Who Are You Worshiping? Matthew 2:1-11

There are many moments in life where we have the opportunity to experience closeness with God. The two ways we experience closeness with God is through reading the Bible and enjoying God through his creation.

The Glory of God in Creation and the Night Sky

Personally, I believe God's glory is displayed even more at night than during the day. This is when we get to experience how small we are and how big God is. King David wrote in Psalm 19 .1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above his handiwork.

We all know that this past year has been very difficult in our world and especially in our country and the difficulty has not let up and it's not going anywhere probably for a long time or maybe till the return of Christ.

But do you know what is healthy to do during this time as we live in this fallen world? It is healthy to look up at the night sky. To look up at the stars reminds us who put those stars there. Our world has seen horrible things this past year and anyone who knows history understands that things have been bad always.

It's just that sometimes you notice it more than other times. And what's interesting is that when you look up at the stars, the stars are there, the planets are there, the moon is there, the sun is there.

While all this turmoil is going on, on the third planet from the sun, the stars are still there and it's a peaceful quiet night and look up at the sky and you feel this closeness to God. This past year I have looked up at the stars many times, more than any other time in my life.

This is something I enjoy doing with my dad and my dad is here today. This past summer when he visited from the cities where you can't see the stars, we looked up at the stars here through his telescope.

We looked up at the northwest sky where you see two stars, Mizar and Elcor. God knows all of them by name and those are their names. These two stars orbit around one another. Remarkable. We also saw Jupiter.

We could see the lions running across Jupiter and Saturn's rings. You can also see the red planet, Mars. For thousands of years people have been fascinated by the glory of the night sky. Gazing at the night sky is not a new phenomenon.

People have been doing this for thousands of years. We can be sure that Adam and Eve and their immediate ancestors were blown away by the night sky just as we are, but even though people down through history have enjoyed the night sky, there was once a phenomenon unlike anything this world has ever seen and this happened 2 ,000 years ago.

There were astrologists at this time. They were experts on formations of stars and planets in outer space, but this star that they noticed in the western sky was something they had never seen before. This star in the west was brighter and larger than the other stars and they were mesmerized by it, so much so that they came to believe this star was a sign.

It was communicating something to them and they needed to travel to the location where it was leading them. What I am referring to, of course, is the story of the Magi from the east visiting a very important baby that was born and that baby is, of course, Jesus.

This baby is one whom they would give honor to when there was another king in the region who wanted all the honor for himself. Now, for those of you who've been with us for quite some time, we've been going through Matthew, a sermon series on Matthew.

Right now we just finished chapter 8, but since it's Christmas I want to look back. We're going to go back to Matthew chapter 2 and we are going to look at this account. Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 11.

So this time I encourage you to turn there with me if you have a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, we do have red Bibles in the pew. It's on page 960 in those Bibles. This Christmas sermon is titled, Who are you worshiping?

Who are you worshiping? And here's our big idea. This is what this sermon is calling everyone in this room and everyone who can hear me speaking right now. It's calling you worship the only one who is worthy.

Worship the only one who is worthy. Every person has two choices. We're going to see those two choices show up in this text today. Let's begin by reading verse 1 and what we're going to do is we're going to move slowly through this text and we're going to see what God wants us to see here.

Verse 1 of Matthew 2. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. The first thing that we see in this text is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.

Now the gospel of Luke helps us understand why he was born in this place. Luke chapter 2 verses 4 through 5. We read that this morning says, and Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary his betrothed who was with child.

Now during this period of history in the Roman Empire a census was called and all the Jews were required to go to the place of their ancestors to register and since Joseph came from the line of Judah the place to register for the census was Bethlehem.

You can see the providence of God at work here. We'll see that more in a little bit but before we look at that what we read in the second half of verse 1 are two important characters in this story King Herod and the Magi.

The Magi go by another name the wise men and I want to give a little bit of a biographical sketch on these two parties one an individual and the other a group. First let's learn about King Herod. King Herod also known as Herod the Great ruled Judea from 37 BC to his death in 4 BC.

He did not have absolute authority in this region since this was the time of the Roman Empire when he was under their authority. King Herod is one of the most interesting characters from this point in history.

One historian has said that there is more historical documentation of this man than any other figure from antiquity. Antiquity is from before the 5th century AD. He was well known for his building projects just like people with massive egos they like to build things put their name on it so that everyone can look and be amazed by what they did.

He built a palace at Jericho the fortress of Herodium and the harbor and city known as Caesarea which was located on the Mediterranean. But his finest project is probably the temple in Jerusalem. Now of course he didn't build the temple in Jerusalem but he improved the temple to the point where it was quite a sight to see even though it was quite a sight to see even before that.

But not only was Herod a master builder he was also a ruthless ruler. He murdered his own wife several sons and other relatives. He was very insecure. He saw everybody as a threat thought everyone was out to get him.

It has been said of Herod the Great that it was safer to be one of his pigs than one of his sons. This background helps us understand why he was so threatened by Jesus as we will see in a little bit. Now the other biographical sketch we just need to see here is the Magi or as our English text calls them the wise men.

The text tells us that these people came from the east and what we will read is that they were star watchers. What this tells us is that they were astrologers. In astrology at this point in history was huge.

It's interesting that they were astronomers yes but astrologers also this was this was worship it wasn't just science it was also worship as well. Now astrology was especially important in the regions of Babylon and Persia.

So it makes sense that these people came from this region this region that would have been east of Bethlehem and in a bit I'm going to explain why this is so important to know. This background on Herod and the wise men is important as we read what we are about to read.

Now when these wise men arrive in Jerusalem from the east this is what they tell the locals in verse 2. Where is he who has been born king of the Jews for we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

The Wise Men, the Star, and the Search for the King of the Jews

So the wise men they see the star and ask where is the king of the Jews. This is where it is important to understand why these are Babylonian or Persian astrologists. About 600 years before this period the Jews were taken into captivity by the Babylonians during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.

During this time the Babylonians would have been familiar with the Old Testament and so would have the Persians because the Persians gained power after the Babylonians and in both times the Jews occupied these lands and were under the captivity of both the Babylonians and the Persians.

And these people these astrologers would have been interested in Old Testament prophecies. Astrologists were in the business at looking for signs that would tell them the future. They thought that the position of the sun moon and planets and stars when someone was born would tell them what kind of person this would be.

They thought the position of outer space would tell them future events as well. In fact President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy were into astrology and would plan out Reagan's schedule based on the positioning of the stars.

Interesting. So these Babylonians liked telling the future even though they failed miserably at it. In the book of Daniel King Nebuchadnezzar called for these astrologists to interpret his dream to tell future events and they were unable to do so.

But of course Daniel who was a believer in the Lord believer in the God the one true God he showed the God was with him because he was able to tell these future events to him when these astrologists were not.

But one can see why the Old Testament prophecies were appealing to these astrologers. When these astrologers saw this star in the east an Old Testament prophecy would have come to their minds. That prophecy is Numbers 24 verse 17 that says a star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

So when they saw the star they would have known a king has been born and we need to see him. So let me take a second to explain this star. Now tomorrow some of you maybe know may know this. There will be a natural phenomenon that has not occurred in 800 years.

Jupiter and Saturn are going to pass one another and from Earth it'll look like one planet. So very very interesting. There's been some research in fact Mark sent me an article on this that says that a phenomenon similar to the one that will appear in the southwest sky tomorrow occurred about 2000 years ago.

But I think this probably was not a natural phenomenon but a supernatural star that we see in this text. Something so extraordinary that these men had to travel a long way to see it. Some have said that the light of an angel shined over the place where Jesus was.

We don't know it could have been a natural phenomenon it could have been supernatural. But these wise men from the east would have seen this light in the sky as a sign in the heavens. Babylon would have been about 800 miles east of Jerusalem and they could not have jumped on a plane like we can today.

The only travel was on foot riding animals like camels. This journey would have taken at least a month to arrive to see where this star was leading them. Now it's very important for us to see what the end of verse 2 says.

They tell the locals that they have that they have come to worship him. This emphasis on worship is what this sermon is focused on. We know what the New Testament says concerning Jesus. He is not only man but he's also fully God.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2 verse 9 that the fullness of deity dwells bodily. Would the magi have known this? Probably not. But at minimum they understood that he was some kind of deity. They were from a part of the world where they believed in multiple gods so they would have seen this man as this child as some deity.

And it's so important that they have to travel to see him. And what they do in our text foreshadows what would be called the people to do for Jesus later on. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 17 what it says is that his followers worshipped him.

Which is remarkable that there's worship of a man. These men these wise men are to be commended in this text and their example followed and we'll see that more in just a little bit. Now the worship that Jesus would receive during his time on earth is worship that that he did receive.

He did not reject it. Showing us that it was right to worship him as God. And every Sunday at Eureka Baptist we worship Jesus. We worship a man. Jesus is the only man who ever lived who deserves to be worshipped because he is also God.

He has a fully human nature and he has a fully divine nature. He is equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Now we are going to look at the flip side. A man who desired to be honored and worshipped but is not worthy of worship and would not be worshipped.

Let's look at that in verse 3. When Herod the king heard this when he heard that there was they were going to worship this man he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. What the text tells us is that Herod and all Jerusalem were worried at the news that a king had been born.

When it says that all Jerusalem was worried this does not mean every single person in Jerusalem but rather the leaders of Jerusalem. This would be the chief priests the teachers of the law and the Pharisees and King Herod as we see in this text.

These were powerful people in Jerusalem and they feared that this king this child king would take away their power. Now what Herod is about to do is what he did throughout his life whenever he had a threat.

He tried to eliminate the problem. He was above the law and able to get away with whatever he wanted. I've already explained that he anyone who was a threat he just got rid of them put them to death but he would not do this immediately.

So let's see what he does first in verses 4 through 6. In assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him Bethlehem of Judea.

For so it is written by the prophet and you him in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. So Herod must learn where he is going to be born before he can remove the threat and through the scribes who knew the Old Testament he learns that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

At the end of this chapter in verses 16 through 18 Herod tried to eliminate the threat of this king by killing all the male children two years and under in the small town of Bethlehem. Even though King Herod was a Jew he probably didn't know the Bible very well.

I think that's a safe assumption to make. Most wicked people don't. Herod is your classic person from history who loves power and did not live for the afterlife. And now he is paying the price for throwing away his life.

I mean I think it's safe to say right he's in hell right now. We could say that about some people in the Bible like Judas and other people like that. He lived for power he lived for pleasure and anyone who does that and does not live for God pays the price.

And by the way we see this happening in America right now. People can only get away with things for a time before judgment is coming. No one is above the law and frankly if we open up our eyes we can see that in our country.

What they told Herod is that Micah 5 2 is the place that predicted where the Messiah would be born. It's worth stopping to praise God for his precision in telling us how things would come to pass. Earlier in this gospel the virgin birth was predicted and now we see the location of Christ's birth predicted.

And God providentially made this happen. Earlier I read the gospel of Luke that told us Joseph took Mary down to Bethlehem before the birth because of the census that was going to be taken. The Lord made it that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem in order to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5 2 the location where the long awaited Messiah would be born.

Now that Herod has this information as to the birthplace of the Messiah he tries to get more information so that he knows how to proceed to eliminate the problem. Verses 7 and 8. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and asked from them what time the star had appeared.

And he sent them to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him bring me word that I may too come. So Herod asked the Magi when the star had appeared. Now why does he do this?

He does this to find out the age of Jesus. Herod believed that the time the star appeared would have been about the time when he was born. When we look at the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke we notice that two different groups come to visit Jesus.

It's helpful to understand the chronology of these visitors. The gospel of Luke explains that shepherds visited Jesus. What Luke 2 16 tells us is that the shepherds of the field visited Jesus shortly after he was born.

However the appearance of the wise men from the east happened later. So Herod's questioning to figure out the date of the birth would have helped him determine the age. As I mentioned Herod is going to order the slaughter of all the children in Bethlehem who are two years old and younger.

So that's why it's so important for him to find out how old is this child. There was a New Testament scholar by the name of Harold Hohner who did a chronology on the life of Christ. According to his calculations he believes that Jesus was about a year old when these wise men visited him.

This knowledge helps us understand the setting. So all of those decorations that you see with with the shepherds and the wise men together they're wrong. But I'm not saying take them down I'm just saying the chronology is not right.

Now Herod is a very deceptive and manipulative man. He knows that these wise men are his only hope to find this child king. And what he tells the wise men in verse 8 is to report to him when they find the child so that he too can go and worship him.

Okay we know this is a lie. The last thing he wants to do is worship someone else. He worships himself. But we know that even though he says this he's just getting information. And he feels threatened by this child king.

He wants to eliminate him not worship him. He desires to be honored as king alone and not to have another receive that honor. So we see the tension in this text. The two choices of the wise men. The two choices that the wise men face.

Who is worthy of worship? Is it Herod? Or is it Jesus? Herod has this desire to be the only one to receive honor. And so he wants to eliminate the problem. But it's interesting that another Herod later later on in the New Testament desired worship and received it.

And let's just say things didn't go too well for him. Let me let me read this account. Herod Agrippa the first the grandson of Herod the Great. This is what happened. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them.

And the people were shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

That comes from the book of Acts. Herod the Great's grandson. So he's giving this public speech. Everybody's thinking man this guy is something incredible. And they start to worship him. They say the voice of a God and not a man.

And then God strikes him dead just like that. In our world we have we have world leaders like that who love to be worshiped. We have seen this throughout history. Many world rulers down through the ages have have called for worship.

They even go that far. But of course worship is only meant for God alone. For example Daniel got thrown into the lion's den because he would not bow the knee to the Persian king placed over him. This still happens in the present day.

Think about Christians in North Korea who are faced with the choice of showing allegiance to God or King Jung Un. If there was one world leader who's maybe most like Herod the Great in our world right now it's probably him.

He has put people to death for lack of loyalty or whom he sees as a threat. And he's able to get away with it because there's no one above him. He's able to do whatever he wants. And by the way the best leaders in world history the best leaders in the present day they are those who see themselves as small.

And God is big. And it's hard to find them. When our founders designed the Constitution they designed it in such a way that would limit power. And why did they do that? They did that because they know that history tells us that when people get in power they abuse that power.

So what happens is you need to limit that somehow. And so that's why we have the branches right the executive branch the judicial branch and the legislature. It's interesting the wisdom that we see from our founding fathers because they know what people do.

They know what King Jung Un is doing in North Korea right now. They knew what Herod did 2 ,000 years ago. But what we see here is that even though Herod the Great wants all the honor all the worship for himself the wise men don't bow their knee to him.

The text mentions no such thing but they did bow their knee to the rightful king. And let's look at this in verses 9 through 11. After listening to the king so after the wise men listened to the king they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures they offered him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh.

The True King Is Worthy of Worship

So what we see is that the wise men see the star again. This is why I think it's a supernatural star it just appears again over the house where he is. The star leads them to the precise location in Bethlehem and they are filled with joy that they are going to see the child king that was foretold in the old testament.

Once they go into the house they see Mary and the child about a year old at this time and you will notice that they are in a house which again indicates that he was not a baby because remember he was born in a manger in a barn like setting.

But what verse 11 says is that when they saw Jesus they fell down and worshiped him. That's the most important verse in this chapter or in this section. They fell down and worshiped him. In order to show him the honor that he is due they offered him gifts.

They offered him gold. They offered him frankincense and they offered him myrrh. These wise men came from pagan nations yes but what they did here was exactly right. They did not honor Herod and of course Herod was not worthy of worship.

He was a wicked king and no human ever is except for one. This boy, this one year old child who would do remarkable things. We know his life right? Jesus lived a perfect life on this earth. He is the only man ever to live without sin.

And then once he got into his 30s he agitated the rulers of Jerusalem so bad his rhetoric got him killed. Think about that. Think about how wicked this world is that we live in. So Jesus calls out the Jewish leaders.

He says you're a bunch of hypocrites. You guys aren't true true followers of God and they want to eliminate him off the scene. There's only one person in the history of the world who has been perfect and this world killed him.

I mean I was thinking I've been thinking about that lately. Isn't that remarkable? And of course God uses that to bring our salvation. So it was it was all for good yes but it's just it's interesting to think about that.

And he alone is worthy of our worship. Revelation 5 12 says worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. This praise and revelation toward Jesus comes from thousands upon thousands of angels in heaven who knew he was worthy to receive all the praise and he is forever worthy.

He is the only man who deserves to be worshipped because he is the only man who is also God. And what we see in this text is just the beginning of his worship. The worship that he would receive later in his ministry and forever as we always praise him.

The wise men bow down and give the child king the praise that he is due and Herod the Great was not worthy but he is. And what this Christmas sermon has called you to do today is to worship the only one who is worthy.

Every person has two choices. Life is that simple. There's only two paths. We saw that recently in Matthew in Matthew chapter 7. There's the wide path that most of the world is going down that leads to destruction and then there's the narrow path that leads to life.

That's the path that Jesus calls us to go down. And the people who go down that narrow path are the ones who worship him. Who worship him no matter what it costs. And when we talk about worship what do we mean by worship?

What worship means is it's the one to whom you give the highest praise. It's the one who you value the most. In fact the word worship is worth. The word worth is in there. So he is worthy of worship. He's the one whose worth is the highest of anyone else.

It's the one whom you live for. Sometimes you hear people say that. I live for my children. I live for my job. I live for your favorite sports team or whatever it might be. But there's only one person worth living for and that is Jesus.

And if we live for anything else it's idolatry. So whom are you worshiping? Are you worshiping yourself? Are you worshiping someone else? Or are you worshiping Jesus Christ? So ask yourself this honest question today.

Is Jesus number one in your life? If someone were to ask someone else about you what would they say? What would they say about this person? Would they say Jesus is everything to him or her? Or would they say, you know, he's there but he's just kind of the cherry on top of this person's life.

That's not a Christian. A Christian is one who has counted the cost where Jesus is everything to you. And let me just say this too, that we're living at a point in our country where cultural Christianity is crumbling.

Many of you have lived for decades and you know what it was like. Sundays used to be like a holiday. Sundays used to be a day where everyone would go to church, right? Businesses were closed and now we live in a time where biblical Christianity, the influence on our society is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.

And the evil agendas at work in our nation, secular agendas, they've always been there but it's bigger than it's ever been. And it's in the mainstream more than it's ever been. And it feels like you're outnumbered more than you ever have been.

But let me tell you this, Christianity never shrinks. True Christianity never shrinks. Only cultural Christianity shrinks. So my urge to everyone in this room today is do not be a cultural Christian. And you know what, you won't, you'll have a hard time doing that in the future because you're going to have to choose a side.

A cultural Christian is one who has one foot in the world and one foot with Jesus. But we're living in a world where someone's going to ask you, is Jesus the only way to heaven? And if you say yes, that's going to cost you something.

Or if you say that the Bible is the word of God, it's going to cost you something. If you say that every other religion will lead someone, will lead you to hell, it's going to cost you something. If you stand for the truth, no matter what, it's going to cost you something.

It might even lead to your death. You'll lose friends. You'll lose respect. People will think you're nothing special. They'll think you're a problem. They'll think you're an enemy of society. And this is what's happened down through history.

There's so many Christians where people just thought, we just got to get rid of these people. The world's progressing and they're not getting with the program. And so what do they do? They persecute you.

And only the true believers are the ones who are going to stand when that comes. And it is happening right now. And it's only going to increase in our country. You can kiss America goodbye. Let me say that right now.

I don't think it's coming back. The America that let us worship freely, the America that held Christianity in high regard, that's gone. But you know what? That's okay. Because God is still working in our country.

And he always will. And he will always build a church. And frankly, the church might never be stronger as he works through these difficult times. So I just want to make that point clear as we think about who are we worshiping?

If we're worshiping Christ, it's going to show. And you can't be mediocre. He can't be the cherry on top of your life. He has to be everything. And that's my call to everyone here. It's worth it because God never lets anybody down.

If you give 100 of yourself to him, that means you are going to be immortal forever. You are going to live with him forever. You are going to live with 100 joy that will never end. That's the promise he has made to you.

And you will live with him forever. That means you have to give up your life in this world, this life that is passing away, that most of our world right now is running down. So who are you worshiping this day?

The Cost of Worshiping Christ in a Secular Age

Now, next Sunday and the following, we're going to take a brief break from math. I just shared with you a little bit my concern about our country. My greatest concern is over the church. I'm not talking about our church.

I think we're going in a good direction. I'm concerned about the wider church, the church in America. And I'm going to share with you what the root issue is the next two Sundays of what is happening to the church in America.

Because the church in America, I think, is being more influenced by society than by the Bible. And I'm going to show to you how that is. And I just want to tell you, there's an army of people who are standing against it.

So it's not like it's just completely caving. But I will share with you what I'm seeing right now and what we need to see as we look at our nation and the church's state in this nation. So at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father in heaven, what a wonderful God you are and what a wonderful plan you have for your people. And Lord, indeed, as we look back at the advent of Christ, his first coming to this world, his second coming never has felt closer.

As we wrap up this year, it feels like we're on the edge. And my prayer, Lord, is that everyone in this room would be ready. If you were to return today, that they would be ready to meet him, because so many, Lord, are not ready.

But my prayer is that more and more would be ready. Indeed, Lord, Jesus alone is worthy of our worship. And if we worship him, we will be safe and secure forever. And that's my prayer for everybody here.

Would you do the work in everyone's life right where they need it? In Jesus name. Amen.