About this sermon
Wise men from the East come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn King of the Jews, and Herod, troubled, pretends he wants to worship too. The chief priests point to Micah’s prophecy of Bethlehem, and the star leads the magi to the child, where they fall down, worship him, and offer gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Scripture never says they were kings or that there were three. Everyone serves either King Jesus or the usurper, and wise men and women still seek Christ in his word.
Sermon transcript
Matthew’s record of the visit of the wise men. Let us hear God’s holy word, Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Behold, wise came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them, Where the Christ They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophets, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people.
When Herod summoned the wise men secretly, he obtained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen before them rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Almighty God, in this very familiar passage of Holy Scripture, we pray that you would grant us new insight and that you would help us to see afresh the wisdom and the insight and portion of Holy Scripture. We would ask that you would give me strength and grace to speak forth your word with clarity and power. We pray that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word, for the glory of your name and the building up of your people. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would grant us eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. We will return on the next Lord’s Day to the Foundations of Faith series, but for today I thought it would be important to consider this vital passage of God’s Word because it does record for us a very significant event in redemptive history. The title of my sermon today is Herod, the Wise Men, and the King of the Jews. And there’s three key words that the children can listen for today, the words king, magi, and messiah. Well, dear friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, we read a story that is very familiar, namely Matthew’s account of the wise men or magi visiting the newborn king, Jesus of Nazareth. But like many other stories that we have heard often, this is a story that we have heard so often that we can tend to gloss over its details.
We can tend to miss the deep truths of God that we are meant to learn from this amazing historical account. You’ve heard the saying that familiarity breeds contempt. Well, in the case of scripture, familiarity does not necessarily breed contempt, but it can certainly tempt us to tune out and not listen carefully because we assume that, hey, we’ve already heard this before, we know what it says, and so. we don’t really need to pay much attention. But my dear Christian friends, I want to challenge and encourage us this morning to consider this passage of God’s holy word as if we are hearing it for the very first time. For this passage of scripture has a great deal to teach us about the ways of God with sinful man. And in particular, this passage marks a marvelous event in redemptive history, an event which anticipates greater things yet to come.
Now let’s consider the context. Jesus had already been born in Bethlehem sometime before the visit of the wise men. Contrary to the way that it is often depicted in traditional manger scenes, when the wise men came to visit, Joseph and Mary were no longer in the stable or shelter for animals where Jesus had been born. Instead, they’re now living in a house If you skip ahead to verse 11, we are told that explicitly. It says in verse 11, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Now remember that Joseph and Mary resided in Nazareth, but they had to travel to Bethlehem to be registered in the census. And apparently after they were registered, they stuck around in Bethlehem for a time, possibly for up to two years, because remember when Herod sends out the troops to slaughter the innocents in Bethlehem, What did he say?
Kill every male child from two years old and under. So we can assume that Jesus was somewhere between the time of birth and two years of age. In any case, Though Matthew’s Gospel has been often described as the most Jewish of the four Gospels because of Matthew’s emphasis on how Jesus had fulfilled Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Nonetheless, here in this passage, friends, we find Matthew towards the very beginning of his Gospel account describing a visit that the Lord Jesus had received from a group of important Gentile officials. Gentile officials who came from a distant land. Gentiles who had come to honor the Lord Jesus as the newborn King of the Jews. As we read these magi or wise men as they come to Jerusalem, which would be the city of the King Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Friends, this passage pulsates with redemptive historical significance. It highlights the royalty of Jesus as the newborn Messiah and King. It also underscores that while it is proper in one sense to call king of the Jews, for indeed he is the king of the Jews. His royal kingship is not limited to the Jews. For even Gentiles from distant lands come to give him their homage and allegiance. So the visit participates the gathering of the Gentiles into God’s kingdom and in gathering that takes place in this new covenant age as both Jews and Gentiles throughout the earth come to trust in Jesus Christ as their very own Lord and Savior and are saved and brought into God’s kingdom through the evangelistic efforts of Christ’s Church.
Now as we dive into our passage for the focus on the first six verses of our passage. And in this opening section of chapter two, I want us to, first of all, consider a contrast that is presented to us between two kings. That’s the first main point in your sermon. Let us consider a contrast between two kings. A contrast between two kings. And let me just go through this passage and make some comments. It says, after Jesus was born, We read of the birth of Jesus in the closing section of chapter one, where the angel had revealed that Jesus was to be born of the Virgin Mary, and he was to be named Jesus. He was to be called Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. And so again, the setting is after the birth of Jesus. in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, we’ll talk about Herod in a moment, behold, that means pay attention, this is important, wise men or magi from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who is the king of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. and we’ll get into the issue of what is this star and who were these wise men. We’ll get into those issues in a few moments. But let’s first of all dive into the question of who is this King Herod. Who is this King that is being spoken of here in verse 1? He is described as Herod the King. In fact, Herod was himself regarded in the Roman Empire as the King of the Jews at that time and thus one of the reasons why Herod feels threatened by this announcement that a king of the Jews has been born and the wise men are searching for this king of the Jews who would obviously replace King Herod. Who was King Herod? Dr. D.A.
Carson in his commentary He says Herod the Great, as he is now called, was born in 73 B.C. and was named King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 40 B.C. By 37 B.C. he had crushed with the help of Roman forces all opposition to his rule. son of the Idumean Antipater, he was wealthy, politically gifted, intensely loyal, an excellent administrator, and clever enough to remain in the good graces of successive Roman emperors. So he was a polished and he was a gifted politician and administrator. But his character was another story. Carson goes on to say of Herod that his famine relief was superb and his building projects, including the temple begun in 20 BC, admired even by his foes, but he loved power, inflicted incredibly heavy taxes on the people, and resented the fact that many Jews considered him a usurper.
In his last years, suffering an illness that compounded his paranoia, he turned to cruelty, and in fits of rage and jealousy, killed close associates, his wife, Mary Amni, of Jewish descent from the Maccabeans, and at least two of his sons. So Herod the Great was not an easy man. In fact, his cruelty is seen in how he reacted when the wise men went back to their country by a different route and thus did not provide Herod with the information that he wanted. We see in this account that when Herod hears this, in his view, disturbing news from these wise men, these magi from the east, you know, where is he who has been born King of the Jews, what does Herod do? He sends them out, he gets the priests together to give him information about where the Messiah would be born and they quoted from the passage in Micah chapter The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea.
And it says in verse 7, Herod secretly and ascertained from them what time and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. Oh, doesn’t Herod sound so pious here? I want to worship him. Bring me word. But we know that his, what His real intentions were to kill the Lord Jesus, to snuff him out in order to hold on to his power as the king of the Jews. Again, his cruelty is seen in how he by a different route, and thus did not provide Herod with the information he wanted. It says in verse 12, and how does Herod react to that? We’ll skip down to verses 16. Let me read verses 16 through 18.
It says, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Again, Herod is acting in character based on what we know about him from other historical accounts as well. Herod is certainly acting in character here when he sends out these forces to slaughter the innocents. And this is done in fulfillment of prophecy. It says in verse 17, then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. What do we learn as we contrast these two kings of the Jews, if you will, as we contrast the identities of Jesus and Herod?
We see a sharp contrast. Consider Jesus. Jesus is revealed in Scripture as, of course, the divine Son of God, the messianic king from the line of David, Great David’s greater son, as predicted by the Old Testament prophets. On the other hand, we have Herod. Herod was but a puppet king of the Roman Empire, and by his fruits he showed himself not to be God, but a child and servant of the devil, as shown by the fruits of his life. few contrasts could be more sharp than the contrast between the Lord Jesus Christ and Herod the Great. We also see a sharp contrast in their characters. Herod, as this passage of scripture and as other historical records bear witness, Herod was a cruel, deceptive, hypocritical, violent, unjust, evil king. But Jesus, on the other hand, is the peaceful King.
He is indeed the Prince of Peace. He is a Savior who is gentle to sinners. He is just. He is righteous. He is truthful. In fact, Jesus is the living truth. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by me. Dear friends, ultimately Herod was a servant and representative of Satan, the arch enemy of Christ. In a very real sense, Satan was the spiritual king behind King Herod. So which king will you serve? Everybody’s gotta serve somebody. We were created to serve because we were created in the image of God. But who are you gonna serve? Will you serve Jesus Christ, King of the Jews and King of Kings, or will you serve Satan, the pseudo-king that animated the likes of Herod the Great? There are no other choices.
You’re either a servant of King Jesus, or you’re a servant of the pseudo-king, Satan. But next, let’s consider the identity and the significance of the Magi, described here in the English Standard Version, or translated as wise men from the East. Who were these wise men? And you might say, well, that’s easy, Pastor. Doesn’t it say in that wonderful Christmas hymn, we three kings of Orient are? Well, I hope I don’t step on any toes this morning. It is far from certain that these men were kings. And furthermore, we don’t know how many there were. You say, well, wait a minute. The hymn says we three kings of Orient are. The Bible doesn’t say how many they were. They might have been three. They might have been 33. We don’t know. Well, who are they? It says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men are magi from the east. came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. This reference to them seeing a star has suggested to some commentators that these men were perhaps astrologers. And whether they were astrologers in the occultic sense of astrology, or more in the sense of students of the sky, can be debated, but some have suggested that they were astrologers. And what is this star that is referenced? It seems to be a rather unusual star. It seems to be a star that kind of moves. Some have suggested various astronomical phenomenon have been suggested to explain this star. Others, I that this star was actually what theologians have called a theophany, a visible representation or manifestation of God’s special presence, his saving presence. We see multiple, many theophanies revealed in the scripture. For example, the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night that attended the Israelites, them through the wilderness and to the promised land and so forth.
Perhaps it was some supernatural sign that looked like a star but was actually something of a more supernatural nature. But here’s where we have to be careful. It’s very easy to get We’re not told in great detail who these magi were. We need to accept what they say and not go beyond what is written. So I would warn us against overmuch speculation. But in terms of the Magi, as one commentator has written, the Magi were not kings, according to this commentator, but priests or court advisors, such as Joseph or Daniel. They were probably from Mesopotamia, the region of ancient Babylon, although other locations east of Palestine have been suggested. There are numerous accounts of ancient astrologers interpreting astronomical phenomena as heralding the birth of kings. And so again, that may not answer all of our questions, but I think it gives us a framework for understanding.
These were important figures, perhaps court officials or priests from a different land, and they came from afar. They came from the east, and they came because they saw the star of the King of the Jews. What is the significance of this? First of all, let me just say that Matthew probably got this account, very likely, from Mary, from Joseph and Mary, or at least Mary. And so this we can take, this account we should take as a historical account and not as theological fiction as the liberals would have us believe. The visit of the Magi, what was its significance? Well, the visit of the Magi is an initial fulfillment of Old Testament anticipations that the Gentiles would render worship and allegiance to the true God and to his Messiah. These magi, again, whoever they were, They came from afar seeking Jesus, seeking the King of the Jews.
And what did they do when they finally found him, when they finally saw the place where the star rested and pointed them to his location? It says, verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Their treasures, and these treasures, by the way, would have been of great financial help to Mary and Joseph and their young family, opening their treasures. They offered him gifts, three gifts are mentioned, and that’s probably where we got the idea of we three kings of Orient are from the three gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And it says that they worshipped him They fell down and worshiped him. They gave him honor and glory. Now we can debate about how accurately did they understand about our Lord’s deity?
Was this worship religious worship or just simply the showing of honor? But the point is, I actually did offer Jesus worship as a God, as the God King. the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. But nonetheless, this is anticipated in the Old Testament scriptures. in the Old Testament that predict that there will come a time in the latter days, in the messianic age, when people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation will come and worship the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the true and living God. And just to give you a couple passages that anticipate the very actions of these magi. Let’s turn, for example, to Psalm 72, and let me read and briefly comment on Psalm 72, verses 10 and 11, as we compare scripture with scripture. Psalm 72, verses 10 and 11.
Again, this is a messianic psalm. It says, may the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. Render who tribute? The messianic king, great David’s greater son. Render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. The spirit of prophecy here in this passage points forward to a time in redemptive history when people from all the nations will come and worship the true and living God. Or consider Isaiah chapter 60, verses three through six. Isaiah chapter 60, verses three through six. We could consider many other passages, but I just wanna give you a few here. Let me start at verse one. In Isaiah chapter 60, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations, not just the nation of Israel, not just the Jews, but nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together. They come to you, your son. far, and your daughter shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nation shall come to you. A multitude,” notice especially verse six, “‘A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring,” what? They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. Beloved, based on passages like this, I believe that it is right and correct to say that the visit of the wise men anticipates the gathering of the Gentile nations into God’s kingdom under the new covenant that Jesus the Messiah came to this earth to ratify by his precious blood. And I imagine that most of us, if not all of us gathered here today are of Gentile stock, of Gentile background. We who are Gentile believers in Christ, we are part of that great in-gathering which the visit of the wise men anticipates. And dear listener, let me again ask you, has the Lord gathered you into his kingdom? Have you by sovereign grace come to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth As the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One, the Word made flesh, have you come to acknowledge Him and trust in Him as Lord and Savior?
God calls you to Christ this day. Psalm 2 calls upon all the kings of the earth, by implication, all who are subject to them, to kiss the Son lest He be angry. Come to Jesus in repentance and faith. Trust in Him as your very own Lord and Savior. And the Word of God says, you shall be saved. In closing, friends, people of God, like the wise men of old, let us give our allegiance and our worship to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us give our allegiance and our worship in the new year and at all times to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Perhaps you’ve heard that saying, wise men still seek Him. It’s almost become a cliche, but you know, sometimes cliches have at least an element of truth in it, and that saying has more than just an element of truth.
Wise men indeed still seek Him. The wise men, the magi that we read of in our passage for today, they sought the Lord from a distant country. They were Gentiles from a far country who were outside of the covenant people of God and who had limited knowledge of and limited access to the revealed truth of God. But they used well, by the grace of God, they used well the little light that they had been given. And they sought the messianic king, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, the king of kings. Have you sought the savior? Maybe metaphorically speaking, you have dwelt in a far country for a long time. even if it’s been a long time, and even if you have lived in a far country, far away from fellowship with God, far away from fellowship with his church, your past neglect is no excuse to continue that neglect.
Remember that our gracious Heavenly Father delights in welcoming home repentant prodigals who turn back to Him. And remember that our Savior is gentle to those, He is gentle and kind to those who acknowledge their need and turn to Him. Jesus has come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The wise men from the East were willing to take a long and arduous journey to seek the newborn King. The only journey that you and I have to take is to open up the pages of the Word of God and to sit under the reading and faithful preaching of God’s Word. Let us show ourselves to be wise men and women, wise boys and girls by seeking Him. And let us remember our Savior’s promise. Jesus, in Matthew 7, said, ask, and it will be given you.
Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Again, dear friends, as the saying goes, wise men still seek Him. May you and I seek him truly and seek him today. May we make it our goal in 2024 to seek the Lord with greater earnestness and resolve. And as he promised to all who truly seek him, may you find him and in finding him, may you find that forgiveness and salvation and life eternal that only he can give as a gift of his sovereign, omnipotent grace. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we would pray that by your spirit, you would take these truths and drive them home to our hearts.
We have heard things today, perhaps Lord, that we’ve heard many times, but we pray that once again, you would grant us fresh ears that what we have heard would take deep root in our hearts and bear spiritual fruit unto salvation and sanctification in our lives. We would ask, Lord, that you would give us a greater desire, a greater hunger and thirst to seek the Savior, to seek to know Him better, to trust Him more, to follow Him with greater zeal in the new year and always. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said.
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