An Original Christmas Series
Matthew 2:1-12
Christmas Trivia:
Ø True or False: The Magi showed up the night of Jesus’ birth. [False]
Ø Who were the Magi looking for when they came to Jerusalem? [The newborn king of the Jews]
Ø Where did the Magi see the star that led them to Israel? [In the eastern sky]
Ø Where did the religious leaders tell Herod to look for the Christ child? [Bethlehem in Judea]
Ø What gifts did the Magi bring to the young child? [Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh]
Ø True or False: After worshiping Jesus, the Magi told King Herod where to find Him, so he could worship the Christ, too. [False]
We tend to know this stuff, don’t we? The Christmas story is perhaps one of the most well known of the Biblical stories – even those people who consider themselves to be secularists, not religious at all, tend to know the Christmas story pretty well.
But you know, I believe that the truth of the birth of Jesus Christ is such an amazing event in human history, that even though it is so familiar, and has been read, spoken about, reviewed and preached upon for centuries, it still has relevance to our day – and there is profound truth to be found year after year.
This Christmas I am asking us to look at the Christmas story with fresh eyes – to see it new and exciting again. I want us to find those glimpses of the eternal in the familiar, and perhaps see glimpses of ourselves in the words of Scripture.
Today, if you haven’t guessed it already, I’d like us to look at the account of the visit of the Magi. Turn with me if you will to the second chapter of Matthew’s biography of Jesus life, we will read verses 1-12.
Matthew 2:1-12
Over the years, as I’ve grown more mature, I’ve noticed something profound. Gifts from the heart are more valuable to me than gifts from the wallet. I think that the only people who don’t agree with that have probably never received a gift from the heart – because once you do, you never forget it. A gift from the heart is thoughtful. It is personal. It is meaningful. It may be home-made, or represent some special event or moment in your life.
It may be a plaster casting of your little child’s handprint from kindergarten, or a framed picture of you and some friends on vacation or on some adventure. The value in the gift is far greater than the sum of its components – it has sentimental and emotional value that makes the gift priceless.
Now in the story of these Magi, there are gifts from the wallet – gifts that are extravagant and expensive, but I believe that there are more valuable and meaningful gifts given here - gifts of the heart that were brought and given by these wise men. They are gifts that are close to the heart of God, and they are gifts we, to can give.
1. Seeking Hearts
The first is the Gift of a Seeking Heart. This first gift is described graphically in verses 1&2 of this chapter.
1 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 in the east and have come to worship him."
Tradition claims that there were three kings, and even gives them names – we even sang a song about them this morning. But they were not kings, and there were not necessarily three – there were three gifts – but not necessarily three individuals - there’s an Oriental tradition that claims that 8 magi traveled to Bethlehem. The traditions and stories built around the Magi are varied and most probably inaccurate – at best, it’s conjecture. But all we really need to know about the Magi is revealed in these few verses.
Regardless of how many there were, what their titles were, or their names – the important thing is that they were seekers. They had hearts that wanted to know and worship God. They obviously had eyes, minds and hearts that were attune to spiritual matters. They saw a star in the eastern sky and somehow they knew what it meant. It’s possible that they were familiar with Jewish prophecy that states, “A star shall rise out of Jacob and a septre shall spring up in Israel.” (Numbers 24:17) Jews had been taken into Persia and Babylon during the exciles – and some had stayed in those areas over the centuries. It seems that these Magi, in their studies of various religions, had become familiar with the prophecies about the Messiah, and their seeking hearts lead them to travel 1000 to 1200 miles on camel for anywhere from 3 to 12 months. That’s what I call a seeker!
As you read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke’s biographies of Jesus, you will find an abundance of seeking hearts - people who were looking for God’s intervention in their lives. They were anticipating a touch from God. From Zechariah and Elizabeth, who had longed for God to give them a child; to Simeon, who was waiting for the deliverance of Israel; and Anna, who was fasting a praying, and who, after seeing the baby Jesus, spoke to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. The truth is, there were a lot of people seeking deliverance from God.
God loves it when people seek him. We are told that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. (Heb 11:6), and we see that evidenced through Scripture. Uzziah was only 16 when he became king of Israel, and we read in 2 Chronicles that he sought God, and “as long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.” (2 Chron 26:3)
In that same book, chapter 7, God promised Solomon that if His people, called by His name would “seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear form heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. David wrote in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to seek him in his temple.”
The Magi were so hungry for God, so desirous to know Him, that they were willing to travel all that distance to worship Him. And when they arrived, their desire was uncontainable – they went all over the city asking where they could find the newborn king. And verse 3 tells us that everyone in the city heard about it, and they were disturbed by it.
Contrast the excitement and hunger for God of the Magi with the couldn’t-care-less attitude of the so-called religious leaders. Herod asks them for the location of the Messiah’s birth, and they correctly tell him that it’s Bethlehem – just six miles away – but NONE of them go. They have heard of a miraculous sign – foretold in prophecy, and they know the location, but they won’t go six miles. Have you ever noticed that? Did you ever wonder why? It’s because they did not have seeking hearts. They may have been interested in religion – the academic and judgmental rules that men impose on each other – but they didn’t have a hunger for God at all!
A seeking heart is not a gift only given by unbelievers. All too often people who are followers of God have stopped seeking Him. Their faith has grown cold, and “religious.” It’s nothing more than religiously going through the motions of piety, but with no fire, no passion, no hunger for God. You and I are called to be seekers. Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) Perhaps the best gift we can give this year is to give the gift of a seeking heart. It will please the heart of God, and it will make a difference in our homes, workplace and community.
2. Worshiping Hearts
The second gift from the heart of the Magi was the Gift of a Worshiping Heart.
In verses 9-11, we read.
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east 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.
The Magi had worshiping hearts. They traveled all that way, seeking the newborn King of the Jews with one goal in mind – it’s found in verse 2 – “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
What does “worship” really mean? Well, I think there are two elements of worship shown by the Magi, that are a part of all genuine worship. These two essentials of worship are actually talked by Jesus in John 4:23, when he said, “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Worship in spirit and truth. Spirit, in this context, is not capitalized, because it is not talking about worshiping in the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is referring to worshiping God with our spirit. The word used here can be defined as, “the disposition or influence, which fills and governs the soul of any one - the efficient source of any affection, emotion, desire, etc.” Jesus is saying in this verse that part of the worship that God Himself seeks is based in an emotional, affectionate passion of the heart. We see that demonstrated by the Magi. It is seen in the great lengths they went to to worship. They traveled for months, over a thousand miles to worship. When they arrived they asked all over the city where the new king was. In verse 10 we read that when they saw the star that had led them to Jerusalem, they were “overjoyed.” In the original Greek, that word is actually three words, sfodrah megas kharah – which means, “exceeding great joy.”
Again, I ask you to contrast that with most of the worship you see going on around you these days. How often would we consider our worship to be done with spirit? With an emotional, affectionate, desirous spirit? When was the last time we were overjoyed to travel a few blocks to church – let alone hundreds of miles? God seeks such worshipers! He desires people who will worship Him from the heart – not from some religious duty or social expectation – He longs for people who will worship Him with expectation and anticipation of being before the Lord of lords and King of kings! Is that us? Is that you? Is it me?
But God does not only look for those who will worship him with spirit – He also seeks worshipers who will worship Him in truth. We need to have an accurate understanding of the reality of what we are doing, and Whom we are worshiping. This is shown in verse 11, where we find that “on coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him.”
All through Scripture, we find that when people understood the reality of the object of our worship, they were overwhelmed by His majesty. From Abraham, to Moses, to Isaiah; Peter, James and John at the Transfiguration, even the angels around the throne of God are described as covering their heads, and bowing before the God of all creation.
When we gather for worship, do we worship in truth? Do we really, fully grasp the magnitude of the God we say we are worshiping? Do we have any idea of His majesty, His holiness and His awesomeness? Sadly, I don’t think we do. We kind of leisurely think that we can walk away from our total immersion in the filth of the world, walk into a church service, go through some religious gyrations, and then return to the cesspool of the world and call that worship! We have no intention of giving Him the honor and worship He deserves.
In each of the cases I described earlier – Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and the rest, their lives were radically changed by their encounter with God. Their worship – their recognizing God’s glory, caused a dramatic shift in their lives. At the end of verse 12, we see that the Magi returned home a different way. Yes, they took a different route, but they also went home different people – because they worshiped God in truth – they recognized His identity, His majesty and His glory.
Do we?
3. Obedient Hearts
The third gift of the heart presented by the Magi was the Gift or an Obedient Heart. We read in verse 12 that they were warned in a dream not to go to Herod, they obeyed and went home another way. Certainly they had come from their home country by the most expedient route, and would have imagined that they would return by the same. In fact, traffic to the East – Persia and the Orient, went through Damascus, to the North, and Jerusalem would have been right along that route – but out of obedience, they went another way.
Sometimes obedience means that we abdicate our first instincts or choices, to follow God’s directions. From all external evidence, returning to Herod made sense – the man had been very helpful, he had made his staff available to them, steered them in the right direction, and expressed a desire to come and worship the child himself. What a great guy!
But sometimes obedience means that we ignore the obvious external direction of the world around us and go against the tide.
And obedience is what God seeks from us. When King Saul was commanded to destroy a city of rebellious sinful people, every person, all the livestock – and take no booty from the victory – He decided to amend God’s orders and keep some of the best stuff. And he said he was going to offer the animals to God as a sacrifice – to which Samuel, the prophet of God said these powerful and revealing words:
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat or rams.
Rebellion is like the sin of divination (that’s witchcraft, folks!)…I Samuel 15:22&23
When it comes right down to it, God wants our obedience even more than he wants our worship. When he tells us to do something, He expects us to obey, without question, without hesitation, without reservation. Completely, totally. When we read the Word of God, and it instructs us, do we obey? When the Holy Spirit prompts us to serve, act or intervene, do we move? Do we possess obedient hearts?
The gifts of the Magi. Yes, they brought gifts from the wallet – substantial gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh – but more valuable, and of greater example to us, are the gifts of the heart – seeking hearts, worship-filled hearts, and obedient hearts. As we make our way to Christmas, may we approach the Christ of Christmas with hearts like theirs.
Prayer.