Wisemen and Herod

Matthew 2:1–12 (NIV)

The Magi Visit the Messiah

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 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. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Have you ever been told news about something and you loved it but you knew others hated it?

Or the otherway around, where you hated it but you knew others loved the news.

This past week I was talking to my 5 year old son Liam and he brought up how he did not want to go to school this past Friday

And he brought it up like the week leading up to Friday

And so Finally I went Liam why don’t you want to go to school this Friday?

And the reason was because it was his schools Polar Express day and they were watching the Polar express and he said he really did not want to watch the polar express.

But you know some people love that movie and their are other people (like my son) who absolutely hate it.

Its almost like the nightmare before Christmas, some people love it others go what it the world am I watching.

Apple products- some people love Iphones, and Apple laptops and then the people who do not think they are trash.

Long John Silvers- I am convinced There is a secret society that keeps long John Silvers in business, because to some people fast food sea food is an amaazing idea, other people that is a little firghtning.

Snow- some of us love when you turn on the news and they say its about to snow, while others we turn on the news and see that and scream,

But you know today the story we just read is a story where we are told about this news about this baby named Jesus being born

And we are told about two other people in this story (the magi or wisemen and then Herod), And really where we are centering this morning.

Because both of these people are high in society and have power, and in a sense they are deciding how are they going to respond to this news about a new king that is born?

And whats interesting, is their responses could not be anywhere further, because on one side you see there response as seeking this new king and surrendering, but then on the other side you see them doubling down to try and keep their power.

And really the question we are going to get into today is what is our response to this news?

Is it to double down or to draw near and surrender.

Because the truth is even if you go to church or have been in a relationship with Christ its amazing how often we push away instead of drawing near.

And so we are going to just be disecting this story, starting with the Magi.

Because we are told about these magi that came from the east, and a lot of scholors believe that thes Magi either came from Persia or Babyloin.

and Magi were people who were austronomers, and not just that but they were often know for sorcery.

In fact we get our modern word Magician, from Magi.

And so these guys are not probably not Jews and so the interesting part of this is you kind of wonder how did they know this star was significant?

Its almost like how we were at storytime with the kids aat the library and all the sudden in the middle of the story this loud beeping is going off.

And so I am giving this guy a little bit of a dirty look, like come on you can’t turn off your phone.

Until I heard him say he had to go because he was a firefighter and had to go put out a fire.

Yeah I felt great.

But thats kind of the situation here. I mean how would they know?

And whats really interesting is that most scholars believe this is because roughly 500 years ago there was this guy named Daniel (if you have been in the church you might know the story of Daniel and the lions den)

And whats neat is Daniel eventually oversaw all of the Magi

And so he most likely would have taught them about the Bible, and even this prophecy in the Old Testement about a star and so whats amazing here are these guys 500 years ago, and this was passed down to these guys in this story.

And this is a really quick side note, but can I just say, you will never know the impact that you make on peoples lives when you are being faithful, because here are these Magi, that would have had no idea about this baby being born, if it wasn’t for this guy 500 years ago who was being faithful to God.

And so on one hand you have these Magi and they go to Jeruselum, this place of power (and you think this is where a new king would be right?)

And I know this is a lot of description, but I really want us to understand this picture,

Because another misunderstanding is that there were 3 Magi, but really there were just 3 gifts, there may have been hundreds of them,

and not just that but Magi, were known to be the people who would choose the next king in Persia.

And so you have these hundreds of powerful king makers coming to Jeruselum, and they talk to Herod.

And Herod was a king with Power, but he was also a person that was know to be a terrible person.

Herod had killed his wife.

Not just that but he killed his two sons because he was scared they would steal the throne from him.

There were sayings at this time that it was safer to be Harods Pig then his son.

And then finally just so we can understand exactly how awful Harod was, he knew no one liked him, and so one thing he did as he got older, he actually arrested many of the high up nobles that made an impact in the society, and he actually ordered that when he died that his officials would execute these Nobels,

Because this way people may not be sad about him dying, but people will mourn when he dies.

And on top of all of this he proclaimed himself king of the Jews.

So I know this is like endless information but I want us to really get this picture.

On one hand you have these potentially hundreds of guys who are king makers

And on the other hand you have this wicked king that gets jealous easily and they come to this guy saying we are looking for the one born king of the Jews, because we want to worship Him.

And you can picture Harod fuming, and he makes a plan he tells them to find him and report back.

And the Magi do not

But they go and they follow this star

And I know I already read this but look at verse 11-12 because it says:

Matthew 2:11–12 (NIV)

11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

So the Wisemen give these gifts

They gave gold- which symbolized Jesus’s kingship

They gave Frakensense which was an expensive perfume that was burned during worship and even offered during sacrafices

And then the last gift was kind of the odd gift where you go “who thought of this?!”

Because Myrh was an embalming fluid.

If you have a baby you probably do not want to have embolming fluid.

But this is actually what Jesus would have had placed on him after He died on the cross.

And I want to point out something amazing, because these Magi were not Christians, but they knew they were invited and the beautiful thing is they knew that this King, would change their lives, they knew that he would be a sacrifice, and they may have even recognized parts of Jesus’s death,

But then their was this guy (Herod) who is the self proclaimed king of the Jews who misses all of this.

Can I just say what if God is doing something big in our lives and we miss it?

Because I think to often our lives are so busy that we miss what God is doing and we catch oursleves so busy in bulding our own kingdoms that when God is doing something amazing, but it conflicts with our kingdom, we kick back.

Its kind of like how me and the kids love magna tiles, and sometimes I get this big idea on what I want to build and the kids have their idea

And I get a little frustrated, because I go really I have a cooler idea

And then eventually I make this realization of oh yeah I am not building my thing, I am here to be a part of building what my kids want.

And I think to often we forget what we are trying to build.

This morning as we tie everything together, what does it look like to lay down the things that maybe have some sort of hold on our lives to the point where we realize its pulling us away from God.

Because I love this quote from another pastor that I heard, but its basically that at the very end it says the wisemen returned through a different route.

And he goes I know this is a litteral phrase they litterly went home a different way to avoid Harod.

But he said I love it because also their lives were heading a completely different was.

And they would be completely changed, because they came and worshiped Jesus.

What does it look like to come and see this savior, because we are changed.

Will you pray with me?