The Visit of the Magi

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The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, verses 1 -12, we will be reading.
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I'd like to speak about the visit of the Magi. The visit of the
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Magi. This is a wonderful, wonderful story given to us in the
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Gospel of Matthew. Now keep in mind, as you turn there, Matthew is writing to the
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Jews. He's writing to the Jews, and this is very important to understand this.
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As he writes to the Jews, all the way through his Gospel record, as he records the genealogy, the birth, the life, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he's presenting
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Christ as King to the Jews. And this is so significant, as we will see, as we will go on further in this text.
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The verses I'd like to read is verses 1 -12, so hear the word of the living
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God. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the
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King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying,
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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.
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And when Herod the King had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
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And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
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And they said unto him, Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,
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And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people
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Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
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And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go, and search diligently for the young child.
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And when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also.
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What a liar. Verse 9, And 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.
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And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him.
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And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh, and being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
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Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your most holy word this morning.
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Help us, Lord, not to take your word for granted. It has been given to us in a sea of blood, translated in many, many languages, and here it is in our tongue, that we can understand it.
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And Father, I would pray that we would not take this for granted. Save us from apathy. Work this glorious truth in our hearts today.
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By your Holy Spirit I pray that after we have heard it, that we would just not be hearers of the word, but we would be doers of the word.
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And Father, that we would be forever changed by your word. And I pray this in the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake and for His glory. Amen and amen. Well, the text before us is so important.
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It's wonderful. You know, in the first of his letters to the Corinthian church, the
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Apostle Paul wrote this. In 1 Corinthians 1 .26, and I'm going to break it up a little bit, but to emphasize, he says,
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Not many wise men by human standards, then he goes on to say, those that were basically influential, not many wise, not many noble, of birth, have been chosen by God to know
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Christ. That's a paraphrase, but you could turn to 1 Corinthians 1 .26
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and you see that God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.
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But here, and let me say this, that's a very true observation given to us. It's from the word of God.
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Yet, the Christmas story tells us that from the beginning of the Christmas era there have been some, some, not all, and not many, but some that were wise.
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Some who were of noble birth and some who were influential who came to worship
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Jesus. And we see this recorded in the pages of Scripture. We call them the wise men.
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The wise men from the east, or better known as the Magi. The Magi.
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They came from distant east, probably Persia, and they were distinguished even by the worldly standards of that day.
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Their arrival in Jerusalem caused such a stir. And we can read this as we have read in verses 1 through 12.
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And it speaks to us and it gives us the record given to us by Matthew, Levi, of the visit of the wise men known to us as Magi.
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But these wise men from the east came to Jerusalem to inquire of Christ, to find
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Christ in Jerusalem. And they were seekers after the Messiah. They were seekers.
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And we will look at the following. And I like to break my outline up into three points, and I try to keep it like that in a sense so we can remember it.
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In verses 1 to 2 we will see the arrival of the Magi. That's in verses 1 and 2, the arrival of the
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Magi. Second, we will look at, in verses 3 through 8, the agitation of Herod.
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The agitation of Herod in verses 3 through 8. And then last, we will see, third, in verses 9 through 12, the adoration by the
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Magi. That's in verses 9 through 12, the adoration of the
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Magi. And these men, and how they were directed by a bright and shining star, which is known as the
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Shekinah Glory, we'll look at that, that hovered over Christ and pointed the way to Christ to worship
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Him as they presented gifts. And then at last, we will look at our application.
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And on the application, I can't wait to get to it, so I'm going to do everything I can to rush through it but not rush too hard so we can gather these nuggets as we go and see this story.
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But I would like for us to consider in the application, how were these men wise? How were they wise?
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And we're going to apply this personally to our everyday living. Then we will conclude with how and what we can do as believers to offer, what we can do to offer to Jesus Christ as they offered their gifts.
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So let's begin. Let's look first at the arrival of the Magi. The arrival of the
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Magi. Verses 1 -2 says this, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying,
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Where is he that is born King of the Jews? They're seekers now. They're looking for Him. For we have seen
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His star in the east and are come to worship Him. You think of this. After having established that Jesus Christ is
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King by lineage in chapter 1, and then in chapter 2,
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Matthew, Levi, reemphasizes that Jesus Christ is a King in terms of the fact that certain people paid
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Him homage as a King. And this is where He's going. He's taking us there and He's writing it.
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So if Jesus is a King, and He is, Matthew is saying to us that it ought to be evident by His genealogy in chapter 1.
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And Matthew establishes this as a foundation. The genealogy is very important.
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A lot of people read through the genealogy and think, Oh, this is boring. Folks, it's so important. I'm telling you.
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It tracks the lineage, the genealogy of the birth of Christ.
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So He establishes this in chapter 1, and therefore if Jesus is that King, and it ought to be evident by the way people respond to Him.
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And so in chapter 2, we come to, Matthew tells us that this wonderful story of certain wise men who came from the
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East to proclaim that Jesus Christ was indeed a King and to bow at His feet and worship
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Him as King, the Ruler, the Majesty.
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And that is exactly what Matthew emphasizes to us, isn't it? That's exactly what he emphasizes to us.
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That Jesus Christ is King, but He's King by virtue of His royal genealogy. He is
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King by virtue of His royal majesty that is on display, and also accepted and honored and revealed by the work and the effort of these wise men coming from afar and bringing certain gifts and presenting it to Jesus.
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Now, what can we learn about these wise men? What can we learn? There's much we can learn.
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The Bible does not tell us very much about these ancient visitors to Jerusalem, does it? And scholars have been puzzled about them and their journey ever since they made it.
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Literally, millions, and you know this as well as I do, millions of Christmas cards show the three kings presenting gifts to a tiny child in a manger.
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That's so misrepresented. People sing, and there are some hymns that sing,
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We Three Kings of Orient Are. But we do not know for sure that there are three wise men that brought gifts.
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The scriptures don't tell us three wise men. They said there were wise men. So, more than likely, there's more than three.
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The text before us does not say three, but we do assume there are three because of the gifts that were presented were three gifts, gold, myrrh, and frankincense.
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That's why they think three, but more than likely, there's much more than three. There's just three gifts, special gifts that was presented.
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In his commentary, and I read a lot about this, James Montgomery Boyce says it so perfectly, so I've got some quotes by him, so I think it's very significant that what he says about his observation here.
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He says this, There maybe have been many more than three, and we are not told that they were kings necessarily, or even when they arrived in Bethlehem, he goes on to say it is likely in the view of their long journey and of Herod's command that all children under two years of age be killed, that they arrived after Jesus had already become a young child.
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The story contains a faint suggestion of this, and when the Magi arrived in Bethlehem, Mary and her child were already settled in a house, no longer in the stable.
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End quote. And that is so true. We have to look very carefully what the Scriptures say, because there is misrepresentations out there.
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You know, you see at the birth of Jesus, wise men came and presented gifts at his birth.
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That's not necessarily true. It's when Jesus was a young child.
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He grew some. And we don't know exactly how old he is here, but the
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Scripture says this. I want you to notice in Scriptures, if you have your Bible open, notice verse 9.
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Till it came and stood, I'm sorry, verse 8, back at verse 8.
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Search carefully for the young child. Notice the young child. Verse 9.
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Till it came and stood over where the young child was. Verse 11.
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When they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother.
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Also in verse 13. Arise. Take the young child and his mother.
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Flee to Egypt. Stay there until I bring you word. For Herod would seek the young child to destroy him.
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Verse 14. When he arose, he took the young child. So you see and see time again and again.
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So the Scriptures establishes at this time the Magi that came to Jerusalem that Jesus was a young child, not an infant.
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So it's afterwards that he's grown son. So notice in verse 1, chapter 2.
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I like that there is a translation that says when, the old
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King James says when Jesus was born. The new King James says after Jesus was born.
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I prefer the after in a sense because people, there is a big difference of when and after. The after gives the effect that it's not at his birth here, it's when he's a young child.
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He's grown son. So let's look at, we'll take the new King James, but I'm reading from the old King James. I had to throw that in there.
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After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, that's an important word.
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Behold says look. Look. There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.
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Okay, let's stop right there. The word wise men is actually an untranslatable word.
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It's an interesting word. It's a word that is taken magi. Let's look at this word magi.
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It simply is a designation of a hereditary priesthood, tribe, from among people known as the
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Medes. You remember the Medes? The Medes were a large group of people.
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Among them there were various tribes. And one of the tribes was the magi tribes, and it was a hereditary priesthood.
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And what I mean by that is that interesting about this, the tribe, is they were basically Gentile. These are not
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Jewish people. These wise men are not Jewish. They are Gentiles.
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They're outside of the covenants and the promises of God. They were high -ranking, official priests, type of people among the
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Medes, such as the Levites were like the priests among the Jews. This tribe rose by virtue of their wisdom.
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They were known for wisdom, and they were very influential, and by virtue of some occultic powers.
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Now, keep this in mind. These are pagan Gentiles. And why do we say this?
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Well, you'll see in just a minute. By virtue of some astrology, astrological astronomy.
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There was a mix of astrology and astronomy. You know the difference. Ability that they had.
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So they rose up to places of being the advisors to the kings and the courts of Babylon.
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These people were very smart people. They were very, very bright.
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What I love about this story personally, and I put a note here, is that in Matthew, Levi, writing to the
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Jews, he presents Jesus as the king in his gospel. By virtue of lineage, as I mentioned, he is king by virtue of recognition.
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And notice in the text before us, and this is interesting, that he is recognition on the part of the
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Gentiles to the Jews. Gentiles to the Jews, official kingmakers from the
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East. Now, here's something else to think about. Where did these pagan
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Gentiles, astrologers, wise men, get their information about the Messiah to be born?
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Now, as I was studying this, I was just so overwhelmed with joy how
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God did this over 500 years before Jesus was even born.
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There was prophecies in the Scriptures. If you look at the record of Scripture, and again, it's exactly 586 years before Jesus was born.
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And Israel was taken into captivity into Babylon. You know the story.
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Remember Israelites were led away there into the Babylonian captivity.
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This part of the world. And when they were there, they were told that these Babylonians, these
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Medes and Persians, that were all mixed around about a king that was going to be born.
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How did they find out about this? How did these men that came from the
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Far East know about this? Folks, it was hundreds of years before.
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There was seeds planted by a prophet. Who was this prophet? Does he come to mind?
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Can somebody guess? Daniel. His name was Daniel. Now Daniel was a
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God -fearing man. And he left a great legacy. Now never think of this.
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Daniel planted these seeds from the prophecy, from Micah and from all these other prophets.
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You know prophets would read prophets. Jeremiah was read by Daniel.
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It's beautiful if you see this. But it's the Word of God inspiring and breathing through these men of old, moved by the
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Holy Ghost. And it's awesome. Turn with me to the book of Daniel and you'll see this.
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Chapter 2 can go to it, but I've got one in mind that's chapter 5. Let's look at his rank.
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You can see this all the way through Daniel. Now in chapter 5, I'm not going to go in detail about this, but in chapter 5, this is a tremendous story.
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You need to read this in your devotional time. This is actually the judgment that's about to come on Belshazzar.
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It's called the handwriting on the wall. You know we take that saying that handwriting's on the wall.
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In other words, the jig is up. Pretty much that's what he's saying. He said your time is up.
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So what's happening here? Well, they knew that Daniel had such a reputation of great virtue, and he could interpret dreams.
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He had this gift. It was a gift that God gave him. No one else could do this like Daniel. And I really personally believe that it's because he feared
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God in such a deep and a powerful way. God gifted him with this gift.
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He had wisdom among others far in advance than anyone else. Wisdom now.
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And Daniel was promoted. But look at verse 11. There was a man, speaking of Daniel, in thy kingdom in whom is the
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Spirit. Now you've got to realize these are pagans talking, but it's still God's Word recorded.
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And they're speaking of Daniel in whom is the Spirit of the holy gods. And if you notice in your translation, there's a small g, there's thinking that he is like the gods.
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They don't know the true and living God like Daniel does, but this is what they say about him. And in the days of thy father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him, talking about Daniel, whom the king
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Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, the king, I say. Now listen to this.
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Here it is. Thy father made master of the magicians.
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That's where we get the word magi. The magicians, the astrologers, the
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Chaldeans and the soothsayers. And I'll stop right there because that's so significant.
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You see, Daniel is promoted in a place of prominence over all the land.
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You know this. Think of this. He's in a foreign land. He's a slave.
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He is basically in the captivity by these pagan
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Gentiles. And he's a Jewish, God -fearing man. And he's promoted. And Nebuchadnezzar promoted him.
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And here is Belshazzar. He's in trouble. Things is going on. They're having actually what was happening. If you look at it, there was a big party going on and they were using these vessels that were meant to be from the temple.
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And they were taking something that was of holy use and they're making it into unholy and having a party and all kinds of immoral sexual activity that was going on.
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I'm telling you, they were taking things holy and defiling it. And that very night,
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God judged Belshazzar. And you know the story. Many, many tickle your farsen. And that handwriting that was on the wall, that was
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God's hand, wrote on the wall. And Daniel comes and he explains the interpretation. And that very night, they were overtaken and Belshazzar lost his life.
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Now, the reason I brought that out, that is a verse that is so significant and important because we need to see that this is the kind of legacy that Daniel left.
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Now, if you ever think that you're not making a difference in your life, think again.
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You can leave a legacy like Daniel. 500 years later, these men, down through the ages, this is another generation, but it had to be planted somewhere.
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And Daniel was the man that planted those seeds. Now, I love that.
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Now, let's carry on. This is where they got the information. And no doubt, this great prophet of God was chief over the
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Magi in Babylon and where the seeds of this prophecy came from about the
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Messiah. Now, let me add a footnote right here. There were also, there was two great superpowers in the world at this time period.
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This is important because the power of the East was Persia. And kind of an emerging power in a sense, but although at one time they were a great power of the world in history.
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You can read that. And then the other great superpower in the West rose up.
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And who was it? Rome. Now, why is this important? It was Rome in that time that really dominated everything.
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Rome took over. God allowed this to happen, folks. Because, what does the
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Scripture say in Galatians 4 .4? A wonderful verse to memorize. It says this, 500 years later, the fullness of time had come.
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God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Think of that.
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What I just said is powerful because the fullness of time. 400 years, all these years of silence after the prophets did no longer speak
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God's Word. There was something different at the time.
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400 years, they didn't know. There was no fresh Word from God. All they had was the prophets and so forth.
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But politically, going back to what is being said, Rome paved the way and everything was ripe for the coming
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Messiah to come into the world. Everything perfectly. The Roman roads, the language.
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I can go on and on. I can stay there, but we need to move on. But politically, think of this.
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God would send a leader, a king. Think about how the Magi, the Gentiles, are thinking.
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To overrule the tyranny of that day and the oppression of Rome. Now, we don't understand this because the
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Jewish people was taken over and the Romans basically just ruled over them in tyranny.
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It was oppressive. And this is going to be very important as we look at King Herod in a minute. But look at verse 2.
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The wise men, the Magi. You know a little bit about that word Magi. From the east, ask a question.
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What was the question? Where is he who is born King of the Jews? Where is he? For we have seen his star on the east and have come to worship him.
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The Magi really represent the first fruits of the Gentile nations. And you know what else that tells us?
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That shows us all along that God had the Gentiles in His heart to know the
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Gospel. This is the first fruits right here. Isn't this beautiful?
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This is the first time we see and what's interesting about it here is a
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Jewish man, Levi, writing to the Jews about Jesus.
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And these wise men that come. They come to Jerusalem in the days of Herod the
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King seeking for the King of the Jews. Interesting, like I said. These Gentiles, not
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Jews, are seeking out the Messiah. And then what happens? Herod is afraid. He's insecure, isn't he?
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He's troubled. The Scripture says he's troubled. That's really a shocker.
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It shouldn't have been a shocker because if the Jewish people had carefully analyzed the
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Old Testament, they no doubt would have had good indication that the time was right.
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As I just mentioned before, the fullness of time. There was a mood. There was a strange expectancy in the air that something was about to happen and yet the
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Jewish people missed it. They missed it altogether. They were blind to it. And we see it's a tragedy.
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John 1, 11. He came unto His own. His own received Him not. It's a tragedy.
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He comes to His own people. They reject Him. They reject Him. You know the story. They murdered
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Christ. But in all that rejection, and Paul talks about this in Romans 9, and Romans 10,
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Romans 11, especially Romans 11, how God used all this in His sovereign hand and how
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He orchestrated it and that it was all planned by God that they were to reject it and harden them.
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And then in His sovereignty, opened up the hearts of the Gentiles. Isn't that beautiful?
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God was in charge, even in the murder of Jesus. They looked at it as it was murdering
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Christ. That's why He came, right? That's why He came in the stable and lived among us a perfect life.
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And then He goes to the cross. But all this. He knew this. Jesus knew this. All the way since He left glory when
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He became flesh, the Son of God, and He knew His mission. This command that He received from the
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Father was to do His will. And that was to die on a bloody cross for our sins and our salvation.
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Isn't that beautiful? Well, these Vagines, they testify this. We have seen His star in the east and we have come to worship
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Him. And what about this star now? I can camp out a whole sermon right here, but I try my best to make it short and sweet.
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That's hard for me to do, but keep me in check. What about this star?
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It seems to have guided them to that home. Well, many have attempted to explain it as an astronomical phenomenon.
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Some of the earliest theories view that this star was a comic. Have you ever heard that in science?
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They felt that this was a comic. Again, I've got Montgomery Boyce here. He says this, Such was the view of the great church father,
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Origen, of Alexandria. Later, Johannes Kepler, the father of modern astronomy, explained it as conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces in the year 7
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B .C. In other words, you might have seen the Nativity story. Who saw that? In the
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Nativity story, they bring this view into light because they see these wise men, and they get three of them there, of course, and in the movie, some parts of it's really good, some is not quite biblical, but here they take this theory that these planets merge with this star and it forms a supernova, in a sense, a bright star.
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But let me go on to say this. Boyce goes on to say, This view has been elaborated in various ways and is probably the favorite explanation of astronomers today.
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But more, he goes on, More likely, however, the star was a miraculous phenomenon and possibly the appearance of the
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Shekinah glory that had accompanied the people of Israel in the desert wandering, signifying
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God's presence with them. So think of that. Only something like the
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Shekinah glory of God, and I personally take that view, that this was not just planets merging and stars merging and a supernova and a comet.
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This was the Shekinah glory of God that God placed over the
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Lord Jesus Christ when He came into this world. It guided these wise men.
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It led them. It went before them. Verse 9 says, It stopped over the place where the young child was, which is what the most straightforward reading of the story seems to indicate.
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It's interesting also to note that the Bible shows little interest in these details. Now, I got this as important.
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Think of this. The fact that so little information of this kind is given shows that Matthew, Levi, was not interested in how many wise men there were.
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That's interesting, isn't it? Now, Luke might have given us more details, but Matthew is not interested in giving the details, and that's the way the
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Holy Spirit inspired him. Why? One more thing. He doesn't get into the details of the length of the journey.
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Those kind of questions come to mind and what we think we can assume, but we don't know necessarily.
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And even the star. There's not a whole lot of details about the star. But rather, what is
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Matthew interested in here? He's interested in the fact that from the very beginning of the story, the
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Gentiles came to worship a Jewish Messiah.
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That's the point. We don't need to miss that, do we? Right from the beginning of this story, the first fruits of the
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Gentiles, the pagans, come after looking diligently for the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Well, very quickly, let's go to my second point.
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The agitation of Herod. I'm not going to spend a lot of time in this because in verses 3 -8, we see that King Herod heard this.
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He was troubled in all Jerusalem with him when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes and the people together.
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And listen, this shows you what kind of person he is. He demanded of them. You see that?
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Can you get it in the text? You can sense it in the text. He's a demanding person. He's a tyrant.
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And by the way, I personally believe he's a demon -possessed man because what he orders later on is absolutely devastating and tragic and horrific.
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The ordering of killing all the little children under two years of age. Terrible. We know of Joseph Stalin's and Hitler's doing horrific things like that, but we know it's demon -inspired, right?
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Satan was actually after the Lord Jesus Christ but God protected him. And he could not get to because the power of the sovereignty of God is over Satan himself.
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So he couldn't get to him. But the Scripture says, and they said unto him... Now, who's saying this unto him?
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He asked where Christ should be born in verse 5. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, they quote a
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Scripture here, Endow Bethlehem in the land of Judea, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule.
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That means feed my people Israel. And then verse 7, Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men...
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See, this is after. See, first he inquires of a hierarchy of priests and then he calls the wise men privately to him and inquire to them diligently at what time the star appeared.
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He's not interested in this. He's just doing this. He's a phony. He's a hypocrite. Verse 8, When he sent them to Bethlehem and said...
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You can almost sense it in the Scriptures. Go and search diligently for this young child. And when ye have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also.
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You see, he's such a phony and a hypocrite. He's not telling the truth. He wants to kill the child, right?
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But the Magi didn't know this, right? They didn't know this. Now, the thing we see here in the text before us is that Herod is troubled, right?
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He's troubled. Let me just touch on this a little bit. Why is he troubled? He's agitated.
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Yeah. Another king is to be born. He's threatened, right? Just like Brother Keith said.
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Another king is to be born. No more kings. He wants to be the big honcho.
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He wants to be the big man on the nest, on the roost, right? Well, in the first place, he knew...
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Here's another view, that the people of the city of Jerusalem did not like him. I don't think
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I'd like him either. Would you? What do people do when they don't like someone that's ruling?
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Well, they want him off the throne. They did not... The people of that time, the
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Jewish people, and the other people of that time period, did not like the Roman rule.
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And they wanted their independence. I would want my independence too. Especially if there's a tyrant on the throne.
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Herod knew this. He knew this, and he was insecure, and he was troubled.
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And when they had aspirations to overthrow him, to desire to overthrow
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Rome as well, he was sitting on top of a powder keg, so to speak.
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A stack of dynamite. And in all this, he knew it.
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But also he knew that the Eastern Empire posed a constant threat to Rome as well.
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See, these people were from the East. And here they come. So you see this from Herod.
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He's troubled at this time when these men come from the East looking for a king.
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And things start stirring up in his mind. He's threatened. He's insecure. He's troubled. He's agitated.
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And we know that if the Persians... He knew this, that in the act of overthrowing him, he would be in serious trouble, wouldn't he?
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Well, so he gets in hierarchy together. What does he do? That's just the way tyrants are.
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Let me get my little... Yeah, like mobs, like the mafia. They got their people.
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It makes them feel secure somehow. I got my group. So what does he do? Look at what the text says.
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He gathers the chief priests, which consisted of mostly...
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This is interesting. For the first time here in Matthew, we see the Sadducees and the Scribes.
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The Scribes consisted mostly of the Pharisees. Now, these are the theologians of the day, supposedly the authorities on the
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Jewish law. And sometimes they were referred to, in some translations, if you notice, as lawyers.
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Now, I'm not trying to down lawyers, but that's the way the interpretation brings it. You can't trust all lawyers either, right?
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So these temple authorities, these hierarchy were professional scholars whose specialty was explaining the application of the law.
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They knew exactly where the Messiah was to be born in verse 5. And they quote
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Micah 5 too. But there's one thing they lacked that's very important, and that was the faith to accompany the
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Magi to the place where he was. They didn't care about it. And actually, they didn't believe it.
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They saw the Scriptures, but there was no belief in them. A major ancient prophecy written in the 8th century
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BC, amazing. They knew all this truth from the Old Testament prophet, and yet paid absolutely no attention to the events of that little town called
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Bethlehem, which the time had occurred months ago. No doubt the shepherds let it be known that to such a great and important event happened the birth of the
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Messiah came. Think of that. Notice in this prophecy from Micah, the writer of Matthew changes it just a little bit at the end, if you look at it from verse to word, word for word.
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A governor shall shepherd my people Israel. The word rule here is a word in the
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Greek meaning shepherd, that Jesus will shepherd his people. Now that part is not in Micah.
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Matthew adds that, and I think there's a reason for that. This portion of Matthew's quote actually seems to be a reference to God's word to Saul when
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Israel's kingdom was originally established. This is interesting because the Greek word here ruler means an image of a strong, stern leader.
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But at the same time, a shepherd emphasizes tender, loving care over his people.
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So Christ as ruler shows us that Jesus will reign with a rod of iron, but that rod of iron will be righteousness and justice.
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Wouldn't you love to have a ruler like that? Perfect righteousness and justice, but yet he will tenderly lead his people.
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Boy, I don't know about you. I long to see a ruler like that, and only the
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Lord Jesus Christ qualifies. It's beautiful and glorious. I could camp out there and go on, but I've got to move on.
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Verses 7 and 8 basically gives to us how wicked this king Herod was, and all that is said by him gives us the real realities of his intentions that he actually wanted to kill the child.
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You can read that in verses 13 through 18. It gives the story how
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Joseph is warned by God in a dream, and those verses compact together of what happened, the after effects, and what
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King Herod ordered out of the massacre of young children. That's demonic, isn't it?
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It is. But God protected the Lord Jesus Christ, the most important person of all. Well, let's move on.
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Let's look at verses 9 through 12. This is the last of my outline, the adoration by the magi.
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I think this is probably one of the most important parts of it. When they had heard the king, they departed in low.
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That means behold, look. The star which they saw in the east went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was.
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Verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary and his mother and fell down and noticed the text and worshipped
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Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented or offered unto
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Him, Jesus, gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
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Being warned of God in a dream, they should not return to Herod. They departed into their own country another way.
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Now, what I love about this, we see the journey is complete for the magi. Lo, behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them.
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God did not leave them without guidance. God was guiding these men. Pagan Gentiles, by the way.
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The magi were overwhelmed that the special star reappeared to them. It seems almost as if Matthew here was at loss for words in describing their ecstatic joy.
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Do you see this? The magi was ecstatic, joyful.
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MacArthur, I love what MacArthur says. He says here, quote, the original text piles up the superlatives to emphasize the extent of exhilaration they felt, thus indicating to us their uniquely strong interest in this great event.
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End quote. I love that. And that is so true because that's why they were overwhelmed with joy.
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Now, I want you to think of this just for a second. In verse 9, when they heard King Herod, they departed.
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Now, can you imagine for a minute what were they thinking in their mind after they heard
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King Herod say these things? They had come to all this way, a great journey, no doubt, to Jerusalem to find he who was born king of the
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Jews, and they didn't know specifically where to go or what to do in their next movement or the next step they were to take.
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And then it says there's a break in Scripture. What's the break? Lo! Lo!
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Behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them.
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Isn't that God? That's God, the Holy Spirit, the Shekinah glory that led the children of Israel in the desert years ago.
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You can read in Exodus and Deuteronomy and Numbers. It was a pillar of cloud by day leading them, providing shade for them in the hot desert, but leading them all the way.
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And at nighttime it was a, you know how deserts are, it was very cold. And this burning
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Shekinah glory was turned from a pillar of cloud at day and then a pillar of fire at night giving them warmth.
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Notice how good God is. And this is a rebellious people. He's still providing for them and overlooking them and taking care of their needs.
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And the Bible says here this star went before them. They were not deserving of this.
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These were Gentiles, pagans. Till it came, stood over where the young child was.
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The Shekinah glory of God appears, goes before them. Doesn't God, isn't He good?
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That's what He does for us. He takes care of His people, though we're undeserving of it.
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And they knew, listen to this, and they knew that they were on the right track when they saw that star.
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That's why it was so joyful. I had to bring that up because that's, you think of it, they didn't know what to do the next step after they heard
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King Herod and all of a sudden they see it. God puts it right in front of them, goes before them.
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Another interesting note here, notice the star which they saw in the east. Now look this up, the literal translation in the
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Greek, you'll like this. The star which they saw in the rising.
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That's the Greek, that's the original language. The star that they saw in the rising.
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Isn't that beautiful? This means more than just an appearing in a certain area. The star which appeared in the rising, the
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Shekinah glory of God appears again and it descends right over the house where Jesus was.
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The glory has returned. Jesus has been born.
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The Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. And when they saw the star, that's what the
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Bible says, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Oh, God was so good.
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He was leading them, leading these Gentiles. He leads us to the Savior of the world.
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He will lead you, and I'm here to tell you, the Father will lead you to Jesus, His Son, every time.
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Nowhere else, and that's where He always points us to. To the Lord Jesus Christ, the
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Lord of Lords, the King of Glory, the Lord of Glory. King of Kings, Lord of Lords.
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Verse 11, and when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary and his mother, and what did they do?
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They fell down and worshipped Him. Notice the text.
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Now, I've got to bring this out. I wish some Catholics was here, oh my goodness. They saw the young child with Mary, his mother, fell down and worshipped, not her.
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There's no worship to Mary here. It's to Jesus, to Him.
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Why? Why? Why is this so important? Because worship only belongs to God alone, and Jesus never turned down worship, because He's God.
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You see that? Look at it all the way through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and every time when one came to worship
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Jesus, He never said, no, don't worship me. Hey, you know, other times you see the Apostle Paul, they try to worship him, oh no, don't worship.
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No, no, no, don't worship. Even the angels said, do not worship me, worship God. Because only
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God is worthy. Only Jesus is worthy. You see, they honored Him as a king, and they did what you do to only gods.
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They fell down on their knees and they worshipped Him and praised Him and adored Him. Worship belongs only to Jesus and Jesus alone, only to God and none other, for there's none other that is worthy.
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And notice what they done after they worshipped the child Jesus. The text says, and when they had opened their treasures,
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I love that, they presented, they offered to Him, what was it? Gold, frankincense, myrrh.
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This is my conclusion. I think these gifts are so significant for us. I want you to hear this.
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You'll get a blessing from this. The order is divine and it's divinely right, because it starts with worshiping
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Jesus. Then they're giving. It pours out into giving. See that?
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Not so much as an addition to their worship, as an element of it, but the gifts were an expression of their worship.
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You see that? It was an expression of their worship given out of the overflow of their adoring and grateful hearts.
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So therefore, worship is right always, because it must be only the basis for the right giving, the right learning, and the right service.
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You see that? You know, the gifts presented, what are they? Gold, incense, and myrrh, or frankincense.
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Let's look at them. Throughout history, gold. Let's look at gold. Throughout history, gold has been considered the most precious of metals and the universal symbol of material of great value and great wealth.
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I don't know about you, gold still is that. It is a highly valuable metal.
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It is easy to see why gold was an appropriate gift for Jesus Christ, because gold is the metal of kings.
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Don't you love this? The Scriptures don't miss nothing, folks. It presents this as Jesus.
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They knew that this was a gift for a king, a ruler.
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And so when the gold was presented to the child Jesus by them of Persia, it was an acknowledgement of his right to rule.
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That's what they were thinking. In his commentary on Matthew, William Barclay puts it this way, and I love it.
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He said, according to Seneca, a great orator, distinguished Roman orator, by the way, a writer, he said this, was the custom in Persia that no one could approach a king without a gift, and that gift had to be gold, the king of metals, as was the proper gift for a king of men.
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And this is obvious from the discoveries of archaeologists. Have you ever noticed this? Important people that had been discovered and dug up has been, yes,
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King Tut. What did they find? They found massive amounts of gold with King Tut.
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This is an important person. He was a king. That's why. They buried the gold. See, these are symbols, and when they found this in the tomb, the gold was there.
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It's usually proof that the deceased was a great person, filled with gold like royalty.
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Jesus was the king of kings. The wise men confessed his kingship when they presented the gift of gold.
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So gold presented to Christ was acknowledging his right to rule as a king.
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Jesus is Lord. Amen? Jesus is Lord. The next gift is presented as what?
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Frankincense. Frankincense, the incense here. This was costly, beautiful -smelling incense, not quite as costly as the gold, but it was very costly, used only for special occasions.
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What do we know about incense? Incense was used in the temple worship. It was mixed with oil used to anoint the priest of Israel.
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It was also blended into the meal offerings that were presented to the priest by the people to be offered as a thanksgiving and a praise to God.
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In presenting incense, these wise men, either intentionally or unintentionally, I'm not for sure, but I think it was intentionally, pointed to Christ as the great high priest.
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One way or another, the Holy Spirit instilled that in them. We don't know exactly for sure, but the Holy Spirit definitely had a part.
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The one whose entire life was pleasing to the Father. Jesus is the great high priest. It is interesting to note here that incense, now this is important, was never mixed with sin offerings.
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This is important. Why? Because which were the meat and the wine offerings,
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James Boyce says this, only the meal offerings, which were not for sin, contained incense.
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When we remember that we think naturally of Jesus to whom incense was given, he was without sin.
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When his enemies came to him on occasion, Boyce says this, he challenged him with the question, can any of you prove me guilty of sin?
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John 8, 46. They were speechless. Earlier he said of the
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Father, I'll always do what pleases Him. Always do those things which please Him. A perfect life without sin.
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And he says, none of us can say that since only the Lord Jesus Christ was sinless. It is fitting that incense was offered to him.
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Well, next is myrrh. This was also a perfume. Again, not quite as expensive as gold and as frankincense, but nevertheless a very valuable gift.
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Now what do we see about the significance of myrrh? Just as gold spoke of Christ's kingship and incense spoke of His perfect life, the myrrh speaks of His death.
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Isn't this beautiful? Myrrh speaks of embalming. And I want you to think of this.
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When Jesus died, Nicodemus, it was a waste because Jesus rose again, but anyway, Nicodemus used 100 pounds of myrrh on the body of Jesus and aloes to prepare
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His body. Jesus came to suffer for our sin and His sufferings were symbolized by the
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Magi's gift of myrrh. There was another use of myrrh, and I like to point this out, and you may not think of this, but this is very significant too.
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In the ancient world, it is important here that it was a use of the Lord Jesus Christ when
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He was about to be crucified. The soldiers offered Him what? Wine mixed with myrrh.
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It was an anesthetic. It was an anesthetic. It was a crude anesthetic, and they noticed when they offered it to Him, He denied it.
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Why? Because our Lord Jesus Christ wanted to take the full brunt of the pain on the cross.
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Isn't that beautiful? He did not want to pull away any way from the pain.
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He desired to take it all the way, the full brunt of it. Isn't that beautiful? He took it all and endured every bit of it to the full extent of suffering of His death for us.
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He was willing to bear all that in His sufferings and death for our salvation.
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William Barclay says this, Gold for a king, frankincense for a priest, myrrh for one that was to die.
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These were the gifts of the wise men. And even at the cradle of Christ, they foretold that He was to be the true king, the perfect high priest, and in the end, the supreme
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Savior of men. Amen. Amen. Well, here are some applications for us.
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How can we take this home? How can we live this out? There are several things I'd like to point out here.
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How were these men wise? How were these men wise? First of all, they were wise enough to seek
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Jesus. They were wise enough to seek Jesus. That's a wise person. You'll be wise today to seek
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Jesus. Think of this. God informed them of the prophecy of the
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Messiah's birth, realizing that they were far, far from Him. Far away from Him.
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Okay? And they were far. The Bible says none seeks God. But God, by His grace, instilled it in them to go seeking after Him.
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See? I believe that. They did the wise thing. They prepared a traveling caravan. They packed their bags, and off they go.
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We're going to find this king of the Jews. And I'm telling you, they were diligently seeking after Him.
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Are you wise enough to seek Jesus this morning? For the New Year. Seek Him hard.
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Seek Him with all of your heart. Hey, as the saying goes, wise men still seek Him. I see that on church bulletin boards.
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Is that so true? Wise men do seek Him. What does it say in Matthew 7?
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Turn with me very quickly. Just a few pages over. What did Jesus say about seekers?
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He says something about it. Amen. You know where I'm going. Praise God.
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Seeking God's help. What does it say? Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 7, verse 7.
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Ask, and it shall be given you. What does He say? Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
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For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. These men found
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Jesus. They found Him. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. And then
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He goes on to say, and He gives a wonderful illustration. What man is there of you whom his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
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Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? And if you then be an evil, know how to give good gifts to your children.
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How much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him? Isn't that beautiful?
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That is a promise that Jesus gave. How about this one? Hebrews 11, 6. This is a favorite.
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I know Brother Keith loves this verse. But without faith, it is impossible to please
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Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
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Him. You know what I love about that verse? That only our God rewards the seekers.
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Every other God and cults and pagan religions, their gods, they think, they have made from the concoction of their mind are punishers.
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Only our God is a rewarder. Only God rewards. These wise men went by faith.
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They were diligently seeking Christ, His birth, and has been announced well and widely.
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And there they come to this mystery, and they find Him. Have you come to find
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Jesus this morning? Psalm 27, 8. When thou sayest, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee,
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Thy face, Lord, I will seek. Amen. I will seek.
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Second, these wise men were not only wise enough to seek Jesus, they were wise enough to seek information.
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Now I've got something important here, and I like this. There's another way in which these wise men were truly wise.
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Now think of it. These wise men were wise enough to learn from others.
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They were humble. They were not puffed up in their knowledge and know -it -alls. You see that?
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But yet they were the counselors from the East. These men were learned and influential.
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And though there was little information to be had, either from the people or the leaders, they were magi. And in their own country, they were the ones for whom everybody else sought information from.
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Isn't that interesting? They were humble enough to learn.
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So how do we see this? Because in the position they had been, they would have been hindered by pride.
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They were not. But not these men. They were wise in the fact that the story they seek information,
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Stanley, meekly... How do we know this? Notice in the Scriptures before us, they stand meekly as genuine disciples when the chief priest of the teachers, and how they must have thought about them, know -it -all scribes and theologians.
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Here they were Jewish men, Pharisees and Sadducees, reading Micah, and they didn't see it.
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But they were there, humbly standing by. They were learned men. And they were taking it in.
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You see that? They were very humble in the sense that they were teachable.
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They were teachable. And they heard Micah 5 too and they responded to it.
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What about these Pharisees and these scribes and these theologians of the day?
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They missed it. They missed it. You know why? Because of their pride. Their pride. But what did they learn?
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They learned from the Scriptures when they opened it. And you notice it was...
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That's what I gather here. They were listening to these men, these theologians, and they were taking it in.
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I love that. So they were learned. They learned of Christ that was born in Bethlehem.
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They didn't know a lot of the Scriptures. But the Jewish people had it. They missed it. But when they got that one
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Scripture from Micah 5 too, they grabbed a hold of it. And they went after Jesus. They understood that this was significant for they did not say for as it was for what it did.
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Boyce says this. James Montgomery Boyce says, We must suppose that the
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Magi were expecting to find Jesus in Jerusalem. I like this. For what the capital city in the capital city in Jesus was to a
01:02:41
Jewish king. They probably expected to find Jesus in Herod's palace.
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No. But he was not there. In fact, Boyce says, the reigning king did not even know about the birth.
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End quote. And when he heard about it, he got really troubled and upset.
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So Jesus wasn't found in the palace. They didn't find him in Jerusalem. Jesus was not found in the temple.
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But he had not emerged from the temple of the company of the priest of the scribes. But on the contrary, where did he emerge?
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In a little town called Bethlehem. A small and a little insignificant place south of Jerusalem.
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Apparently insignificant spot where the scriptures had long ago indicated where he would be born. My time is gone.
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My goodness. The wise man had traveled a long distance to find him. But no one has to travel a long distance today, do we?
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He is near you. Even his word is near to you. You know what that tells me?
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That tells me my time is up. Third. We were wise enough to worship him.
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I need to be wise enough to narrow this down. They found him. Very important.
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Because some of the people seek even though they do not want to find the truth and embrace it. Paul spoke of these people.
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He warned Timothy, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Always learning, always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
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These wise women are not like this. They wanted to know about Jesus, but they were not interested.
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And the knowledge, knowledge sake. They knew when they found him, they would worship him and give their gifts.
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Now let me say this in closing. Have you found the Lord Jesus Christ there? He desires to be found.
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How do we know this? Jeremiah 29 .13 You shall seek me and you shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
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How about Matthew 6 .33? That's a good one. But seek ye first the kingdom of God.
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Jesus says seek. He says seek. And his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
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What if you have already found him? Well, if you are a Christian and you have already found him, I have a good application for you.
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And this is the case that we offer our gifts as the wise men offered their gifts of old.
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Offer him your best gold. Offer him your best incense. Offer him your best myrrh.
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Begin with the myrrh. Myrrh not only symbolizes Christ's death, but it also symbolizes the spiritual death that should come to you and me.
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Lay it at the feet of Jesus. Then say next come to Jesus with your incense.
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Incense symbolizes your worship of God, our worship, that you need to worship Him in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of His holiness as the
01:05:44
Savior and Lord. It also symbolizes the offering up of our whole life to Him. When Jesus comes to live in us,
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He will do a good work in you so that the deeds produced in your life will become in turn, as Paul says, a fragrant offering, acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
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Let me wrap this up. Finally, bring your gold. Bring your gold. I think this is one of the most significant gifts that we can bring.
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I may not have literal gold to give, but you know something? In a sense, when we say we present our gold, we say
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Jesus, you have the right to rule in my life. You are the king of my life.
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You are the ruler of my life. I have no rights of my own. I lay it at your feet.
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You own me. You have purchased me by the blood and you have right ownership over me.
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He is king. So say that. Direct your life in that sense for His glory and for His sake.
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So if you do these things, I think you will find a great experience, something that you'll find in the very end of the story of the wise man.
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We're told that having warned not to go back to Herod's palace because of his murderous intentions, verse 12 says, they return to the country by another route and so will you.
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Your life will follow a different path and from that time on, surrender it to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and your path will be a good one. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this time we've had to study in your word and we thank you for this marvelous story of these wise men.
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Father, I would pray, sanctify us all wholly, spirit, soul, and body that we may seek your face more.
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As your son says, seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, not to worry about anything that the tomorrow may bring, but knowing that you have it all under control.
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You're the sovereign king of glory. May this be our ultimate priority when 2019 comes and we will seek your face and our heart will say, your face
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I will seek with all my heart. May we be like these wise men to seek you with everything we have.
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That may we be like Mary of Bethany sat at your feet and broke open an expensive alabaster box of perfume and worshiped you.
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Father, we bring our gifts to you. May we present our gifts to you as gold, incense, and myrrh at your feet to worship you and you alone, for you alone are worthy.
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Father, help us. We pray in these things and we give you praise and glory and honor because you are worthy.