Epiphany: O Come Let Us Adore Him (Matthew 2:1-12)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sung Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod some of the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.

After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Oh come let us adore him.

For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Please be seated.

At my house, over the years, mind you, we've had few babies.

And it's really quite something to see a mother, especially the first time, a mother holding the little baby.

And the look of love from the mother and the response from the child back.

In our house, we used to call it a meeting of the Mutual Admiration Society.

And it repeated many times.

We have many children, as some have too.

Whatever the Lord provides, we've taken.

But the point here, and it's an analogy, and analogies are never really good, but they tend to lead us a little bit that way.

It might be a similar thing.

The love of God to us and our response to God.

Again, it's an analogy only.

But let's keep that in mind, for we are today going to explore this patchage of Epiphany from perhaps a little bit different angle.

We're going to look at three questions.

Now that's not unusual, three, and Reverend Creighton often poses three questions, so I'll follow his lead.

But the first is, is Jesus the Messiah?

The quick answer is yes, but we'll get to that.

Secondly, whose Messiah is he if he is the Messiah?

Quick answer is the whole world, but we'll explore that.

And the third is, if Jesus is the Messiah of the whole world, what is our response?

Perhaps we should define Messiah, and so we go to the dictionary, and it says the Messiah, the Hebrew word, I'm not sure I can pronounce it properly, Mashiach, you put the CH on the end, I'm told, is holy anointed one, savior, deliverer of the chosen people, and traditionally thought of as a king.

And here, king of the Jews, sent by God.

And we understand that to be sent by God into the world, into the world we live in, to save us from our sins.

This is a critical statement.

He's come to save people from evil and sin, from our sins.

So, in other words, he's come to save us from ourselves.

So we'll be exploring those three in the light, funny word to use, in the light of the word Messiah, and what it appears in the book of Matthew with the other references.

As Reverend Creighton has pointed out, we now have Pew Bibles.

If you have a Pew Bible in front of you, Matthew, second chapter, verses 1 to 12 and a few others, but it's page 757.

And I haven't had the courage to do it yet.

But when I taught Sunday school years ago, I was shown a practice, which was quite fascinating, to clip the top corner, the top right-hand corner of the pages, up to the page where it shows you all the books of the Bible and what pages they appear on.

The table of contents.

It's a really simple way to find it because each Bible is a little bit different, isn't it?

Okay, where do we begin?

Actually, Matthew begins chapter one, and here he recounts the story of the genealogy of Christ.

I don't know about you, but when I get to these genealogies and the list of names, I go a little bleary-eyed and I have a hard time concentrating.

But Matthew puts it in there for a reason, and so we really should pay attention to it.

And there are several words that are key in there, many, but several that I have found here.

Christ's coming was foretold in Scripture.

We know that.

Here Matthew says in the first one, 1-1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

In that very first statement, we really have to go no further because Matthew says, Jesus Christ.

Christ is the word that comes from Greek for Messiah.

He is automatically calling him that.

So perhaps the lens we need to use for the whole book of Matthew is the lens of the Messiah, Jesus as the Messiah coming to save us.

It's pretty clear, pretty straightforward.

Matthew also refers there to Jesus being the son of David.

Now, David, you remember, was the one who came and was anointed to replace Saul.

David was the king, and perhaps if you visit Jerusalem, if you visit Israel, David is the fondest remembered king that they have.

Certainly the one who, for the most part, followed God's word.

So in this matter alone, Jesus is king, but that would be perhaps more an earthly king.

But he is king of all.

A little further in chapter 1, we've still not got to chapter 2 yet.

We're told that Mary was already with child by the Holy Spirit.

And in Luke, it calls him a holy child, that the child will be holy.

We are told that this child will be called Jesus and that he will save his people from their sins.

The definition of Savior again.

We have him right there and then in the first chapter.

We're also told he will be called Emmanuel, God with us.

He is holy and God with us.

He is Savior, He is the Christ.

All our expectations have to fall under that then.

All our understanding has to go back to that.

And right after that, he mentions that Jesus is the Son of Abraham.

And as you remember from Genesis, flipping back early in the Bible, it says, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven.

Stars again.

This is talking about Abraham.

And as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.

And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

This then is what Jesus will do.

Christ, Messiah, Savior, King.

Save us from our sins and bless the earth.

And blessed all nations.

And all nations includes then both the Jews who have prophesied this and the Gentiles.

We heard in our reading earlier in Isaiah.

The Gentiles are mentioned again.

We've actually heard it in Ephesians, the Gentiles.

We hear it all the way through.

The Jews and the Gentiles, Jesus will be Savior of the whole world.

So it would appear that before we reach our gospel reading, we've satisfied the first two questions.

Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus is the Messiah of the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles.

So what is our reading?

The first lines, the first two.

Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him.

So we've got a time frame now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in a place.

Herod the Great.

The wise men, translated from the Greek Magi, from the east, who many scholars say came from Persia, saw a star.

And this star traveled and they followed it all the way to Jerusalem.

They've deduced that this star, so they've done some research and they're called Magi, and they work with astrology, they work with probably scripture, because if they come from Persia and Babylon, remember Daniel and the exiles were there for so many years, they had all the documents to review.

No doubt they would have stayed, no doubt they would have followed some of the practices.

So they've traced this king of the Jews to the star, and the star is there and led them to Jerusalem.

They are looking for the king.

For we saw his star when it rose.

Some commentators have talked about this referring to Balaam of donkey riding fame.

You remember Balaam on the donkey, who was a prophet who wanted the donkey to go along and wanted to go and prophesy when he was told not to, and the donkey wouldn't go any further.

Nevertheless, the important part there is he did prophesy, and many scholars point to this as a prophecy for the star.

I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near.

A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

So we have the wise men coming to Jerusalem, following the star, looking for the king who will be a blessing to all nations.

Mentioned Aziah before, and the light jumps out there.

Rise, shine, for your light has come, and it goes on.

But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

All throughout Scripture, and it's taken me so many years, I'm a very slow learner, apparently.

All scripture points to Jesus.

All scripture points to Jesus being the Messiah, the Christ.

All scripture shows Jesus as the light of the world.

If only we can discern it.

Jesus Himself says, as you know later on in John, I am the light of the world.

And in Revelation, he is called the bright morning star.

Not the morning star, that's somebody else, but the bright morning star.

All scripture points to Christ as the star, as the light, as the light of the world.

Now the wise men have been telling everyone in Jerusalem, apparently, in public places, that we've come to worship him.

A large crowd of travelers, can you imagine this?

A large crowd of travelers, because they don't just travel by themselves.

They had to have money because they had the gifts we know about that, the gold frankincense and the myrrh.

They had to have a whole train, a caravan of people.

They came to Jerusalem.

And the Jews in Jerusalem and around have seen the star.

They must be wondering as well.

Maybe the scribes know about that.

Maybe they've told them, maybe the people know.

They've studied their scripture enough.

They had perhaps fewer scriptures than we do, but they spent more time studying their scriptures than possibly most of us do.

Imagine how startling this would be, then, with this whole caravan coming, asking these questions about a king.

We've got a king.

Maybe we don't.

Remember, Herod was troubled.

Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.

And you, O Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah.

For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

So they've been asked the question in Jerusalem publicly.

Now they go to Herod, which makes sense.

Herod is the king, he should know about the next king coming, right?

And I'm sure, well no, I'm not sure.

I know he's not happy about that.

He's troubled, it says.

So, first off, we know the wise men are there.

Secondly, they're asking the question.

Thirdly, they've researched, and fourthly, we assume, probably very rightly so, that they are not Jews.

They haven't been identified as Jews.

It never states anywhere that they are Jews.

And they go to the Jews because it's Jewish scripture that is leading them, we understand, to the star and to find the king of the Jews.

And Herod was troubled.

Well, why would he be troubled?

Scripture says there's a king coming.

Well, maybe Herod was troubled first off because he knows if there's another king coming, that means trouble for him.

That means someone who's going to usurp his title, someone who's going to take his power, his riches, and all that he has.

And from what we read about Herod the Great, he was not a very um righteous man.

He was quite a horrible guy.

And we heard from Reverend Creighton last week in the innocent, the uh yeah, the holy innocence and the issues there, and the murder of all the boys under two around Bethlehem.

That was one case of what he had done.

He murdered, as we know, his uh his wife and some of his children.

Anyone who got in his way.

Herod was troubled, it doesn't bode well for anyone then, does it?

And all Jerusalem with him.

I wonder what that means.

Do you think it means everybody, or maybe all those in power in Jerusalem?

All those who stand to lose their position, their authority, their money, their property, their friends.

And at this point I wonder about me.

If I was in that position then, how would I react?

If there's news of a new king coming, would I lose my position?

My power, my authority, my riches.

What would I do?

And what have I done in cases like that?

Or perhaps more importantly, what would I do from now on, knowing that Christ has come to be my king and my savior, my Lord, my strength, my rock.

How about you?

Now Herod was troubled.

And Herod was troubled because he didn't believe in another God.

He didn't believe in another king, pardon me.

And he certainly didn't want to believe in God.

He was an appointed king, as you may know.

The Romans appointed him.

And so many Jews, although he practiced some of the Jewish traditions, many Jews did not like him at the time, we are told, through the writings.

Psalm 34 says, When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of their troubles.

I would suggest that Herod was not a righteous man, as we discussed, and therefore would not be delivered from his troubles.

And in John 16, 33, Jesus says, I said these things to you, that in me you have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

How ironic for Herod.

Now he wouldn't have heard Jesus' words, because he died before.

But the very one who would take away his troubles is the one whom Herod was going to take great efforts to try to destroy.

Herod was troubled.

He went to the chief priests and the scribes to determine where this Christ was, where he would be born.

At the end of verse 6, we are told where the scribes found the scripture stating the birthplace, in Bethlehem a ruler who will shepherd my people.

It's from Micah chapter 5, verse 2, if you want to go take a look at it.

Micah 5:2

Note the word shepherd in there.

It refers once to David, who was the shepherd, but also to the new king, to the king forever, who will shepherd his people, to Christ Himself.

Jesus will and does shepherd us in that.

So in our passage in Matthew chapter 2, we've confirmation of what we found in the previous chapter that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the Christ, and that Jesus is the Messiah for the whole world, Jew and Gentile both.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

So then the question that remains is if Jesus is the Messiah, which he is, and if he is the Messiah to Jew and Gentile alike, and if I am Gentile, then how do I respond?

How do we respond to that?

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

After listening to the king, they went on their way.

And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

From Matthew's writing, we see Herod working behind the curtains, behind the scene, to try and find out what's going on, and then calling the wise man back and saying, Tell me when you find him, so I too may worship him.

We don't believe him because we know what's happening.

Happened, but perhaps at that time many did.

We see the wise men going on their way, they find the star, the star stops right there, over the place where the child lays.

But the last verse, 10 in that selection, strikes me.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

What an unusual statement.

They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

Repetition and superlatives.

I guess you can't express joy any greater than that.

These are the wise men from, scholars say Persia, who've traveled great distance at great expense, with a large number, probably camels too, we read in some.

And they found him.

They found the king.

They found the king of the Jews.

They found the king of the world.

And they rejoice.

The signs were correct.

The star pointed them to the place and did not move from that place.

It must have been a divine revelation.

They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

How about me?

When I found Jesus, when he found me, perhaps is more correct.

Did I rejoice exceedingly with great joy?

Or maybe now that I know better, maybe now that I'm reading the word more, do I now rejoice exceedingly with great joy to know that he is my Savior and what he has done for me?

And as Reverend Creighton has pointed out so many times to us, I'm finally getting it.

It's grace alone, it's nothing I have done, it's a gift from God alone.

Do I rejoice exceedingly with great joy?

Or will I rejoice exceedingly with great joy?

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

So here we read about the wise men.

They're offering their treasures.

The treasures that they brought for this king.

Gold and frankincense and myrrh.

These are presents fit for a king.

In fact, two of them we also read in Isaiah today.

Once again, it's all foretold, it's prophesied in Scripture.

Gold, such a wonderful and precious gift.

It does not change, does not tarnish.

Frankincense, a resin used in the incense in the altar, alluding to Jesus' priesthood.

The only incense that's used in the temple, in the inner sanctuary.

Myrrh, the sap used in perfume and oil.

We may not have sung it today, but when I hear that hymn, We Three Kings, I find the fourth verse quite haunting.

Don't you?

See if I can get through it.

It's hard on me.

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom.

Sorrowing.

Sighing.

Bleeding.

Dying.

Sealed in a stone cold tomb.

It's so symbolic of Jesus' humanity and death and what he came on this earth to do.

Not really the joyous occasion on the one side, but what Jesus came on this earth to do.

It didn't end on the cross.

He died and he was resurrected.

And that is the gift that gave us everlasting life.

He took away our death from sin with his death on that cross.

As Paul says in Romans, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Okay, that last question.

How do we respond?

How do we respond?

If we look back at Jesus' birth, the angels proclaimed his birth to the people on earth.

The angels gave the gift they had at that time.

They could proclaim and they announce it, glory to God in the highest, to all who would hear them and to the shepherds themselves.

The shepherds who heard him at his birth and went to see him went praising God and glorifying God, a gift they could give.

They had nothing else.

Simeon, when he took the baby, and this is all long before Matthew has responded or told us about, Simeon, having the baby in the temple, blessed God himself.

And here we see the wise men with the riches who go and glorify God and give him the gifts that they can.

How do we respond?

Do we respond with exceeding joy and perhaps offering the gifts that he's given us, imperfect as they are?

Do we offer them back to God?

That him we began with, Adeste Fidelis, O come, all ye faithful.

Now that we are faithful, O come, let us adore him.

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.