth. And the religious leaders ignored God’s “loudspeaker” announcement proclaiming the Messiah’s arrival.

Jealousy, intrigue, brute insensitivity, and rage — the ingredients of tragedy.

One night, just after the magi’s visit, Joseph was fast asleep. Suddenly, an angel approached him in a dream with an urgent message: arise, take the Child and His mother, and flee. Herod is coming to destroy Him.

Joseph was all action. He arose, gathered his wife and Child, and fled for Egypt. In the middle of the night.

Barely a step behind them, Herod’s soldiers stormed Bethlehem and murdered all the male children two years old and younger.

Both events — fleeing to Egypt and Herod’s slaughter of the children — were referenced by the prophets hundreds of years earlier. Hosea described God’s loving care in bringing His “son” (the Jews) out of Egypt, and Jeremiah spoke of Rachel weeping for the loss of her “children” to captivity (Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 31:15). Both references accurately foreshadowed events from Jesus’ early life. More signals, especially clear to the original readers of Matthew’s gospel who knew the Old Testament, confirming Jesus as the Messiah.

Day 21 / Power, Religion, and Wisdom

Read This: Matthew 2:1-12

There’s local news and there’s worldwide news. The magi were expecting a world ruler from Judea. When His star finally appeared they organized a journey and set out to honor Him. To them — as to Simeon (see Day 17) — the coming of this new King was major news.

Imagine their surprise when they arrived in Jerusalem to get directions — and no one knew what they were talking about! God’s worldwide news hadn’t even made the local headlines in Jerusalem.

When word of their quest reached Herod he immediately grasped their meaning. The Messiah had arrived. Without delay he gathered the religious leaders and asked where the Messiah was to be born.

The religious leaders were the priests and lawyers who provided all the spiritual and political leadership for the nation. At this moment God alerted the entire group of them that the Messiah had arrival. This was the One who would rule and shepherd their nation. Rule, as in sovereign leadership, and shepherd, as in providing for their needs (see Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34).

The long-awaited Messiah had come! Big news, right? Not to Herod. He saw the Messiah as a competitor and usurper. Nor to the religious leaders. Their indifference at Jesus' arrival became fierce opposition once He emerged as a public figure.

The wise men found Jesus and worshiped Him. They acknowledged His royalty, deity, and future sacrifice with lavish gifts. The religious leaders ignored Jesus, even though it was their job to “await His arrival.” And the political leadership sought to destroy Him.

When it’s your turn to know Jesus, choose wisdom.

Day 20 / The Full Meaning of the Magi

Read This: Matthew 2:1-12

Travel back in time 600 years before Christ and you find Daniel in Babylon. Daniel’s wisdom and spiritual gifts placed him in leadership over the most powerful group of advisors in the ancient world — the magi.

The magi were experts in science, agriculture, mathematics, history, religion, politics, astronomy, astrology, and magic. They did everything from interpreting dreams to appointing kings. The magi were the highest ranking officials in Babylon, and their influence extended into the Greek and Roman empires. It was often the magi who would identify new kings and leaders, and the Romans paid keen attention to them.

When Jesus was born, God sent a celestial declaration to the magi announcing His arrival. They immediately grasped the importance of this news — there was now a real King of the Jews. Society had been anticipating this king (see Day 19), and the magi set out to recognize and worship Him.

Contrary to the Christmas hymn, there were probably more than three of them, and because they were powerful men — akin to royalty — they would have traveled with an entourage of soldiers and servants.

Meanwhile, the Jews already had a “king.” Though neither royal nor Jewish (he was a Roman vassal), Herod was no slouch. He earned his title by defeating and driving out the Parthians, and he protected his authority by murdering all potential successors — including his brother-in-law, wife, and sons.

The arrival in Jerusalem of an armed and sizeable company of magi (likely Parthians) whose business was to officially recognize a new Jewish king put the entire city on full alert. (Another example of Jesus’ birth being anything but secret.)

* For more on this, see the MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Matthew 1-7, pages 23-32.

Day 19 / Paying Attention

Much is said about Jesus’ low-key birth. Small-town parents, an unfamiliar village, no vacancy, animals likely. Nobodies from nowhere. Unnoticed.

But it was no secret. John the Baptist’s birth six months earlier was “talked about through all the hill country of Judea” (Luke 1:65-66). And since John’s father knew who the Messiah was, all that talking would have pointed to Jesus’ arrival.

Then there were the shepherds. They also “made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds” (Luke 2:17-18).

Later that month God led Simeon and Anna the Prophetess — both known and respected throughout Jerusalem — to meet Jesus in the Temple. Afterward, Anna “continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Society itself was keen with anticipation of a great king and deliverer to come from Judea. Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, and Virgil all mention this. The entire Roman world was expecting an unprecedented world leader to arise, and Jewish scholars knew the approximate time and place of His arrival (from Daniel’s prophecies and Micah 5:2).

Jesus’ birth was certainly not shrouded in secrecy. Anyone paying attention would have found out. Especially after the international incident recorded in our next passage.

Day 18 / He Knew Jesus Before He Met Him

Read This: Luke 2:28-38

Imagine you’re fascinated by the end times. You spend years studying Daniel, Revelation, and all the other prophetic books. As your understanding grows, you realize what’s coming.

One day God’s Spirit directs you to a certain place and reveals that you’ll witness the opening event in history’s finale. And so it happens. You show up, you see the beginning of the end, and you explain its meaning to everyone you meet.

That’s how it was for Simeon. He didn’t just know Jesus was the Messiah. He knew everything about Him . . .

• Jesus would bring light to people of Galilee.
• Jesus would bring salvation — not just to the Jews, but to all people from every nation.
• But there would be a price. By shining light into the darkness, the evil of men’s hearts would be exposed.
• Though the Gentiles would be saved, many of the Jews would oppose, deny, speak against, contradict, and reject Him.
• The Jews’ violent rejection of Jesus would cause Mary, His mother, great pain.

Simeon knew what was coming. The Old Testament revealed the time, place, and purpose of Jesus’ coming — and Simeon knew all of it. His remarks amazed Mary and Joseph, and confirmed yet again that theirs was no ordinary child. He was the Messiah, God’s salvation for all people.

[See also: Isaiah 8:14; 42:6; 45:25; 46:13; 49:6,9; 52:10; 60:3; Psalm 98:2]

Day 17 / The Old Man

Read This: Luke 2:25-28

Picture Mary and Joseph as a young couple leaving town for the big city. It’s time to dedicate their baby at the Temple.

As they make their way through the crowds, an elderly man approaches them and reaches out to hold their Baby. The man is Simeon, and he has a reputation.

Simeon is known to everyone as righteous and devout. He doesn’t just keep the law — he embraces its meaning. Simeon has weighed God's claims and believes in Him.

Simeon is also a man of action. He’s spent his life searching the Scriptures, scrutinizing every shred of prophecy pointing to the promised One. He’s not just waiting for the Messiah, he’s watching for Him.

Luke tells us the Holy Spirit is on Simeon. No wonder — the man is alive for God. One day, the Spirit reveals to Simeon that he will not die until he has met the Messiah. The language used in this passage implies a transaction. Simeon is seeking God, and this is God's response.

That’s why Simeon is in the Temple on this day reaching for Mary's Baby. God told him now is the time and this is the One. Jesus is the Messiah.

Day 16 / The Righteous Baby

Read This: Luke 2:22-24

Legal protocol requires more than one witness to confirm a matter. That’s why Luke takes time at the beginning of his gospel to feature several righteous witnesses. Several to verify the matter, and righteous to establish their testimony as reliable.

Why such attention to verification? Think about the claims Luke was making! Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He’s the Messiah. He was conceived in a virgin through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is God in human flesh. He’s the Redeemer. He came to save His people from their sins.*

These are unprecedented claims, so Luke presents multiple witnesses for confirmation. Up to this point we’ve heard from Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, and the shepherds. Now Luke returns to Joseph and Mary, establishing their righteous character by showing their adherence to the law:

1. They circumcised and named the Child on the eighth day (vs.21; see also Genesis 17:9-14 and Leviticus 12:3)

2. They offered sacrifices for Mary’s purification and presented Jesus to God (vss. 22-24; see also Leviticus 12:1-5 and Exodus 13:1-2, 11-15)

Not only does Luke demonstrate Joseph and Mary’s righteous character, but he shows how Jesus Himself kept the whole law. That’s because Jesus didn’t come to nullify the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). To keep it perfectly (which we can’t do) so His righteousness can be applied to our accounts.

Jesus kept the entire law from birth . . . so we can be saved.

* For more on this, see the MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Luke 1-5, pages 165ff.