Wise Worship - Matthew 2:1-12

Introduction

What did the last wise man say as the others were getting ready to leave Mary and Joseph’s home? Wait, I have myrrh!

Christmas may be passed, but there is still “myrrh” to the story. Christmas actually doesn’t end on the church calendar until January 6th, which is the day of Epiphany. Epiphany is a word meaning, “manifestation,” or “appearance.” This is the day in which the church has traditionally celebrated the coming of the Wise men and the manifestation of Christ, not just to His own people, but to the Gentile nations as well. The nations, through the journey of the magi, have been invited to see and know that there is a Savior who has come to save us all from sin and to bring us back into right relationship with God.

This morning, I would like to take a few minutes to reflect on the account of the Wise Men in Matthew chapter 2.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew 2:1–12 (ESV)

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, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“ ‘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.’ ”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Here in this account of the narrative of the birth of Christ, we see different responses to the birth of Christ and we see examples of wisdom and foolishness displayed through the different characters mentioned here.

Here in this account, we have the Wise Men, Herod, the Scribes and Chief priests and the people of Jerusalem, which all respond to the news of this coming King.

When the Wise Men enter Jerusalem after their journey, they are going around asking for the location of this new king. The news travels around to everyone, including Herod, that these wise men are looking for a new born king of the Jews.

The question that must be asked is, What is going to be everyone’s response to this news?

Foolish People Worship Themselves

First, we will look at King Herod.

King Herod ruled over Judah from 37 to 4 BC.

He was Idumean, not Jewish, but he was installed as “King of the Jews” under Roman authority.

He was a master builder. It was under his reign that the Jewish temple regained much of its former glory that was destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it when he conquered Jerusalem.

However, he was also a brutal leader. He was so jealous of maintaining his position as King of the Jews that he slaughtered his wife, several sons, and other relatives, because he thought they were trying to take his throne from him.

The fact that he would kill young infants and toddlers to protect his throne is in keeping with his character that is well known through history.

Matthew 2:3 (ESV)

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

Why was Herod troubled by this news?

Herod was a man who was zealous for his own power and prestige. Did Herod really believe the wise men and the prophetic message that the chief priests and scribes relayed to him?

Whether this child was truly from God or simply a fable did not really concern Herod. He fought against any idea that there was another King of the Jews that was coming because that threatened his own power and self-exaltation. He would not allow any man, woman, child, or God threaten his right to rule.

The sad thing to all of this is, Herod died very shortly after the birth of Christ. He fought so hard to hold on to a throne that he could never keep.

Over the last several decades, we have begun to see a rise in the hostility of our culture to Christ. Our culture doesn’t mind the idea of God, as long as God keeps to himself and allows us to live the way we want.

But the rise of the New Atheism and the current moral revolution has shown a very hostile mindset to the existence of God and specifically to Christ Himself, because they know that if Christ is truly God then we do not have the right to determine what is right and wrong for ourselves, which flies in the face of our current cultural religious beliefs. We live in a time in which you can believe whatever you want, so long as you don’t interfere with the beliefs of someone else.

But however hard we might fight to exalt ourselves and to exercise our own autonomy, the fact remains that, if this child who was born 2000 years ago really is God in the flesh, then we are all answerable to Him and Him alone. It doesn’t matter how much we seek to determine our own sense of right and wrong, ultimately we will answer to God’s standard for right and wrong.

Listen to Matthew 23:12

Matthew 23:12 (ESV)

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

We can either fight against God seeking to exalt and rule ourselves and miss out on being a part of the greatest story this world has ever known, or we can humble ourselves and be lifted up by the God of all Creation.

he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose - Jim Elliott

don’t miss out on the gift of God’s presence with us because we are too consumed with our glory which will not be able to last

Foolish People Worship the World

The second response that we see is those of Jerusalem when Herod himself becomes troubled. Matthew 2:3

Matthew 2:3 (ESV)

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

The people of Jerusalem knew of Herod’s brutal rage and ferocity. They knew that whenever Herod felt threatened, bad things were soon to follow. It was not an unreasonable response from the people of Jerusalem that led them to fear what Herod might do. Again, his response later on to slaughter the children of Bethlehem was not out of character for him.

However, when we live our lives in fear of what the world might do, we can miss out on the great things that God is doing. The people of Jerusalem have been waiting for God’s Savior and Messiah to come. God had foretold the coming of this child through the prophets for ages, and yet when the people of Jerusalem hear the news of this “King of the Jews,” instead of excitement that the waiting might be over, they cower in fear.

There are people and forces in this world that are certainly fearful. There certainly are people who so hate God that they are willing to hurt and kill God’s people. And it is tempting to run and hide or to capitulate to the influence of those who hate God.

However, true blessing is found when we are willing to follow Christ in obedience in spite of the cost to ourselves.

Corrie Ten Boom’s father’s commitment to hide and protect the Jewish people during WWII.

Matthew 10:28 (ESV)

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The people of Jerusalem missed out on the blessing of Christmas because they feared Herod more than they feared and trusted in their God.

Many Christians and churches today are missing out on true blessing because they are fearing and worshiping the values of the world and culture around them. There is a fear of being on the “wrong side” of history and a fear of what society and the culture might say about them if they were to hold true to what God says is right and wrong rather than what the world has determined to be right and wrong.

Foolish People Worship Self-Righteousness

Next, we see in this account the response of the Scribes and the Chief Priests. Matt 2:4-6

Matthew 2:4–6 (ESV)

and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“ ‘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.’ ”

After Herod receives news of a prophesied King of the Jews, what does he do? He goes to the people who would know most about this promised King, the scribes and priests.

And when he goes to them, guess what? They knew the right answer. They knew the promised King would come from Bethlehem because of Micah 5:2

Micah 5:2 (ESV)

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

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.

Yes, they knew it! But what did they do with the information? Nothing. They did not follow the wise men out to Bethlehem, they did not go themselves to see if there was anything strange going on that would bring these Gentile pagans to Jerusalem looking for this King. From what we can tell, they didn’t even go out to look at the star that the wise men were following.

Why didn’t they respond to this potential news? Most likely, they got too comfortable with their knowledge of the Scriptures and their own self-righteousness that they forgot the reason why they had studied the Scriptures so diligently, and that is because they were sinners in need of a God who would save them from their sins. Their self-righteousness and their knowledge caused them to forget their need and to lull them into a complacency with where they were.

This is not a sermon arguing against the proper study of Scripture. We are called to study and learn all that we can. 2 Tim. 2:15

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

We are called to know God’s Word and to study it. Why? Because through God’s Word, we can learn the truth of who God is. For those who say, we do not need doctrine, we just need to love God, do not understand that we cannot love someone who we do not know.

If you love someone you will get to know them. And we get to know God through His Word. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well: John 4:23-24

John 4:23–24 (ESV)

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

We cannot just worship God however we want. God is a real person and He must be worshiped as He truly is, not how we want Him to be. If we worship God as someone we want Him to be, then we have created a god in our image and we are no longer loving and worshiping the One True God, even if we name him Jesus.

However, we do not worship God only in truth. We worship Him in Spirit as well, which means our hearts and affections must be turned towards him.

This is where the scribes and priests missed it. They knew all the right things about God and what He promised. They just lost the heart to love God enough to leave their comfortable places in Jerusalem to go down to Bethlehem to worship Him in spirit.

Our own religiosity and self-righteousness can cause us to miss out on what God has for us as well. We can get so comfortable in our knowledge of who God is or in our ability to do good things in our own strength and power that we forget that we are all sinners in need of a Savior, a God who has come down to rescue us from that sin.

Do not quit studying, but also as you study, do not lose your heart of love for God. Know that God has already loved you as you are and that you do not work to earn God’s love. We study and we obey because we know God does love us and has shown that love for us in the death of Christ on the cross!

Romans 5:8 (ESV)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Don’t miss out on Christ because you are working for something that you could never earn and that has already been freely given for you!

Wise People Worship Christ

I hope its been clear that there are many foolish ways to worship, but ultimately, it all ends up in the worship of self. We either try to exalt ourselves, protect ourselves, or trust in ourselves. But it all comes down to worshiping ourselves. And we as believers can still fall into each of these traps.

But there is a final type of worship that we see here in this passage and it comes from the most unlikely place, from a group a Gentile pagan astrologers.

How did these Gentile astrologers know about this promised King of the Jews. Most likely they came from the area of Babylon. And these wise men were called “Magos” in the Greek language, where we get our word for Magicians or Magi. Daniel and his friends were also considered a part of the wise men or magi of Babylon when they lived there. So, while it is unclear exactly how these wise men heard about this king, there’s a very good chance that they were at least exposed to the Jewish Scriptures because of the faithfulness of God’s people like Daniel and his friends. Because of their faithfulness to God, these Babylonians were coming to worship the one true God.

So now, instead of Babylon taking God’s people captive, God has captured the hearts of these Babylonians. One can say that those seventy sets of sevens that Daniel learned about in his prayer in Daniel 9, truly is coming to an end with the coming of this child.

So what does true worship look like? It looks like these wise men were willing to travel such a long way in order to see and express their love to this child.

Salvation is free and comes to us by grace through faith. But, while salvation is free, it is not cheap. Salvation comes to all those who are willing to take up their cross and follow Jesus - Matthew 16:24-25

Matthew 16:24–25 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

These wise men (and others) were willing to travel anywhere from 9 months to 2 years to find this child. They left the comforts of home in order to see and worship this newborn king.

We cannot work for our salvation, but when we experience salvation, we will be changed. We will not be satisfied with simply giving God one hour of our week and going about our lives the rest of the time. We will be given new hearts that will desire to give Him everything.

This is what Paul means when he writes to the Ephesians. Ephesians 2:8-10

Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

True worship is willing to lay everything else down in order to follow Christ. It is loving Christ, not simply with our lips, but with everything we are.

John 14:23 (ESV)

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

These wise men were wise, not because they were smart and the intelligent elite of Babylon, which they probably were. They were wise because they were willing to give all to follow and worship this child who is God in the flesh.

The greatest gift they gave to Christ was not the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, even though those also were a sign of the cost they were willing to give up to follow Him. The greatest gift they gave was their very lives to the God who came to save them!

Conclusion

As we begin a new year, let us recommit our lives to the One who has saved us, not out of a sense of trying to earn His love, but knowing that He loves us just as we are, and understanding that He came to die for us even while we were still sinners, let us, by the grace of God, follow after Christ by denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily.