His Name Shall Be…King
Matthew 2:1-10
Have you ever considered the irony: When there’s a play called Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, everyone wants to be Dopey – after all, his lines are the easiest to learn! Dopey. When it comes to a Christmas play, there are a lot of parts too, but there’s a line of people who want to be a wise man.
Why not? Who doesn’t mind the title “Wise Man,” and at least the hint that as they selected you for such a part they were doing some typecasting? Maybe it’s also because you can’t go too wrong playing the part of a wise man. Who’s to say you don’t look like they did, or that you’re not acting or sounding the way they did? We really don’t know a whole lot about these mysterious 3 guys – or was it 2 guys? Or was it 10? That’s the first thing we don’t know. Just how many were there? We don’t know.
We also don’t know where they came from: from the East; afar. Maybe it was Persia, maybe even farther away. Who knows? It was afar. Down South that’s why they say they smelled like smoke, because they came from afar.
We don’t know much about their occupation in life. Matthew calls them “magi.” No other name is given. As best can be guessed, they were from an eastern caste system descended from the tribe of Magus. Apparently, they were similar to some of the “wisemen” or “magicians” that kings assembled around themselves in OT days for when they needed words of wisdom – so that would make them men who studied a mixture of astronomy and astrology, of spiritualism and mysticism and science all piled together.
Somewhere, many years ago, began this tradition of calling these men “kings.” That’s sort of ironic, because it’s in Matthew’s account of their visit that we get the last name of Jesus that we’re looking at in this series – King. Matthew’s gospel is all about showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of the OT Messiah – the Anointed One of God, the King. Matthew is working to bridge the gap for us between the OT and the advent of Jesus. He quotes 53 times and makes many more indirect allusions from 25 of of the 39 OT books. 16 of those quotes are in the first 2 chapters of Matthew.
Do you want to be a wise man, or woman? These men understood something about Jesus that every one of us needs to understand this morning. Jesus is the King, and searching for Him is life’s most worthy pursuit.
If you want to be a wise person this year, consider how Jesus fits into a wise person’s life. Consider first how…
I. The Hope of Seeing King Jesus Leads to Great Extremes
Because searching for Jesus is life’s most worthy pursuit.
Matthew 2:1-2
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 in the east and have come to worship him."
These wise men went to some extremes looking for Jesus:
1. long trip – up to 2 years, carrying a lot of loot, to a land where they were foreigners
2. single goal with their lives
I doubt any of them were holding down a job as they traveled. Their stop in Jerusalem and Bethlehem wasn’t like a vacation stopover where you see a sign that says “Historical Marker Ahead – birthplace of Jesus” and they pulled over to visit. Their lives had to be devoted to the moment as they traveled.
3. they planned to give treasures…to a child
a little toddler who didn’t know frankincense from Frankenstein or myrrh from marbles. That’s extreme
4. they came to worship Him
not to learn from Him, live with Him, get to know Him, to receive a blessing from Him. They simply came to worship Him. That’s what they said their purpose was, and that’s all Matthew records they did.
Matthew 2:3-8
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
Herod, a “king,” is looking. The Wisemen are looking. The Jews aren’t. The ones who should have cared the most are the ones who apparently aren’t looking for Jesus.
Magi weren’t the only ones to go out of their way to see Jesus:
• Zacchaeus climbed a tree. He wanted to see Jesus.
• 4 men tore open a roof and lowered their invalid friend by ropes so he could see Jesus.
• 2 blind men outside Jericho cried out loud for Jesus, even though everyone around them was trying to hush them. They wanted to see Jesus, for the first time.
• Great crowds of people, who wanted to see Jesus pursued Him into the desert, not even thinking about what they would do for food.
Ill - I’m intrigued by the great crowds of people that throng to see the Pope when he visits around the world, or by the crowds that gather every year just south of where we lived in Ohio, to watch for Mary appearing in the clouds, or to see the face of Jesus supposedly show up in the sky.
It happens because people deep down realize their need for a connection with their Creator. As Blaise Pascal said, we each have a God-shaped vacuum inside us that only God can fill.
That’s what makes searching for Jesus life’s most worthy pursuit.
Jesus compared the search for the Kingdom of heaven to a man finding a treasure hidden in a field, and when he finds it, he hides it again, and he goes and sells everything he has so that he can buy that field. Pretty extreme, selling everything you have to buy a field. But, not a bad trade-off when the field bears the greatest of treasures.
You and I. We want to be wise people. To what extremes do we go? How much do we disrupt our lives, our schedules, our comfort in the hopes that we’ll see Jesus – in the hopes that we’ll know Him and be known by Him? And why should we? These men, who really were wise men, were following a star, a legend, a hunch. We have something far more sure. We have the way to Jesus spelled out very clearly in His word.
What are you chasing today? Adulthood? Marriage? Children? Retirement?
This morning, the lifelong pursuit of seeing Jesus is the worthiest pursuit you can have.
Something else about Jesus being the King comes across through these men…
II. The Thought of Seeing King Jesus Brings Great Joy
It’s more proof that our search for Jesus is life’s most worthy pursuit. There are plenty of people pursuing plenty of things, and many aren’t finding joy in the journey.
Matthew 2:9-10
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. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced. They were overjoyed.
Why such joy?
1. Maybe it had stopped, or the weather had been cloudy.
2. Maybe it was a reminder that they’d soon see Him.
They didn’t see Him yet. Just the thought that they would brought them great joy.
I Peter 1:8
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,”
Why? Because just the thought of seeing Jesus brings great joy.
“Oh how joyful” are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Ill – I remember as a boy the trips we made across KS every year, on our way to CO for camp. It didn’t matter where we lived, we always went to Rocky Mountain Christian Service Camp - Camp Como, 10,000’ up in the mountains. Sleeping in cabins. Frost on the ground in the mornings in the middle of summer. Hikes in the woods. Snowfields to slide down. To this little boy, it was almost heaven.
But between IN and almost heaven there was a lot of KS! And I remember the hours on the road, in the heat, sticking to the plastic upholstery cover, crowded vehicles, edgy Dad, crossing the flattest bit of real estate on earth between here and Nevada. I also remember that coming into CO, at a certain point, you can see the mountains in the horizon for the first time, if the day is clear. We used to watch for those hazy-looking peaks. The first one to spot them was kind of an honored family member for seeing them, because the sight of those mountains was good news. We weren’t at the camp yet – we were many hours from it, but the thought of being there and seeing it all brought us a great deal of joy, even while we were still in the flatlands.
There are plenty of you this morning who are trudging across the flatlands and you need to catch a glimpse of what’s coming. Maybe you won’t even really get to see it off in the distance. But you can try to picture it in your mind’s eye, and just the thought of heaven can bring you great joy.
There are a couple of ways we can ask ourselves if we’re really acting as if Jesus is King here:
1. Does the prospect of studying the Bible, of fellowship, of servanthood really bring us joy?
Those might be called “the way we see Jesus now.” – seeing Him as we read about Him in the word, seeing Him in one another as the love of Jesus is demonstrated by our service, seeing Him alongside us as we serve in His Kingdom.
Is He really your King? Does the thought of those things really bring you great joy?
2. Does the thought of heaven really bring us joy?
Many of us are anticipating the joy of seeing family and friends in a few days. Some are having that joy today.
Does the thought of seeing the kingdom do that too? We can’t see it now. We can’t even imagine how it looks. But does just thinking that we’re going to get to be with King Jesus bring us that kind of joy?
If you’re really interested in seeing the King, you’ll need to note this:
III. The Presence of King Jesus Causes Worship
Matthew 2:11-12
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
We’re out of the manger now. Maybe right off what we should note is that wise men don’t leave the King in the manger in their thinking.
Is it OK to point out that the magi really don’t belong in the nativity set at home? But before you go home and take the “we 3 kings” out of your stable scene and throw them away, I suggest instead that you set them a little outside the scene and bear in mind the truth behind their presence: Let them remind us that Jesus is worthy to be worshiped as the KING. Let them remind us that worship of Jesus is a future thing, not just limited to the day He was born.
“Falling down, they worshiped Him.” They don’t have a vertigo problem. This phrase occurs 7X in the NT. Mostly in Rev where it describes the posture of the elders and creatures around the throne of God.
Ill - It reminds me of the famous painting picturing George Washington praying at Valley Forge. Washington, the great war hero who had more than one horse shot out from under him, the Father of our country, the wonderful general so respected by his men, the tall man, is down off of his horse, kneeling down in the snow before his King as he asks for divine help to lead his men through the difficult winter.
We let a lot of things get between us and worship. Imagine the barriers there must have been to worship when the magi found Jesus:
1. a child
2. doubt – after all, the Jews themselves weren’t there worshiping.
3. a peasant’s home, and a child who had been delivered in a stable
4. Language? Culture?
But these men were wise in this way: in spite of barriers, they worshiped Jesus.
I’ll be the first to tell you that nothing tugs at the heartstrings like a baby. Like someone said, it doesn’t matter how manly or grown-up you are, when a 2-yr old hands you a toy phone, you answer it! There are few things that can make you smile more than the sound of babies laughing. And that’s part of the challenge here. Nobility may be moved by the sight of a baby, but usually not to worship!
These men bowed down in front of a very ordinary-looking toddler.
Many people, in their search for Jesus, wonder if He’ll actually satisfy their longings. Let me reassure you, when you ultimately find Him, when you “enter into the presence of Jesus,” you’ll worship.
There are a lot of barriers that keep people from it right now, but a day is coming when everyone will behold Him, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus really is the King. The presence of King Jesus causes us to worship. It changes life completely.
IV. The Discovery of King Jesus Changes Lives
Treasures unloaded, they leave. But this time their lives are changed. What would be different on their trip back?
1. They were less burdened with wealth!
2. They took a different route
3. They had fulfilled their longing to worship the King
Do you suppose that by the same time next year, they would forget all about it? Maybe they Emailed Mary periodically, or at least sent an annual Christmas card (that way they could send a Happy Birthday card to Jesus in the same envelope!) It’s hard to imagine they just forgot about Jesus. People just don’t a once-in-a-lifetime trip like this and then forget it.
Ill - Bret Harte's story The Luck of Roaring Camp: Roaring Camp was supposed to be, according to the story, the meanest, toughest mining town in all of the West. More murders, more thefts--a terrible place inhabited entirely by men, and one woman, named Cherokee Sal. She died while giving birth to a baby.
The men took the baby, and they put him in a box with some old rags under him. When they looked at him, they decided that didn't look right, so they sent one of the men 80 miles to buy a rosewood cradle. He brought it back, and they put the rags and the baby in the rosewood cradle. And the rags didn't look right there. So they sent another guy to Sacramento, and he came back with some beautiful silk and lace blankets. And they put the baby, wrapped around with those blankets, in the rosewood cradle.
It looked fine until someone happened to notice that the floor was so filthy. So these hardened, tough men got down on their hands and knees, and with their hardened hands they scrubbed that floor until it was very clean. Of course, that made the walls and the ceiling and the dirty windows without curtains look absolutely terrible. So they washed down the walls and the ceiling, and they put curtains at the windows. And now things were beginning to look as they thought they should look. But of course, they had to give up a lot of their fighting, because the baby slept a lot, and babies can't sleep during a brawl.
So the whole temperature of Roaring Camp seemed to go down. They used to take him out and set him by the entrance to the mine in her rosewood cradle so they could see him when they came up. Then somebody noticed what a dirty place that was, so they planted flowers, and they made a very nice garden there. It looked quite beautiful. And they would bring him, oh, shiny little stones and things that they would find in the mine. But when they would put their hands down next to his, their hands looked so dirty. Pretty soon the general store was all sold out of soap and shaving gear and cologne and things like that ... the baby changed everything.
The experience of these magi helps us to see right away that when the King enters the scene, things are different.
One of the great privileges of being in the Church (esp. the ministry) is getting to see how people are changed after they discover Jesus.
Conclusion:
Searching for King Jesus is life’s most worthy pursuit, and finding Him changes it completely.
1. If these men following a star, will travel the way they did and bow in worship before a toddler, to what extreme might I go in trying to discover and know the person of Jesus and to pay proper tribute to Him?
2. If God will go to such extremes to woo me and bring me to Heaven, to what extreme will I not go to pursue Him and to know Him now?
Parents and grandparents, when your little ones are asking questions about “the 3 wise men” this year, rather than hearing yourself give the facts with blanks to be filled in, take the moment to say to those kids, “We really don’t know a lot about those men, but we do know this: they knew that Jesus was the King, and they thought that finding Jesus and worshiping Jesus was the most important thing for them to do, and that’s the way it’s going to be in our house.”
Better yet, show it to those kids by going to some extremes to know Him and worship Him yourself.
Would you be a wise person this morning? Would you finally acknowledge that the most worthy pursuit in your life would be to see and know Jesus Christ. I guarantee you it will change you.
