What A Trip! Series

WHAT A TRIP!

Matthew 2:1-12

S: Magi

C: Worshipping Jesus

Th: Holy Responses to God

Pr: WORSHIP

First person narrative

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Seek Jesus.

• Be changed by Jesus.

• Worship Jesus.

Version: ESV

RMBC 26 December 04 AM

What an adventure!

My companions and I are on the way home.

We have stopped here to rest in this town and we have been asked to tell you about our travels.

You might think that adventures are only for the young, but I am here to tell you that is not quite true.

For when we left our homeland to come to this area of the world, we had little idea how long it would take and what obstacles we would face on our way.

Maybe we should describe ourselves to you all.

We are magi.

We come from Persia.

From what we have observed of your own country, it is hard to compare what we are and what we do to your officials here.

We are princes, court officials, spiritual leaders, scholards of both science and religion, of both the heavens and of literature.

We are counted as the intellectually elite of our people.

Please do not misunderstand our meaning.

This is our very task.

We are to raise ourselves above the rest when it comes to knowledge and wisdom.

This is our role.

And we would not serve our people well if we did less.

OUR STUDY:

As I have already mentioned…

1. We had quite the journey.

You may ask us what caused us to come all this way into your homeland.

Well, it is good news for you.

But may I share with you that we are stunned that you have known nothing about it?!

We began our journey over a year ago.

We did so because we are students.

We had been studying the movements of the heavens and their meaning when a significant star appeared.

It was so bright, so different, that we understood it to be a sign of an event of great significance.

But this alone did not bring us.

If you remember your history, the Jewish people have lived in our homeland in great abundance.

Though you did not come of your own free will with our predecessors, the Babylonians, through the years, our glorious nations has been more gracious in allowing and even encouraging the return to your homeland.

You are a peculiar people to us, as I suppose we are to you.

But nothing has captured our curiosity as your Scriptures.

We have been investigating the portions that have been left in our possession.

And our study of the words left to us by your prophet Daniel have indicated to us that last year your Messiah came into the world.

He had been born.

So when we combined the study of your Scripture and the sign of the star, we came to a most natural and logical conclusion.

El Elyon, the God Most High, is active in the affairs of the world.

He has not forgotten you His people.

Indeed, it is more than that.

This Messiah of yours is really the Messiah of the world.

And we are glad to welcome Him.

So we came to Jerusalem, for…

2. We knew for whom we were searching.

People…

Your king has been born!

What are you waiting for?

But can I make the point that if you are going to see Him, you have to look for Him.

If you don’t expect Him, you will never see Him.

Frankly, as we walked into Jerusalem, we were shocked at the general disinterest of our mission.

We expected there to be continued excitement at the announcement of a king that was born.

In our homeland, it would be announced and celebrated.

But we found no party.

All we found was apathy and hostility toward our mission.

When we met your king, we were also shocked of his lack of knowledge in this regard.

He showed some interest, but it was an empty one.

If he was so interested, he would have joined us to worship and honor this new king.

But it was clear to us, this King Herod had only this thing in mind – that is the keeping of the status quo.

Nevertheless, we were polite to him.

He gathered the information that we needed from the religious leaders there in Jerusalem.

And so…

3. We were directed to Bethlehem.

As you might guess, we do not have in our possession all the Hebrew Scriptures.

We lacked these prophetic writings of Micah which gave clear indication that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

Still, going to Jerusalem had made the most sense.

For regardless of where a king would be born, one would expect the capital to be the logical place to find the young child.