The Wise Men’s Response to Christ
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 2 Matthew chapter 2. This morning, we are going to be looking at the story of the Magi or, also known as the wise men, and how they responded to the Christ child. There's a whole lot of fascinating elements to this story that I'm really not going to go into, and instead I'm gonna focus on the heart of it. And really the heart of the story is this, it's about one thing. It's about Jesus drawing people far off to himself in order to receive worship.
Jeffrey Heine:And maybe for 2020, a year in which honestly, many of us have seen our affections wane. We probably had some high hopes when the pandemic hit, you know, we were going to learn the guitar, some new instrument. I pulled off Moby Dick from the shelf thinking I was gonna read that, I got about 2 pages in. Maybe a lot of you thought you would do something with this time. Certainly, now you had time for prayer, you had time to really dig into the word, but then you've been surprised that how actually things fell apart and how your affections waned.
Jeffrey Heine:And really, 2020 has been a year in in which has kind of shaken you up. And I want you to know that's okay that that you've been shaken because I do think it's a time when the lord has been revealing to us really just who we are and how fragile we are and how desperately we need him. It's actually a perfect year for us to come and to celebrate Christmas, and for us to be reminded again that what do we need? We need our affections stirred to come and to worship our savior, Jesus Christ, who has come to redeem all things and to save us from our sins. And so that's my hope this morning as we look through the story.
Jeffrey Heine:Matthew chapter 2, we'll begin reading in verse 1. 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.
Jeffrey Heine:They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, oh 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. 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, 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.
Jeffrey Heine: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. This is the word of the Lord. Praise me. Father, we pray that in this time you would open up in our hearts and our minds that we might see more clearly, and then through your spirit draw us to yourself to worship you.
Jeffrey Heine:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So one of my favorite Christmas traditions we have at our house is setting up all of our manger scenes. We've actually got quite a few of them.
Jeffrey Heine:We've gathered them. Some of them have been handed down, you know, throughout the family, some we bought here locally, but, mostly, whenever Lorne and I travel either on a mission trip or just on a vacation, we've we've tried to bring back a little manger scene from from that country. And so, you know, over the last 25 years, we've been able to get manger scenes from Indonesia and Peru and and Haiti and Israel and Turkey and Belize and and all these different places and cultures, and we love looking at them because they're they're all so different. Last night, my girls, they were pouring over the the Haitian one because we actually have no idea who Joseph and Mary are because they all look the same, and I think every year we keep putting the wrong two around baby Jesus. But we love looking and just seeing all of those manger scenes and how every culture depicts the Christmas story.
Jeffrey Heine:However, I'm never quite sure what to do with the wise men. I mean, what do you do with with these Magi? They never actually came to the manger. They came, you know, a year later when Jesus was likely a toddler living in a house, yet I have yet to find anything anywhere that depicts a house with Jesus the toddler. It's not as cute as as Jesus lying in a manger.
Jeffrey Heine:So I'm never sure what to do with them. And in an attempt to be more historically accurate, I used to move the the wise men further away. You know, they would have to be on the other side of the table or mantle. And it's like, well, you know, it's actually a 900 mile journey, so they need to be in another room. So I put the match on the other room and and maybe they need to be upstairs.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, it's a really long journey and after many, you know, eye rolls from my kids, me not knowing or losing where the the wise men actually are, I finally decided it's just easier to just have them there at the manger right by Jesus, right by the shepherds. And I think we're all like this. I mean, I've yet to find an actual real Christmas story depicted anywhere. Has anybody seen, you know, any inflatable, inflatable lawn ornaments of Herod slaughtering the children? Do do we have that anywhere?
Jeffrey Heine:There's we we we conveniently turn the Christmas story into something that fits nicely and neatly into something that that's just easy for us. We sing songs, you know, like Silent Night, but have you ever known a baby to be born and all was calm? But once again, it doesn't fit into the narrative that we want about Christmas. But we need to take a good hard honest look at what the Bible actually has to teach us about Christmas If we wanna understand the meaning of Christmas, not just look at what's easier. So as we look at the story in Matthew, the first question we need to ask is why is it even in here?
Jeffrey Heine:Why did Matthew, of all the stories available to him about Christ, why does he decide to include this unusual story about these Magi coming to worship Jesus. These Magi or these wise men, they're not kings. I know we probably grew up singing songs, you know, we, 3 kings from orient far, but they're not kings, they're astrologers. They practice divination. Magi is where we get the word magic from, And throughout scripture, magic or Magi are always seen in a negative light.
Jeffrey Heine:They're always seen as sinful evil people. And so, you know, even Isaiah and Ezekiel when they're pointing out the the sins of Babylon, which is where these Magi likely came from, they they point out the Magi and they begin to mock the Magi as representative of the sins of the people. So why does Matthew once again, out of all the the material out there, why does he pick Magi and use their story to tell the Christmas story? Why does he show that they are the first people to come and to recognize Jesus as Lord and to worship him? I mean, Luke starts with the shepherds, but Matthew he starts with these Magi.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, he doesn't do it for any, he doesn't just throw away this for any reason. It's got a point that he has the these Magi endorsing Jesus essentially as king although it is puzzling. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had endorsed Donald Trump as president or if Rush Limbaugh had endorsed Biden? How would you process that? I mean it's hard to even imagine it.
Jeffrey Heine:Wouldn't you I mean, would any of those endorsements have helped either candidate or would have just made everybody suspicious. Being endorsed by Magi is not how you launch your Messiah campaign, but Matthew wants you to know first and foremost that Jesus came for sinners. The Son of God came into this dark sinful mess of a world in order to save us. When thinking of these Magi, I cannot help but think of Ephesians chapter 2 in which we read, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near. Jesus is drawing these Magi to himself.
Jeffrey Heine:Now we're not entirely sure why they came. I mean, we know there was a star, and of course now all around the Internet, all social media, you're just seeing all of these articles about, you know, what kind of star did they see? Was it possibly the intersection of Jupiter and Venus, and then there was another intersection of Jupiter and Saturn, and both of those happened at that time of Jesus's birth. Something so rare that, those those two events only happened every 794 years, and so it was a really rare event. Is Is that what they saw?
Jeffrey Heine:It had to be actually be something more in order for these men to pack their bags, travel for months over 900 mile journey in order just to see a child though. Something had to deeply be moving them. We're not entirely sure what, we we know that the Lord was drawing them. Perhaps he was perhaps he spoke to them in a dream. He certainly does that later.
Jeffrey Heine:He talks to them in a dream and he he warns them to, you know, go home a different way, and, God certainly speaks to people still in dreams especially in that part of the world. Last year, my family were in Turkey, and over and over again we kept running into people that God had prepared for the gospel through dreams. We meet them and they say, you know, I I had a dream. Somebody in all white was calling me to himself, and he called himself the Lord. And then we come and it's like, would you like to know his name?
Jeffrey Heine:They're like, yes. God still does this. A matter of fact, we have some people who joined our church. We just baptized Ji Won, and the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The Lord still does this.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we're not entirely sure why these Magi came, how the Lord was pulling them in in addition to the star, but we do know that in faith they left on this long journey all that they might worship Jesus. They didn't come to just honor a king, they came to worship. And when they arrived in Jerusalem, they head straight to Herod's palace and they asked him, where is the king of the Jews? Now, if this was a movie this is when the ominous organ music starts. I mean, you you don't walk into a palace, ask the guy sitting on the throne wearing the crown, say, hey, do you know where the real king is?
Jeffrey Heine:That's going to raise some alarms there. And so in one of the more understated verses in the Bible we read that when Herod heard this he was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him. That's an understatement. Jerusalem was way more than just troubled when Herod was troubled because he was a tyrant. He would kill everyone whom he thought was a threat to him.
Jeffrey Heine:He actually killed so many of his own sons that Julius Caesar famously said, it was safer to be one of Herod's sows or pigs than to be one of his own sons. He killed off his sons. He killed off his wives. He killed off his wife's parents. He killed off anybody who he thought was a threat.
Jeffrey Heine:Herod would not think twice about slaughtering all the children in an entire city if he could eliminate a threat. This is why everyone in Jerusalem was troubled as well. And so here we see the two responses that people will always have when confronted with the lordship of Jesus. People either drop everything and they make the journey to go into worship him, or they will rage against him. But neutrality is never a position offered to us.
Jeffrey Heine:If you understand who Jesus is, if you understand the claims he is making neutrality is never an option. We either are like the Magi and we worship, or we are like Herod and we rage. But before you immediately when thinking through the story think, oh, well, okay. Well of course identify with the Magi. Before you do that, take pause.
Jeffrey Heine:Because I actually don't think we should see Herod as so much the villain in this story, at least not at first. We need to first see him as a mirror. He's a mirror reflecting who we are. He represents every man. Because you see the natural state of our heart is not love towards God, but it's actually rebellion towards him.
Jeffrey Heine:This is why every Disney movie is wrong. Okay? Every Disney Disney movie out there, we've talked about this in the past, it's all the same kind of plot, but it basically the it it goes this way, you know, something terrible has happened, but the main character just needs to listen to their heart. Listen to their heart, be true to themselves and then everything will be okay. Obviously, Disney's never read Romans 5 or really most of the bible, which says that the natural state of our heart is actually in rebellion against god.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul says that we are enemies of him. So we're at war with the one who has come to save us. Being true to our heart, being true to ourselves is the worst thing we could do. In our natural condition every human heart has a little Herod on a throne there. All of us want to be king, and we all want to be the center of the universe, the masters of the faith, our own faith, the captains of our own soul.
Jeffrey Heine:And there's only room for 1 person on the throne of our heart. And so when we hear Jesus as lord and that he wants that throne, we bow up against him. We rebel. I can remember the first time that I began to realize I had this little Herod ruling in my heart. I was actually in high school, I had to take a test, my teacher said, I want all of you to use a number 2 pencil.
Jeffrey Heine:That's all it took to reveal to me the rebellion in my heart. Alright. I I prefer a pen. Okay. I didn't want to use a number 2 pencil.
Jeffrey Heine:The test was not going to be scanned or anything. Our teacher just wanted us to use number 2 pencils, and I got so angry over that. Now, I didn't let anybody know this, but inside I was fuming and I began listening off all the reasons that pens were superior. You know, it's like, well, pens don't break. You don't have to sharpen them.
Jeffrey Heine:It's easier and faster to write with. I'm going through all of this stuff in my mind. It's so ridiculous, But the bottom point was this. The bottom line was this. I just didn't want anyone to tell me what to do.
Jeffrey Heine:No one tells me I have to do something. Our hearts are so rebellious that often it's the smallest claims made over us that caused the most enormous reactions in us. Why do you think the smallest claims about wearing a mask at times cause an enormous reaction in us? It's because deep in our hearts there's no one tells me what to do, no one tells me what to do. But Jesus here, he's not making a small claim, he's making a claim over your entire life.
Jeffrey Heine:If Jesus is Lord, that means you are not. And that internal conflict you have is going to bring you to one of 2 options, and there's only 2. You either bow to him or you rage against him. Recently, I had a lady come into my office, and she was committing her life basically to go through with a sin. She knew it was wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:She knew it was clearly against God's word, and yet she was willingly going in that direction. And we talked for a long time, but finally I I just said, it really boils down to this. If you believe Jesus is the resurrected lord, if he is your lord, you obey him. If you don't believe Jesus is the resurrected lord, you're free to do whatever you want and to disobey and rebel. But there's no neutral ground.
Jeffrey Heine:You cannot leave this place and call him lord Jesus, and do what you want to do. I said, so the choice is yours, you stay, we're gonna we're gonna work through this, or you can leave and you can reject him as lord. And after about a minute, she got up and walked out. And I actually respect that because she knew neutrality was no longer an option, and she could not call Jesus lord yet continue to do whatever she wanted to do. There's only room for 1 person on our heart.
Jeffrey Heine:Back to the story. This Magi needed a little further guidance in order to know exactly where Jesus was to be born, so you know they consult Herod about this. Herod pulls the pastors of his day there, and they're like, what's Micah 5? The Messiah is gonna be born in Bethlehem. I mean, the the Magi, they hear Bethlehem, they're out the door heading that way, the star reappears before them, and then we read in verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
Jeffrey Heine:And I love this verse because Matthew tells you basically 4 times, he said they had joy, joy, joy, joy. He doesn't just say they were joyful. He says, no, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. They weren't just joyful, these were people bursting with joy as they were being led to Jesus. And then they come to him and they bow down and worship and they give him gifts.
Jeffrey Heine:Basically, God gives them eyes of faith to see who Jesus is because I don't know about you, but if, I mean, if I just see a toddler, I'm not gonna bow down before them. And Jesus does have a halo around him. There's no other signs here. The these Magi were given eyes of faith to see who Jesus was, and they worshiped him with great joy. And once again we get the point of the entire story.
Jeffrey Heine:God is graciously drawing us to come and worship Jesus, our savior. He's drawing us out of darkness and into a life of joy. And we need to drop whatever we are doing and go on this journey. We need to step out in faith. We need to make the sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:We need to come and to worship him. And for those of you here who grew up in the bible belt, those of you who've heard about Christianity, heard stories from the bible, stories about Jesus your entire life, you also need to hear that there's a warning in this text before us. It's a warning that we are not supposed to be like those religious leaders, the priests and the scribes. I mean notice when they were asked asked where is the Messiah to be born without hesitation, Bethlehem. They knew the chapter and the verse, they knew Micah 5, the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, yet they never actually go to Bethlehem.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean these are men who've been dedicating their entire lives to knowing the Bible, going to church. Their entire lives has supposedly been spent waiting for the Messiah to be born, and yet now they hear the Messiah has come. He's actually just 6 miles away. It's an hour and a half walk downhill, and they don't move. They remain completely unmoved.
Jeffrey Heine:It's unfathomable. Compare this with the Magi who didn't have a Bible, didn't have a church, didn't have anyone to encourage them in their faith, and yet they travel 900 miles for months to come into worship Jesus. Jesus would rightly say 30 years later in John 5, you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life, yet these are the words that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life. Don't refuse to come to the one you've read about. Don't refuse to come to Jesus that you might have life.
Jeffrey Heine:Church, I know you know the scriptures or you know them enough to know that Jesus is the son of God, he's the savior of this world, But the question is are you actually going to him? Are you going to him that you might have life or are you unmoved? When you hear about the Christmas story and that God came wrapped in flesh. He came to this world to be with us and to save us. Are you unmoved?
Jeffrey Heine:There's an invitation here for us. It's for us to just come to Jesus, bow down, worship, and receive life in unspeakable joy. Let's go to him now. Lord Jesus, 2020 has just been a horrible year for us. It has shaken many of us to our core, and that's okay because you've been there through it all.
Jeffrey Heine:And you've used this time to reveal many things to us. You have shown us our desperate need for you to come and to save us. And for those of us here who've really, you know, we've struggled with our passions, our desires, we've we've been apathetic over the last few months, stirring us once again affections towards you. May we not be unmoved, but may we come and worship you, Jesus, and may we have exceedingly great joy. We pray this all in your name.
