The Wise Bow Now

The Wise Bow Now

Text: Matthew 2:1-23

If you would, please take your Bible’s and open them up to Matthew chapter two.

I mentioned to you last Sunday that we don’t know the exact year and month that Jesus was born, and that it wasn’t really that important in the larger scope of things. We know for a fact that HE WAS BORN… we’re just not exact on the dates. Just like most historical figures from antiquity.

Part of the reason for that is because our modern day calendar was created by a guy named Dionysius Exiguus, about 500 years or so after the birth, life, and death of Jesus. He was trying to determine a date for Resurrection Sunday… but his calculations were off a few years.

Here’s what we know… Jesus was around 2 years old when Herod ordered the murder of the male children at Bethlehem… Herod died sometime between 4 and 1 B.C. We also know that Herod’s son, Herod Antipas ruled Galilee from the time of his father’s death to 39 A.D. The Gospel writers never gave any dates… because they were more concerned with events, and the events they write about line up perfectly with the historical account… The Bible is true and reliable… it was Dionysius Exiguus who got the dates wrong.

Ok…

So, over the past three Sunday’s we’ve looked at the Christmas story, and I hope you’ve picked up on a common thread I’ve been pointing out. Matthew wrote a genealogy of Jesus, and it was a long list of men and women who believed in the promise of God… it was a long list of people who had faith. Joseph and Mary were people of faith. They believed the Word of God and trusted in His good plan. The shepherds, we men of faith. They believed the report of the angel, they went and saw Jesus lying in a manger, and went out evangelizing everyone afterwords, sharing the Good News. And I read to you all the announcement of the angel to the shepherds from Luke 2:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased.”

And we tied that back to Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him…”

So this morning, we’re in Matthew 2:1-23, please follow along as I read (READ TEXT).

Now hold your place in Matthew, and turn with me to Luke 2:21-38 (READ).

So Jesus was born. He was laid in a manger, but He didn’t stay in a manger. 8 Days later He was taken to Jerusalem, to the temple and circumcised according to the command of God given in Genesis 17… and according to the Law, given in Leviticus 12. It was at that time, He was given the Name Jesus, the Name that the angel told Mary she should name Him. Mary herself had to be pronounced clean by the priests, in accordance with the Law, just like every other Jewish mother. And then she presented Jesus to the Lord… That’s important, because remember, Jesus was born under the Law, and fulfilled the Law.

Next, Luke introduces us to two people, Simeon and Anna. They were both devout believers, who had FAITH, and were looking for the promise of the coming Messiah.

And remember, this was 8 days after the birth of Jesus…

We still consider it part of the Christmas story, but the reality is – Time is moving on. Jesus is 8 days old now… He’s growing. And time has to move forward, because in 33 years He’s going to die for our sin. We’ll see that even more as we go back to our text in Matthew…

Matthew 2:1-10 (READ). Now jump down to verse 16 (READ).

Did you catch that? Herod ascertained what time the star appeared… then he orders the murder of every male child two years old and younger. Verse 8 tells us that Jesus was a “child”… He’s no longer a baby at this point in time… And Mary and Joseph are living in a home now.

So Jesus may be two years old by this time….

And the reason I’m pointing this out to you is because it’s easy for us to get confused about things we read in Scripture or, we sometimes read things into Scripture based on our own ideas, or our culture, or things we’ve been told. The wise men weren’t at the nativity, but some enterprising, marketing genius can add more to the price if the wise men figurines are included.

So, let’s look at these Wise Men.

They came from the East to worship Jesus… and there’s a few things we should notice here. First of all – they’re Gentiles – they’re from the east, probably Persia (Modern Day Iran), but maybe even India. They were “Magoi” – that’s the actual word we translate into “wise men”… in other words, they studied the stars, medicine, religion, and a type of eastern philosophy… We don’t even know if there were three of them. We know they brought three kinds of gifts, but there might have been 20 or 30, or maybe even more. But again, people assume there were three men because there were three types of gifts. History tells us that these Magoi traveled in larger groups… so even if there were only 3 Magoi, they would’ve had an entourage of slaves, and gaurds, and pack animals which need handlers… It was probably a large procession.