Matthew 2:1-12
iWant to Believe in Something Bigger Than Me
Woodlawn Baptist Church
December 2, 2007
Are you from a small town? I’ve got some clues to help you know. You know you’re from a small town when…
• The city limits signs are both on the same post!
• The local Motel 6 only sleeps 6.
• You call a wrong number and they supply you with the correct one.
• You don’t signal turns because everyone knows where you’re going anyway.
• The one-block-long Main Street dead ends in both directions.
• Driving cars up and down Main Street is a universal High School experience.
• A “Night on the Town” takes exactly 11 minutes.
• The New Year’s baby was born in October.
• You have to name six surrounding towns to explain where you’re from.
By the way, if you understood these things or identify with them, then you’re probably from a small town. I don’t know how small Bethlehem was at the time Jesus was born. Today the actual city is about the size of Denison, but in Jesus’ day it was apparently a relatively small town only 6 miles or so outside of Jerusalem. But regardless of the fact it was a small town, it was a small town with a big story.
I want to talk about that story today as I begin a three part series titled All iWant for Christmas. This Christmas some of the most popular gifts people give and receive will come from Apple’s "i"-suite: iTunes, iPhones, iPods, etc. The popularity of these personal devices in some ways reflects the increasingly self-focused society our world has become. However, in spite of the fact that we have become so inwardly focused, it is apparent that humanity has a great desire to believe in something bigger than itself.
Why do we want to believe in something bigger than us? This week I asked a lot of people what they thought: school teachers, secretaries, business owners, a couple of checkers at WalMart, random people in the community and a bunch by email, and I received a number of answers, but they all boiled down to about four different things.
1. Some said that we are hard-wired to believe in God. God puts the need or desire there, so we feel that something bigger than us is out there.
2. Some said that we feel so small, or inadequate, or weak. We don’t understand life, or why things happen in life, so we search beyond ourselves for answers. If there is something bigger out there then we can also find hope in believing that there really is sense to be made of it all.
3. Some said that we need someone to blame things on. If there’s something or someone bigger than us out there then we have someone to blame for our mess ups and for all the bad stuff that happens in the world.
4. Some said that people want to find meaning if life and intuitively know it is beyond them.
Do any of those resonate with you? Life can be very confusing, can’t it? Just when you think you’re settling in to a job, a marriage, to being comfortable in your own skin, life throws you a curve and you don’t know how to make sense of it. One of the couples I was speaking with mentioned the two-year old that was beaten, then held under water, thrown on a tile floor, smothered, put in a plastic tub in the garage for two months, then thrown into Galveston Bay. We watch the news and naturally look for answers beyond ourselves.
Every culture that’s ever existed has had its gods. The Egyptians believed in something bigger, something beyond themselves. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, Greeks and Romans all believed. The Hindus have Shiva, the Muslims have Allah, the Chinese have Buddha, the Japanese have spirits, and we could go on and on. The Mayans and Aztecs and Cherokee and Choctaw all believed in something bigger.
Truth is there is something…someone bigger than us out there. Isaiah quoted Him in Isaiah 45:5-6,
I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
But He’s not just the God out there who has left us alone in this world to sort everything out. He’s the God who has repeatedly and lovingly intervened in human history to make Himself known to us. God revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ – the babe born in a manger long ago who would grow to say, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” In the account we’re going to read today in Matthew 2:1-12, God the Son bursts onto the scene in the person of Jesus Christ, King of the Jews. But He doesn’t burst in with fame and glamour or with great fanfare. It is a quiet, humble beginning to a remarkable life, and though the beginning didn’t appear to be so remarkable, it was the most amazing birth that ever occurred. And one of the most amazing things about it is that most folk never notice. Let’s read Matthew 2:1-12.
Read the text and make comments along the way.
The Messiah is born as promised, in the place promised, at the time promised, to the people promised, but it takes an entourage of pagan priests, astrologers, astronomers from a foreign land to figure it out. They travel from the east, make inquiries and search diligently, don’t bother to honor the father or the mother, fall prostrate at a baby’s feet and shower that baby with a king’s treasure because they, like all of us, have a need or a desire to believe in something bigger than they were.
There was a art contest held in a local school one Christmas season a few years ago in East Texas. One of the prize winners was a picture drawn by a nine year old boy showing three men, offering gifts to the baby Jesus in his manger. What made the picture unique is how the three gift presenters arrived – there was fire truck on the side of the picture.
The principle asked the boy about his decision to draw the truck and the boy, in his heavy East-Texas accent, was quick to reply: “Well, the Bible says the wise men came from a-far.”
Did they worship Him as the Messiah or the Savior? Did they worship Him as the Son of God? Probably not. They did recognize Him as the one born already the King of the Jews, not the future king of the Jews. It really doesn’t matter too much today how they recognized Him. What’s really important today is how you and I recognize Him.
God has hard-wired us to believe in something bigger than us. The psalmist said that like a deer craves water his soul longed for God. There’s an innate desire placed deep in your heart that cries out for a relationship with God. But how are you responding to it? Do you crave God? Do you hunger and thirst for Him? It’s not about knowing more stuff about Him, but really knowing Him, walking with Him, talking with Him, following Him, giving your life to Him.
We typically say things like, “I need to read my Bible more,” or “I need to pray more,” and even, “I know I need to be in church more.” Those things are true, but beyond all that what your heart is really crying out for is to know God.
Like so many people who answered the question this week, we all feel small and inadequate and weak at times in our lives. There are things beyond our control and events beyond our ability to understand. Knowing God doesn’t give us all the answers, but it does give us hope and assurance that none of it happens just to be happening. There’s a plan behind it all, and though that plan seems awfully cruel sometimes it only seems that way because we are so small and have limited vision.
There is meaning to be found in life, but it’s ultimately found in Jesus Christ. The Bible says we are his workmanship, created in Him to do good works. But the verses before that say we must know Him through a saving relationship. In other words everyone of us is born into this world in a fallen and sinful condition. We are hell bound and without hope. But God sent Christ to that manger long ago, born of a virgin, who would live a sinless life, who would die a cruel death on Calvary’s cross and make atonement for your sins. If you would but recognize and admit to God in prayer that you know you’re a sinner and you know your sins caused the death of God’s only begotten Son and repent of your sin and give your life to Jesus Christ you can be saved, not by your good works, but by the grace of God so that you can do good works. It’s why you were created! Our hearts long to fulfill that inner desire, a desire placed there by God Himself, a desire that can only be awakened by God Himself.
The question is how you are going to respond to all of that. The wise men took great time and went to great lengths at great personal cost to bow at the feet of Jesus. I’m not asking you to make a blind decision today, but to start the journey today, to respond to the light God gives you, to investigate, ask, diligently inquire and seek out Christ. Don’t take my word for who He is. Find out for yourself. I am confident that when you meet with Him you too will fall prostrate at His feet.
The fact is that more of us are like King Herod and the chief priests and scribes than we are like the wise men. We are threatened by any real knowledge of or the presence of another King. We like sitting on the throne and calling the shots and like Herod, we’re cut-throat enough to eliminate Jesus from our daily lives so long as we get to keep calling the shots. I know most of you would disagree with that assessment, but our daily lives tell the truth. We would rather be the Lord of our lives than make room for King Jesus.
And like the chief priests and scribes, too often we simply respond with indifference. We know the Scriptures, have read the prophecies, can tell others all about them and about Jesus, but we’re indifferent. We’re not seeking, not searching, and frankly all the talk about desire and want and hunger for Christ seems a bit odd. We’re saved and are going to church after all, what more do we need to do? But our indifference is causing us to miss what God has for us.
Can you imagine how God might transform us if we really began seeking and searching for Christ? If we quit taking everybody’s word for what He is like and sought Him for ourselves? If we grew discontent with knowing about Him and had a deep longing instead to know Him? If we quit talking about needing to read and pray and actually began doing it with a view toward making Him Lord and King? There’s no telling how God might move and bless. There’s no telling how the Holy Spirit might begin to move among us and transform us and empower us! But I’d love to find out.
How might God transform your personal life if you demonstrated a genuine longing after Him? Do you think He’d be pleased with you? That He’d take great delight in knowing you want to know Him? Do you think recognizing Jesus and honoring Jesus as the Lord of your life would make a difference to you?
There’s only one way to find out. I don’t just want to believe in something bigger than me. I want to know the only One who is: King Jesus.
