Matthew 2:1-12

Welcome again everyone, whether in PERSON here at PARKER, or JOINING US ON-LINE, My name is Joe Riccardi and I have the great honor of leading this church along with a great staff and team of elders. Thanks for joining us on the 4th Sunday of Advent as we gather to point our heart in worship of our King Jesus Christ, this Christmas. We hope this morning’s gathering will be a blessing to your worship of God and for others to plant a desire to want to know the one we love and follow, who gave his life for us and loves us!

NOW Worship is something familiar to all of us gathered here. No one here needs a tutorial on how to worship.No one here is not a worshiper. We all know how to ASCRIBE WORTH TO THAT WHICH WE ESTEEM! OUR HEARTS ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BEHOLD AND TREASURE SOMETHING! It might FAME, it might be SEX, it might be MONEY, it’s something for all of us.

“We may not call it “worship”, but isn’t that exactly what we’re doing when we sit down in the early evening and end up giving the REST of our night to a new show on Netflix? Isn’t that what we’re doing when we compulsively searching for the next deal on our Amazon app? Or on Wednesday I find myself, I mean you find yourself seeing who has signed w/ your school.....Isn’t that what’s happening when you “swipe right” to the next image (tinder reference)? We may not call it worship, but the human heart is hardwired to give itself away! We give ourselves—our time, money, attention, and affection to something. And we might not call it worship…but all of us will bend the knee to someone or something.”

And by you being here today you have some understanding that our desire as we gather is to POINT OUR HEARTS TO worship THE TRIUNE GOD, FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT. AS CHRISTIANS WE COME TOGETHER IN THIS HOUR FOR THE PURPOSE OF WORSHIP! WE WANT SOMETHING TO BE TAKING PLACE IN OUR HEARTS THAT AT ITS ESSENCE IS WORSHIP THAT IS PLEASING TO GOD!!!

The question then because what does this look like?

What ought to be happening even in this next week as we prepare to celebrate Christmas on Saturday!

Today we are looking at a very familiar Christmas text. For some this will be the 1st time it is being read into your hearing. Regardless I hope we can come with a sense of expectation and open heart to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us, to have a posture of desperation to want to hear a word from GOD.

The story of the wisemen coming from the East is a precious part of the Incarnation narrative.

And in this account we will have our 1st encounter of the GOSPELs with a people who POINT US TO THE QUESTION I JUST POSED-WHAT DOES IT LOOK

-WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO RIGHTLY WORSHIP GOD!

WE WANT THE SPIRIT TO ILLUMINATE OUR HEARTS AFRESH SO THAT AS WE ENTER this CHRISTMAS WEEK WE MAY NOT MISS WHAT CHRISTMAS BECKONS FROM EACH ONE OF US!

Let me pray before we dig into our text for today and see what God what have for us.

PRAY

Open your Bible with me or devices or you can follow on the screens, we are in the GOSPEL of Matthew, 2nd chapter, let’s unpack the 1st 8 verses to set some context for where we will clearly see.

SLIDE #1

Matthew 2:1-8

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.”

VERSE 1 ALONE- we are introduced to 3 significant parts of the account before us

Immediately our attention is drawn to BETHLEHEM of JUDEA, a city located 6 miles south of JERUSALEM. This small, dare we say insignificant town in Israel had played a significant role in Israel’s history. If you recall the story of RUTH which we will preach on this next May, we would find how RUTH had married into a family from BETHLEHEM. And RUTH’s GRANDSON would be the most famous KING of the OLD TESTAMENT, KING DAVID who would also be from BETHLEHEM. However by the time JEsus was born, Bethlehem was regarded as nothing on the map of Israel.

And as quickly as we are drawn to Bethlehem we are introduced to the fact that JEsus was born in the days of KING HEROD of JUDEA.

HEROD was a ruthless KING, born in 73 BC and at the time of Christ’s birth he was at the very end of life and nearing the end of his 40 plus year reign.

It was this HEROD who had begun in 20BC the work on the temple in Jerusalem that we would read about in Jesus’s ministry years.

But more than this, we also know that Herod the great had a strong reputation for paranoia. In fact, ancient historians understand that most of his building projects were nothing more than massive political stunts to keep the people under his control in good favor…he was always worried about an overthrow of his power.

Like many of the political leaders of the day, he was an empire man. His loyalty was to the Roman empire and his goal was to expand the Roman empire…and for him to remain in power within the Roman empire. Not to mention the murder of his wife and two of his sons!

When he learned of the birth of the CHILD OF PROMISE, the KING OF THE JEWS had been born in BETHLEHEM, he had all the male babies 2 years and under be killed in Bethlehem. WE are talking a real wicked man and ruler during which the time our Savior entered the world.

And then on the scene appears wise men, we don’t the #, which kind of wrecks havoc on a popular Christian hymn, WE THREE KINGS FROM ORIENT AFAR but regardless we are told these men appear. A look into your ESV Bible study notes reveals these were the kind of men whose practices included astrology, dream interpretation, study of sacred writings, and the pursuit of wisdom and magic. We don’t know exactly where they came from—only that it was from somewhere out East. Probably from the Persian empire.

Let me show you a picture just so you get an idea of where this all is.

That said…what’s more significant about these men to draw attention to, not where they are from but to highlight where they are NOT from…Israel. They are not Jewish… they are gentiles…or from the non-Jewish nations of the world.

What a bizarre addition to the story right? God would be leading these kind of people to where the KING of the universe, the long awaited MESSIAH had just been born and revealing HIMSELF TO THEM? IS that who you would pick?

Might I suggest two reasons why this is?

First these men are a literal ultimate fulfillment to an OT prophecy found in Isaiah some 700 years prior to the birth of Christ:

​​“Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult…the wealth of the nations shall come to you…they shall bring gold and frankincense, and bring good news.”

Isaiah 60:5-6 Is not our text the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah

But there is a 2nd purpose, and that purpose has to do with the identity of this child that was born. The Lord is bringing religious/political leaders from the nations to to come bow down at the feet of this child What we see here is the un-foldings of the promises of the GOSPEL that Jesus Christ, born a child in Bethlehem, would not only be a SAVIOR for the JEWISH PEOPLE but also bring salvation to the nations, for the GENTILES, people like I suspect most of us in this room. Symbolically we see in these wise men coming onto the scene to worship Jesus, a preview of the mission JESUS would be on-to see every tongue tribe and nation come to WORSHIP HIM! What they began, what we would see right here in Matthew 2 would be a preview of what the mission of the church would be-that all peoples would come and find the SAVIOR to WORSHIP HIM!

THOUHGT???? THEY CAME SEEKING-Jesus mission is to seek and save the lost. LUKE 19:10 ZACCHEUS

SLIDE:

“This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. His aim is that the nations—all the nations (Matthew 24:14)—worship his Son. This is God’s will for everybody in your office at work, and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23 says, “Such the Father seeks to worship him.” At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell”. The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell. But what is not different is that the purpose of God is the ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations, the reason the world exists.” John Piper

In v.3 the author the author quickly brings to our attention the reaction of KING HEROD to the pursuit of the wise men regarding the birth of JESUS.

We are told that KING HEROD was troubled when he heard this news.

For he knew this KING would present a rival to his throne, and thus must be removed.

And so we see him gathering all the religious leaders and scribes seeking to find out where this King can be found and they in turn go back to the Old Testament to show the fulfillment of a prophecy from the prophet MICAH some 700 years before the birth of Christ:

SLIDE:

“‘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.’”

Matthew 2:6 (taken from Micah 5:2).

For from you -BETHLEHEM

SHALL COME A RULER–JESUS CHRIST IS FROM BETHLEHEM

WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE

Any guesses on who might just fulfill this prophecy of being a RULER from BETHLEHEM WHO WILL SHEPHERD GOD’s PEOPLE? A unique theme of Matthew’s GOSPEL is that it his audience were Jewish Christians and he continually cites OT SCRIPTURE to prove to them how Jesus is the fulfillment of OT prophecy.

After this encounter with HEROD , the wise men are sent off and then we read this encounter they have with the child Jesus:

SLIDE:

Matthew 2:9-12

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.

The same star we read about it in verse 2, now guides them to where Jesus was to be found.

And it’s really in these verses here we read of a blueprint on WORSHIP, WORSHIP THAT IS PLEASING TO OUR GOD. I see 3 essential elements of it, at least from these verses.

1st in

V.10:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

ONE ELEMENT-OUR WORSHIP IS MARKED BY JOY!!!

REJOICED EXCEEDINGLY WITH GREAT JOY.

Before even laying their eyes on this promised RULER and SHEPHERD AND MESSIAH, the SPIRIT is moving in them stirring emotion at the anticipation of laying their eyes on the KING!!!!

And we today are invited into the same joy experience over not the baby Jesus, but the KING JESUS WHO RULES AND REIGNS at God’s right hand. GOD WANTS JOYFUL WORSHIPERS and this story in the opening chapter of MATTHEW INVITES US TO PRAISE, to EXPERIENCE ABOVE ANYTHING WE COULD RECEIVE THIS CHRISTMAS, ANY GIFT, THAT JESUS IS BETTER. HE WILL NOT BROOK ANY RIVALS TO ANYTHING CREATED and so right here we are being CALLED TO BE REALLY REALLY REALLY GENUINELY AND TRULY HAPPY ABOUT THIS KING!!! RAISE YOUR HANDS, CLAP YOUR HANDS, MORE THAN ANY JOY A FOOTBALL RECRUITING CLASS COULD BRING YOU-all MY AGGIE and BAMA FANS AND BUCKEYES, or a NEW LEXUS, or a new relationship, we are being directed by these WISE MEN TO TAKE THEIR CUE and REJOICE OVER JESUS!!!

PLEASING WORSHIP COMMANDS OUR AFFECTIONS. We don’t gather today as GOD’s people APATHETICALLY. THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION. I AM NOT GOING BEGRUDGINGLY GO TO SAPORI This afternoon and having to eat FRIED CALAMARI, and PUMPKIN RAVIOLI and ANTHONY'S FAMOUS BREAD PUDDING just b/c I have to. I am going with jOY and anticipation. HOW MUCH more to the house of GOD should we come with JOY and ANTICIPATION.

Then when they identify the house where the baby lay, can we pause for a moment. You ever wonder what that feeling must have been like. Did they knock on the door? Did Joseph open the door to let them in? Did Mary open it with the baby Jesus in her hands?

HEre is what we are left wondering, what they do when they encounter the baby JESUS which is our 2nd component of our worship:

HUMILITY

v.11 b shows to us-and they fell down and worshiped him.

We are not left to wonder what their reaction was upon seeing him. For they fell down and worshiped him!! THIS WAS NOT A TYPICAL REACTION we have when we meet a baby-CAN I HOLD HIM???? OH MY GOSH look how cute he is.

Doesn’t that just give you the chills if you would just allow yourself to enter into the story. U ever have the close of an encounter with the risen Lord to which you fall on your face in worship? Where he is just so real to you, where you get a glimpse of his greatness and majesty and love and grace, where all you can do is bow in humble adoration and declare how great is our GOD.

WHEN YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED NOT THE BABY, but the RISEN JESUS CHRIST, you too, me too, will have moments when we fall on our faces in a posture of humility and worship! When Jesus becomes more than just an idea in your mind and mine, when he becomes so real to us, so close to us, we will bow in humble adoration and worship HIM. The more the eyes of our heart can get glimpses of HIS GREAT LOVE AND GRACE, the greater degree of the intensity of our worship will be and the deeper our humility will be.

And as I say that, not thinking, it will mean we will all raise our hands when we sing, or clap our hands like I often do. THOUGH THAT MAY BE AN AFFECT FOR SOME. But I am thinking that eyes of our hearts are grasping more and more the fullness of GOD, the wonder of HIS LOVE, the sweetness of His fellowship, THE GENTLENESS of HIS HEART.

AND TO KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD. Isn’t that what you want more than anything this Christmas? If in our worship of CHRIST, the HOLY SPIRIT would fill us with more and more of the FULLNESS OF GOD? DO YOU CATCH OUR TRINITARIAN WORSHIP? As we worship JESUS CHRIST, our SAVIOR, THE HOLY SPIRIT IS AT WORK FILLING US WITH MORE AND MORE OF GOD!

One more ELEMENT we learn about worship from these verses.

First, It COMMANDS OUR JOY

Second, we respond in OUR HUMILITY

Third, It REQUIRES OUR GIFTS! CAN WE DO A 2nd PASS OF THE OFFERING ABOUT NOW!!!! :)

Then we read they present their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. There have been many suggestions of what these gifts represent. GOLD fitting for a KING, Frankincense for a GREAT GOD, and MYRRH as a foreshadowing of Christ’s death since it was often used as a burial spice. That all sounds good to me! But it does beg the question what gifts are we to bring that would please our KING?

My mind goes to the Psalms and Romans 12

Psalm 51:16-17

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Romans 12:1

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

SLIDE:

“Well, what then do the gifts mean? How are they worship? The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it’s a way of saying something like this:

The joy that I pursue is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things in the hope of enjoying you more, not the things. By giving to you what you do not need and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, “You are my treasure, not these things.”

I think that’s what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

May God take the truth of this text and waken in us a desire for Christ himself.” John Piper, “The Dawning of Indestructible Joy.”

THAT’s what we see what WORSHIP LOOKS LIKE THAT IS PLEASING TO OUR GOD!

make it personal here by taking the point you just made above, slowing down looking them in the eye, and asking them as their pastor if this is true of them.

“And so I ask you now, is this true of you? Are you rejoicing in Jesus? Is your heart aflame with the wonder of the incarnation, and the joy of Emmannuel, Christ with us. Or have you allowed yourself to be busied and distracted by that which cannot save, by that which cannot fulfill or satisfy…

This then becomes your setup for “Why we so often struggle to do this well… which is what you talk about next.

SO IF THIS IS GOING TO BE HAPPENING IN YOUR LIFE AND MINE, there is a foundational question we have to answer first and we can take it from this text:

WHICH KING DO I FOLLOW???

And it’s not an easy question to answer, because it takes brutal honesty with ourselves…which King do I follow? WE HAVE TWO PRESENTED BEFORE US THIS MORNING!

You see, on our own, we have a very natural tendency to follow only one of these kings…and it’s not Jesus.

None of us would have say that we follow Herod, but we all drift towards following what he represents. He is the antikingdom…the antithesis of Jesus…an opposing king who looks for his own good…and in many ways, we don’t simply follow Herod…we become him. A king in our own rights. We set ourselves up as kings and queens of our own empire!

I remember what was happening with me when I came here in 1993 out of college at the invitation of a friend. I thought I was all good, if you would have asked me to believe in God, do I believe Jesus, I would have said yes. But as the Pastor then would put Christ before us and what His will is for those who trust Him, I realized every time, when Jesus’s will crossed my will, guess whose will won out every time? MINE. Jesus, you don’t tell me what to do w/ my body, sorry I know best. My money, no way. And I had this revelation while sitting in these seats that I was not a CHRISTIAN, nice guy, enjoy coming to church, you bet. Born again follower of Jesus, nope. What about you? WhenJesus’s will for your life comes up against your will, who wins out? WHO TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO? Which King do you bow to??? SEX and MONEY seem to be two of the primary areas of our lives where we can most easily diagnose which KING we bow before.

You see On our own apart from the SPIRIT we are like Herod. We are our own kings and queens…and without realizing it…and we end up as captives. And we find ourselves as slaves to this kingdom, which Scripture refers to as the ruler of this world! We don’t even have the possibility to bow to KING JESUS.

And we know in our hearts we were made for a different kingdom. We are made for a better kingdom, a kingdom not of this world.

And at the very center of the Christmas story is the good news that a different King has come…and a new King…a better king…the true King…and he is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

While we look out for ourselves…he is the kind of King who looks out for others.

While we seek to preserve ourselves…he is the kind of King who gives his life.

He is the kind of King who had every reason to turn his back on humanity…because on our own, we have declared war on his kingdom! In our sin we push back against the King of kings…but instead of turning away…Jesus shows us that He is the rescuer…the better king…the true king… by stepping into our place and doing what we could not do on our own! WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS ROMANS 5 CHRIST DIED FOR US.

The first time Jesus is called King of the Jews is when these Wise men come and look for him in our passage today… but friends, at the end of this Gospel while on the cross, he was HAILED KING OF THE JEWS, this time by mockers who spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

WHAT A PUBLIC display of the depth of his love and care…when he shows the most kingly thing about him…at his Crucifixion....his death on a cross…our behalf…in our place…for our sin.

So that by faith in Him…in his Death and Resurrection from the dead…we could be freed from our sin…we could be freed from ourselves…no longer captives in our own kingdoms…but living new life in the true kingdom…under the right King with a WORSHIP THAT IS MARKED BY JOY BY HUMILITY and BY OUR LIVES

So to my brothers and sisters in CHRIST let’s this day take a stand as this year comes to a close and as we are on the brink of 2022

Let’s take the enduring truth of this story wise men who come to find Jesus, as those now who have been found by HIM, and are sent out to the EAST to everywhere all we can go on mission to invite others into His kingdom, under His reign, surrendered to His LORDSHIP. Might we have an opportunity even in this upcoming week to tell about our KING

And if you are today and you have come not as a Christian or the Spirit is doing a work in your heart helping you to see that the religiosity you have possessed cannot save you, may God use this opening story of worship that is pleasing before the King draw you to the love of God this morning in the face of Christ. Jesus says in John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life.

He gave his Son both at the incarnation and the cross, so that your SIN could be atoned for, that you would receive the FORGIVENESS he offers.

Luke 19:10, we read that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

I put before you Jesus Christ this morning ,for you to receive Him by faith, submit your life to His Kingship and rule and follow HIM and enter into His joy and peace and love. May GOD break every little king that rules in your heart and His grace grant you the faith to believe in JESUS CHRIST our great GOD, King, Savior, and FRIEND! AMEN!!!

Pray with me!