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So if you want to turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter two, I’m going to go through this fairly quickly. And just looking at this, this Christmas story together, and you’re going to sell kids by this picture on the screen. Can you tell some of our young people, do you know who we’re going to talk about in this story today? Anybody know who this is? What does what does this story tell us? Who who’s this going to be about any young person. You can shout this out. Who’s this about the what wise men. Right. The wise men. We’re going to be talking about the wise men today. But here’s what’s interesting. Uh, you look at this picture and you see three, three guys on the back of a camel. I think it’s probably three guys on the back of a camel that we call them wise men. So. But but here’s what’s interesting about the wise men. They probably weren’t just three people in the back of a camel. When the wise men traveled to see Jesus, they most likely traveled in a in a caravan. And the reason we we think that is because of what it says to us in the book of Matthew, starting at the very beginning of chapter two. And we learn where the wise men came from. So if you grabbed sermon notes this morning, here’s your first blank. The question is, where did the wise men come from? And by the way, we’re going to talk about why wise men celebrate Christmas.
We’re going to learn three lessons from them today. But where did the wise men come from? Matthew chapter two, verse one tells us they came from what direction? The east. Right. They came from the East. Look at this Matthew chapter two, verse one. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem. So there it is from the east. They came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who was born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him. These wise men came from the east. They came from so far east they don’t even know where they came. They’re like, we don’t, you guys. You set a place, a town. We have no idea what that town is that’s so far away. That’s right. So there’s like they they’re just from the east. That’s how they describe it in this passage. But but here’s what we learn from him from the moment they saw the star. This is when they decided to begin this journey to go see Jesus. Right? They see his star. Notice it says in this passage, it’s not a star, but it’s his star. It’s like a Shekinah star, the glory of God that appears and that triggered them to God is doing something.
And we want a journey to go see what what God is doing. And so they travel from the east, and most likely we know that they had to go from a very far distance because by the time they got to Jesus. What you find in Matthew chapter two is Jesus is no longer a baby. The Jesus most likely at this point is somewhere around toddler age. And the reason we we gather this from from the information is because as you read a little further in the story, it says, once the wise men get to King Herod, King Herod wants to know where this Jesus is. Not because King Herod cares about Jesus, but because King Herod sees Jesus as a threat. And so in verse seven it says, Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from, from the from them the exact time the star had appeared. So he’s like he realizes they’ve come from a far distance. And so it wasn’t like they just got there from yesterday, right? In order for them to travel that far, he wants to now go back and find out when the star appeared. So he knows about the age Jesus might be in order so he can go hunt Jesus. In fact, in verse 16 it says, When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the the wise men, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the babies, the the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi or the wise men.
So here’s what Herod says. Let’s go back and look when this star came. And what we learn based on what Herod discovers, is that these wise men would have traveled very far in order to, to get to where Jesus was. And so that’s why Herod all of a sudden has this threat of Jesus, and he decides, you know, any kid that’s over the age or two and under, you know, Jesus most likely is probably around the age of one. So by the time the Magi saw the star and then started to make this journey, it would have taken months, most likely traveled several hundred miles, and they would have most likely done it in a larger caravan, because during Jesus’s day, just to travel with a couple of people would have been incredibly unsafe, especially when you’re traveling with things like gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I mean, the minute someone finds out on that road that you’ve got a lot of wealth that you’re going with and you’re just going with a couple of people there, there’s a there’s a bounty on your head. People have been pursuing you. And so these wise men most likely would have traveled in a large caravan.
So the story probably would have gone like this. They saw the star, and immediately they announced to people around them, if anyone wants to join us on this journey, and they made preparations and then they started the journey. And by the time they finally got to where they were going, Jesus would have been well over a year in age. And so Herod, he he knows this. And and he’s now threatened by this, and he comes into to Bethlehem in order to. Find Jesus because his intentions against Jesus are are ill intentioned. But but here’s what I want us to learn about these wise men. And this is the very end of point number one for you, is that the the wise men think Jesus is worth the cost. You think about how far the wise men had to go just to be near Jesus. It took them several months, if not more than a year, to get to Christ in order to meet him. And for us today, I think it’s a beautiful lesson to think about the extent that you’re willing to go in order to worship Jesus. Now, I’m not a pastor yesterday, and I’ve I’ve heard every excuse under the sun. It’s too cold. It’s too hot. I’m too tired. You know, there’s all these different things that we can just put before our comforts, before just worshiping Christ. And. And here you have in this story, these wise men that were willing to travel, put everything on pause in their life just to go on this journey for the opportunity to possibly meet Christ.
I mean, they had no idea when they got there whether or not it could necessarily transpire, but they knew God was doing something and they wanted to be a part of it. And the extent that they were willing to go in order to worship Jesus, it would have been incredibly inconvenient. But for them, it was worth the cost. They were willing to take the journey. Point number two in your notes and ask this question where did they go? We know ultimately they ended up with with Jesus, but immediately that’s not where they went. Well, we find in Matthew chapter two verse one, when they started to make this journey, they they went to King Herod. And the next question notes, that’s the answer is where did they go? They went to King Herod. And we look at that story. We could ask the question, why in the world would you go to King Herod? King Herod hated Jesus. That makes no sense. Why would you want to go somewhere to to an individual that hated Jesus, that was going to hunt Jesus and ultimately had ill intent towards Jesus? Why would they go to King Herod? And the answer is very simple. The wise men knew that they were looking for royalty and seeing the star, it only made sense to go to the place where royalty lived to ask the question, Where is Jesus? But what’s incredible is that upon arrival to Herod’s palace or castle, they discover that Jesus isn’t there.
Rather, Jesus is a different kind of king. Rather than to be born in a palace with a king, Jesus chose to be born in a manger with animals rather than to to go before the religious leaders. Jesus was born to a young lady, uh, rather than be born among the wealthy. Jesus was born in poverty. Rather than announce his arrival to the elite, Jesus announced his arrival to the shepherds. In fact, in Luke chapter two, if you were to read the Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke, the angels tell the shepherds something very interesting. In Luke chapter two, they tell the the, the angels announced to the shepherds, uh, go look for Jesus in Bethlehem. You will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes. And you know what’s interesting about swaddling clothes? Um, in Jesus’s day, it was common when people would travel like Joseph and Mary, when they were traveling to to Bethlehem for the census. During the time that the that Caesar wanted to count the people for tax purposes, they would have typically walked with what? What’s referenced as swaddling clothes? That would have been a strip of cloth.
They would often wrap it around their waist like it was a belt. They would use it for all sorts of things when they traveled. One could be if someone got an injury or or if someone passed away, you could mummify a body. You could wrap a body in this swaddling strip of cloth. But but for the the shepherds, what was interesting was swaddling cloth. For them. They would uh, a particular where Jesus was born. Most likely these shepherds would have been in charge of lambs that were used for temple sacrifice. It was their responsibility to keep those lambs pure, spotless, without blemish, no injury. And so when a lamb was born, in order to protect it, they would carry it around in a swaddling cloth. They would wrap it up to preserve it, protect it, to keep it from blemish and injury. They didn’t want it to fall and get hurt because it couldn’t be used for temple sacrifice. And so for the shepherds to walk into a manger, to see Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloth would have been incredibly symbolic. Here is the lamb coming to give its life. It would have been a very unique way to identify Jesus that would have connected to those shepherds. And an interesting concept as it as it would reflect the idea of a lamb being sacrificed for for the temple. But rather than go to King Herod and discover Jesus, what they find is Jesus is a different kind of king.
That Jesus was one to get in the grip, the, the grit and the and the the regular way of life. And so lesson number two for you is this Jesus is a a humble king. Jesus relates to you and to me. Could you imagine if he, if he was born in the with the elite, born with the wealthy, born with the among. The religious leaders, people would have seen that as a Jesus who was distant, a Jesus for them, not a Jesus for us. But the fact that Jesus was to come in the most humble of circumstances as a baby, in a manger, in poverty, just announced among shepherds. I think of if you’re a king of the universe, King of the world, king of all of creation, the way. If you were in charge of announcing your arrival to this world, what you might have picked, and Jesus chooses the most humblest of entrances into this world. Point number three. What did they do when they found Jesus? Well, Matthew chapter two, verse nine. We read this last night together. It says this after they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gold and frankincense and myrrh. You know, when they arrived to Jesus. And the Bible very clearly says they worshiped, which is an incredible act. If you’ve ever met a toddler. What would it take for you to ever worship a toddler? You know, they that is the most me centric. You know that you can be in life. If you’ve ever seen a toddler fit, you’re thinking, man, this kid I like, but but here they are walking into this, this manger where Jesus was found, or who knows what kind of dwelling necessarily Jesus could be in at this point. But but they they worship a toddler. I mean, what that speaks about who Jesus is and the identity that they understand Christ represents. Emmanuel. God with us. And so lesson three in your notes is this Jesus is worthy of our worship. Jesus is worthy of our worship. Wise men still seek him. And this is what you see in this story, these these leaders, these would have been elite people from the location that they were from. They they were certainly wealthy people traveling with gold, frankincense and myrrh. And here they are, leaders from the East, journeying all the way west in order to meet this toddler, to worship him, speaking volumes to the significance of who Christ is.
So why would God tell us this? Let me give you just a couple practical ways to relate this to our lives. One, when the wise men connected to the Lord, when they worship God, God directed their lives. In fact, the very next verse tells us this. And after being warned, the wise men being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. Here’s what it’s saying. When the wise men entered into worship of Christ. Um, God started to direct their hearts and lives when they were willing to bow to Jesus. The Lord is leading them in where to go, even in moments of difficulty or danger. God is directing their lives, and so it’s an encouragement for us and coming to the Lord and seeing the significance of who Jesus is this time of year. When you surrender your life to the Lord, God wants to direct your life in him. But point number two, not everyone at Christmas is connected to Christ. You saw this with with Herod. His intentions for for Jesus were not pure. Herod saw Jesus as a threat. And so rather than worship Jesus, he he desired to kill Jesus, and he desired to push Jesus away from his life. And and the same thing could be true with us. And a holiday season like this go through all the acts of Christmas and and ignore Christ.
The very point of what Christmas should should be about. And here’s here’s one of the things I love about our church. Um, we we we put reverence in the word of God. Right. Like you come here next week, we’re going to be in Genesis chapter 21, and you come here the week after that. We’re going to be in Genesis chapter 22, because we want to learn the Word of God. We don’t want to be ignorant to the Word of God, the truth of God’s Word, and what it means for us. But but here comes the danger in this. We can mistake our spirituality with simply head knowledge. You can know all kinds of things about God’s Word. You can be great at biblical trivia, but still be so far from God. Our challenge isn’t intellectual worship, although we certainly want you to know that God’s Word can is intended to use your mind. The battle we face is much deeper than just in our heads. It’s in our hearts. It’s the will of our lives. And we teach you all the biblical truth that that’s contained in Scripture. That’s probably not possible, but we’ll spend the rest of our lives learning biblical truth in Scripture, intellectually assenting to the Lord. But we can still be in rebellion in our hearts. And so as much as we want to Revere the Word of God and saturate our mind in the truthfulness of of who he is, we also want to make sure it takes that 18 inch journey from our mind to our heart, and that we engage him in worship, that our lives would surrender to Christ with all that we are.
You know this, this morning, if I were to present to you a basketball, you know, I could maybe impress you with a basketball for a couple of seconds. I could spin it on my finger, I could dribble behind my back or something like that. But can I tell you a basketball in my hands is worth about as much as a basketball? If you bought it off the shelf at Walmart, um, put a basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands and it’s worth millions of dollars. If you were to give me a paintbrush, a paintbrush in my hands, I’m no Bob Ross. It’s worth about as much as a paintbrush. But you put it in someone’s hands, like Da Vinci or Michelangelo or Rembrandt, and it’s worth millions of dollars. And the same thing is true with your life and mine. My life just given over to me. It endures as much as I have breath in my lungs. And when I’m done, you, you kind of forget about me. But. But put it in God’s hands and it lasts for eternity. Because what we do in Jesus endures forever.
And the beauty of this, this gospel story of in the book of Matthew is to remind us, here you have King Herod, and here you have the wise men. And the difference between them is the surrendering of their will, not just knowing where Jesus is. King Herod knew where. Jesus was. Bible tells us in Matthew chapter two, verse six that when Herod is told that King Jesus was born, he immediately goes to the Old Testament. He calls on religious leaders and says, let’s go to the Old Testament prophecy so we can learn when how this Jesus is going to arrive, when this Jesus is going to arrive, like Herod went to the Old Testament to learn about Jesus. But Herod still rejected Jesus. And the same is true for us. We could be here this morning learning all about the knowledge of God, but it still never traveled to our heart. So let me encourage you this Christmas season, and I know if you take time out of your morning to worship the Lord during the Christmas holiday, your heart is to honor Christ. But can I encourage you this year to keep honoring Christ? To not just a holiday, but make it about something that you do every day, because God wants to do a work in you that endures forever.
This message has been brought to you by Alpine Bible Church in Lehi, Utah. If you’d like more information, please visit us online at alpine Bible.com.