Seek the Star
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Matthew 2:1-2
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 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.”
Random question, to start: ‘why a star?’
Some people believe that these wise men were of a very different religious persuasion, one that saw ‘signs in the stars’ as teaching them things, telling them things. The bible forbade this kind of practice.
Some people believe this is a reference to Numbers 24:17
“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the people of Sheth.
The scripture doesn’t answer the question either way. I lean more towards interpreting it through numbers 24 - understanding the importance of a star by a reference in the scriptures seems more in line with the rest of the answers the Magi give through the story
Matthew 2:3-6
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 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. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“ ‘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.’”
The wise men believed the scriptures at their word.
They are very matter of fact about this. ‘Oh, he’ll be born in bethlehem. Because the scriptures say that’.
And you see that kind of strong faith in the new testament in Jesus, as well. Jesus once explained to the disciples that they were all going to abandon him after he as crucified. They denied it. But he explained: ‘No, you will for sure. Because the scriptures say, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattreed’.
And I know this sounds super obvious.... but do we practice that?
Do we live by the bible, or do we just take the good bits?
There’s many scriptures in the bible that are challenging. Living by the bible means, taking those hard parts, and actively trying to apply them to ourselves - even when it’s difficult.
Romans 5:3-5 says this:
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Do we try to apply this to ourselves? When we’re suffering for any reason, do we pray, ‘God, teach me how to rejoice, teach me how to see the character work you’re doing in my heart, and help me to build hope?’ Or do we only say, ‘ya, but, this suffering i’m going through - it’s unjust. It’s wrong. I shouldn’t have to go through this’.
I want you to understand my heart here. I’m not saying, ‘Don’t ever pray that God would lift suffering’.
I’m trying to draw attention to this key point here: that to live by the bible means to ALSO say, when we are suffering, ‘the scriptures also say we should rejoice when we suffer. So i need to do focus hard on that’. That when we suffer, we have two goals - to get through it, but to also take that opportunity to ask God to teach us how to rejoice during it.
And there’s lots of verses like this.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Living by the bible means saying to ourselves, ‘I believe that God’s going to give me the same measure I give others, so I need to make sure that I don’t judge, I give freely, I forgive often’.
1 John 3:17
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
Living by the bible means saying to ourselves, ‘It doesn’t matter if I have a good reason or not. If I see someone in need, and I have the ability to help, I need to help, to ensure that I can continue to have the love of God in me’.
And I’ll let you in on a secret. Doing it God’s way will not make sense to us a lot of times. They shouldn’t always look like the way we do things. God doesn’t think like us, or act like us. I think that, if God looks too much like us, and acts too much like us, maybe we’re not seeing God as clearly as we think we are.
And you know how I know that for sure? Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I hear that scripture, and I regularly check my heart. I regularly ask myself the question - ‘Do I think that I’ve got God down pat? That I can’t learn anything new, or do anything different?’ Because i’m just a man. God’s way of doing and understanding is so, so, so very much different and higher than my ways.
This is why I think change is SO integral to our faith journey. Because I think it’s arrogance to say that we’ve nailed down God’s ways 100%, that we’ve got a perfect handle on what he’s doing at all times. I think our journey as a people and as a church needs to be constantly asking God the question, ‘What do you want us t do? Do you want us to change anything?’
There’s a second part of the story of the wise men I wanted to highlight.
Matthew 2:9-11
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. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 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.
To the magi, worship meant two things.
First, it meant seeking God. And that meant a long trip for them.
Now, I don’t mean to say, you have to travel a long time before you’ll see God. But what I DO mean is this - that it’s going to take a lot more than a short prayer once a week to really find God. Connecting with God is a worldview, it’s something that shapes everything we do. It takes time every day. Prayer, reading, but also generosity, sacrifice, putting others first, taking up our cross. It takes a lot of work.
And the more work we put in - the better our relationship will get. Not because God is doing more - but because we are.
We don’t like the work aspect, but even Jesus pointed it out. In Luke 14, Jesus talks about how following him as a disciple is hard. He compares it to building a tower - that if you were to build a tower, you should sit down and count the cost, make sure you have enough to complete it. He says, if you’re not willing to do all of this, if you’re not willing to understand the cost and go fully in - you won’t be able to be my disciple.
And that ties into my second point.
Second, Worship meant bringing something to God. And it was costly.
Now, first off, I often wonder how much of our experience as a church globally is defined by what we receive, rather than what we give. Because, if you think about it - what marks a good church service? That you enjoyed it? that you got something out of it?
Imagmine if we said, ‘Man, that was a great church service - I was able to help out.’ ‘Man, I really enjoyed church today - I was able to lead a portion of it’. ‘Church was really good today! I was able to help out with ushering’.
I am not the kind of person that can just sit on my hands in church. I have to help. Even if i have no responsibility at all during a service (which hasn’t happened often in the last 10 years!), I’m still seeing if i can talk to people, greet people, help carry something or set something up, whatever. That’s church to me. Not the product - the process. The act of serving in order to tell other people about God.
But beyond that - worshipping God costs us. Because, like we said before, God’s nothing like us - but we’re trying to become more like Him. He’ll ask us for time. He’ll ask us for money. He’ll ask us for prioities. He’ll ask us to get off our thrones and give them to Him. Because he’s worth it, and he knows that true life can only be found in completely surrendering ourselves to Him and His majesty.
And this goes way beyond tithing. In fact, from a biblical perspective, it’s actually wrong to say tithing costs us anyways - the bible teaches that the tithe is God’s portion that HE gave to US, and WE give back. It’s not ours at all.
True worship should cost us, and it should cost a lot. And I think if we hold that as a priority, we can start to understand and experience God in great new ways. Not because we’ll lose a ton - because as much as it may cost us, God will outgive us, a million to one, easily - but because when we’re willing to put it all down, when we’re willing to say ‘I want to follow you God, and I’m willing to give everything up to do it’ - that’s when we’ve started to really align our hearts to Him.
