The Wise Men's Worship

Bobby Lee Hale

The Cast of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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The Area — (Vs. 1)

Bethlehem of Judaea

Bethlehem lay about 6 miles to the south of Jerusalem.

We’ve already talked in prior weeks how amazing of a thing it was that the perfect Sacrificial Lamb (our Lord Jesus Christ) was born in the very place where more than likely the lambs used for the daily temple sacrifices were also raised!

It was commonly called the House of Bread. Now think about this...

Not only that but Bethlehem was also commonly called the House of Bread. Now think about this...

In — Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life:

Do you think it’s a coincidence that the Bread of Life was born in the House of Bread?

Absolutely not! This is simply the sovereign will of God almighty unfolding before our very eyes! God had a plan in place before He ever spoke any of this controlled chaos we call life into existence and that plan was fulfilled down to the letter through His Son Jesus, Amen!

God had prophecies that needed to be fulfilled so He put His divine foreknowledge to work and placed the pieces of the puzzle in such a way that man would fulfill these prophecies for Him!

Listen friend, you need to understand here this morning, that God’s will, will be accomplished one way or another! God used Jacob thousands of years ahead of time to prophesy that His Son would be from the from the tribe of Judah. The Bible says in...

(KJV) — The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

And God also used Micah to testify as we see here in scripture...

(KJV) — But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

If there is one thing you can bank on this morning friend, it’s the very word of God! The Bible says in

(KJV) — The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

(NLT2) — For the word of God is alive (quick — KJV) and powerful. It’s sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

(NLT2) — I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail (not one jot or tittle — KJV) of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.

So we’ve seen the Area of Bethlehem and looked at how it was all part of God’s complete sovereign plan that His Son be born there.

Now, let’s look at the Age or time period when all of this took place.

The Age — (Vs. 1)

“In the days of Herod the king”

This king Herod spoken of here was born around 74 BC and was made king of Judea by the Roman Senate largely because of his father’s relationship with Julius Caesar. He was a very evil man who coveted his prideful position as king above all else! And because he feared losing this position above all else, anytime he got it in his head that someone was out to take his throne he would have them killed!

He had his favorite wife Mariamne I and her brother, 3 of his sons and countless others executed and murdered because of his paranoia that someone was planning to take his throne from him. As we also see here in the text, after hearing from these wise men that the real King of the Jews had been born, he sent some time later and had all the children 2 years old an under in Bethlehem killed!

He was a hateful, hellish, murderous old man and during this age and time no doubt everyone around these parts were scared to death of what Herod might do next! It’s even been stated that when he was on his deathbed he sent and had some of the Jewish leaders in the community rounded up and gave a command that at his death they should be executed as well and his reasoning was that maybe the people would morn for their loss and thus at least some tears would be shed at his death!

This man had no moral compass whatsoever! No shame, no guilt, no remorse at all! And such was the time in which our Lord and Savior Jesus was born!

So we’ve taken a look at The Area and The Age, now let’s take a look at The Arrival of these Wise Men.

The Arrival — (Vs. 1)

The Anticipation of the Wise Men

“behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem”

Now

The Greek word for “Wise Men” is Magi. It’s where we get our English word Magician from. These men weren’t tricksters or magicians like Harry Houdini or David Copperfield as we think of today though. In this day and time, these men were known for their vast amounts of knowledge and abilities to understand dreams and visions. They were astrologers who studied the stars and are also believed to have gleaned some of their knowledge from their studies from the OT scriptures.

The Bible says here that these Wise Men came from the East. It is believed and with good reason that these men came from the province of Babylon or Persian Territory. One reason this makes a lot of sense is because these very men were referenced in the Book of Daniel and Daniel himself was even lifted to the status of being their leader!

If you look in

(KJV) — Then the king (Nebuchadnezzar) made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

If you will remember the story, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream but couldn’t remember it and so he sent for all the “wise men” of the area and asked them to tell him his dream and interpret it for him. They of course had no idea what he had dreamed so they told him that if he would reveal it to them they could interpret it for him but he says to them again, “you don’t understand, I don’t remember it!” To which they replied well we can’t interpret a dream if we don’t know what the dream was. At this point the king gets fed up with them and says, “well if you can’t tell me, then what good are you to me!” He then makes a decree that all the wise men in all the country were to be rounded up and executed. When Daniel hears this, he goes to his buddies Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and asks them to help him pray that God would reveal to him the kings dream so that he could tell it to the king thus sparing their lives. God hears their prayers, reveals the king’s dream to him and when Daniel tells the King what he had dreamed and the interpretation thereof, the king not only spares all the wise men’s lives but sets Daniel as head over them!

Now here is the blessing that i recieved while meditating on this thought…Daniel and many other children from Judah had been taken hostage when Babylon overthrew Jerusalem and had been taken to Babylon to be servants of the King. Here’s the thought that crossed my mind…the enemy invaded the promised land and took hostages right. Now these hostages have risen to some of the most prominent positions in the land of the enemy and not only that, because of Danel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s faithfulness to God, they no doubt have left their mark on the people of Babylon for ages to come!

No doubt, after rising to power and finding favor in the eyes of the Babylonian (king Nebuchadnezzar) and Median (king Darius) leaders, they began to teach these “Wise Men” under them how that they should search the scriptures daily and ask for God’s guidance in interpreting these visions and dreams instead of trying to use sorcery and works of darkness!

Just goes to show Church that no matter what situation you find yourself in, look for God’s guidance and he can turn your problem into an opportunity of praise, Amen!

Now that we know a little bit about who these Wise Men actually were, I want you to see The Ambition of the Wise Men.

The Ambition of the Wise Men — (Vs. 1)

The Wise Men’s Anticipation

So we just learned that these Wise Men more than likely came from Babylon, right? To give you an idea of how far that is…imagine walking from the southern tip of Florida to the top tip of Maine and add another roughly 300 miles to it!

This trip on foot probably took these Wise Men months to make! I want you to think for a moment here on that thought…these men traveled over 1,500 miles on foot and spent months journeying to see Jesus! And here we are, some of us have a hard time traveling 5-10-15 miles 3 times a week to come hear about Jesus!

The Ambition of these Wise Men to find Jesus puts the majority of Christians today to shame! They traveled more in one trip to seek Jesus than most of us travel in a year! Their Ambition to find the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is unrivaled!

These men had set their hearts to seek to the Lord and nothing would stand in their way until they found what it was they had come to find! And we’d do well this morning to take a page from their notebook on how they sought the Lord Jesus Christ!

You see the Bible says in...

(KJV) — But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

(KJV) — “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God;”

If we are going to get the full experience of this Christmas season and what it represents, we need to set our hearts and souls to seek the Lord Jesus Christ!

We don’t need to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of gift giving that we forget the example from whence we got the giving of gifts to begin with! My prayer is that our Ambition and Aspirations this Christmas season will be centered on the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else!

So we see The Ambition of the Wise Men. Now, let’s take a look at the Anticipation of the Wise Men.

The Anticipation of the Wise Men — (Vs. 2)

The Anticipation of the Wise Men

The Adoration of the Wise Men

“Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.”

The Acquiring of the Wise Men

Upon their arrival, they begin asking everyone they come in contact with, “where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.”

The fact that these men have come seeking a King because of some star they’ve seen in the East tells me that this must have been something that they were anticipating and looking for! I don’t believe for one second that it was all coincidence.

No, I believe this was a byproduct of Daniel’s teachings getting passed down through the ages. I believe Daniel had taught these Wise Men the ways of God and no doubt he had told them how a King would come one day to save his people from their sins. He undoubtedly told them what to be looking for in order to know when the real King of the Jews would be born!

These Wise Men weren’t working off of a whim but rather specific details that had been passed down from mighty men of God!

Now there is one very specific detail right here in this verse that I don’t want you to miss! Notice they say, “he that is “born” King of the Jews.” Dear friend, every other King that has ever existed was chosen, groomed or voted on to be a King but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was born a King, Amen!

They didn’t come looking for a baby, they came looking for a King! People didn’t come looking for a King when Herod was born. People didn’t come looking for a King when Saul was born. People didn’t come looking for a King when David was born. But praise be to God, these Wise Men came looking for a King when the baby Jesus was born!

They were anticipating his first coming and I’m here to tell you this morning that we ought to be anticipating his second coming!

The Angels told Jesus disciples as they stood gazing up into the sky after He ascended on high, “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

They didn’t say, “He might come again.” They said, “He shall come again!” Amen!

The Bible says in...

(KJV) — 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Are you ready for His second coming? Are you anticipating it this morning? Or are you sitting here trying not to think about it because you know that if He were to come back right now you wouldn’t be ready?

Listen friend, if you’re not ready, you need to get ready!

These Wise Men had Anticipated His coming but Herod had not! And because of Herod had not anticipated His coming when he hears this news he becomes greatly afflicted!

Let’s take a moment here and look at the Affliction of the King and the People.

The Affliction of the King & the People — (Vs. 3-8)

“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”

We’ve already learned that Herod was very paranoid about his position as King and that he’d stop at nothing to defend his throne so when he hears news that a King of the Jews has been born, no doubt, it throws him into a tail spin!

The amazing thing to ponder on in this section of scripture is the fact that here are the Jews who have been looking and waiting for the coming of their Messiah and he is right under their noses the entire time and they had no clue!

Not only him but the Bible also says that it troubled all of Jerusalem as well! Why were they troubled you ask? Probably because Herod was troubled! They understood how demented and deranged he could be as he’d already had his wife and sons killed so no doubt they were worried about what he might do now that this news had come to light!

So, in Verse 4 we see he calls all the chief priests and scribes together to try and find out where this King was to be born. They tell him Bethlehem and quote what the prophet Micah had said about his birth. Then the Bible says that “privily” (secretly) calls the Wise Men to him and asks them when they first noticed the star.

After his inquiry, he sends them to Bethlehem to find the child and tells them to report back when they’ve found him so that he can worship him as well but as we all know, he was interested in worshiping the newborn king but rather his hidden agenda was to kill the newborn king!

The amazing thing to ponder on in this section of scripture though, is the fact that here are the Jews who have been looking and waiting for the coming of their Messiah and he is right under their noses the entire time and they had no clue!

And the craziest part of all, is the fact that these gentile astrologers have showed up on “their” door step after traveling over 1,500 miles to see this King of the Jews and they themselves don’t even go to take a gander!

You would think that if you had been waiting and anticipating the arrival of a person and someone informed you that they had arrived you would want to go see them, right?

This just goes to reiterate what the Bible says in....

King James Version Chapter 1

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

John 1:11 KJV 1900

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

John 1:11 KJV 1900

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

John 1:11 KJV 1900

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

(KJV) — He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

The Jews denied His coming then and still do today because He didn’t come as they expected Him to! Somehow they missed all the signs! They missed all the prophecies that were fulfilled by His coming!

Some may say that Jesus was a hoax. That because He knew the scripture He somehow self fulfilled them.

Dear friend, last time I checked, a baby didn’t have any say so in where they were going to be born! The prophets had stated that He was to be born in Bethlehem and He was. The prophets had stated that God would call His Son out of Egypt and He did! They stated that the coming Messiah would be a Nazarene and He was! They prophesied that not a bone of His body would be broken and it wasn’t! They prophesied that his garments would be gambled for and they were! They prophesied that He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and that’s the price that Judas sold Him out to the Pharisees for! They prophesied that His hands and feet would be pierced and they were! They prophesied that He’d be numbered with the transgressors and His grave would be made with the rich and it was!

Listen Church these were just a few of the prophecies that Jesus’ birth, life and death fulfilled and the best part is, He had no control over any of these! How could He have known that Judas would sell Him out for 30 pieces of silver? Was that the going rate for a life that day? How did He have control over who He would be hung beside? How did He have any control over the fact that when they came to break His legs they passed over Him because He was already dead! How did Jesus know that a man who had believed upon Him named Joseph of Arimathea who was a rich man would come and take His body and lay it in His own hewn tomb! How did Jesus have any control over the fact that His parents would move to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod or the fact that Joseph would move them to Nazareth after coming out of Egypt for fear that Herod’s son may be still looking for Him!

The fact is, Jesus had no control over any of this but all was still fulfilled according to God’s sovereign will! I AFread an article last night that said this...

The astounding mathematical impossibility of someone fulfilling these prophecies is mind-blowing. The scientific probability that any one person could fulfill just eight specific prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. If we took that number of silver dollars (100,000,000,000,000,000), drew a black X on only one, and laid them over the state of Texas, they would cover the entire state two feet deep. Now blindfold a man and tell him to travel as far as he wishes and then pick up only one silver dollar, and it must be the marked one. What chance would he have of picking up the right one? It would be exactly the same odds that just eight of the messianic prophecies would all come true in any one person—yet they all came true in Christ!

I don’t care who you are, what nationality you are, what religion you are, to deny that Jesus was the prophesied Christ child is absolute lunacy! It’s not seeing because you don’t want to see not because it’s not there! The evidence is tried and true! It’s been proven over and over and over again and if you don’t accept the fact that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords it’s because you don’t want to be saved not because He’s not the Savior, Amen!

And because of this great news that the actual King of Jews had come, king Herod was afflicted and all of Jerusalem with him! And now we come to the final section of our message today…the Adoration of the Wise Men.

The Acquiring of the Wise Men

The Adoration of the Wise Men — (Vs. 9-12)

“they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

After hearing that it was foretold that the King of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem, the Wise Men set out on the final leg of their journey. They travel 6 miles southward following the star that had brought them to Jerusalem until all of a sudden it stops right above the house that Joseph, Mary and the babe are in.

The Bible says that when the star stopped, they rejoiced with exceeding joy! Now do you think they rejoiced because of the fact that their journey was finally over? Absolutely not! I believe they rejoiced because they had finally found the Messiah!

And they showed this joy and adoration by coming into the house and doing 3 things!

The Bible says they fell down. This is an illustration of reverence. The reason they fell down before this baby is because this baby was worthy of their praise, Amen! And He’s still worthy of our praise today! When was the last time you fell down and just thanked God for His blessings on you? When was the last time you fell down and said, “thank you God for sending your Son to die in my place.” When was the last time you fell down and said, “thank you Jesus for dying for me! Thank you for bridging the gap between me an God!” If it’s been a while, during invitation this morning, why don’t you come and fall down here at this altar and just give Him the praise He’s due!

They not only fell down but the Bible says they worshipped Him. To worship something means to give worth to something. They understood the meaning behind His coming. They understood His true worth! They understood that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sins and they understood that His blood, precious and perfect, as it was is what it would take to forgive men of their sins! They understood that nothing of this magnitude had ever taken place before and would never take place again! Listen Church, we wake up on Christmas morning, we travel to friends and families houses, we open gifts, we have a great meal and time of fellowship and we forget the entire reason why we even do what we do! We don’t attribute to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the worth that He is due! We take Him and what He did for us for granted and we shouldn’t! This Christmas, when you wake up, try and make the first thing on your mind Jesus. Take the first 5 minutes of the day and just thank Him for coming to this world to save us! Thank Him for cleansing you of your sins, justifying you and sanctifying you in the eyes of a Holy God. Thank Him for interceding on your behalf. Make sure on Christmas day to find some time to give Him the worth that He is due by worshipping Him.

They present unto him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They showed Him their adoration for Him by presenting Him with the best gifts imaginable. Gold is still considered a precious metal today and is still very expensive. I can’t imagine it’s wealth in this day and time. Frankincense and Myrrh were both used for medicinal purposes and were very rare, expensive and sought after. I don’t know how many of you use essential oils but last time I checked, frankincense was still one of the most expensive ones you could buy! Point being, they didn’t give Him their leftovers or something that didn’t cost them much but rather they presented our Lord and Savior with the best gifts money could buy!

Now, here’s the thought I want to leave with you today…He doesn’t need our physical gifts, He’s not asking us to go out and buy gold and frankincense and myrrh and bring to Him but rather all He asks of us is to live for Him.

The gift He wants from us today is us. He simply wants us to use our time and our talents for Him. To tell others about Him, His coming, His life, His death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ!” My life is hid with Him meaning my life belongs to Him and I will live for Him because He chose to die for me!

So the question to you is this…are you giving Him the best of you or what’s left of you? Is your life dedicated to living, worshipping and telling others about Him or do you just simply do it those things when it’s convenient for you?

These Wise Men adored our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and because of their adoration of Him they would stop at nothing to get to Him and give Him the best of themselves.

I had a work dinner to attend this week and they all know I pastor and one of girls said to me, “when do you find time to study for your sermon?” I explained to her that on a normal basis I study and prepare on Monday and Tuesday’s for Wednesday and then I begin on Thursday nights trying to prepare for Sundays. Listen, my wife gets onto me all the time because I study and prepare for this so much but listen I know that one day, all the work I’ve done for Jesus will pay off

Do you adore Jesus as much as these Wise men did? If not, then you either need to renew your relationship with Him or you need to be saved. Either way, whatever it is that is separating you from Him you can come and take care of that here today and I would encourage you to do so. I want to leave you with a little poem I come up with while preparing for this message.

Over mountains, through valleys, across the desert sands,

these Wise Men traveled through many different lands.

Searching high and searching low,

not knowing exactly where they needed to go.

Finally they found Him,

but not the way you would expect.

They showered him with gifts,

and showed Him the utmost respect.

The search for the coming Messiah,

had finally come to an end.

When on that clear, crisp beautiful night in Bethlehem

He was found by these worshipful Wise Men!

I want to leave you with this last thought…Wise Men & Women still seek Him today! Are you wise?