Christmas According To Matthew (Part 2) Series

Christmas Eve 2020

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Matthew 2:1-12

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

12-24-2020

Christmas Eve 1987

What’s the best Christmas present you have ever received? Several come to mind. When we were first married Maxine got tickets for us to go see The Orlando Magic vs. The Washington Bullets (now Wizards). I was a big fan of one of the Magic rookies, Shaquille O’Neal, and I was blown away by how agile the big man was on the court.

Now the harder question: What’s the best present you’ve ever given. I can answer that without hesitation. It was a baby.

Maybe I should explain. But I’ll wait to the end….:)

If you have a Bible with you, turn with me to Matthew 2.

Prayer

Wise Men Seek Him

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 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.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

On Sunday, we studied Matthew’s account of how Jesus was born. Tonight, we will look at a group of men who traveled a long way to worship the baby King.

This is a very familiar scene for us at Christmas. In fact, we just sang the Christmas carol, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

Unfortunately most of what we know about these seeking worshipers, come from legend and Christmas songs.

We are told that this happened in the time of Herod so we know it was about 6 BC.

Who were these men? Scripture calls them “Magi.” These were a spiritually elite group that surrounded the throne in Babylon, not in the Orient.

They are a very old sect, dating back to Abraham. When the Israelites were deported to Babylon, Daniel and his three friends were taken into the palace. Daniel is listed at the head of the Magi.

They studied the stars and they were highly influential.

They are not kings but king makers.

These men traveled between 800 and 1,000 miles and stopped in Jerusalem to ask for directions, another Christmas miracle.

How many were there? We have no idea.

They asked a startling question: “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?”

How did they know about this? The Jews had been in Babylon for at least 500 years and you know they shared the prophesies of a Messiah King with these men.

What was the star? Many smart people have speculated on this phenomena. Some say it was a comet or a supernova.

Or that it is the “Christmas star” [the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn] that is visible in the night sky right now for the first time in 800 years.

But this “star” moved and lead them to Bethlehem. How? Again, we don’t know.

We do know that they did not visit Jesus when He was a baby like many movies and nativity scenes depict.

Their journey took between one and two years so Jesus would have been a toddler when they finally arrived.

Why is there so much in this story that we don’t know? Why didn’t Matthew give us more details? Because he wants us to focus on what the wise men were focused on.

Why did these Gentle pagans make a 1,000 mile journey through deserts and mountains?

Remember that Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience and tells them that the first people to seek the Messiah were from another nation.

Look at verse two again. Read it with me:

“We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”

They studied the stars, they were the experts. And they knew the ancient prophecies like Numbers 24:17:

“A star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise out of Israel.”

The reason we are not given more information about this group in the Christmas story (Luke doesn’t even mention the wise men) is because it’s not about them. It’s about a God that was leading them straight to Jesus.

Let me ask a simple question. Are you willing to seek after Jesus? How far are you willing to go? To these wise men, no distance was too far, no cost was too great.

Jeremiah wrote these encouraging words:

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

The Sociopath Ruler

“When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” (Matthew 2:3)

Remember that there weren’t three wise men. There was probably an entire caravan, that included guards and servants. They probably didn’t ride camels but Arabian horses.

One of the definitions of the word Magi is one who “dresses in a bizarre manner.”