The Magi

Good morning, Good News Church. Today we continue our series,

Characters at Christmas.

This is part two, which means there was a part one. So let me review just a little bit for you.

Last week we said that apart from God, there are no holidays. Do you remember that?

We said the holiday is a word that comes from holy and day, right?

And you put them together like a holy day. Eventually it was called a holiday.

But a holy day is a day that is set aside for a special purpose.

We said that without God, there are no special purposes for certain days,

because there are no special purposes for anything, right?

If there is no God, nothing was made to be special, because nothing was made,

right? It just is what it is.

We also mentioned that sometimes people will reject God, but they will continue

with the holy day anyway, right? Have you seen this?

However, instead of celebrating or worshiping God, they will choose a substitute,

and often it is themselves.

People do this because we are wired for worship, we are wired for some kind

of like appreciation, and so there will always be holidays where some kind of

God is honored, even if it's like ourselves and our families.

We also said last week that as Christians, it's important that our holy days

be celebrated to the Lord for what he has done. You remember that?

So because of that, this series is going to cover some of the specifics of the

Christmas story as found in the Bible so that we can worship God for some of

the specific things he accomplished in the Christmas story.

So last week we covered the shepherds portion of the Christmas story,

and today we are covering the wise men or the magi portion of the Christmas story.

So if you have your Bible with you, you turn to Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

That's going to be our text for this morning. Matthew chapter 2,

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

starting in verse 1. I'm going to read to verse 12.

This is God's word. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of

King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem,

saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all Jerusalem with him.

So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them

where the Messiah would be born.

In Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, because this is what was written by the prophet.

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the leaders

of Judah because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people, Israel.

Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared.

He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.

I'm gonna stop right here just to point out that that part of the story.

Herod's words are very, very insincere, okay?

And if you know the Christmas story, you know that insincere is like an understatement.

He has no intention of going and finding this child so that he can worship him.

His intention is to find the child so that he can kill him so that there will

be no competitor kings in the region, so that there will be no rivals to his throne.

But you can't tell that at this point in the story. That becomes obvious once you get to verse 16.

But I'm not gonna read all the way to verse 16, okay? But I have read all the

way to verse 16 at some point.

So I know it happened, so I'm just letting you know. I'm not getting to that

part, but I'm letting you know if this is the first time you're coming across this.

He does not mean that, okay? So that I too may go and worship him.

Verse nine, after hearing the king, they went on their way.

And there it was, the star they had seen in the east.

It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother,

and falling to their knees, they worshiped him.

And then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts,

gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their

own country by another route.

So let's get into some of the details, shall we? The story begins in the very

first verse of the passage with the words, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

okay? This is how the story begins. Can I have the very first verse up?

Matthew chapter two, verse one, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

that's the time that that's the timestamp for this story.

This was after Jesus was already born, which means this story that I just read

to you happened very, very, very, very likely to be after the story that we learned last week.

Those of you that were here and we learned the story of the shepherds,

this story would have taken place after that story, because in that story,

Jesus is born in this story.

It's after he was born, they show up in Jerusalem, right?

Last week's story, at least part of it, if not all of it, took place the same

exact day that Jesus was born, right?

The story with the shepherds and the angel, that all happened the day Jesus

was born. How do you know that it happened the day that Jesus was born?

Well, because the angel said, today a Savior was born for you.

So we know, like if the angel shows up to the shepherd and says,

Jesus was born today, that means he'd been born earlier that day.

So then the shepherds go and see him, and I assume they went and saw him the same day. Why?

Because the passage that we read last week says that they hurried off and that

they went straight to Bethlehem.

So it seems to me you would not write that if they sat around and went,

what are we going to do? And they sat around for a week and then finally went

and, you know, go found week old Jesus.

No, it says they hurried off and they went straight to Bethlehem.

So if the angel told them the night that Jesus was born and they hurried off,

I'm thinking it was the same day that he was born was the day that the shepherds

found him. Maybe it was the next day. I would think that would be the very latest.

Jesus was very, very young when the shepherd story takes place.

That does not seem to be what's going on in this story, right?

In this story, Jesus is already born in Bethlehem.

And then by the time he's born in Bethlehem, you have these wise men who have

not even arrived in Bethlehem.

They just now are getting to Jerusalem, right? So this is, I mean,

I realize after Jesus was born could mean hours after he was born.

But if you just read the story that follows and you factor in that this is a

story about these people who traveled from another country, they went all the

way to Jerusalem, then they went from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then and found

the boy, and this is during a time where there's no planes, no trains, no automobiles.

This journey from their country may have taken weeks, may have taken months,

could have been upwards of a year.

So this happened sometime after the shepherd story, they show up to find Jesus.

And so it is extremely unlikely that the shepherds and the wise men show up

at the same moment as is displayed in your nativity scenes.

Okay. Did you know this? Okay.

At least it seems to me, every nativity scene I've ever seen,

the shepherds show up at some point, I guess they come from a different direction.

They both, you know, so shepherds came from the left and the,

you know, the wise men come from the right or vice versa. And it looks like

they both show up at the same time and they're like, oh, well,

who's going to go in first, right?

And so the shepherds are going like, you know, who are you, right?

And they're saying, well, we're the magi, you know, and the shepherds are going,

I don't even know what a magi is.

We're the shepherds. Like, who told you to come here?

You know, and the magi are going, well, a star told us to come here, right?

And the shepherds are going, well, an angel told us to come here,

right? And then the magi are like, well, angel trump star, you go in first, okay?

Now, I don't know if that's what the nativity figures are are really thinking,

but that's what I imagine.

You know what I mean? Like, that's what I think they're thinking when they're

standing there like, you know, all month long, they're thinking of something. Okay.

Anyway, my point is it did not go down like that because it is incredibly unlikely

that they would have arrived at the same time. Okay.

The wise men show up from the east. It says after Jesus was born in Bethlehem

in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived. I don't think this means east of Israel.

This would mean anything east of Israel, which is there's, if you've ever looked

at a map, there's like a lot of things that are east of Israel.

This could, we have no clue what country they are from. This could be Arabia.

This could be Persia. These people could be from India.

Like we don't know. It's from some region east of Israel.

The famous song says, we three kings of Orient are. Remember that?

Which I guess when I was a kid, I thought like Orient, I don't know.

We had TV dinners that said Taste of the Orient.

Okay, and so I just had a particular idea of what I thought Orient meant.

I didn't know. There was a point at which the word Orient just meant East.

That's all the word means, East.

Okay, so when it says these people, when the song says they're from Orient,

it's not saying they're Japanese or Korean or something.

I think in the 1800s when that song was written, it's just matching what the

Bible said, which is they came from the East.

Okay, so some country east of Israel. We don't know which one.

My Bible calls these guys wise men. You see that? Bethlehem in Judea,

the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived.

So this little two-word phrase, wise men, is a translation of one word in Greek, which is magoi.

Magoi is the word that we get magi from.

And magi were originally a priestly class of people from Persia,

okay? They were religious people. They followed a particular prophet in Persia.

And then I think eventually the word magi broadened to include men who specialized

in science, diplomacy, and religion.

Okay. They understood stars and they understood wisdom and how to handle things.

And they understood ancient texts and different things about God.

And so I think that's why they translated wise men, because these would have

been men who kind of understood these things.

And the Bible translates Magoi, wise men, and does not translate it into the

word kings. Do you see that?

Like the song says, we three kings. Okay. But the story does not call them kings, right?

They are Magoi. They are these people who very well may have advised kings,

but the story does not call them kings, okay?

So if the song says one thing and the Bible says another thing, we always go with what?

Very good. I was really hoping you got that one right. Okay.

Bible always trumps the song. You heard it here first. All right. Verse 2.

Um, so after they show up, the very next verse is, uh, says what they said to

King Herod, where is he who has been born King of the Jews for we saw, can I have verse two?

Where is he who has been born King of the Jews for we saw his star in the East

and have come to worship him. That's interesting.

What does this mean? His star, did you know Jesus has a star?

That's what they said. His star was in the East.

We saw it. And that's why we're here. What kind of star are they referring to?

And then later on in the story, it says that the star led them to the place where the child was.

If stars are stationary, how in the world can a star lead them to the place that the child is?

So I just want to let you know, there are two views on what this star in the East is.

Actually, there's probably more than two views. There are two like categories

of views, and I'll call them the natural and the supernatural. Okay.

Natural would be people who believe that this star is a star or some sort of

something in the sky that is like natural phenomenon that somehow communicated

something to these guys so that they would go and find Jesus.

The other view is called supernatural. That would mean that this is something

miraculous that God did. So let me tell you a little bit about both.

Here's the natural view. This is, I'm going to quote from a book from a biblical

scholar named Michael Wilkins.

He says, there are several proposals as to the nature of this star.

Many suggest that it was a natural phenomenon that can be traced back to some

known astronomical event, whether a comet, a supernova, or a conjunction of planets.

One widely discussed possibility is that the attention of the Magi was attracted

by an unusual conjunction of planets that occurred on May 27th,

7 BC, which apparently you can kind of see the way that stars move.

You could go back and see where they were at some point in the past.

So apparently this happened back on May 27th, 7 BC.

Okay, let me keep reading. In ancient Babylonian astrology, Jupiter represented the primary deity.

Let me pause real quick. Jupiter, I know we know of Jupiter as a planet,

but you gotta remember back then, these are people who looked at the stars a

lot more. They looked up at the sky way, way, way more than we do.

And I don't know that they differentiated between, like if they saw a really

bright thing doing something, like they may have very well called it a star,

even if it's something we now call a planet.

Okay, Jupiter represented the primary deity. When Jupiter came close to Saturn,

which represented the Jews, in the constellation Pisces, which represented Palestine,

the Magi referred to Jupiter as the star of the king that they were seeking.

And the association with Saturn and Pisces showed them in which nation,

the Jews, and where, Palestine, to look for him.

Okay, did you follow that? The idea is, is these people who would look at the

stars and pay attention to where they are a lot more than we do might have one

day noticed, hey, they're doing something different than they ordinarily do.

And if you layer on top of that, the metaphorical sort of meanings that they

put on stars and constellations and planets, it may very well have been that

they were going, whoa, I think this means something.

There can be other views of this that all fall under that same category as far

as nothing supernatural happened, it's just something happened in the sky that

tipped these guys off, whether it's a comet or a supernova or whatever.

So that's one option. The other option is that this was supernatural,

that this star is a miraculous light that God created, that he revealed to the

wise men and perhaps only to the wise men.

And used it to guide them to the place they need to go.

I don't know for sure which one of the two is correct, but I will say at this

point in my life, I kind of lean

toward the supernatural view because of verse nine. Look at it with me.

It says, after hearing the king, they went on their way and there it was,

the star that they had seen in the east.

It almost seems like the star appears and reappears. You see that?

And then it says, it led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.

This is not, I don't think this is saying it stopped above Israel.

They were already in Israel.

I don't think it's saying it stopped above Bethlehem. They already were headed

to Bethlehem because Herod's scholars had told them the Messiah is in Bethlehem.

It seems to me what this is saying based on the next verse is that it stopped.

Somehow this star stopped in such a way that it pointed out the house that Jesus was in.

The way they knew to go, the way they know which house to go to was from the star.

And so I'm sitting there thinking, if this is Jupiter or stationary,

something way, way up in the sky. I don't see how that could have pointed out a particular house.

But I think a miraculous light that God created and appeared to them could point

out a particular house. So that's the way I'm leaning at this time.

Speaking of it, which you'll see that it takes them to a house,

okay? Uh-oh. Look at verse 11.

Verse 11 says, entering the house, they saw the child with Mary's mother and

falling to their knees, they worshiped him, okay?

You may go, what? How is there a house in this?

Mario, do you mean to tell me this morning that my nativity scene is like way wrong?

Because it's bad enough that you already told me the shepherds and the wise

men didn't show up at the same time, right? Now I got to scoot the wise men

farther over on the mantle.

But now you're telling me the building that came with my set is wrong, right?

I'm assuming you got the same thing I got, right? You go, I got a stable and

not a house. Is my nativity scene wrong? And what I'm telling you is, yes.

And if you had thought about it, you already knew your nativity scene was wrong, okay?

Because even if Jesus was born in a stable, which we do not know if he was or

wasn't, but even if Jesus was born in a stable, you know it wasn't like four

feet wide by 20 feet long with no front wall and no back wall, right?

Who would design such a thing? That would be nearly useless.

That's like a pergola, okay? That's not...

So yes, of course it's wrong. So the shepherd portion of the Christmas story,

which I read to you last week from the book of Luke, Luke's version of the story,

never says that Jesus was in a stable. The word stable isn't even in the story at any point.

I don't know if you know that. It does not say Jesus was in a stable.

It does say Jesus was in a feeding trough and that's where the stable comes from.

People went, oh, well, if he's in a feeding trough, then that feeding trough must be in a stable.

Sure, maybe. it's also possible that feeding trough was in a house.

You might go, what? That'd be crazy. Well, yeah, nowadays it'd be crazy.

But I mean, I've read back then that sometimes they would build their houses

and they'd have like two rooms, two living spaces.

And one living space was sort of the humans only section.

And the other living space was the humans and animals section.

It's very possible a feeding trough could have been in that portion of the house.

So I guess what I'm saying is maybe the shepherds and the magi both showed up

to the same house in Bethlehem.

But that's not even necessary because as I've already said, the Magi might have shown up months later.

And so Mary and Jesus could have been in a completely different location than

they were in the night that Jesus was born, okay?

And while we're on the topic of disappointing things and how our nativity scenes

are wrong, I'll just throw in there at this time that we don't even know if

it was three wise men, okay?

I know all your sets come with three wise men, but the story I just read to

you doesn't say there were three wise men.

It says there were three gifts, and that's where they get the idea that there

must have been like each one held one gift, right? And that looks good,

I guess, when you make the little statues. Each one's holding a gift.

But we just know there were three gifts, gold, frankincense,

and myrrh. We do not know how many wise men brought the three gifts. The story never says.

The word Magoi is, it's a.

But I'm just telling you, two guys could bring three gifts.

20 guys could bring three gifts. Like, we just have no clue, okay?

So we're going, how do I make my nativity scene perfect? I don't know that you

can. But I will say this. There's a lot more liberty now.

If you ever get two sets and you're like, what do I do? Oh, you can grab the

wise men from another set and just jam them into your set. That's fine.

Have six of them. It's fine.

Okay. Okay, so do all of these details matter as far as the places in the story

where it's not specific?

Okay, like does it matter whether there were three magi or whether there were

20? Does it matter whether they came from Persia or whether they came from India?

Does their proximity to the shepherd's visit matter? Okay, it seems to me for the most part, no, okay?

Theologically, no, okay? Then you might go, okay, well then what do we do with this story?

I think that's good to ask, okay? I think a good question to ask yourself when

it comes to the story, and in fact, I think this is the same question you can ask yourself.

Anytime you come across a Bible passage and you're trying to understand what

does it mean, okay, a good question to ask yourself is, what did the person

who wrote this, what were they trying to communicate when they wrote it?

Right, like the original author, what is it that they were trying to communicate

when they did it? In this case, it's Matthew.

What was Matthew communicating with this story? because we know he was not giving

us instructions on how to make nativity sets, right?

That was the farthest thing from his mind. He was not thinking about that.

That's why he didn't, a lot of the specific stuff that we would like to know,

he doesn't mention because that's not his goal.

So when Matthew wrote this down, what did he think was important, okay?

And so I'm gonna just suggest three themes that we see in this story.

If we're gonna ask what themes did Matthew find to be important,

I wanna suggest three, there may be more.

Three things that we learned from this story and these are three things that

I think we can know for sure that Matthew thought they were important because

they not only come up in this story, but they come out up throughout his gospel.

And in fact, by the time you get to the end of the gospel of Matthew,

the three themes that I'm gonna point out in this story, they all come up again

at the very end of the story as Matthew is presenting the life of Christ.

So let's go ahead and look at them in this story. Here are my three points.

Number one, Jesus is a king.

Number two, Jesus is worthy of worship. And number three, Jesus isn't for the Jews only, okay?

What do we get from this story? I think Matthew believes, and you can see in

the way he presents this story to us, Jesus is a king.

Jesus is worthy of worship or Jesus is worthy of honor. And Jesus isn't for

the Jews only. He's everybody's king.

He should be the object of everybody's worship.

So let's go ahead and look at them one at a time. Let's start with Jesus is

king. Where do you see that in the story?

It's really early on. It's the second verse. The wise men show up from the east

and then verse two, they say to Herod, where is he who has been born?

What's the word? King of the Jews. That's what they're looking for.

They were looking for a king. Where is he who has been born? King of the Jews.

As Matthew is presenting the life story of Jesus Christ and he starts off with

the story of him being born, he presents him as being declared a king at birth.

In fact, he had already been working his way toward this because if you notice, this is Matthew 2.

In a lot of ways, you could say the story of Jesus starts in Matthew 2 when

Jesus is born, but there's a whole Matthew 1.

What's in Matthew 1? It's a real boring chapter nobody likes,

but it's the genealogy of Jesus.

Right this person had this kid who had this kid who had this kid who

had this kid and if you read it you realize one thing that Matthew was trying to

make clear to his readers they probably didn't think it was boring by the way

they cared about genealogies when they were reading this before we got to this

he's the king of the Jews he had a whole chapter tracing the line of Jesus to

King David so this would not be a big surprise like oh he's he's from the kingly

line of David all right all right kingly line of David now story number one.

The people from the East come and they declare him to be the King of the Jews.

And I want you to notice they said he was born King of the Jews.

Not that he did something and got kingship, that he was born King of the Jews.

I think that's important.

I saw a clip from Joe Rogan's podcast not too long ago.

He was interviewing Ben Shapiro, okay? So Ben Shapiro is a conservative political commentator.

He was a guest on Joe Rogan's show. So Ben Shapiro is not a Christian.

Joe Rogan's not a Christian.

So what you have is two non-Christians talking about Jesus. That was the topic

that they were talking about at this point.

And Joe Rogan asked Ben Shapiro if Jesus is a prophet.

And Ben Shapiro said that he did not believe. He said, no, I don't believe Jesus

was a prophet. And then Ben Shapiro said this, what do I think he was historically?

I think he was a Jew who tried to lead a revolt against the Romans and got killed for his trouble.

Just like a lot of other Jews at that time were crucified for trying to lead

revolts against Rome and got killed for their trouble.

So what I want to point out to you this morning is Matthew is saying something

very, very different than that.

Matthew, like in the book of Matthew, not only is Jesus, he is not presented

in Matthew's gospel or in any of the other gospels as a revolutionary trying to lead a revolt.

Okay. Almost the opposite of that. That is not what you see.

So when you look at like the material that we have about Jesus,

trying to figure out historically.

I mean, especially the main ones we have are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

When we look at what we have about Jesus, he is not a revolutionary who's trying

to lead a revolt against Rome.

It seems to be almost the opposite. Matthew's gospel toward the end,

there's a part where they go to arrest Jesus and he lets them do it.

Like his people were willing to fight against the Romans and he called off the

fight and willingly went and died.

So that is not the way he's presented in the material we have about him, okay?

But also, he is not a would-be king, like in his adulthood, the way I think

a lot of other leaders of revolts were hoping to become king.

Like if you have these leaders of these revolts, okay, I hate the Romans.

Do you hate the Romans? Me too.

All right, we're getting a big group of people with swords that hate the Romans

and let's go get them, all right?

And I think the idea was if we can lead this revolt and if we can take over

this land and if we could kill the bad guys that are in charge,

I think the person who's leading the revolt, which by the way,

I do agree. I agree with Ben Shapiro.

I do believe Jewish people back then, there were people who were leading revolts

against Rome. I think that happened historically.

And I think what the idea would be in these minds is if we lead this revolt

and we lose, well, that stinks, we die.

But if we lead this revolt and we win, I think the leader of the revolt is thinking,

then I'll be the leader of the people.

Like we'll start this new thing in this territory once we get all the bad guys

out of here and I'll be the king, right?

I'll lead this revolt so that I become the king over this new thing that we set up.

That's not what we see happening. Matthew starts his story with Jesus as a baby.

Jesus is not, I'll lead this revolt against Rome so that I can be in charge.

Matthew presents Jesus as a little

kid before he's even saying anything as the king of the Jews, right?

Matthew presents him as special from birth. He was the king of the Jews before he ever said a word.

All right, number two, Jesus is worthy of worship. Jesus is worthy of honor.

The word worship comes up three times in the text that I read to you today.

I will point them out to you now.

Matthew chapter two, verse two says, and this is the wise man talking,

saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews for we saw his star in

the east and have come to, what's the word?

Worship him. That was the purpose of the trip. Why did we travel all this way?

Because the new king is here and we wanna worship him.

The word worship comes up again in verse 8.

Verse 8 says, and the he here is Herod. He sent them to Bethlehem and said,

go and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.

Now, as I already covered, he's insincere when he says this,

but nonetheless, he realizes that is the proper reaction if it's the Messiah.

Like, I think he thinks this is what the Magi would want to hear.

Not like, oh, tell me so I can kill him.

Tell me so that I can also worship him. And if Herod really did understand that

Jesus, if he understood like who or what the Messiah is and that Jesus is the

Messiah, this is exactly what Herod should have done.

And then the next time the word worship comes up is in verse 11.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother,

and falling to their knees, they worshiped him.

I want you to notice that both Jesus and Mary are there in the house,

but the wise men only bow down and worship Jesus.

So this bowing down, I don't think is just a sign of respect.

Like, hey, we walked a thousand miles and you're the special people.

And so here we are. Like there's something special about Jesus that they have come to worship him.

And then the third point is Jesus isn't for the Jews only. He's everybody's

king, and he should be the object of everybody's worship.

And you go, well, where do you get from this story that Jesus isn't for the Jews only?

Well, in this portion of the Christmas story, who are the main characters?

The Magi. Well, who are they?

Yeah. I mean, verse one says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,

in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived. I don't think this is eastern Israel.

This is east of Israel. They're from some other nation. In fact,

we know for sure they're from some other nation. Verse 12 said it.

Verse 12 says, and being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod,

they returned to their own what? Their own country by another route.

They're not from here. They're from somewhere else, right?

Which means they're what? I think it's very unlikely they are Jewish people

from someone else. These are not Jewish wise men.

If they were Jewish wise men, they probably would have known that the Messiah

was to be born in Bethlehem.

If they were Jewish wise men, they probably wouldn't be called Magoi, right?

These men are very, very, very likely actually Gentiles, and this is what I

want you to get. So this is the beginning of the story of Jesus. And we have what?

Gentiles falling on their knees, worshiping Jesus.

Is that significant to Matthew? I think it is because this all,

all this stuff comes up again at the end of his book.

Okay. Let me show you all three of these things at the end of Matthew's gospel.

Look at Matthew 27.

This is the, Matthew's giving an account of the crucifixion.

And this is what he says in Matthew 27 verse 35.

Matthew 27:35

After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots.

Then they sat down and were guarding him there and above his head,

they put the charge against him in writing. This is Jesus. What does it say?

The king of the Jews. That is word for word, the same thing the Magi called him.

They said, where's the one who's been born the king of the Jews?

So at the beginning of Matthew's gospel, the Magi show up and call him the king

of the Jews. At the end of Matthew's gospel, the Romans call him the king of the Jews.

Put it on a label and put it right up above his head.

And then the story really ends like the real ending, like the last paragraph.

So I'm gonna flip a page. So Jesus dies on the cross.

Jesus comes back to life. That's an absolute game changer for who he is.

And then we have this. This is the way that Matthew ends his gospel.

Matthew 28, verse 16. This is the final paragraph.

Matthew 28:16

Matthew says, The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where

Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they, what? Worshipped.

So at the beginning of Matthew's gospel, the Magi are worshiping him.

And at the end of the gospel, it looks to me, his disciples are worshiping him. But some doubt it.

And then look what happens next, verse 18. Then Jesus came near and said to

them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

That sounds like a king, doesn't it?

All authority has been given to me. That's a king.

But it's interesting. It's not just king of the Jews. He says,

all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

It sounds like he's claiming to not only be the king of the Jews,

but to be the king of everything. Do you see that?

And so he's saying, I'm the king of all the other nations and all the other people groups too.

And if that's true, like in light of the fact that he's the king of all the peoples,

he has the right to say what he says next, which is go therefore and make disciples

of all nations all nations jesus isn't for the jews only is he no he told his

people i need you to go and get this out to all the other people.

So notice these three ideas. Jesus is king. He's worthy of worship.

He is not for the Jews only.

We see these ideas at the beginning of Matthew's gospel as he tells the story of Jesus.

We see these ideas in the last two pages of his gospel as he ends telling his story about Jesus.

And so that is our point this morning.

All peoples should worship Jesus as their king.

So if we are going to have a holy day called Christmas.

Like if we in this room, Christians in Ocala are going to have a holy day that we call Christmas.

And we're going to say, okay, what are we supposed to do with this day set apart for a special purpose?

It seems to me we need to acknowledge that the Christmas story points us to this truth.

All peoples should worship Jesus as their King.

So I'm going to pray. And then after I pray, we're going to sing a song about that all together.

Dear lord we praise you and acknowledge that you are king of the world king

of the universe that you did not become that way by by leading some sort of revolt but that you.

Were god in eternity past showed up here as the king of the jews were recognized

and worshiped for it at your birth, lived your life, died on the cross as the

king of the Jews, rose again,

showing that you're not, you were not like every other, whatever Jewish,

whoever that was frustrated with Rome. I don't even know how frustrated Jesus was with Rome.

Now that I think about it, I know a lot of them were back then,

but I know Jesus, you, you had other stuff on your mind.

And then you proclaim yourself as the one who has all authority in heaven and

on earth. And we believe you. And we gather this Sunday and every Sunday to

say, we believe you. We believe you on that.

And so we worship you and we want everybody, we want all the people to know.

Thank you. There are many of us in this room who are not Jewish.

Thank you so much for including us in, on your salvation plan.

Thank you for being our King. We love you. And we thank you for your grace.

We thank you for dying on the cross for our sins.

And so we worship you to this day. and we worship you, I think,

in a special way, in a particular way this season for some particular things you did 2,000 years ago.

And so I pray you would form us as a congregation into people who are like pointed

toward you in the right way.

We love you.