The “Wise Men” Who Missed the Savior
Series: Christmas
Chuck Sligh
December 27, 2015
Adapted from a skeletal outline in Preach for a Year, #2, by Roger Campbell.
A PowerPoint presentation for this sermon is available upon request by emailing me at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Matthew 2:1-11 – “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. 7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”
INTRODUCTION
Well, Christmas is over. Each Sunday in December, we’ve looked at key characters in the Christmas story: Elizabeth and Zecharia, the parents of Jesus’s cousin, John the Baptist, Mary and last week, Joseph.
You may have caught on to the fact that we left out one of the key stories in the Gospels surrounding the birth of Christ: the story of the wise men.
All of us are familiar with these wise men from the East in the Christmas story. We sing the song, “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” though the Bible neither says that they were kings, nor that there were three of them.
They’re sometimes referred to as “the Magi.” The Bible tells us nothing more about the wise men other than that they came from the East and apparently had enough knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures—and no, not from astrology!—to know to look for the Jews’ Messiah.
Where the Bible leaves off, tradition has taken over: For instance, various names have been given to the Magi, though that is not in the Bible either:
• Hormizdah, Yazdegerd and Perozdh are mentioned in one account.
• In another, they have the names Hor, Basanater and Karsudan.
• The Western tradition names them Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar.
Over the centuries there have been various stories, plays, books and movies made to portray these wise men. Yet the only facts we really know for sure are the few details Matthew tells us. Mark, Luke and John are silent about the wise men.
Why were these wise men wise?—I believe they were wise for four reasons:
• First, because they inquired after and followed the Word of God.
• Second, because they looked for and found Jesus.
One never finds true fulfillment and joy in life until he seeks after and finds Jesus.
• Third, they were wise because they worshiped Jesus.
Theirs was not a mere intellectual pursuit.
They were searching for someone to WORSHIP.
• Lastly, they were wise because they obeyed God.
Yes, the story of the wise men is fascinating. But actually my message today is not about them at all. I want to talk about another group of men in the same text of Scripture we just read.
In verses 4-6 we read of a group of men who were thought to be wise in their own day who did NOT go to Bethlehem searching for Jesus; who did NOT worship Him, and who, as we’ll see, were NOT obedient to God. Herod called upon these men to advise him about the disturbing news of a prophesied birth of a King—a possible contender for Herod’s throne. The chief priests and scribes were appointed wise men to help Herod pinpoint where this King of the Jews was to be born.
Note verse 4 – “And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.”
The term “Christ” was the Greek word for the Jewish word “Messiah,” the one prophesied in the Bible who would deliver the Jews from their oppressors and set up a kingdom of peace on earth.
Here were gathered all the so-called wise men in Judea. Unlike the wise men from the East, though these “wise men from the West” were thought to be wise, THEY MISSED THE SAVIOR, and thus were not really wise at all.
I’d like you to consider three things about these unwise “wise” men from our text:
I. FIRST, NOTE THAT THEY KNEW THE LOCATION, BUT DID NOT KNOW THE LORD – Verse 5 – “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,…”
You see, they knew full well the LOcation, but missed the INCARnation. Now think about who these so-called wise men from the West were. Verse 4 tells us they were the chief priests and scribes.
Do those titles ring a bell in your mind? If you’re familiar at all with the Gospels, you know that the chief priest and the scribes and the scheming parties to which they belonged—the Pharisees and the Sadducees—would doubt Christ’s divinity, authority and calling all their lives.
Oh, they would acknowledge Him as a good teacher, as the Gospels record that many of them did, such as Nicodemus and others. But as a whole, they refused to acknowledge Him as who He claimed to be and proved Himself to be—the LORD GOD.
You know, there are many people like them today. They may be highly educated and very intelligent. They might have more degrees after their names than a thermometer. They may be the intellectual glitterati of our day. They may be creative geniuses who write books and plays and songs and movies.
But they’re not wise:
• They may give Jesus credit for being A GOOD MAN.
• They would acclaim Him as being A GREAT TEACHER.
• They would talk about His wonderful PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.
• They would concede that He was A GREAT MORAL EXAMPLE.
However, they would draw the line at the most important truth of all—that Jesus was God incarnate—born of a virgin, without the sin nature, come to die for their sins.
The whole idea of Jesus as merely a good man, a great teacher, and a great moral example is not an option Jesus gave us because during His entire earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly made the claim that He was God.
• He accepted worship as God.
• He ascribed to Himself and allowed others to ascribe to Him the titles of God.
• He performed miracles to back up His claims.
• Many of His teachings expounded upon His deity.
• His very life revealed what it would be like if GOD were incarnated as a man.
So here’s the dilemma one faces if he claims that Jesus was anything short of who He claimed to be: NO ONE who claims his whole public life to be God and accepts worship as if He were God, but was NOT God can be either a good teacher or moral. We are left with only two options—either Jesus WAS God or He was NOT God. And if He were NOT God, then we are left with only two options: He was either a conniving liar, or a lunatic.
In his famous book Mere Christianity, Lewis sums it up for us:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.” That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1960), pp. 40-41.)
C.S. Lewis is right: Those are really the only options available to us: Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord, but you CANNOT legitimately say that He was no more than a great human moral teacher. Yet that is what Herod’s wise men would go to their graves believing. The so-called wise men of Herod’s court knew the LOCATION of the Messiah’s birth, but did not know the LORD the Scriptures prophesied would come.
II. SECOND, I’D LIKE YOU TO SEE THAT THEY KNEW THE SCRIPTURES, BUT DID NOT FIND THE SAVIOR – Matthew 2:5-6 – “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.”
These men immediately went to the Scriptures to answer Herod’s question about where the Messiah would be born.Verse 6 is a direct quotation from Micah 5:2.
Herod’s so-called wise men found a biblical ANSWER to Herod’s question, but they did not apply a biblical APPLICATION to their own lives!
You see, you can know a great deal about the Bible, but unless the knowledge you have is PERSONALIZED and ACTED UPON—it’s really of no use to you.
Let me share a couple of applications of this truth with you:
• First, if you have not committed your life to Jesus Christ, let me share this with you:
Dear friend, you cannot be saved by just knowing ABOUT Jesus.
Illus. – I remember working for the Tappan stove company in Springfield, Tennessee when I took a semester off from college. At that factory was a co-worker who knew the Bible better than I did. He grew up in a Christian home in the belt buckle of the Bible belt. He could tell me how to be saved as if he was reading it straight off of a Gospel tract. He knew Zechariah from Zephaniah and Methuselah from Melchizedek, something I doubt many of you here today could do. He could quote Scriptures off the top of his head. Yet he was a profane, immoral unbeliever without Christ who had rejected everything he had been taught. He was a walking Bible encyclopedia…on his way to hell.
He knew the Bible, but he didn’t know the Christ of the Bible.
Now that seems like an oxymoron, but there are actually many people like him. You see, all the Bible knowledge in the world will not save a single person! Knowing a medicine will cure you is only a FIRST step to being cured; you must actually TAKE the medicine for it to cure you of a disease.
And KNOWING your sinful condition before a holy God will not cure you of the terminal disease of sin. KNOWING Christ died for you will not heal your sin-sick soul. KNOWING that you must believe in Jesus to be saved will not remedy your sin-sickness.
Only if you ACT upon your knowledge and PERSONALLY come to Christ in repentance and faith and PERSONALLY ASK HIM IN FAITH to save you will He heal you of your malady of sin.
• There is also an application here for those of you who are believers this morning.
Believer, you may know the Bible backwards and forwards, but if you do not APPLY to your life what you know in your head, it avails you nothing.
Illus. – In the church that I served in in North Carolina I remember two young men who had been in the Awana program all their lives. Awana is a program that teaches the Gospel to children and encourages them to memorize scores of verses from the Bible. The highest award you can achieve in Awana is the Timothy Award, which is awarded to those who memorize scores, if not hundreds, of verses for a number of years, attend church faithfully all those years, and accomplish several required projects. It involves a massive amount of hard work, faithfulness and Bible memorization to earn the Timothy Award. Well, both of these boys had earned the Timothy Award. But by the time they were adults, they were out of church and were living in sin.
You see, the question is not how much of the Bible you know, but how much of it you LIVE. The question is not how much truth have you been exposed to, but how much truth have you been obedient to.
You can know the path of victory over sin, but you must make a CHOICE to OBEY God and put it into PRACTICE in your life. You can know all about the fruit of the Spirit, but if you do not SURRENDER to the Holy Spirit PERSONALLY in your life, all the knowledge of the fruit of the Spirit is just useless minutia.
It’s not enough to know what the Bible says about loving one another—you must personally ACT upon those truths and actually actively SHOW love to others in the hard situations of life. It’s not enough to know there are certain things purged out of your life or habits that need to be broken—You must consciously purify your life from them and exercise discipline over them.
The Bible was not written to be learned as an end in itself; it was written to be learned so it can be consistently APPLIED to your life. Don’t be like Herod’s so-called wise men who knew the Scriptures, but didn’t find the Savior—who knew Bible INFORMATION, but not Bible APPLICATION.
III. LASTLY, NOTE THAT THEY KNEW THAT THE CHRIST WOULD RULE BUT THEY WOULD NOT LET HIM RULE THEM – Verse 6 – “And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.”
The verse of Old Testament Scripture that Herod’s unwise “wise” men read not only told them the Messiah’s LOCATION, but also His LORDSHIP. It said that He would be “a governor.”
A governor is a ruler, a master, a lord over others.
Now here were these men: The plan of God was unfolding swiftly before their very eyes. It was a time of thrilling prophetic fulfillment. There were the angel appearances, the birth in Bethlehem, the mysterious dreams and visions, the star and the wise men from the East—all in fulfillment of specific Old Testament prophecies that these men knew well. They knew about a governor who would come and rule on an intelectual level, but they did not, and never would, accept Him as a ruler over their lives personally.
HOUSE ILLUSTRATION, illustrating the lordship of Christ not only of our “house” (representing our lives) but All of house. – (ACT THE FOLLOWING OUT)
You welcome Jesus into your house (life) the first time at salvation. The living room/kitchen are a total mess, so He deep cleans everything and dumps out all the trash (representing God’s cleansing of our lives of some of the “big” things in our lives at salvation.)
When finished cleaning the living room/kitchen, we’re thrilled at what He has done! But then he starts down the hall to the bedrooms, and we say, “Oh, don’t go there!” Jesus responds, “I didn’t just come to clean the visible parts, but the whole house.” So we say, “Well, stay out here awhile.” We close the door and see our bedrooms and we know the Lord’s going to dump all kinds of stuff, so we stuff our favorites (the inner sins of our hearts) into the closets. Then we let Jesus in, who then cleans up our bedrooms. Again, we’re thrilled by the results!
Then he says, “Okay…now let’s tackle those closets.” This is the most painful yet. We ask him to leave while we get our absolute favorites (our besetting sins) and stick them into shoe boxes. Then the Lord cleans that and we’re thrilled at the progress being made on this mess of a house.
But eventually, we have no choice…He’s never going to quit until He gets to those shoeboxes! – That’s the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.
CONCLUSION
Why did the so-called wise men not hurry to Bethlehem to find Christ?
• Perhaps they feared loss of favor with Herod.
Are you hesitating to obey God because of fear of man? How foolish!
• Maybe they meant to seek Christ, but they were just too busy, and in time simply fell back into their old routines.
Are you so busy that you have pushed Jesus out of your life? How shortsighted!
• They may have thought the risk was too great if the rumor was false.
They might have been protecting their reputations. Are you more concerned about your reputation than your soul?—How shortsighted!
Regardless of their reasons, each of these wise men neglected the opportunities that God gave to them, and unless they changed their minds and sought out and believed in the Savior later in life, their decision would have disastrous eternal consequences.
Dear friend, TRULY wise people risk ALL to seek and find the Savior. Let me repeat that, and as I do, let it sink in—TRULY WISE PEOPLE RISK ALL TO SEEK AND FIND THE SAVIOR.
Will you seek Him today?
Jesus said, Matthew 7:7 – “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
