“Follow Your GPS!”
Matthew 2:1-12
The story of the wise men has always been surrounded by mystery. When we look at the scripture we find that there are several questions we cannot answer from the Biblical text. For example:
how many were there? We don’t know.
Where did they come from? We don’t know.
How long did the journey take? We don’t know.
The wise men seem to show up suddenly out of nowhere and just as quickly they are gone. Scripture doesn’t give us very many details-perhaps we don’t need them-after all the wise men are not the focus of the story-Jesus is. But one thing I am certain of is this. Just as the wise men did 2000 years ago, wise men and women still follow Jesus. And instead of focusing on what we don’t know about these men let’s look at what we do know.
First of all a wise man’s journey is a journey of faith. Listen to the question they asked..”where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East. When I read this I think what would cause someone to leave behind safety and security to go on a mission as dangerous as this one? They didn’t know where they were headed. They had o idea what would happen on the journey. They didn’t know how long it would take. So why would they do it? Some might for money but there was no pay involved. They did it because of their faith. There is no doubt in the words they use that He has been born...their question was simply where is He? They had seen the star. All the evidence was there. Now all they wanted to do was find Him. So they were willing to risk everything they had to find Jesus.
Can you imagine the reaction of their neighbors and friends? Hey wise man are you going on a journey? Yes we are. Where are you going? Ugh we don’t know for sure. How far is it? Well we don’t know that either. Well how long are you gonna be gone? Don’t know. Boy for wise men you sure don’t know much do you?
But they must have said those same things to Abraham when he left his home for the Promised Land. In fact when God called out Abraham He told him, leave your country, leave your people...leave your Father’s household and go to the place where I will show you. And the Bible then says “so Abraham left “as the Lord told him.” They must have said the same things to Noah when God told him to build a boat 450 feet long on the backside of a desert when it had never rained before.
And again when Peter, Andrew, James and John left their jobs and family to become “fishers of men.” Why would anyone do these things? Because following God is a journey of faith. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “it is impossible to please God without faith.” Not difficult, not hard...impossible. People of faith have been willing to follow God for ages when they didn’t have all the details. A wise man’s journey is a journey of faith.
2. A wise man’s journey involves worship. When the wise men went on this journey it was for the purpose of worship. They brought with them three gifts...gold, frankincense and myrrh. Look at what these gifts represent.
* Gold represents wealth. Gold is a gift that is fit for a king. It reminds us that God deserves our very best.
* Frankincense. Frankincense is mentioned 17x in the Bible. It was used as incense during prayer. It was used in sacrifices.
* Myrrh. Myrrh was used to anoint every part of the tabernacle in the OT. Myrrh was poured on the feet of Jesus just a week before his death. So all of these gifts were appropriate because these wise men came to worship the King. A wise man’s journey involves faith. A wise man’s journey involves worship.
3. A wise man’s journey involves change. “Matthew 2:12 (NLT) But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.” It’s interesting to me that after they made this long trip...which was about 1000 miles that when they headed back their GPS said go this way instead. One of the tools on the internet that you can use to get somewhere is map quest. Just type in your starting location and where you want to get to and it will give you very detailed information. Someone at Google has a sense of humor because when you ask for directions from Japan to China there is a lot of detail, all the toll roads and so forth and then when you get down to the number 43...the 43rd piece of information it says now “jet ski across the Pacific Ocean.”
The wise men were told to take a different route. They were told that they could not go back the same way that they came. I find that to be a fact today as well. Once you have met God it changes everything. You aren’t the same. You can’t travel the same way you did before.
* Jacob wrestled with God and God touched him and Jacob never walked the same the rest of his life.
* Isaiah stepped into God’s presence and immediately said, “woe is me, I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king. Isaiah was never the same again.
* Job questioned God over and over trying to figure out why he was suffering so much. Then God shows up and Job says, “I’m speechless-words fail me!” Job 40:4-5. Job met God and he was a changed man. That’s what happens when we come into God’s presence.
One of the great promises in scripture is found in the book of James. James, the brother of Jesus; can you imagine growing up in the same household as Jesus? James describes what wisdom is and tells us that there are two kinds of wisdom. (1) There is Earthly wisdom. He says it is unspiritual and is of the devil. And he tells us that anytime you see someone who has selfish ambitions you can know they are using earthly wisdom. This is what the world teaches us today. If you want to succeed in life:
* get all you can and hold on to it. Keep it all for yourself.
* run over as many people as possible if you want to get to the top. You will make enemies but you will get ahead.
* focus on what’s in it for you. Just you. Don’t consider the needs of anyone else. That is the useless wisdom of the world. All of that is earthly wisdom and as James says, it is of the devil.
James then says that there is also another kind of wisdom (2) heavenly wisdom. This is the wisdom that comes from God. He says that this kind of wisdom:
* loves peace * is considerate * is full of mercy * is impartial
This wisdom is heavenly wisdom, in other words it comes from God. Then James tells us one more thing about wisdom and this is the promise I mentioned...”if any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him. He does place one condition on it and he says that when you ask you must ask in faith. But he says that if you want wisdom and you will ask in faith God will not only give it to you, He will give you a lot of it.
Now I want you to look with me at some lessons we can learn from the wise men. First of all, the wise men found God while they were busy. They were doing their jobs when God spoke to them. Never forget that God wants to speak to you through the circumstances of life. Here’s what I mean...I want you to consider for a moment.... how your week looks. How much time do you spend each week day in prayer and in God’s word? Look at the screen for a moment.
24 hours in a day
168 hours in a week
Now let’s say for a moment that each of us spends one hour a day in prayer and Bible study. That’s 7 hours a week. Then let’s say you sleep 8 hours a day. That’s 56 hours a week. That means that after prayer and Bible study and sleep we still have 105 hours left. So the majority of our time is not spent in prayer and Bible study or in sleep. The majority of our time, over 100 hours a week is spent in what I call the circumstances of life. All of our circumstances we face are designed by God-He’s in charge and we must learn to face them in Christ. God uses these circumstances, good and bad to develop our character. Don’t think for a moment that your one hour a day spent in prayer and Bible study and your time you spend her in worship are all there is to your spiritual life. These things matter...they matter a lot but your spiritual life encompasses more than that. God will do the same thing in the circumstances of our lives as He did in those of the wise men.
2nd. The wise men found their direction by consulting scripture. When they started out they were following a bright star. But they got sidetracked in Jerusalem and so they went to the OT scripture to find out where the Messiah was to be born. It was their GPS Their God Positioning System.
3rd. The wise men gave themselves in worship before they gave their gifts. They bowed down and worshiped Jesus and then they gave Him their gifts. God wants your life before he wants your gifts.
4th. If God can use a star to reach the wise men then He can use anything to reach us. Don’t ever be surprised at what God will use to get your attention. He might use a book, He might use a song, a conversation with a friend...anything.
5th. If the wise men can find Jesus so can you. They traveled about 1000 miles to get to the manger. Through different cultures, through racial barriers, through religious barriers, not to mention King Herod who was very opposed to what they were doing. So it wasn’t easy for them to get to Jesus. But they did and if they did we can too.
There are several responses people make to the Christmas message. The wise men were so eager to meet Jesus that they traveled 1000 miles and they did whatever it took to find Him. Herod did everything he could to keep them from finding Jesus. The religious leaders were 5 miles from Bethlehem but they didn’t care. The very ones who lived the closest, should have been there first never even showed up.
Knowledge is one thing. Wisdom is another. It is one thing to know something. It is quite another thing to believe something to the point that it changes your life. You may have heard this riddle: once there were 3 frogs on a log. One of them decided to jump off. How many are left? Two? Nope. Three. Because he just decided...her never took the plunge. Never took the leap of faith.
Too many of us have said we believe but we never do anything with our faith. Maybe you are one of those who is sitting on the log this morning. Maybe it’s time for you to jump in.
