Sunday, December 14, 2025 AM

Lord, together in prayer, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you have made. We thank you that you have given us your word, which so clearly portrays the glories of your son, Jesus Christ, so unfailingly given to us by your spirit.

So we pray that as we consider the worthiness of our King, that you would warm our hearts to this adoration and prepare our affections for this season. We thank you for our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is in his name that we pray.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter two. We reading verses one through 12 this morning, Matthew chapter two verses one through 12. It seemed an opportune moment to go through this passage for Christmas, seeing that we are spending so much time in Proverbs, that we would look at the wise men who came to worship Jesus and consider what connections there may be.

Wise Men Worship Jesus the King

So the title of the sermon is Wise Men Worship Jesus, the King. And as a title, it will serve various purposes for us. It is, in a sense, a news item. Wise Men Worship Jesus, the King could be a headline for the Jerusalem Daily when these men showed up to ask about where to worship the King of the Jews, for this is an historical record of events as they happened.

Wise Men Worship Jesus, the King. But it is also a general observation. This is most certainly true of wise men. The Bible tells us that those who are wise indeed worship Jesus, God's son, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

They kiss the sun, they do homage to the sun, the one whom God has anointed ruler over all from his holy hill of Zion. And with the right punctuation, it could be a question, it could be a challenge to our faith.

Wise men worship Jesus, the King? Is this still true today? Is this true of us? A challenge to that general observation. Of course, it could also be both an address and an imperative. Wise men worship the King.

It could be an address, it could be something of a challenge to all of us. So it's a classic text to preach during the Christmas season, but it also is fitting for us as we take a pause in Proverbs to celebrate the birth of Christ, though I think not much of a pause as we're still thinking about wisdom.

I invite you to stand with me if you're able, I'll be reading Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. This is the word of the Lord by his Holy Spirit through his servant Matthew. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the young child, and when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

When they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy, and when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks.

Be to God. You may be seated. Have you ever attempted to avoid Christmas? Possibly.

Because of bad experiences with previous Christmases. Too much busyness, too much stress, too many gifts, too expensive, too many relational strains, too much family drama, massive changes occurred, doesn't feel the same anymore.

It's really hard to avoid, though. What a strange experience it would be to walk through the world at this season and try to avoid Christmas. Some people have reasons for it. One of the things my family likes to do is to read the story and then now we watch the film, the best worst Christmas pageant ever.

Some of you know what I'm talking about. There's a moment when the father of the family wants to bring a Christmas ham to the terrible children who have no father and whose mother never raises them and they're just a mess.

Broken children in a broken home and he's bringing a ham to them and his family wants to know why. He says, well, Christmas comes around just the same for everybody. And what a prospect to have Christmas coming around and have nothing to share, nothing to give, very little to be happy about, very little to celebrate.

There's an inevitability about Christmas. It's an inevitability to the season that I think is best regarded in the light of the worthiness of Christ. Without our submission to his command, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

Without that, though, the rigors and the strain soon outpace comfort and joy. There's an inevitability to Christmas, but why the traditions? The weight of tradition is felt not so much as an anchor that holds back, but as momentum which keeps driving forward.

Tradition is not that which puts everything on hold, but that which keeps everything moving forward along the same lines. Which is why tradition must be held accountable and questioned and corrected and adjusted according to God's will, because we don't want our momentum to take us in the wrong direction.

Sometimes we will ask ourselves, why do we do this each year? Why do we do these things each year? We evaluate the customs and the traditions that we've had before and say, is it worth continuing on? Should we start something new?

Should we continue on with what we have had? Why do we do what we do each year? Hopefully it is because in the view of Christ our King, it is honest and right and fitting that it has been and that it will be.

Wise men worship Jesus the King because it is honest and right and fitting to do so. It is basic, it is natural, it is inevitable. Gravity is down, you speak truth to those whom you love, a mother gratefully holds her crying newborn, and wise men worship Jesus the King.

Simple, natural, basic. What else are we going to do? What else are we going to do? What else indeed would be the question that crosses the mind about Herod? What else is Herod going to do? What else is he going to try to do?

What else is there for those who reject Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who see his advent as the authority claim that it is, and rebel? God sent his Son as peace and goodwill toward men, that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.

But against this light and against this word, men would make war, and yet they plot a vain thing. But when they kiss the Son, when they rejoice in his reign, they find that his light and his word, his grace and his truth to be everlasting salvation.

He is worthy of our worship, he is worthy of our adoration, and this is a special season to do so. He is worthy of all of our efforts, worthy of our loyalty, worthy of our gifts, worthy of our praise, worthy of our love, worthy of our days.

This is a season to remind ourselves of that. We come back to a familiar story in the Gospel of Matthew, we three kings of Orient are. It flows a little better than we three magi from the east. But what of this story?

It's about who's the king. The Gospel of Matthew is intensely interested in the question of kingship. You think of the four Gospels as four different documentaries about Jesus Christ that are inspired and infallible and in harmony.

When you think about Matthew, Matthew is primarily interested in this question of who is the king and what is his kingdom, putting our attention there. And of course he works his theme out over 28 chapters and each part contributes to the whole message, but when we come to this passage we find royalty and royalty's representatives front and center, and all about celebrating the birth of our king.

We're gonna begin in verses 1 through 3 and think about the king's problem, the king's plural. There's a problem and it addresses more than one king. Now the idea of king and kingship starts strong in the Gospel of Matthew and we see that even in the genealogy in chapter 1 wherein the birth of Jesus is attached to a lineage, a royal lineage, in which yes, Abraham is the ancestor of Jesus, but so also is King David, and David is mentioned five times in the genealogy.

He's the most mentioned person in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1, is David. Five different times David is spoken about. It's like we're getting an idea that we should pay attention to David and think David thoughts as we consider the birth of Jesus, who is the true son of David.

And then in chapters 1 through 4 in the Gospel of Matthew, we have seven fulfillment passages wherein the Old Testament is quoted and says this was to fulfill, well, Jesus is the one who fulfills these passages that are now quoted here for us.

And each one of those has something to do with his authority and his kingship as Messiah. So it's no great surprise that when you get to chapters 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount, it's all about Jesus being the king and the nature of his kingdom.

And that's just the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. Here is the genealogy of the king, here's how he fulfills the prophecies of the king, and then here is his message on what the kingdom is, Matthew chapters 5 through 7.

That's the context in which we find chapter 2. So yes, there is this interesting story of these men from the East and Herod being all upset and these wonderful gifts being given and the intrigues, the political intrigues of what goes on in Herod's attempt to kill Christ here in chapter 2, but it's really all of those things that I just mentioned have to do with the inherent claim of authority being made here about who Jesus is.

And so, in paying attention, we're going to think about the incarnate king, that being Jesus of Nazareth, we're going to think about the inquiring kings, those men from the East, and we'll think about the indignant king in the person of Herod.

The Incarnate King, Jesus Is God With Us

But first of all, the incarnate king, Jesus is God with us. Think about the momentum from chapter 1 into chapter 2, we see that the angel has instructed Joseph to name the child Jesus, name him Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.

Even as Moses's successor was named the same, the Lord will, God will save his people from their sins, the Lord saves. And so, his name is that of a Savior, and he was born by a miracle, the miracle of the virgin conception, a theme that we explored last year about this time, going through chapter 1, verses 18 through 25, over and over again, thinking about the miracle of the incarnation, the significance of the incarnation.

But also, we think about in chapter 2, we hear that Jesus is born in Bethlehem, and this is the first time we're told where they're at. Now in Luke, we learn early that they're in Bethlehem, but in Matthew chapter 1, five times we hear about David, and then in chapter 2, five times we hear about Bethlehem, and why is that important?

Because, well, Bethlehem is David's hometown. More emphasis on David, five times David chapter 1, five times Bethlehem in chapter 2. It's being stressed for Matthew's readers, hey, he's the king, he's the promised son of David, he's the one we've been waiting for, don't take your attention off this child, don't take your attention off Jesus of Nazareth.

He is the king, God incarnate, the Messiah, the promised one. Well, what seems to be the problem? The king, the true king, King Jesus arrives, notice, in the days of Herod the king. That's problematic, as you may imagine.

Do you remember when God instructed Samuel to go anoint David as king, to go to Bethlehem and anoint David as king? He was instructed to do so in the days of King Saul, and didn't that cause some problems over the course of time as Saul saw his rival anointed of God and blessed and rise in importance and power?

There was a great deal of tension. This is problematic, to anoint a king and to announce a king in the days of another king. Herod is cut from the same cloth as Saul. Herod is paranoid and cruel and vigorous in the promotion of himself.

Herod is just incompatible with Christmas. We read that the the wise men from the East say, we're here to find the one who has been born king of the Jews. Straight from birth, he's the king of the Jews.

His claim to the throne will not come through political machinations, it will not come through conquering through warfare, he is king right out of the gate. He is king by divine right. Where is this king?

We're here to worship him. That's problematic for Herod. What was manifest at Christ's baptism was true from his birth. This is God's beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. So they have come to worship him.

The importance of Jesus's birth, the supremacy of his authority, was apparently missed by all the local gatekeepers. Herod didn't see it, the scribes didn't see it, the Pharisees didn't see it, the chief priests didn't see it, Sadducees didn't see it, nobody saw it, nobody understood it, and yet there's that star hanging in the sky.

They were blind to the glorious arrival of the king, they had no idea, and yet the star has made multinational waves. Here are men from the East saying, we're here to pay homage to the king of the Jews.

The child he is small, but his significance, the announcement of this change of government has made heavenly headlines. And I find it interesting and a bit humorous about the way God often works to bring important messages through strange sources.

Important messages through strange sources. Sources that, once the message is believed, we look at the source and it humbles us to realize where the message came from. So here are wise men from the East saying, we're here to worship the king of the Jews, thinking everybody else here is doing the same, after all this is where the star is, surely everyone else is already on the same page, we're arriving fashionably late, can you direct us to where the line is?

We're here, and nobody knows what they're talking about. These are not the well-accepted, well-credentialed teachers of Israel, these are from the East. I also find it interesting where we have a prophecy of the coming Messiah coming through a strange source, namely Balaam.

Balaam the prophet for hire, Balaam the cheat, Balaam the flake, Balaam who could only be convinced by a talking donkey to do the right thing. And what does Balaam say? In Numbers 24 verses 16 through 19, Balaam says, the utterance of him who hears the words of God and has the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down with eyes wide open, I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. He looks down the corridors of time and sees what God has ordained before time began. He sees what? A star. A star shall come out of Jacob. He sees the star. A scepter shall rise out of Israel and batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of Tumult, and Edom shall be a possession.

Seir, also his enemies, shall be a possession. While Israel does valiantly out of Jacob, one shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city. He sees the king with the scepter, reigning until all of his enemies are placed as a footstool for his feet.

Balaam sees this from long ago. Do you know who might have a problem with the star out of Jacob? The one who holds the scepter from the line of Judah, who has victory over the likes of Edom? Herod the Edomite might have a problem with that, for he was no Jew, he was no native-born countryman, he's an Idumean, we read in the New Testament, meaning he's an Edomite.

And this word of the Lord brings with it some major problems for Herod. Now, what do we see? We see that the Word of God, God's revelation, is in lockstep with God's rule. Where his word goes, so goes his authority.

And this is problematic for those who are not ready or willing to bow the knee. Think about the inquiring kings. What do we know about these three kings of Orient? Who are they? Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.

And many have correctly observed that these magi, or these eastern wise men, are not exactly kings. It works well for the hymn, it works well for poetry, but they're not exactly kings. They have a lot of power, they have a lot of influence in the realms in which they serve.

Very often their word would make or break a king, their counsel would grant success or failure to the kings, but nevertheless they themselves are not exactly kings. But what are they? They are certainly the ambassadors of their kings.

They come in the name of their kings, they come bearing the gifts and homage that the kingdoms themselves would send along to greet the new king of the Jews. They stand in the place where their kings would stand had they personally come to bear witness and to worship.

And so they arrive, and they say, where is he who has been born a king of the Jews? And this they say to Herod, the king whose entire power rested on that very same title. If Herod was not the king of the Jews, if he failed to maintain that power, he and his whole dynasty would be crushed, and Herod is immediately threatened.

But he wrestles not against flesh and blood. Heaven itself has declared Herod the imposter. We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him. Isn't it interesting that the way God speaks of his Son by his Spirit, the way that Jesus Christ is declared as King of kings and Lord of lords, how he is the shepherd, how he's the Savior, in every way that Jesus Christ is described, at some point you're going to notice that his titles directly challenge the place that men and women give to themselves.

I lead me. I fix me. I save me. I direct me. I lift myself up. But no, these places that we think that belong to us, that are for our governance and direction, these things that we think that are native to our own course, these belong to Christ.

He's the shepherd. He's the Savior. He's the King. There's no going forward with Christ until we acknowledge his authority and his power and his glory. They say we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.

How did they know whose star it was? Just the fact that a new star appears in the sky doesn't mean that you know what it means. You mark it down as a matter of interest, but beyond that, how do you know what it means?

How did these wise men know whose star it was? How did they know that the timing of the matter and the placement of the star, that this meant that there was born a King of the Jews and that he was worthy of worship?

How did they even know? We may say this for sure, only by God's revelation. They only knew it because God showed it to them, that God communicated it to them in some fashion by some means, and that revelation brought God's rule.

Well, what else are we going to do? We must go. We must travel there. We must worship him. We must honor him. This is the only thing that we can do, and there was a witness from a long time ago. I believe that these wise men inherited the wisdom of Solomon.

You go back to 1 Kings chapter 4 and see how wide the wisdom of Solomon spread and the influence that he had in the world in which he lived, and I believe that even spread through Daniel, for Daniel was of the wise men of Israel and he was taken into the service of the Babylonians in Daniel chapter 2, and he was there and he pronounced and proclaimed the glories of Messiah and the prophecies of Messiah, his entire ministry in time there in Babylon, and now wise men from the east come to worship the greater son of David.

The inauguration of a new kingdom spells the doom of the old, and so Herod is nervous, but here is another greater man of Bethlehem displacing a jealous reject. Listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Psalm 72 verse 1 begins this way, a psalm of Solomon, give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son.

Verses 7 through 11, in his days, speaking of the king's son, speaking of someone other than, here's the son of David speaking of someone other than him as the son of David. So follow along. Solomon knew there was someone greater than him.

In his days the righteous shall flourish an abundance of peace until the moon is no more. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness will bow before him and his enemies will lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles will bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer gifts. Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. Someone greater than Solomon is here and the kings of the earth come to bow down and worship.

And they naturally assume Herod has already done so. Herod, you know where to go, right? You've already been there. You've already worshipped the king of the Jews. Could you tell us where? Herod is indignant.

Herod is very troubled. He suffers no rivals. He is indignant that other kings have sent their emissaries to do homage to the king of the Jews. And Herod is the only one who considers himself the king of the Jews.

And here he's being treated like a guide, a local tour guide. Could you show us who the real king of the Jews is so we could worship him, please? Thank you very much. Can you give us a guided tour to his location?

When we read of the days of Herod the king, that's a pretty loaded description. The days of Herod the king. These were days of heavy taxation to promote Herod's personal fame and glory through many building projects.

He was titled Herod the Great because he was Herod the Builder. He made much of building many buildings and many projects to his own fame, including the Jewish temple done up in classic pagan Roman architectural style.

The days of Herod the king were days of secret police, of assassination of rivals, land confiscation, and deep paranoia. He was not a descendant of David. He was cruel and cunning and cultivating his power.

He was dangerous. These are the days of Herod the king. And this is a problem, for when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. When someone like Herod gets upset and angry and gets unsettled, everybody around him connected to him and depended upon him also are going to get agitated and upset, worried about what's going to happen next.

When I was younger and living out in the country, we had three dogs that ran around and who knows what they did or what they got into, but it was my job to feed them every day. I would go out try to feed these dogs, but there was one that would hog all the food, no matter how far apart I put the piles, and if one of the dogs would happen to walk in front of this dog in just the wrong way, this alpha dog would just lit into them and just try to tear them to pieces.

There are some men who are just like that. One slight little offense, one little wrong move in front of them, and they are full of anger, full of vitriol, and this is the way Herod was. The slightest offense set him off, and this was no slight offense.

This will surely throw him into a conniption. And so while Jerusalem, what is this? This is the leaders who were cowed and controlled by Herod, and they're all very concerned about what's going to happen.

There's no telling what he might do to thwart yet another messianic movement and protect his own power. He'd fight heaven to rule earth, and so he tried. What is the problem? It's not really a problem unless we don't bow the knee, but the problem is basically this, that God's revelation means God's rule.

When God's Word shows up, there is his authority, and that's a problem for Herod. The problem for the scribes and Pharisees who would reject Jesus as the Messiah, it's a problem for all men who are committed to self-rule, self-direction, autonomy, and sin.

We remember that sin began where man rejected God's Word. The moment that mankind rejected God's revelation. The moment mankind departed from God's Word is the moment where sin began, wherein Adam and Eve believed and held to the lie of the serpent rather than the Word of God and chose against the Word of God.

There is the origins of sin. And so where God's revelation is, we see here God's authority, God's Word, God's rule. We've been made to be ruled by God. To be made in God's image is for us to be made to be all about God, to love him supremely, love each other rightly, steward this creation faithfully, to be all about who God is, to fear him, to think of him first, and to think of him most.

And I wonder what these wise men were thinking as they traveled all the way from the east to come to worship the newborn king of the Jews because they had the Word of the Lord directing them to do so.

Jesus Christ is God's ultimate revelation. He is the Word made flesh, so by definition where the Word shows up, where Christ shows up, that's where his rule and authority is. He's king of the kingdom, and he says, behold the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Why? Because he showed up. Because Christ came, thus comes the kingdom. The kingdom arrives with the king, and so we have our saying, Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 2025, or abbreviated A .D.

We name our years in the name of our king. He is our king, king from his birth. So we are to bow the knee. Here are the wise men who are ready to bow the knee. They desire to bow the knee. They want to be directed to the place where they may go bow the knee and worship, and Herod has no such intentions even though he says he does to bow the knee.

Christmas is like a cosmic 4th of July. 4th of July we celebrate the founding of our nation, we celebrate a fundamental change in the governance that we credit for so much good that we enjoy in the providence of God, but on Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the king who brings a fundamental change in the government of the world, in our lives, in history among all the nations.

And so we light up trees, and we light up windows, and we light up houses, because wherever the light of Christ shines, there he reigns. And he reigns, and he reigns, and he reigns until every last bastion of darkness falls, till the shadows flee, and night shall be no more.

That is our hope. That's what is our horizon. That's why we celebrate Christmas and have these things happen again and again and again each year. Well, not only do the kings have a problem trying to find Jesus to worship him, and then Herod's issue of not wanting that to happen, but we also have the king's promise, verses 4 through 6 of our passage.

Royal ambassadors from the east come before Herod, and with heaven's light above him, Herod feels that a conspiracy has been made against him. Like so many today who live in God's world and chafe at God's rules, poor wittle Herod is oppressed.

There's a conspiracy against him, so he calls upon the resources of his kingdom to find out what he's up against. And this is very interesting. The prophetic experts convened together and provide Herod and the Magi with an excerpt from God's Word.

It would be, I think, on the equivalent of the governor of the state of Oklahoma recognizing we have an issue, and so we're going to convene a Bible study on eschatology. I'm calling for whoever the best scholars in Oklahoma were to come to the to the Capitol, and we're going to have to sort out, get some clarity on eschatology.

Let's have a Bible study and figure out what happens next, right? Because just as everyone is very interested in eschatology today, back in this day everyone was very interested in what was eschatology for them.

When is the Messiah going to show up? Who is it going to be? And they are all very excited about that and attuned to it, and then here come wise men from the East saying, well, he's already arrived, hasn't he?

He's already here, right? And so, time to have a Bible study. Let's look at that in verses four through six again. We'll start in verse three. When the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him, and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes, the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Now, these chief priests were basically owned by Herod. He was the one who told them what to do. They depended upon his favor to remain in power, and they also depended on the scribes in their midst to tell them exactly what the Scriptures had to say, for the scribes were the experts in the Word of God.

And so the consensus of experts are brought together for a verdict, and they want to know about the Messiah. Folks during this time knew, based on Daniel, that Messiah would show up at any time. The consensus was he's got to be here soon.

Mothers and fathers were very eager and wondering, is this child, is this baby, is this Messiah? They talked about newborn babies. But having got together, they identify where the child was to be born, Bethlehem.

They quote Micah, the prophet, Micah chapter 5, verses 2 through 5. They quote Micah chapter 5 partially. I want to read the full passage, and then I encourage you to reflect on where they stopped and why they may have stopped, given who they were reading the Bible to.

You notice that sometimes people leave passages of Scripture out as they're going along, because they don't want to necessarily offend their audience. Micah chapter 5, beginning in verse 2,. But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from of old, from everlasting.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who was in labor has given birth, and the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel, and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, and the majesty of the name of the Lord is God, and they shall abide.

For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and this one shall be our peace. You'll hear that the main bulk of that prophecy was left out. There's a whole lot there that would have only agitated Herod more about the certainty of the child, the eternal promise of the child, and the glory of this king that would greatly eclipse Herod, and Herod is not so great in comparison to this great king.

But they say it is Bethlehem. Bethlehem, the house of bread. Bethlehem, the place where David grew up. Bethlehem, the place where they raised sacrificial lambs for the priests in the temple. Bethlehem is where the Messiah is born.

Once again, this emphasis is on the royalty of Christ, the fact that he is indeed the king, the one promise, the son of David. Christ's rule is from everlasting. According to Micah, he is not only promised from long ago, such as Genesis 315 and Genesis 49, but he is himself an eternal ruler for his people.

His arrival brings the Babylonian labor pains to a satisfying conclusion. He's going to end the exiles, which chapter 1 says in the genealogy, also what Micah says in his prophecy. He's the one who gathers and keeps his flock as the Good Shepherd.