Christmas POP QUIZ:
- The "Wise Men" were at the manger scene when Jesus was born. T | F
- The Bible says there were three Wise Men. T | F
- The Bible says the Wise Men rode on camels. T | F
- The Wise Men were kings. T | F
- The Wise Men were Oriental and Ethiopian. T | F
Intro:
- WISE MEN:
- CHIEF PRIESTS:
- HEROD:
Which Character Are You? (Matt 2:1-16)
- Herod: I'm King of my Life, not Jesus.
- Chief Priests: The King is born? Meh .
- Wise Men: I will Worship the king.
3 Things to Worship Like the Wise Men:
- Pursue Him
- Humble yourself before Him
- Give to Him
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
01:12-01:27
The title of our message tonight is "Don't Myth Christmas, Part 2." And I thought, what's a more fun way to start the message than with a Christmas pop quiz?
01:28-01:33
You're like, "Oh, man, we're done with school." Well, this is for fun.
01:34-01:42
And specifically, this pop quiz circles around the wise men we'll be talking about tonight.
01:42-01:44
And we'll make it even easier for you.
01:44-01:45
These are all true and false.
01:47-01:49
So you've got a 50/50 chance on all of them.
01:50-01:51
Alright, you ready?
01:51-01:55
Number one, the wise men were at the manger scene when Jesus was born.
01:57-01:59
No, no, no, you're supposed to write down your answer.
02:01-02:02
Do not look at your neighbor's paper.
02:05-02:06
Did you do that in school?
02:06-02:07
That would have been really cool.
02:09-02:13
Alright, from now on, write them down, and we'll check your answers.
02:13-02:14
Number two.
02:16-02:18
You could have been more clear, Pastor Jeff.
02:18-02:19
Yes, I certainly could have.
02:20-02:22
The Bible says there were three wise men.
02:22-02:24
Write down your answer, true or false.
02:26-02:27
Or shout it out either way.
02:30-02:30
(laughing)
02:34-02:37
Number three, the Bible says the wise men rode on camels.
02:38-02:40
Write it down, shout it out.
02:43-02:46
Make it a multiple choice question, whatever you want at this point.
02:46-02:48
Number four, the wise men were kings.
02:49-02:50
True or false?
02:53-02:54
That was my son.
02:59-03:00
I knew that.
03:01-03:09
I was hoping nobody else noticed, but since we're just shouting everything out, number five, the wise men were Oriental and Ethiopian.
03:10-03:11
Shout it out.
03:12-03:12
False.
03:13-03:14
(laughs)
03:14-03:22
The answer to all of these questions, which I imagine going much better in my head and during rehearsal when nobody was in here, the answer to all of these questions is false.
03:23-03:25
Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Pastor Jeff.
03:25-03:26
Hang on a second.
03:28-03:31
You know, number two, the Bible says there were three wise men.
03:31-03:35
Now, I thought that we knew their names, right?
03:35-03:37
Gaspar and Melchior and Balthazar.
03:38-03:41
Some people say, well, they represented Ham, Shem and Japheth.
03:42-03:43
Well, the Bible doesn't give the number.
03:45-03:47
We don't really know how many there were.
03:49-03:50
Like, well, hang on a second.
03:50-03:52
You know, number four, you said the wise men were kings.
03:52-03:55
Remember that song, "We Three Kings of Orion Are"?
03:56-03:56
Remember that song?
03:57-03:59
Remember good King Wenceslaus?
04:02-04:03
That's not in the Bible.
04:05-04:06
It's just not.
04:07-04:10
And that's sort of the point we're trying to drive home.
04:12-04:24
With the sermons called "Don't Myth Christmas." Because there is not a lot of material to draw from in the Bible regarding the birth of Christ, right?
04:24-04:30
The majority of the material is about His life and His teaching and His death and His resurrection and His second coming.
04:31-04:36
Very little material in the Bible about the actual birth of Christ.
04:37-04:47
And like a lot of true stories, over time, some myths get sprinkled in and those myths get taught as fact.
04:48-04:59
As I said, we're going to be talking about the wise men today, and I would put them somewhere We are near the top of the list of true stories that have had myths added to them.
05:00-05:11
Someone has said that much of what we think we know about the wise men comes from pictures on the front of Christmas cards than it does in the Bible.
05:12-05:13
And that's a true statement.
05:14-05:22
So, they're real people, but we don't want to myth Christmas, so we're going to get back to the source material.
05:22-05:52
Matthew 2. While you're turning to Matthew 2, I want to sort of introduce the characters because that's going to help us. We're going to go through this text rather quickly this evening. But to help us understand the text, I want to introduce the characters a little bit. We're going to be talking about the wise men. Who were these guys? Well, despite what you've seen at almost every nativity scene, they were not at the manger scene when Jesus was born. In fact, we're going to see that in verse 11.
05:53-05:57
When they showed up, apparently the family was settled in the house.
05:58-06:13
Right? And you're also going to see from the text that they were not there at the moment that Jesus was born. So who were they? They were Gentile priests that were associated with the people called the Medes, from the Medo-Persian Empire.
06:14-06:20
And they were known for being advisors to the king.
06:20-06:22
That's why they were called wise men.
06:24-06:30
And their beliefs were sort of a hybrid of astrology and astronomy.
06:30-06:33
It was sort of a hybrid of science and superstition.
06:34-06:37
And part of their job was to choose kings.
06:38-06:43
But at this particular point in history, they had no king.
06:44-06:50
But they wanted to be a major force in the east like the Romans were in the west.
06:50-06:54
So they were anxious themselves to find a king.
06:56-07:13
Well, due to Israel's exile, when the Jews were scattered and living among the Babylonians and the Medes and the Persians, these foreign people came to know a lot about Israel and Israel's scriptures, and the hope of the coming Messiah.
07:14-07:23
These foreign people groups came to know a lot about Israel because of their contact with Jewish people, especially during Daniel's day.
07:25-07:27
So that's a little bit about the wise men. Hold that thought.
07:27-07:31
We're going to talk about the chief priests and the scribes quickly.
07:31-07:33
They were the religious elite among the Jews.
07:34-07:36
They knew their scriptures backwards and forwards.
07:36-07:38
You're going to see that here in the text.
07:38-07:41
But something else to keep in mind is about Israel.
07:42-07:45
During this time of history, it was under Roman occupation.
07:45-07:49
The chief priests and the scribes basically ruled over Israel. Okay?
07:51-07:58
And the third secondary character that we need to talk about in this story is Herod.
07:59-08:01
Now Herod, he's an interesting guy.
08:03-08:09
Because he's the same guy who built a temple to God, but he killed babies.
08:10-08:16
He was known to give very generously to people he didn't know, but he would murder his own family members.
08:18-08:29
This man who was called the "King of the Jews" - we'll talk about that in a minute - he was completely paranoid, and he committed terrible acts of murder.
08:30-08:33
And he's an interesting study sometime, if you want to dig a little deeper.
08:35-08:38
History tells us Herod murdered his wife.
08:40-08:42
Herod murdered her mother.
08:44-08:46
Herod murdered three of his sons.
08:47-08:50
He and his brother-in-law drowned. That was a crazy story.
08:51-08:56
His uncle, his wife's grandfather, followers, soldiers, friends.
08:58-08:59
He was paranoid.
09:00-09:03
And if he thought you might be a problem, he would have you eliminated.
09:04-09:07
In fact, here's how crazy this guy was.
09:08-09:17
He had it arranged so that when he died, immediately upon his death, several prominent men in the community were executed.
09:17-09:18
Do you know why?
09:19-09:23
He wanted people to be sad when he died, but he knew they weren't going to be sad for him.
09:24-09:33
So at least if they were crying for somebody else, There was crying happening while he died.
09:35-09:36
That's the kind of person he was.
09:37-09:41
Caesar Augustus said it was safer to be Herod's pig than to be Herod's son.
09:42-09:51
Alright, so with that in mind with these characters, don't myth Christmas, let's see what the text actually says about these wise men.
09:51-10:06
Matthew 2 says, "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?
10:06-10:11
For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.'" Stop right there.
10:12-10:17
The verb tense, when it says they were asking where the King of the Jews was born, it's continual.
10:17-10:18
It means they kept asking.
10:18-10:20
They were going around Jerusalem.
10:20-10:22
"Hey, where was the King of the Jews born?
10:22-10:23
Where was the King of the Jews born?
10:23-10:25
We want to find the King of the Jews.
10:25-10:39
Where was the King of the Jews born?" Now based on the little bit that I told you about Herod, when he caught wind that some dignitaries from another land came looking for the King of the Jews, how do you think he responded to that?
10:40-10:46
Do you think he was like, "Oh, that's interesting." The King of the Jews was his title.
10:49-10:59
But notice in verse 2, they said, "We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship Him." What was this star?
11:01-11:26
Well, some people say, "Well, the star was Jupiter, lit up in the sky, it just worked out that way on the calendar." Some people say it was a comet or a meteor, and literally, the word just means "bright light." It could be translated "lightning." Like, "We saw His flash of lightning, have come to worship. What in the world was it?
11:28-11:48
Well, I believe, if you look at Luke 2, verse 9, the Bible tells us, it's a familiar story, but when the angels showed up to give the announcement to the shepherds about the birth of the Messiah, the glory of the Lord radiated around the angels, right?
11:48-11:55
You see that a lot in Scripture, the Shekinah glory, the light of the Lord? Think of Jesus' transfiguration.
11:57-12:04
Well, I believe that that was the light that these magi saw, that these wise men saw.
12:05-12:07
But here's something that I had to unlearn.
12:07-12:10
You talk about "Don't Myth Christmas." Here's something that I always thought.
12:11-12:14
And confess this if you thought the same.
12:14-12:15
You were awfully eager to shout out earlier.
12:18-12:30
So if you're in this boat with me, When I was a kid, I had this idea that that star that they followed was like a laser pointer and a cat.
12:30-12:35
I had this idea that God was like, okay, now come here.
12:36-12:37
All right, now come here.
12:38-12:38
All right, you're getting closer.
12:38-12:39
Now come here.
12:40-12:40
Now come here.
12:40-12:49
And I had this idea that the magi were like walking country to country, like following this light, like a cat following a laser pointer.
12:50-12:56
And you do a little studying here, you find that that's not exactly how that went down.
12:58-13:08
They saw the light, this flash of light, this radiance of God's glory, and they traveled to Jerusalem to investigate.
13:09-13:11
Now the question I had was, "Wait a second.
13:12-13:25
Okay, they knew some things about the Messiah, we know that from their interaction with the Jews during the dispersion, How did they connect that light coming from that direction with the Messiah?
13:26-13:28
How did they connect those dots?
13:30-13:30
Are you ready for the answer?
13:33-13:34
We don't know.
13:37-13:40
And Matthew, in writing this, didn't go into detail.
13:41-13:43
You know why Matthew didn't go into detail?
13:43-13:46
It's because this isn't a story about the wise men.
13:47-13:48
This is a story about Jesus Christ.
13:49-13:54
So, don't ask that question on Q&A day, because nobody really knows.
13:56-14:10
Okay, so they saw the light, and they somehow knew that that was connected to the Messiah of Israel, and they knew that the Messiah was connected to Jerusalem because of the Scriptures, so where better to start?
14:10-14:13
Let's go to Jerusalem and see what that light was about.
14:14-14:15
Okay, verse 3.
14:15-14:28
It says, "When Herod the king heard this," that they were looking to worship the king of the Jews, "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Herod completely lost his mind.
14:28-14:40
And when it says he was troubled, the Greek word doesn't mean that he was just nervous, like, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear this." He was shaking.
14:40-14:43
Like, he was so agitated and upset.
14:44-15:06
He was - a word that we would use is, "He was beside himself." And as you can imagine, again, remembering that list I gave you of Herod's close family members that he killed, when Herod was upset, it's not surprising the Bible says, "All of Jerusalem with him." What's he going to do?
15:07-15:09
He's violent and he's unstable.
15:11-15:21
Verse 4, "And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
15:22-15:32
They told him, 'In Bethlehem of Judea.' For so it is written by the prophet, 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.
15:32-15:42
"For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." So somehow Herod connected the dots.
15:43-15:51
These wise men were asking about the king of the Jews, and did you notice, Herod immediately was asking about where the Christ was going to be born.
15:51-15:52
He knew what was going on here.
15:52-16:10
Like, "Wait a minute, I know who they're looking for." So he assembles the chief priests and the scribes and says, "Hey, what do the Scriptures say about where the Christ is going to be born?" It's an interesting scene. It would be like President Trump calling John MacArthur to ask a Bible 101 question.
16:13-16:22
Verse 7, "Herod summoned the wise men secretly, and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
16:23-16:55
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." So Herod, again, troubled, hearing that there's people from another land looking for the King of the Jews, and, "Hey, wait a second, I'm the King of the Jews, who are they looking for?" And he finds out, "Okay, here's where they were supposed to be born, we found that out, and now we're trying to figure out when the Christ was supposed to be born." So Herod goes, "Okay, here's the plan.
16:56-16:57
These guys are looking for Him.
16:57-17:07
I'll say, "Oh yeah, I want to worship Him too, so let me know when you find Him." So he sent them off to Bethlehem.
17:09-17:12
I imagine as they were going, they were wondering how in the world they were going to find Him.
17:12-17:14
I mean, Bethlehem was a small town.
17:14-17:18
It wasn't like Shekorah small, but it was a small town.
17:19-17:26
You don't just roll up and say, "Hey, where was the baby born?" Well, God had an answer for that. Look at verse 9.
17:27-17:33
"After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them.
17:33-17:39
The star showed back up," look at this, "until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
17:40-17:44
And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
17:44-17:52
The glory of the Lord appeared again and literally highlighted Jesus' address." Isn't that awesome?
17:53-17:58
God's like, "Right here! Here's where He is!" Awesome.
18:00-18:00
Look at verse 11.
18:02-18:11
"And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him.
18:11-18:24
Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." Jesus was probably around six months old at this point.
18:25-18:32
At this point, these foreigners showed up to throw what was the weirdest baby shower ever.
18:35-18:36
But look at the gifts they brought.
18:36-18:43
It might seem weird to us, but when you stop and think about the gifts, they were all very significant.
18:44-18:45
First of all, they brought gold.
18:47-18:50
Gold is a gift appropriate for a king.
18:51-18:53
And they knew they were coming and looking for a king.
18:55-18:56
So they brought him gold.
18:57-18:59
Secondly, they brought him frankincense.
19:00-19:03
That was used in Old Testament worship on the altar of incense.
19:03-19:05
It was always burning.
19:05-19:10
And the smoke from the incense represents the prayers of God's people.
19:11-19:14
We talked about that briefly going through Revelation, didn't we?
19:14-19:16
that the incense smoke represents prayers.
19:17-19:20
Certainly much symbolism there concerning Jesus Christ.
19:21-19:28
But by far, the weirdest gift, at first, it appears the weirdest gift is myrrh.
19:28-19:29
Do you know what they used myrrh for?
19:31-19:32
Embalming dead people.
19:34-19:37
It was a spice used for embalming.
19:39-19:42
Now, I don't know what kind of goofy gifts you're going to get for Christmas this year.
19:43-19:53
But could you imagine giving birth to this child, and these people show up, and they say, "Congratulations, we brought you some formaldehyde.
19:56-20:03
Did you keep a gift receipt?" But you see, it's prophetic.
20:05-20:07
Not pathetic, it is prophetic.
20:09-20:12
Because that looks forward to the very reason that baby came.
20:12-20:18
And I know we don't like to think about this at Christmas time, but the reality is that baby came to die.
20:19-20:30
That baby came to suffer and die a horrible death on your behalf and on my behalf.
20:32-20:41
And that myrrh, that gift, was a God-ordained gift, looking forward to the reason He came.
20:42-20:44
Look at verses 12-16.
20:45-20:52
"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they (the magi, the wise men) departed to their own country by another way.
20:53-21:14
And when they departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remained there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.
21:14-21:18
This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt.
21:19-21:27
'I called my son.' Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious.
21:29-21:49
He sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, and in all that region, who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men." Obviously, all joking aside, this is horrific if we really stop and think about what happened here.
21:49-21:55
The government showed up at all of these people's houses.
21:56-22:03
Anybody that had a male baby two years or younger, and I believe Herod was just overshooting, I believe Jesus was about six months here, he wanted to be sure.
22:05-22:09
And look, you saw the kids' choir up here leading, they're going to be coming back up here in a couple of minutes.
22:10-22:14
Can you even wrap your brain around how vicious that is?
22:16-22:20
I mean, Herod knew roughly where he was going to be born because of the Scriptures.
22:21-22:24
He knew roughly when because of what he ascertained from the wise men.
22:26-22:30
that he just sent his people through there and said, "Look, you find a male baby two and under, you kill him.
22:31-22:43
Because I'm not going to have any competition for this King of the Jews title." Well, we started this by identifying three secondary characters who were in this account.
22:44-22:48
Herod, the chief priests, and the wise men.
22:50-22:56
As we close the message, I just want to remind you of the truth that you are one of the characters in this story.
22:58-22:59
So the question is, which character are you?
23:01-23:02
Which character are you?
23:04-23:07
Number one, if you're taking notes, are you Herod?
23:08-23:10
I'm king of my life, not Jesus.
23:12-23:13
Is that you?
23:15-23:23
Every year, every year, There's some group or another protesting something about Christmas, right?
23:24-23:26
You know what the latest was that I heard this year?
23:26-23:30
There was a school in Nebraska that banned candy canes.
23:30-23:31
Did you hear about this?
23:31-23:34
They banned candy canes! Do you know why they banned candy canes?
23:35-23:41
Because if you turn them upside down, they're in the shape of a J, and J stands for Jesus, and we can't have that in the school.
23:42-23:43
That's a true story.
23:45-23:49
It just gets dumber every year. It does.
23:50-23:53
But understand the root of it. The root of it.
23:54-23:59
It's not about the candy canes. It's about Jesus Christ.
23:59-24:03
Get rid of Jesus. Get rid of Jesus. Get rid of Jesus. Nothing new.
24:04-24:06
It all started with Herod.
24:08-24:12
He had the literal "Get rid of Jesus" campaign in the first century.
24:13-24:16
And Herod's story boils down really to one thing.
24:16-24:19
A self-proclaimed king scared to death of a baby.
24:20-24:21
That's Herod's story.
24:23-24:26
But you know, he was right to be concerned.
24:28-24:31
Because that baby became a man.
24:32-24:42
And about 30 years after this event, this man said things like this, "Deny yourself.
24:43-25:09
"Take up your cross and follow Me." That baby grew up to become a man who said things like, "Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sin." That baby grew up to become a man who said, "Whoever loses his life will find it." So Jesus Christ really is the biggest threat.
25:10-25:13
to anyone, to everyone.
25:15-25:18
Because when you encounter Jesus Christ, He goes right after your heart.
25:20-25:22
And the question is, who's going to rule your life?
25:24-25:26
Who's going to sit on the throne of your heart?
25:29-25:43
By nature, we say, "I do. Nobody tells me what to do." Well, Jesus says, "Your way is destroying you." Jesus says, "Come to Me for healing. Come to Me for life.
25:43-25:57
Come to Me and let Me change you." But when somebody would rather hold on to their sin than embrace Jesus Christ, they must eliminate Jesus.
26:00-26:05
By the way, you don't really eliminate Jesus Christ.
26:06-26:10
Oh, you can rebel. You can protest. You can debate.
26:10-26:16
You can try to drown Him out with the clamor of your selfishness.
26:16-26:20
You can try to crowd Him out with your sin.
26:22-26:24
But you're never going to eliminate Jesus Christ.
26:27-26:29
And like Herod, someday you will come face to face with Him.
26:32-26:46
Some people, if they're being honest, most identify with Herod in this account to say, "Hey, I'm the king, not Jesus." Number two, maybe you're one of the chief priests.
26:49-26:58
They said, "The king is born? Meh." I mean, think about it.
27:00-27:05
The chief priests and the scribes, more than anyone, should have known what was going on.
27:06-27:08
I mean, think about it from their perspective for a second.
27:10-27:15
Okay, the king calls you in because he's so rattled by something.
27:15-27:17
He says, "Hey, where's the Christ going to be born?
27:17-27:21
I need to know where the Christ is going to be born." Why do you need to know that?
27:21-27:43
"Because these people came from Medo-Persia and they're looking for Him." If you're one of the chief priests, wouldn't you be like, "Oh, tell me more about this." But they were like, "Oh yeah, Bethlehem, Micah 5, 2, peace out." Like, really? Really?
27:45-27:49
I mean, in their day, the chief priest - when we think priest, we think religious person.
27:49-28:02
But remember, in their day, the chief priest sort of ruled Israel under Rome's authority, And in this chapter of history, they were more concerned about their political position than they were spiritual matters.
28:03-28:04
Boy, does that sound familiar?
28:06-28:07
Does it sound familiar?
28:08-28:14
That people are more interested in politics and worldly things, and they just don't have any concern for the spiritual stuff.
28:14-28:15
Does that sound familiar to anybody?
28:18-28:21
And honestly, church, I think that's the biggest danger in our culture.
28:22-28:30
Because you're always going to have a few loudmouths barking their anti-Jesus stuff. You're always going to have those guys.
28:31-28:38
But much more so, you have people that just don't really care.
28:41-28:43
We go to church because it's part of the tradition.
28:45-28:47
It's part of the tradition like the trees.
28:49-28:53
I'm not looking at anyone in particular, but it's part of tradition, like the ugly sweaters.
28:56-29:03
But truth be told, if you were being completely honest, you would say, "You know, I really don't care about this Jesus stuff.
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I mean, I'll do the Christmas church thing. How much longer do you think He's going to talk?
29:09-29:23
This Jesus isn't part of my life in any real practical way." And if you can honestly assess yourself and come to that conclusion, then you're just like the chief priests in this passage.
29:24-29:29
"Oh, yeah, okay, sure." They should have cared more than anybody.
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But they didn't.
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Or, and this is my hope for you, maybe you're like one of the wise men, And we'll say, "I will worship the King." "I will worship the King." Garvis Bible Chapel, the last couple of weeks, we've spent a lot of time talking about worship.
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We've been in Revelation chapters 4 and 5, having a peek behind the curtain at heaven.
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And do you know what's happening in heaven?
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Like the same thing that's always happening.
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The King of the universe is being glorified.
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And as we look at this story and think, "You know what?
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Yeah, that sounds great in heaven, but what does it mean for me now, here on the earth, to worship?
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How can I worship?
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How can I make worship a priority?
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I just want to encourage you as I close, just do what the wise men did.
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There's really three things that they did here I want you to see.
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Number one, pursue Him.
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Pursue Jesus Christ. Seek Him.
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I love the diligence here of these wise men.
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They traveled a thousand miles from Persia to Jerusalem looking for Jesus.
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They traveled a thousand miles from Persia. Do you know what that means?
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That means you should never complain about driving to church again.
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But pursuing Jesus isn't about church attendance, right?
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It's about seeking Him in prayer.
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When was the last time you were on your face alone with God, crying out to Him in prayer?
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When was the last time that happened?
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Seeking Him means seeking Him in His Word.
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God's not going to shine His light over and address again for us to find Jesus, because God's given us a book so that we might find Jesus.
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And if you don't have one of these, take the one that's in the chair in front of you.
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That's our gift to you.
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But that's the means by which we have been given to seek Jesus Christ.
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Pursue Him with a community of believers.
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God doesn't call any of us to seek the Lord on our own.
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Get involved in a church full of authentic believers that are seeking the Lord.
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Pursue Him.
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I will worship the King, number two. How do we do that?
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Humble yourself before Him.
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Humble yourself before Him.
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Do you notice in verse 2, they said, "We have come to worship Him." Verse 11 tells us that when they saw Jesus, they fell down in reverence before Him.
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The word for "worship" in the Greek literally means "stoop to kiss." And it was the picture of what somebody did when they encountered the king.
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When you saw the king, you got down and you kissed the top of his foot as reverence.
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That's the word "worship." But that requires humility.
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So forget the elf on the shelf.
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Put yourself on the shelf.
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Because worship always starts with humility.
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Because He is God, and I am not.
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Humble yourself before Him, and finally give to Him.
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Give to Him. Certainly we give our time, we give our service.
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But you see, material giving is always a part of worship.
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That's not really a hard sell at Christmas time, is it?
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We're very familiar with the concept that giving is an act of love, right?
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But when you give to God, it's also an act of worship.
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So don't myth Christmas.
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Nor do I want you to miss Christmas.
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So you can be Herod or a lesser Scrooge, and just be dead set against celebrating anything that has to do with God becoming a man, Jesus' birth, dead set against it.
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You can be a chief priest and just not care enough to make the time for Jesus.
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Or, you can be a wise man or a wise woman, and recognize and love Jesus Christ for who He is.
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Which always, always, always leads you to worship.
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Let's pray.
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 2:1-16
GROUP
What surprised you the most about the story of the Wise Men and Herod? What myths have you believed about this account (e.g., there were three of them, they were there right when Jesus was born, etc)?
What is the significance of the gifts given in Matt 2:11? Why is giving a part of worship?
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!