 Well, let's open our Bibles together to Matthew chapter 2 and We'll just remind ourselves of the birth of Christ. It's a very basic study, but obviously worth our time and We'll look at verses 1 through 12 As already mentioned if you're able we'll be celebrating tomorrow Christmas Day here and it begins at 9 o'clock and We will be having our Wednesday night study People are saying well, that's like four days in a row Yeah, you get in the word every day Duh, so I'll be here anyway, and I've already been saying Marie has to be here. So that's two of us and Jared's our worship leader. I pay him So that'll be three, but I look forward to seeing you this upcoming Wednesday night But let's begin reading here Matthew chapter 2 beginning at verse 1 reading to verse 12 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king Behold wise men came from the east wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying Whereas he who was has been born king of the Jews for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him When Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and when he had gathered The chief priests all the chief priests and scribes of the people together He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born So they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet But you Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you Shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel Then Herod when he had secretly called the wise men determined from them what time the star appeared And he sent them to Bethlehem and said Go and search carefully for the young child and when you have found him bring back word to me that I May come and worship him also When they heard the king They departed and behold the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was When they saw the star they rejoiced in with exceedingly great joy and when they had come into the house They saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worship him and when they had opened their treasures They presented gifts to him gold frankincense and myrrh I'll read verse 12 just to conclude it then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod They departed for their own country another way and so obviously Christmas traditionally is a time of celebration. It's a time of wonderful fellowship for many time to make great memories and The Christmas season can be a very beautiful time of the year And that's because the birth of a Savior is intended to bring great joy to us It's joyful because God has openly revealed how deeply he loves us and he revealed to us the depth of his love by sending Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ tells us that he came to seek and to save those who are lost and so when the lost are found they might be So surprised by it that they might have a tremendous amount of joy Because you see salvation is intended to bring joy We remember in Luke's gospel how that when the angel announced Jesus's birth and in the announcement He had said I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will beat all people He went on to say because unto you this day in the city of David is born a Savior and Jesus Christ Who's going to be saving us should bring us great joy and so when someone comes to Christ The joy that they have of sins forgiven and a new life with God can be incredible It's like what it says in Psalm 32 verse 2 Blessed or happy is a man whose sin the Lord does not count against him So the Christmas season is above all things a time to receive forgiveness and joy Christmas is the remembering that God invaded human history in order that he might provide salvation Christmas is the celebration of what is called the incarnation Immanuel God is with us The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 said this Isaiah wrote for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and His name shall be called wonderful counselor the mighty God the everlasting father the prince of peace Well in that prophecy Isaiah gives us insight into the Lord Jesus Christ one of my friends and I were having a conversation the other day And it was sharing some things with me. I said I'm gonna steal that that's so good And I'm gonna share it with my church. I'm not gonna give you credit, but I will mention I stole it But I liked it I liked how he he put something here because he said in the prophecy of Isaiah Notice with me. I read to you in Isaiah 9 verse 6. It says unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and so in that prophecy we see a A child that was placed in a manger. So in that prophecy we see the crib It reveals that the Messiah will be born and upon birth He will be placed in a feeding trough the child would be born and would be placed in a manger So you see a crib? But you also see a cross because he says a child is born unto us a son is given and When you study the book of Isaiah you will see that when it speaks concerning him being given that speaks of his sacrifice It's a prophecy of Jesus being offered given on our behalf Remember John 3 16. God so loved the world that he gave his son so when when Isaiah was prophesying he saw a picture of The crib, but he also saw a picture of a cross And so during this season we celebrate the giving of the gift of God's own son God's son was given for us that we might have Eternal life and he has become our king because he also is the king and so by God giving us Jesus He demonstrates to us what love is because we prophetically see a crown the government will be on his shoulder He's born to rule. He is Messiah. And so when we look at Matthew That's what we're gonna look at tonight and just touch on a few things. So notice again in verse 1 in chapter 2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and the days of hair of the king behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem And now John said that they were kings He's he's wrong And I'm gonna fire him for that. No, I'm teasing you. Maybe you believe me. I shouldn't say that No, I'll say it anyway. They were not kings. We got the we three kings from a hymn What they are is they are wise men the word wise men is a word that is actually from the the word Magi the word Magi is a word for a magician and what you have here is the Chaldeans These are priests they were from the east and these men from the east were representing a religious system a system that more than likely Even undoubtedly had been influenced by a very important Jewish prophet by the name of Daniel Daniel had been in Babylon in captivity And if you read the book of Daniel, you'll see that Daniel was actually made the head or the chief of the magi And so as the chief of the magi, there's no doubt that he would have influenced those people who he had Authority over and more than likely as he was sharing with them He would have shared with them things concerning what the Bible says related to the Messiah You see Daniel had had more than likely made them acquainted with a prophecy That was made by a man by the name of Balaam. It was from that area Balaam was a false prophet, but he gave a true prophecy concerning Messiah You see that in numbers 24 verse 17 where Balaam said I see him, but not now I behold him, but not near a star will come out of Jacob a scepter will rise out of Israel So these major may have been waiting for a sign of the coming ruler as students of astronomy That the sign of a star would be Significant and in conjunction with an unusual star in the heavens. They made their journey to Israel now this star The star was a light that they followed as they traveled south and it stood over a house the scripture says So this leads some Bible expositors to say that this light was actually the shekinah glory of God This glory was seen in ancient Israel. It was the pillar of fire that that lit excuse me the Jews somebody said Because the shekinah glory was a light that could move and could point to the presence of God It is possible that the star mentioned in Matthew 2 was not an astronomical object But actually the appearance after a few hundred years absence of the shekinah glory of God So their journey covered a period of time and they arrived to Jerusalem and they come with a question Notice verse 2 Whereas he who has been born king of the Jews we've seen his star in the east and have come to worship him So they come to a palace expecting to find a king Now the sign was for the wise men alone obviously it wasn't for everybody But they had come with the intent and I want you to notice this to worship They had a pagan background, but they responded to the light that they had and they came Luke chapter 2 verse 32 says that Jesus is a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel And so they say we have come to worship him they're gonna receive instruction in a moment and they're gonna follow that instruction but as this takes place verse 3 Herod the king heard this and he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born So they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah For out of you shall come a ruler who is who will shepherd my people Israel and so what happens here is he begins to inquire and So in verse 7 Herod when he had secretly called the wise men determined from them what time the star appeared And he sent them to Bethlehem and said go and search carefully for the young child And when you found him bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also And so the response of the wise men was worship, but the response of Herod Hostility Because he's concerned that he's gonna lose his kingdom. He's troubled and all Jerusalem was troubled with him when you read history You discover that Herod was power hungry in his reign. He murdered the high priest He killed his own wife He killed her mother and he killed two of his own sons in order that he might retain power and The lust for power is a great corruptor of the soul the lust for power had complete control of his life and that lust for power was rooted in stubborn pride Jesus spoke of it in Luke 19 verses 12 through 14 When he said a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them Occupied till I come but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him Saying we will not have this man to reign over us So on one hand you have people who come to worship But on the other hand you have someone who is openly hostile You see Christ is to be crowned king over our lives But some respond to his claim over us with hostility as well as rejection and to this very day There's still a clear hostility towards Jesus and the message of the cross In spite of the rejection Jesus is still king and that's something that every person when went will one day Recognize and then you have in verse 4 The scribes and the chief priests it says when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born So they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet But you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel and here's a third Response you have the first one was worship the second one is hostility, but the third one. I think is probably the most severe The third one is indifference There are people who are openly hostile towards the gospel message You know that you've shared the gospel with people not everybody likes hearing about Jesus Not everybody wants to hear about them. They're openly hostile But the ones that concern me the most are the indifferent ones The ones who kind of blow you off and don't really care and what's terrible about this on top of their indifference is They knew the scripture when the question was asked where will Messiah be born? They were able to say all the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem because the prophet has made it very clear That's where he'll be born and so what you have here is indifference You have these people who know scripture, but don't respond to it and they're the most dangerous of all because Their rejection of Jesus Influences it influences eternity it influences the eternity of all who sit under their teaching So when you have somebody who is presenting things about God Not showing the right reverence and not and not divide them passage correctly. There are people today who think that's no big deal But the fact is it is a big deal because when somebody is opening the word and teaching the word that is an eternal influence And if you have somebody who knows scripture, but undermines it with unbelief They are a dangerous teacher or adds to it things that are not found in scripture. They're a dangerous teacher So these people with their indifference were actually very dangerous Now we have the wise men and they they wanted to worship But you have Herod a power hungry man who has hostility But you have the scribes you have the religious leaders and these are the dangerous ones because they're indifferent Their rejection of Jesus influences people for eternity There are many people today, and it's a different time than I know when I first got saved But there are many people today who don't believe that there's such a place as hell They will say there is a place called heaven. They say of course there's a place called heaven Someone's got to be better than this But the idea of a place called hell isn't something they would entertain. They're very indifferent to that But you know when I first got saved I was taught that the word of God is true I was taught that from the beginning as a matter of fact before I got saved. I believe that the Bible was God's word I didn't put my trust in it, but I believed it I believed when someone would quote a scripture to me that they would be saying something that God had preserved for me I believe that because I've been raised in a religious background And so when I was told about heaven, I thought there must be how I didn't want to think about But I did know that the Bible says that there's such a place as heaven in such a place as hell And that's what motivated me at the age of 20 to talk to my mom and my dad That's why I did that's why I sat there at the table with him And that's why I told my dad what I said when I told him dad. You're a good man You're the best man I'll ever know But you will be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Jesus Christ That's why I told him that I've had people ask me Well, how could you at the age of 20 talk to your father? Isn't that disrespectful? No, I didn't believe it was at all I thought it was the most loving thing I could do I thought it was the most important loving thing I could do as a son for a father Because I loved my dad and I believed in heaven and I believed in hell And I would not have been loving my father if I would not have warned him about judgment to come You'll find it interesting when you read your Bible Jesus spoke more about judgment to come than he did about heaven Why because when you trust him you go to heaven so he warns you continuously against going to hell and That's what makes these people so terrible is because they know what the scripture says they're able to say Oh, it's going to be in Bethlehem because we know in the scriptures where it says it, but they were completely indifferent to it It's a very dangerous place to be Later on in Matthew in chapter 23 verse 13 Jesus said woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men For you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in you're hindering them from entering in And so you have these responses in verse 9 it says When they heard the king they departed and Behold the star which they had seen in the east went before them Till it came and stood over the house or stood over where the young child was when they saw the star They rejoiced with exceedingly great joy and when they had come into the house They saw the young child with Mary's mother and fell down and worshiped him and when they had opened their treasures They presented gifts to him gold frankincense and Mer their quest is complete They're able to come and worship the king They're not in a stable notice. They're living in a house The small city must have been filled with excitement as they arrived Here come the Magi they enter into the house Immediately they fell down before Jesus and they worshiped him They touched the ground With their forehead is the picture of worship and they were saying this indeed is the one I worship This is interesting. I did a Facebook live thing and I get real interesting responses Sometimes from people who will view it and and one individual wrote and I in response because I talked about worshiping Christ and Somebody wrote in response to what I had shared. He said I don't worship Christ I only worship God and and I shared with them that you cannot worship God If you don't worship Jesus you're to honor Jesus Even as you honor the father in John 5 23 Jesus said all should honor the son just as they honor the father He does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him So you can't worship God unless you worship him through the son. That's why the incarnation is so important There's so many people who say oh, I have a relationship with God But Jesus taught otherwise Jesus said I'm the way the truth in the life. No man comes to the father But by me so there's no entrance into the presence of God if it isn't through the son So why is Christmas important because God took upon himself human flesh dwelt amongst us and from the very beginning Jesus Christ is worshiped and as he was worshiped by these who came to worship him They presented gifts to him they made their offerings and I want you to notice something else here In verse 11 it says when they had come into the house they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him and When they had opened their treasures they presented gifts to him. So the gifts went to Jesus all true worship is an expression of the heart and It is directed towards Jesus Christ and notice they gave gold frankincense and myrrh Gold is a gift for a king frankincense a gift for a priest and Myrrh is used for burials. It was a gift for a savior and The gifts that they gave him enabled him to make an escape to Egypt that he might survive Now someone once said if our greatest need had been information God would have sent us an educator if our greatest need had been technology God would have sent us a scientist if our greatest need had been money God would have sent us an economist if our greatest need had been pleasure God would have sent us an entertainer But our greatest need was forgiveness So God sent us the Savior and so we worship him These men that we refer to as wise men are the first people in the New Testament who are actually said to worship Jesus and As it's been said so many times and I'll say it as I close wise men still worship him