“The Wise Men’s Worship” – Matt. 2:1-12

You might find it interesting to know that when Queen Elizabeth first started her reign as queen, she often would drive her car out to the country by herself to find a little peace and to help her think. She obviously can’t do that anymore by herself, although she does still drive a little bit, but back then it wasn’t uncommon for her to be gone several hours just driving around and clearing her head.

The story goes that her car began to overheat one day out in the middle of nowhere, so she pulled over, turned the car off and just sat there to let it cool for a few minutes. As she sat there, she was startled by a little boy peering in the window. He lived in a house nearby and asked her what she was doing. She told him of her problem and he asked her if she wanted to come to his house to wait.

The boy’s house was just a short walk so she went with him. The boy, having no idea who the lady was, told her to wait at the door while he told his parents. He went in and announced that some woman wanted to come in. His mother was busy fixing dinner and the father was reading the paper. “Who is it?” asked the mom.

The little boy goes to the door and asked the queen her name. “Elizabeth…Queen of England” she said. When the little boy told his parents what she said, they of course, didn’t believe him. “Oh, good grief, I don’t have time for the Queen right now. Much too busy” said the mom. “I don’t even like that old hag! Can’t stand her. Tell her to go away, Billy” said the father.

So, the little boy goes back to the porch where the Queen of England stood and told her she couldn’t come in, but he told her that she could sit on the porch if she liked. The queen understood what was going on and just sat down and started playing marbles with the little boy, right there on the porch while her car cooled off.

They played for a few minutes and the queen admired the boy’s main marble called an aggie. She mentioned how pretty it was with all its bright colors and so when the queen started to leave, the boy gave her his favorite marble, the aggie, and thanked her for playing with him and the queen drove off.

A couple of weeks later a big car pulled into the driveway of the boy’s house and a well-dressed man knocked on the door and delivered a package addressed to the little boy. When he opened it, he found a velvet drawstring pouch with a bunch of marbles in it – each one with the royal crest of the Queen etched in it and the main, bigger marble, the aggie, had etched in it, “To William, From Queen Elizabeth.”

That little boy may not have understood who was playing marbles with him that day or the power she had but he believed her, accepted her and gave her a heartfelt gift and because he did, he received a unique and priceless gift in return. Now, if you turn to the book of Matthew, chapter two, you will, believe it or not, see a similar story.

You see, through all of time and even today, there have always been some people who are the enemies of God and some people accept God. Some are hostile to Him. Some don’t believe. Some just ignore Him. But some, while they don’t understand everything, just accept and believe. Just like little Billy didn’t completely understand who the Queen was but believed and accepted her while at the same time, his mom and dad were just a few feet away and responded completely different.

It’s the same with people today and our Savior, Jesus. There have always been some who believe, some hate and some ignore. Let’s see the evidence of that in scripture today and let’s see what it looks like and what we should do when we accept Him. As we read, look for the different reactions of the three groups of people: the Magi, the priests and King Herod.

Matthew 2:1-12 says, “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.

Daniel was so excited he just had to tell his parents, “I learned in Sunday School today all about the very first Christmas. There wasn't a Santa Claus way back then, so these three guys on camels had to deliver all the toys.  And Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer with his nose so bright wasn't there yet, so they had to have this big light in the sky to find their way around.”

Now, I’ll be honest. I don’t know much more than Daniel does when it comes to this story. We just aren’t told a whole lot. We don’t get many details and that’s okay because as I have said before, if it’s not in there, then we don’t need to know. But we would like to know more about the Wise Men. Who were they? What star did they see? Where did they come from and especially, how did they know about Jesus and what did they know about Jesus?

We don’t know how many there were or what they rode or what they looked like. They were probably not Jews and yet were interested in and influenced by Jewish laws and customs. From what I have learned about them, it seems they were interested in and influenced by all kinds of religions and cultures. They were extremely knowledgeable. They were seekers of the truth in everything they did and I can appreciate that.

They may not have completely understood who this baby was who was born in Bethlehem and called the King of the Jews but they knew He was important and they wanted to know more. God blesses that kind of honest searching. I have an idea that when they saw the star and related it to the prophecy regarding the Messiah, they imagined that it would be easier to find the baby. Evidently, the star didn’t always shine and they assumed He would be in Jerusalem but couldn’t find Him there.

So, they started asking around and finally Herod got wind of it and asked his spiritual advisors, the chief priests, what was going on. Now, the chief priests were the upper crust of society, not just religiously but also politically as well. By New Testament times they had become little more than a group of corrupt, religiously-oriented politicians. (McArthur Commentary, pg. 32)

They knew the Old Testament scriptures. They knew the prophecies. They told the king what Micah 5:2 said. They had the answers. They just didn’t have the faith and weren’t interested in finding truth because that might mean their lives would have to change. They might lose some power and standing. That could be bad for their comfort and they didn’t want that.

They knew that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They knew that the Magi were looking for Him because He had been born. But they were way too busy to actually go look for Him. I mean this baby, the God-child, the Son of God and son of man was a good five miles away all the way over there in Bethlehem. They couldn’t be expected to leave their important duties in the temple to go worship way over there, right? I mean, who’s gonna lead the people in their temple duties if they go worship Jesus? It was easier to just ignore Him.

Then there was Herod. He had a different reaction than the chief priests did and a way different reaction than the Magi. The Magi went to worship Jesus. The priests just ignored Him but Herod wanted Him dead. Oh, sure, he told the Magi he wanted to go worship but I’m pretty sure his pants caught on fire after saying that, if you know what I mean.

The other day I took the dogs for a walk and saw the two little boys across the street looking at something and talking so I walked over there and asked what they were doing. The little one said, “We’re seeing who can tell the biggest lie.” I asked why they were doing that and the older one said, “Well, we both found this golf ball at the same time and we decided that whoever could tell the biggest lie would get to keep it.” I said, “Boys, that’s awful. Why, when I was your age, I would never have dreamed of lying.” Then do you know what happened? They gave me the golf ball.

I’m here to tell you that Old King Herod wins the golf ball for the biggest lie of all time. He didn’t want to worship the baby Jesus. He was afraid of Him and wanted Him dead. He proved that by having all the baby boys in Bethlehem killed but, of course, Joseph, Mary and Jesus had already left before Jesus could be killed.

But why did Herod hate Jesus so much? A better question is why do people today hate Jesus so much? Oh, most people would never admit they hate Jesus. They would never say they hate Christians or the church or the Bible and yet, if you went home right now and turned on the TV, the radio, your computer; if you went to the store, or just drove through most towns, everywhere you looked you would be inundated with worldly ideas about what to wear, what to drink, who to live with and what to say and do.

Everywhere you look the world will tell you the absolute opposite of what Jesus taught. The world says not to drive drunk. That’s good advice, right? But the Word of God says don’t get drunk. The world says that love is love. Isn’t that pretty? But what they mean is that it doesn’t matter if a man marries a man or a woman or a child or a tree. Love is love. But the Word of God says that marriage is between one man and one woman for a lifetime.

The world says, “Don’t get mad. Get even.” Jesus said to turn the other cheek. I could stand here all day and tell you example after example from billboards to commercials to the football game on TV to your favorite radio personality, literally the whole world is trying to convince you to live contrary to what Jesus and all of scripture teaches.

And do you know what Jesus said about that? In Matthew chapter 12, He says, "Whoever is not with me is against me.” Let me ask you a question. Is there anybody here that has ever tried to have just a little bit of Jesus? You didn’t want to be a Jesus freak, of course, so you just dipped your toe into the whole Jesus / Bible / church thing. Anybody ever do that? How did that work out for you?

I’ll tell you how it worked out. It’s the worst of all worlds. There’s no peace, no joy, no fun, no security and nothing but rules you can’t follow. That’s religion for you. Want to know what Jesus thinks about people that are like that? He says it plainly in Revelation 3:16, “I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16So because you are lukewarm— neither hot nor cold— I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

You can’t have just a little bit of Jesus. You can’t have the world and God. It’s one or the other. And when you choose to go all in with Jesus you will do what the Wise Men, the Magi, did. Look at it again in verse 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.

Some people hate Him and some people ignore Him but neither of those kinds of people have a good realization of who Jesus is. They have never had Him revealed to them, never seen Him or known Him but the Magi saw Him, worshiped Him and gave Him gifts. That’s what happens when you truly have a picture of who Jesus is and who you are.

You come to Him in worship and say, “Lord, this is all I have. I give you a sacrifice of worship that includes my time, talent and treasure. Use it however you want.” The Wise Men gave gold because He is a King. They gave frankincense, which was an incense used in the temple when making sacrifices to God. They gave it to the baby because He is God. And they gave myrrh, which was a perfume used to prepare bodies for burial. That speaks of His sacrificial death.

He is King. He is God. He is Man. That’s a pretty good picture of Jesus right there. When you understand Jesus as King, God and Man and you see yourself as created by Him, for Him and in His image, you can’t just dip a toe or take a little sample of Jesus. You take all of Him and give Him all of you…and it will cost you.

It will cost you, as I mentioned, your time, talent and treasure but it may cost you more than that. What if it costs you your job because your boss doesn’t like your beliefs? What if costs you your friends because you don’t party with them anymore? What if someday it costs you your life because your government turns against God completely like is happening in China, Viet Nam and the Middle East?

Those are all very real scenarios. Add to all of that the fact that having a relationship with Jesus does not prevent you from having the normal struggles of this life and you may wonder why anybody ever becomes a Christian. I’ll tell you why. Job (14:1) said, “Man, born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Isn’t that the truth?

But he goes on to say that, “My flesh and my heart fails: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.” God is our strength and God gives us peace and joy in this life and when we go all in with Him, we know that He alone is the way to salvation, forgiveness and eternal life in Heaven. Make that commitment today. Invitation / Prayer What does it mean to go all in with Jesus? What does that look like in our everyday lives?