Jesus Wants to Be Found.

Steve Gentry

[0:06] Go ahead and have a seat. [0:07] Welcome to Village Church. [0:09] This is your first time here. [0:10] My name is Steve, one of the pastors here at Village Church. [0:12] And as always, I am thankful and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:16] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter 2.

[0:20] We’re going to be in the first 12 verses, but we are in the third week of a series [0:24] where we’re going through the book of Matthew. [0:27] And what we’ve seen so far is in the first 17 verses of chapter 1 that God is doing [0:35] a historic work through Jesus Christ. [0:39] And so the genealogy points out two things about Jesus, and that is first that He is [0:43] the Son of Abraham.

[0:45] In other words, God made a promise to Abraham that through Him, He would raise up a great [0:49] nation and that that nation would bless the nations all over the world. [0:54] And then it says that He is the Son of David. [1:01] And that is another covenant from the Old Testament known as the Davidic Covenant, [1:05] obviously. [1:06] And in that covenant, God has promised that the throne of David or the rule from that

[1:11] throne would be established forever. [1:14] And Jesus comes from that line and His rule will last forever, the Scriptures tell us. [1:20] And so Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise that God has ever made in the Word. [1:26] And then in the next section of chapter 1, what we saw is the actual birth of Jesus [1:31] and it looked at it from the perspective of His Father Joseph. [1:35] In that God was calling Joseph to be a part of something that Joseph had a choice and

[1:41] he could have walked away from, but by faith, Joseph gave his life to raising Jesus, the [1:49] Son of God, as his own Son. [1:52] And through that lens, we often kind of miss so much of what God is doing because we will [1:59] look at last week’s text and this week’s text and those are usually texts that we only [2:03] talk about during the Christmas season, but they transcend Christmas in the application [2:08] of the fact that the Son of God has come and He is calling us into a narrative that is

[2:14] about the story of God. [2:17] And as I’ve been preaching this morning and I’ve been thinking about it, ultimately [2:22] we’re going to come to one of two answers to a question today. [2:29] And that is, are you more interested in what God can do for you or are you more interested [2:34] in what God can do through you? [2:37] Because for the majority of people, and I would be safe to guess almost everyone, we

[2:41] are interested in what God can do for us. [2:44] And we are far less interested in what God can do through us because when God does something [2:48] through you, it costs you. [2:51] There are sacrifices involved. [2:53] There are pleasures that are earthly that God calls us to flee.

[2:59] But what you’re going to see today, I hope, is that through the narrative of the wise [3:03] men, I want you to see the different perspectives and really the different applications of what [3:09] faith in God and faith in His Word can give you because on one side, you’re going to [3:12] see the wise men and these are men who were not acquainted really with worshiping God, [3:18] but God calls them into His narrative and their response is that God works through [3:22] them and they want to see the Holy God of the universe work through them.

[3:26] And then you see the nation of Israel and you see Herod and you see the chief priests [3:31] and the scribes and they are more interested in what God can do for them. [3:34] And so they miss the blessing in this narrative. [3:39] And I don’t want you to miss the blessing. [3:42] I don’t want you to miss what God wants to do through you. [3:46] But instead, I hope that you are emboldened to form a vision of how God can work through

[3:50] you. But I warn you, it is going to cost you something and it probably would cost you [3:56] much. But many of us are pacified by just a knowledge of the Word with no application [4:03] that changes our destinies. [4:06] I was in my yard yesterday and I was working, believe it or not, and I was pulling up fence [4:14] posts because they broke. [4:16] Now, whoever built this fence, it wasn’t me.

[4:18] They built it a while ago and the posts were made out of material that they weren’t meant [4:24] to be built out of. [4:25] They were built out of what’s called landscape timber and landscape timber is not really [4:30] a wood that you want to use as a foundation for anything. [4:32] It’s just a decorative piece that’s supposed to line your driveway or something. [4:35] And they had actually used it as fence posts because it’s cheap.

[4:39] And these fence posts over time and through moisture and through all of the weather, [4:43] they had rotted and so they had snapped off. [4:46] And when a fence post does that, if it snaps off below the level of the ground, just understand [4:52] it’s a pain. [4:53] All right. [4:53] It’s very difficult to get that fence post out.

[4:56] And so I was getting the fence post out and I had my post hole diggers. [5:00] I had my spade shovel and I was working and I was digging and and finally there’s this [5:05] one low point in the yard where that post had just been in just wet mud for years. [5:12] I mean it is and it was gross and I don’t like being gross. [5:15] And so finally after just digging and digging and digging, I was able to get this the end [5:22] of this post out so that I could get the right type of pressure treated lumber in there.

[5:26] And I pulled it out and just the wood was completely rotted through. [5:32] I mean it would just crumble in my hands if I touched it and messed with it. [5:35] But then I turned it over and this was amazing about this and I was amazed by what I saw. [5:40] It had been sitting down in a hole for probably two decades. [5:47] The price tag was perfect.

[5:53] I could have taken it. [5:54] I didn’t know what store it was from. [5:55] I could have taken it to that store and they could have scanned it. [5:58] I mean just the code was perfect. [5:59] The numbers weren’t even smeared. [6:02] The letters weren’t smeared just in perfect condition.

[6:07] And it’s because there are certain types of things that are designed to weather anything [6:14] and there are certain things that will crumble over time if it is not genuine. [6:21] And what I think you’re going to see as we go through this story is that the people [6:26] of Israel, specifically the religious leaders of Israel at this time, were only built through [6:33] their faith that they had come to understand to weather what they wanted God to do for [6:40] them and they had no interest to weather what God wanted to do through them.

[6:45] And so when times got challenging, their faith rotted. [6:51] But when you are overwhelmed by a vision for the God of the universe, for who He is, [6:58] for what He wants to do, and for what He wants to do through you, you will endure because [7:05] you will know that God is at work through every event of your life. [7:11] And so in Matthew chapter 2, here’s what we read. [7:15] Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, and

[7:22] so we are not still in the stable with little baby Jesus in a manger. [7:27] This is about a year or two later. [7:29] I think sometimes we kind of get this vision that there’s a line at the door and first [7:33] you have these shepherds and then next in the waiting room are these three wise men. [7:38] And that’s not really the story that you’re seeing here. [7:41] What had happened is a year or two, excuse me, had passed and we are in a probably rental

[7:47] home in Bethlehem at this point because they had not wanted to travel with the newborn [7:52] back to their place as they did not have air conditioning nor automatic transmissions. [7:57] And so they rented a house in Bethlehem and so they’re still there. [8:02] And about a year or two later, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the [8:07] East came to Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? [8:12] For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

[8:16] When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem was troubled with him. [8:22] And so here’s the stage. [8:25] We have King Herod, we have Jesus, we have three wise men. [8:30] Now the song is wrong. [8:32] These are not kings of the Orient. [8:35] All right.

[8:35] These are what was considered in that time, Magi. [8:38] And if you want to know what a Magi was, look at the book of Daniel. [8:43] When Nebuchadnezzar calls Daniel into his presence, Daniel acts as a Magi. [8:47] And what Magi would do is they would serve as wise counsel for kings. [8:53] And so they did serve under nobility and they were a special class of people, but they were [8:59] not royalty.

[9:00] Rather, they served at the whims of royalty. [9:03] And at this time, basically what Magi did is they attempted to tell the future to a king. [9:12] And so when you see Nebuchadnezzar calling Daniel into his presence because hands that [9:16] appeared out of nowhere and wrote on walls or dreams have come into his mind and he needs [9:20] to interpret them, what they were looking for is some type of special mystical interpretation [9:26] of events that would let them know how long their kingdom would last and would also let

[9:31] them know if any threats were going to come to their kingdom so that they could get rid [9:37] of it. [9:38] And so they could extend their reign so that they could have more power, so they could [9:44] become an even greater king than they presently were. [9:47] And at that time, the way that Magi worked, specifically these guys, is that they used [9:52] a mixture of what we understand as astronomy and astrology to tell the future.

[9:59] And so the stage of these wise men is that the Holy Spirit of God had worked through [10:05] their paganism, these guys who were not God’s people, they were not God-fearing people, [10:11] and he’s drawing them into his presence. [10:15] And so number one, you need to understand this narrative tells us that Jesus came to [10:18] draw the nations to himself. [10:21] Jesus came to do that.

[10:22] And that is why God uses these men specifically. [10:24] Now, when it says they were from the East, the most likely interpretation of that is [10:29] they were from the Kingdom of Persia. [10:31] And so they were a completely disconnected people who were using pagan practices. [10:36] Even if you understand what astrology really is, there’s demonism involved in that. [10:40] And so these were not men who were acquainted with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[10:47] Instead, they were just mystics who were wise sages for a foreign king. [10:52] And God had broken through every ounce of that and sought to draw them so they could [10:58] meet the God of the universe. [11:01] And so God is doing an incredible work here. [11:03] And he’s doing this to show Israel and to show us that this is the fulfillment of the [11:10] prophecy to, excuse me, Abraham.

[11:13] Paul, writing about this in Galatians, he says, and the scripture. [11:16] And when Paul says the scripture, he’s referring to the Old Testament. [11:19] He says, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel [11:24] beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. [11:28] So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. [11:35] God wanted to work in the entire world.

[11:39] He was not satisfied with just working through Israel. [11:43] And that was never his plan. [11:45] From the beginning, his plan had been to raise up Israel for the specific purpose [11:51] so that Jesus would be born, so that Jesus could live and do a work so that all of the [11:57] world would be blessed through him. [11:59] In Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 6, we read this.

[12:02] The prophet writes, it is too light of a thing that you should be my servant, Israel, [12:07] to rise up the tribes, excuse me, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the [12:13] ! [12:14] I will make you as a light for the nations. [12:17] And here’s the important part that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. [12:25] From Genesis 3 onward, God was specific.

[12:29] His plan was to reach the nations, not just a nation.

[12:37] Israel’s specific purpose was so that Jesus would be born through them, so that the world [12:43] could know the God of the universe. [12:46] And so to believe that God only wants to work in one area or with one ethnicity or with [12:53] one race is anti-gospel. [12:55] It’s antithetical to the entire plan of God. [12:58] God sent Jesus so that his renown, so that his glory could be known by all of the earth.

[13:04] And at this point, Israel is missing it. [13:08] Israel is waiting for God to just come and overthrow the Roman government so that they [13:15] can rise to international prominence again and form an earthly kingdom. [13:20] But that is not what God wanted to do. [13:22] The Old Testament is specific. [13:24] He wanted to do a work that would transcend Israel so that all nations, so that all tribes,

[13:32] so that all tongues could know the God of the universe. [13:35] And that is why Jesus came. [13:38] So why do we often miss that? [13:41] What do we get swept up with that keeps us from having a vision like this? [13:46] I mean, consider this. [13:48] God broke through to at least three, and we always say that they are three because they

[13:55] brought three gifts. [13:56] And so why would God break through complete paganism? [14:03] He did not send anyone to them. [14:05] The Holy Spirit just opened their eyes supernaturally so that they could understand that there is [14:11] a connection between that specific constellation in the sky and the promises of the Old Testament [14:17] and drew them so that they could be part of a narrative that shows that God is not just

[14:23] working in a locale to bring his son, but rather this is a cosmic event of worldwide [14:31] implication. [14:32] If God can break through to that, imagine what he could break through to those of you [14:38] that claim Jesus as king already and already come into it with a presupposition that this [14:44] word is true, that Jesus is the Lord and King of all of the universe, and that he is going [14:49] to reign forever and ever.

[14:51] If those men could be used by God, why can’t he work through you? [14:58] And the reason, I believe, is because you are more interested in what God can do for [15:05] you than you are what God can do through you. [15:08] Is because your affections are centered upon your story so you can never be caught up into [15:17] God’s story because you spend most of your time focused on you. [15:23] I mean, just think about your prayer life.

[15:26] What do you pray about most of the time? [15:28] I know that when I consider my prayers, and I think that’s a vital spiritual discipline [15:32] in and of itself, it’s like you get one spiritual discipline and you find out there are 36 more. [15:36] All right. [15:37] Is that you don’t just pray. [15:38] You need to take inventory of what you are praying about.

[15:42] Most prayer is self-absorbed. [15:45] I don’t have to pick on you. [15:47] I can pick on myself. [15:49] I have a lot of phobias. [15:53] I’ll just be honest. [15:54] I mean, can I be transparent?

[15:55] This is a safe place. [15:56] I know the answer to that is no, because you people really remind me of that frequently, [16:00] but I’ll just tell you anyway. [16:01] All right. [16:03] I have some phobias. [16:04] One phobia that I have is that I’m going to die in my sleep, and it’s not every night,

[16:08] but there are some nights that I lay down on the bed and I think, am I going to wake [16:14] up in the morning?

[16:17] What if I don’t? [16:19] And so I’ll lay there for 15 minutes to 36 hours. [16:24] You ever have trouble sleeping and you’re like, oh, it’s been eight hours. [16:27] Oh, it’s been 15 minutes. [16:30] And I’ll lay there and I’ll say, what if I die tonight? [16:33] Well, I’ve got stuff to do tomorrow.

[16:35] And if I die, that’s going to be a problem. [16:39] I won’t get the things that I have to do done tomorrow because I’ll be dead. [16:43] And then I’m like, and then my wife, she’s got to deal with that. [16:47] What if she dies? [16:49] I don’t want to do I hope I die. [16:52] But and for selfish reasons, but the reality that we deal with is that we are more overwhelmed

[16:58] with our anxieties of what could go wrong and what we want to go right in this world. [17:04] And so that only gives us a vision for what God can do for us. [17:09] And we miss track that God isn’t interested in what I have going on. [17:14] God is interested in my part and what he’s got going on. [17:17] And that should change the vision for my life so that my prayers are not limited to [17:23] please God bless me.

[17:25] Please God give me. [17:27] Please God heal me of this minor impediment. [17:31] But instead, my prayers should be transfixed on how this is the God of the universe [17:37] who draws the nations to himself who does cosmic works that impact the entire world. [17:43] And I am called to be a part of the story that he is telling through history. [17:49] And that should change the vision for my life because now I have the opportunity to be used

[17:56] by God to change the world, to change reality. [18:02] Imagine what God can do through me if I will take the limiters off of myself. [18:09] And by that I think through all of the things that I want him to do, [18:15] all of the things that I want him to give that are just going to take my focus off of him and onto me.

[18:23] And when am I going to break through to realize that God is doing a work to change the nations [18:29] and he has called me to be a part of it. [18:32] God has called me to be a part of a gospel that doesn’t just save me, that doesn’t just fix me, [18:39] that doesn’t just redeem me, but it goes outside of the walls of this church, [18:44] it goes outside of the walls of my home, it goes outside of the walls of my family, [18:48] and it goes to nations that I have never even heard of.

[18:52] I think some of you would be surprised. There are nations that exist that you don’t even know the names of.

[18:58] What if I was captivated by that vision?

[19:04] Number two this morning, understand that Jesus has made himself profoundly findable. [19:11] Jesus has made himself profoundly findable. [19:16] Look in the text. In verse four. [19:19] It says that Herod assembled all of the chief priests and scribes of the people. [19:25] He inquired of them where the Christ, there’s that word again, the anointed deliverer of his people, [19:32] was to be born. And they told him.

[19:34] And I love the way the text reads. [19:37] And sometimes you miss out on these little nuances because we just kind of run through them really fast.

[19:45] Is that the way that he writes it kind of presupposes that they answer very quickly. [19:52] That they understand exactly what he’s talking about immediately. [19:57] They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet in Micah 5 2, [20:02] and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. [20:07] For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. [20:11] Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

[20:16] And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. [20:20] And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. [20:24] And after listening to the king, they went on their way. [20:26] 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. [20:35] There are four responses to the birth of Jesus Christ in that section. [20:43] First, you had the response of the wise men.

[20:45] You see, the wise men responded by leaving everything that they had known, [20:51] by leaving the kingdom that they were serving, [20:54] and they wanted to find not just the king of the Jews, [20:58] but note that they said they wanted to worship him, [21:01] and they communicated in some way to Herod that he was the Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. [21:08] And these wise men responded by saying, we need to go find him.

[21:13] Then you have the response of Herod, and we’re going to learn more about this next week. [21:17] And Herod’s response was that this was a threat to his rule. [21:21] And so Herod is trying to deceive the wise men so that he can get rid of a threat. [21:27] Because Herod was installed by Rome because he was at least part in his ethnic makeup. [21:33] He was part Jewish, but he did not have an allegiance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. [21:38] And he was put into place by Rome to basically stomp out any rebellion because of religion that the Jews might have.

[21:48] And if he needed to appeal to his ethnicity, he could do that. [21:53] But he ruled Jerusalem with an iron fist because they had to. [21:58] But then what’s interesting to me is the response of Jerusalem. [22:03] It says that Herod was troubled along with all Jerusalem. [22:09] And so he summoned the next one, the chief priests and the scribes. [22:16] Note that Jerusalem, hearing about this, so it says that a lot of people have heard about this now.

[22:21] They are not rejoicing. [22:25] Why? [22:27] The chief priests and the scribes immediately identify who would fulfill this promise. [22:33] That’s why they quote Micah 5,2. [22:35] They say, he’s in Bethlehem. That’s what Micah tells us. [22:39] And Jerusalem, though, is troubled. Why?

[22:41] Because their vision was fixated on their current circumstances rather than the ability of God to raise up a kingdom that could defeat all worldly kingdoms. [22:55] The chief priests and the scribes was an interesting bunch because they were the religious leaders. [22:59] They didn’t really have, necessarily, rule because that belongs to Herod at that time. [23:05] But they were influential. [23:07] And when he calls them, the reason that they were immediately able to point to Micah 5,2 is because the scribes were a class of people whose job was literally to write the Bible. [23:19] And so they didn’t have a printing press at that time.

[23:22] So for the scriptures to be preserved from one generation to the next, they hand wrote on leather parchments the books of the Old Testament. [23:30] And these scribes focused on being immaculate in their writing. [23:37] So if they made a mistake, they didn’t do what I do. [23:39] They didn’t just scribble it out and then continue writing their sentence. [23:43] No, oftentimes what is understood is that they actually had a discipline where if they made a mistake in their writing of the Old Testament, they would just basically ball up that parchment, throw it away, and start all over again so that they would learn the discipline of not making mistakes in their writing. [24:00] So basically punishing themselves.

[24:02] But if you were to be a person who for your job wrote the Bible over and over and over and over again, you’d become pretty familiar with it, wouldn’t you? [24:13] And so these men were completely familiar with the Bible. [24:18] They were completely familiar with what Micah 5 2 represented to the people of Israel in the first century. [24:25] It represented the fulfillment of Isaiah 60 verse 3. [24:28] It says, And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. [24:33] It was the fulfillment of Numbers 24 17.

[24:36] I see him, but not now. [24:37] I behold him, but not near. [24:39] A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter which represented kingdom rule shall rise out of Israel. [24:46] It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheph. [24:51] God’s plan was fully revealed to everyone in Jesus at that time. [24:59] So so often what I hear from people is if God would just make it clearer to me.

[25:06] If God would just make clear who he is.

[25:13] If God would just make clear what his plan for my life is. [25:18] If God would just make it clear what I should do.

[25:26] Friends, God can’t be much clearer than saying, here’s what it’s going to look like.

[25:34] Here’s how he’s going to come.

[25:38] Here’s when he’s going to come. [25:40] Here’s who he’s going to come through.

[25:44] Here’s what city he’ll be in, and what you’ll see in a minute is. [25:48] And the address is 1153 Maple Avenue.

[25:52] Oh, and by the way, his name’s Jesus.

[25:55] It is not that God has been clear. [25:58] It is that we have interests that are blocking our view.

[26:03] It is that we don’t really want to be distracted from our story so that we can get drawn into God’s story. [26:13] And actually have to live by a faith that changes the trajectory of our lives. [26:19] If you could get the vision of the wise men, instead of having the vision of the chief priests and scribes, your life would be changed forever. [26:28] The chief priests and the scribes were the Awana kids of their day. [26:31] Did any of you do Awana? I know I did. I loved Awana. [26:34] I grew up in the church. It was great. I loved it.

[26:37] And I loved destroying my competitors with my ability to know the Bible. [26:42] I mean, it was an amazing ability that I had, and I would embarrass people. I’d Bible all over them. [26:47] I mean, I just, they would just, I had so many jewels in my crown that, I mean, everybody was impressed. [26:54] I won. [26:56] I don’t know what I won, but I won.

[27:02] They knew the answers to every Bible trivia question you could ask them.

[27:11] They knew the Bible so well that you asked them any question about the Messiah, they could say, here it is. [27:20] Yet, when the wise men leave the presence of Herod, why, and this is what bugs me when I read the Bible, [27:33] why didn’t the chief priests and scribes follow them?

[27:39] I don’t get it. [27:41] I’ll never understand that. [27:44] Is that if you have been given the greatest gift, and this is the way I viewed the Word of God, [27:49] I think sometimes when people ask me questions about life and I refuse to talk about anything but the Bible, [27:54] I think you’re troubled by that, but what I’m trying to communicate to you is that for me, life is that simple. [28:01] Is that the Word of God is a lamp unto my feet and it is a light unto my path.

[28:07] And these men knew that. These men had been given that. These men knew the Word. [28:12] So why didn’t they go to Bethlehem? And I will tell you why. [28:17] Because they were more interested in what they wanted God to do for them than they were what God could do through them. [28:25] Because they said, well, he does seem to fit everything about the prophecy, but what if Herod gets mad?

[28:34] What if Herod takes my rights away?

[28:38] What if Herod persecutes us? [28:41] What if Herod takes our homes away? [28:45] What if Herod hurts our families?

[28:53] And those are the very concerns that are preventing many of you from experiencing the power of faith in your life. [29:03] Because you are more concerned with what will I lose than you are with what could God do.

[29:13] Jesus is profoundly findable.

[29:19] If you trust him to be who he says he is.

[29:25] But sometimes we put expectations on Jesus that Jesus doesn’t put on himself. [29:31] Sometimes we have this expectation that Jesus is concerned with my life being easy when Jesus has zero concern for my life being easy.

[29:41] Jesus has zero concern about my leisure.

[29:45] Jesus has zero concern about whether or not I will fulfill all of my earthly based hopes and dreams. [29:51] Jesus has one concern and it’s number three. [29:55] He draws people to worship him.

[29:58] Jesus draws people for worship. [30:01] And the wise men got to experience that and the chief priests and the scribes did not get to experience that. [30:12] God’s plan fully revealed in Jesus. [30:15] What’s fascinating to me is in that recitation of Micah chapter five verse two. [30:21] Matthew takes liberties with the text that the Holy Spirit tells him to and he changes the way Micah five two is written. [30:28] Here’s what Micah five two says.

[30:30] But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathra, that’s an easy one to say, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old from ancient days. [30:45] Here’s what Matthew two six says it says. [30:48] And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. [30:56] For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. [31:01] The most important change that Matthew makes is that he doesn’t say Bethlehem is insignificant. [31:07] He says you are by no means insignificant.

[31:12] You are not small in your influence any longer. [31:16] And note, Matthew is written to the Jewish audience and he’s trying to make a distinct point to the people of Israel through saying that. [31:25] He’s trying to tell them, note what the chief priests and the scribes did. [31:30] They submitted to the power of Jerusalem because they thought that was the most important city in the world. [31:37] They thought that that was the center of power in their lives. [31:41] They thought that Jerusalem was the center of authority in their lives.

[31:45] But actually, the real authority, the real power, the real ruler was in Bethlehem. [31:52] He was not in Jerusalem. [31:57] He’s saying what was going on in Bethlehem was a lot more important than what was going on in Jerusalem. [32:04] But you couldn’t get your vision off of Jerusalem. [32:08] So you missed it. [32:10] Friends, there are so many times in our lives when we cannot get past what we have going on right here and right now to see what God wants us to do over there right now.

[32:30] And so we sit and we stay and we do the safe thing. [32:35] We do what we think is the responsible thing. [32:37] We preserve our own little work. [32:41] We preserve our own little vision because I might lose something. [32:45] I might not gain what I think I should gain. [32:48] I might not have the leisure that I have right here right now.

[32:51] I might not be as happy over there where God’s doing the work. [32:55] It might make me tired. [32:57] I’ve never met a generation more afraid of being tired than this generation. [33:03] You were designed to get tired. [33:05] So work.

[33:08] And so God is at work and they miss it because of their fear.

[33:15] What are you missing because you are afraid?

[33:18] You are missing the life that God actually wants to give you. [33:23] These religious leaders were more interested in garnering favor with Herod than they were investigating the work of God. [33:33] And so they couldn’t worship. [33:36] Fear is the enemy of worship.

[33:42] Fear belittles God and elevates you.

[33:49] In verse 10. [33:52] It says that when the wise men saw the star because they left the King’s presence. [33:58] And I don’t know what had happened to the star. [34:01] I don’t know if they saw it and they knew it was in Jerusalem. [34:04] So they went to Jerusalem and then it disappeared. [34:07] But something significant happened with the star after they left Herod’s presence because the text tells us that when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

[34:19] And that is an important thing to focus in on. [34:22] They saw the star and it was the greatest pleasure that they had ever had in their lives. [34:27] It was the greatest happiness that they had ever known because the text doesn’t say they saw the star and they were happy about it. [34:34] The text doesn’t say they saw the star and they were really glad that Google Maps had turned back on and had stopped calculating. [34:41] They were really happy that things were working out for them. [34:44] No, it uses two distinct terms and phrases in the original language here.

[34:50] It says that they saw the star and they rejoiced. [34:53] And then the part is simple exceedingly. [34:56] In other words, they were overjoyed with what was going on, but then it doubles down with another phrase. [35:03] It says with great joy. [35:06] It says they got a lot of happy and then they brought in a lot more happiness on the back end of it. [35:13] It was the greatest happiness they had ever known in their lives.

[35:16] They were more joyful about that star being in the sky than they had ever been about anything in their lives because they knew they would find Jesus. [35:31] We have to ask ourselves a question. [35:33] Where is your joy?

[35:37] See, I’ve literally known the name of Jesus my entire life. [35:41] And don’t get me wrong, that’s a grace unto me. [35:44] I will live every day of my life that I can remember on this earth knowing Jesus. [35:49] And I’m very thankful for that. [35:51] And by God’s grace, my children will have the same journey.

[35:55] But there is an ability that happens where you become familiar.

[36:01] And Jesus ceases to be the joy of your life. [36:04] And he becomes one of the joys of your life.

[36:10] And he ceases to make you ecstatic that you know his presence. [36:16] And instead, you are just familiar with his presence. [36:20] Where is your joy? [36:23] Where is your joy in Jesus? [36:25] When was the last time you were reminded that the God of the universe drew you to himself and introduced you to his son so that he could save you? [36:37] And you said, oh, thank you, God, what joy.

[36:42] The text goes on.

[36:46] And going into the house, they saw the child. [36:52] What’s important is because it notes that they saw the child before they saw the mother. [36:57] And then they saw Mary, and they fell down and worshiped her. [37:05] They didn’t fall down and worship her. [37:09] So they met an actual king. [37:12] They didn’t worship him.

[37:13] They didn’t fall down. [37:14] They didn’t get. [37:15] And that means that they were literally on their faces. [37:17] The most vulnerable position you can ever be in in front of another person is to be faced down because you are saying, I submit fully to you.

[37:28] It’s not the typical reaction you have when you go see a baby. [37:32] Now, I’m not the type of person that immediately runs up and grabs a baby and picks the baby up and hugs him and just, you know, plays with them and all that stuff, because I understand how breakable they are. [37:43] And so I don’t want that responsibility. [37:45] If you wonder why I don’t pick up your kids, it’s because that’s your responsibility. [37:48] I’m not going to be the one that breaks it. [37:50] All right.

[37:52] I don’t want to be in the position where they might cry. [37:56] Right there. If you if that if that doesn’t kill you, you pick up someone else’s child and they immediately act as if they’ve met the abominable snowman. [38:04] All right. And they just cry in your face. [38:07] And it’s just like, man, that’s really not something I want. [38:09] So thank you. [38:11] But people, they run up, they say, oh, what a cute little baby.

[38:14] And they get down. They just pick the baby up and they just saw it. [38:17] Just hold the baby because babies are cute. [38:20] Babies are weak. [38:21] Babies are innocent. [38:22] Babies need us to do for them. [38:26] They need us to comfort them.

[38:28] But the wise men have the opposite reaction to that. [38:32] They do not go to protect or to comfort or to hold the infant instead. [38:38] They submit to the infant’s rule over their lives.

[38:44] Years ago, a guy that I respect immensely, his name is R.C. [38:48] Sproul. [38:49] He passed away a few years ago. [38:51] He was a gift to the church. [38:52] And you should know that. [38:52]

[38:52] [38:52] [38:52] [38:52] [38:52] [38:52]

[38:53] He wrote a book which is my favorite work of his, and I think he would have said the same thing was called the Holiness of God. [39:01] And in this book, just chapter after chapter, he expounds on text after text about how holy God is and how sinful and unholy we are and how our response to his holiness should be different than it is. [39:18] In Psalm 96, the word of God tells us this, says, Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

[39:29] Tremble before him all the earth.

[39:32] And I think sometimes there’s a disconnect between the Old Testament and New Testament for us, not because of the Bible, but because of us. [39:40] That the holiness of the God of the universe is not often the thing that we value the most about Jesus, and that’s to our loss.

[39:52] We think of Jesus and things that aren’t untrue of him, but they are lesser. [39:57] Jesus is my friend.

[40:00] Jesus is my counselor.

[40:04] Jesus is there for me when I need him. [40:07] Jesus helps me when I’m in trouble. [40:11] Jesus is my savior. [40:13] And we say these things not because they’re untrue, but I think our focus on them over against the holiness of Jesus Christ is because we want him to do things for us rather than through us.

[40:29] Jesus, that little one or two year old little boy, was the God of Psalm 96.

[40:43] The text says when you are in the presence of Jesus, tremble before him in the splendor of his holiness.

[40:55] In the holiness of God, R.C. Sproul recounts Isaiah chapter 6. [41:00] In Isaiah chapter 6, the prophet has this vision of the throne room of God. [41:05] The text says he was caught up into the throne room and he had a vision of the holiness of God. [41:12] And it says that there were angels flying around God and they were repeating over and over and over, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

[41:26] And the text says that Isaiah recounts that the threshold of the temple shook at the sound of these angels proclaiming the holiness of God. [41:38] And Isaiah’s reaction was he fell down and he cried out, I am ruined. [41:47] I am an unclean man with unclean lips from an unclean people. [41:51] In other words, I don’t belong here. [41:54] Your holiness is so great. [41:56] It will break me.

[42:03] That God, that holiness is what the wise men encountered in that rental house in Bethlehem laying in that crib.

[42:18] That is why they fell face down.

[42:21] I heard a story, I cannot, for the life of me, remember I tried all week and I don’t remember who said it, but somebody did. [42:27] And so that’s enough, right? [42:29] I didn’t say it. [42:29] That’s what I’m saying. [42:31] Is he wrote that he had led a worship service and afterwards someone came up to him and I love these types of people. [42:38] Not really.

[42:40] But this person came up to him and said, you know, I didn’t really enjoy worship very much today. [42:47] And his response was, that’s OK. [42:49] We weren’t worshiping you.

[42:55] But I think so often, whether it is worship in music or whether it is worship in the proclamation of the word of God or whether it is worship at our kitchen table, [43:07] whether we are with many people or whether we are alone, whether we are reading the Bible or whether we are praying.

[43:15] We look for God to do something for us without realizing that worship is about a response that we have towards him.

[43:28] And so often we don’t know what it’s like to fall down on our faces before God because we don’t see Jesus as the holy God of the universe. [43:42] We see him as just someone who’s done things for me. [43:49] Just one more thing and we’ll be finished. [43:50] They bring gold, frankincense and myrrh, not the essential oils, because that would have been worthless.

[44:03] For many reasons.

[44:07] I’ll stop there. [44:08] I have to. [44:10] I must.

[44:12] But it’s literally they brought gold, which is what you would think it is. [44:16] It’s gold. [44:17] It’s a precious metal. [44:17] They brought frankincense, which at that time would have been a balmy gum that would have been used for many different applications at that point. [44:24] And they brought myrrh, which is a perfume to mask smells at that time. [44:30] They didn’t have indoor plumbing.

[44:32] And so what was going on is these are gifts that make zero sense at a baby shower. [44:38] All right. [44:40] These are gifts and this is the significance of the gifts. [44:42] There is no spiritual significance. [44:44] There’s no allegory going on here. [44:46] These are gifts that would only make sense if you were presenting them to a king.

[44:51] The reason being at that time, these were extremely extravagant gifts. [44:57] They were very expensive. [44:59] And so the only people that could have such things were royalty. [45:04] And so they brought him these gifts. [45:06] And what I love about it is they didn’t see, oh, my goodness, it’s just a baby in a rental house. [45:11] Why would we give you these things?

[45:13] No, the text says that they fell on their faces before him and they worshiped. [45:19] And then they got up and they said, here, take these finest gifts that we have. [45:25] They are yours. [45:26] You are worthy of everything that we could possibly give you. [45:30] And I think about how they then left his presence, returned to Persia, I assume.

[45:39] They had experienced the greatest gift that they could have ever experienced in this world. [45:47] And I have to ask you, what is your response to the holiness of God that is on display in Jesus Christ?

[45:57] Is he just someone who does things for you or is he someone who is worthy of your worship? [46:05] Is he someone who is worthy of you falling on your face before him, trembling in his presence, [46:14] giving him everything that you could possibly give him of yourself? [46:20] Because if he is not those things, then he is not your God.

[46:30] And you need to deal with that.

[46:37] When was the last time you trembled at his presence?

[46:45] Every week we reflect on the Lord’s Supper.

[46:51] The bread on the plate represents the broken body of Christ. [46:55] The cup represents his shed blood. [46:58] What is amazing about the grace of God is that this holy God that we trembled before, and we should, [47:06] gave his very life so that we could come into his presence and tremble.

[47:13] This meal represents the fact that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and for your sin. [47:23] That he gave everything, and when we come and when we eat and when we drink, [47:26] it represents the fellowship that God extends to us by paying the penalty for our sin. [47:33] And when we eat and drink, we proclaim to everyone around us, [47:36] I have faith in the holy God of the universe, Jesus Christ. [47:44] Friends, if you are in here and you don’t have that faith,

[47:47] I believe that just like he drew the wise men, he has drawn you here today to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[47:55] I believe that he wants to draw you into a relationship with himself, [47:59] but you must turn from your sin and trust that Jesus is God, that he is king, [48:08] and that he has paid the penalty for your sin on the cross and risen from the dead to give you a new life to live. [48:16] If you believe that, then he will save you. [48:21] If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, come to the front or to the back. [48:26] Eat, drink, proclaim the death of our king.