Please open your Bibles to Matthew 2:1-12 which we will read in a few minutes.
Do you love the Christmas story? Not the story about the Grinch or Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer or even The Miracle on 34th Street, but the story of the Son of God.
The story that is the fulfillment of prophecies made centuries before the birth of Jesus.
The story of those very prophecies being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
The story of the incarnation, the Son of God becoming the Son of Man.
Not just taking on the form of a human but actually becoming human while still remaining fully God.
This is just another “incomprehensible” aspect of God.
Like the incomprehensible Trinity; One God in Three Persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three and yet one.
And, so, in the incarnation, we are given yet another incomprehensible fact; that the Son of God became 100% human as the Son of Man while still remaining 100% God as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the Triune Godhead.
And how did this happen?
It happened when Jesus was born of a virgin over 2,000 years ago.
Today we’re going to look at a few of the events surrounding the incarnation of Jesus and we will try to draw some conclusions about the people involved.
With that in mind lets go ahead and read Matthew 2:1-12.
When we think about the story of the Magi that is within the story of Jesus’ birth what do we usually focus on?
Where was the star?
What was the star?
Was it a conjunction of planets?
Was it some star that the Lord created for just this time and then it died?
Was it some supernatural phenomenon that was guided by the Lord?
Why did the Magi follow it in a general sense before they came to Jerusalem?
How did it change when they came to Bethlehem so that it pointed to the exact house where Jesus was?
What else do we think about?
The Magi …
How many were there really?
What country did they come from?
How did they know what the star meant?
How long did the journey take?
Why did they choose to bring gold, frankincense and myrrh?
But to me, this is the amazing part of the story within the story:
Matthew 2:11a NIV
“On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him …”
Wow! Here are men of great wisdom, wealth and most likely, power. They have been to see King Herod. They did not bow down to King Herod. They did not worship King Herod. They just stopped in at the palace to ask directions; like Herod’s palace was some kind of information desk.
But after they ask directions from the King who got the answers from his underlings they go outside and they see the star and this star goes and stops right over a specific little house in the unremarkable village of Bethlehem and when they go inside they see the Child and the bow down to the ground and worship Him.
These Magi must have found the information about the star in the ancient Scriptures which we call the Old Testament and these ancient Scriptures were most likely taken to their land during one of the periods when the Israelites were taken away in captivity to Assyria or Babylon or Persia. Wow!
And so when the star arose they looked into the Scriptures and pursued the One whom the Scriptures were about and worshiped Him!!!
------------------------------------------------------------
In another story within the story of the birth of Jesus; Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man and in this story we see angels announcing the birth to shepherds!
Shepherds! Despised shepherds; the worst of the worst and the least of the least.
Shepherds had absolutely NO social standing but the Lord God Almighty sends His angels to them to announce the birth of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ!
Now, this was NOT something that happened every night out in the sheep fields.
I love how the KJV says, “They were sore afraid”!
Does that mean that they were so afraid that he caused physical pain?
And, the Youngs Literal Translations says it this way, “The feared a great fear”!
Luke 2:10-14 says,
“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a Baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’
“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.’”
Now, the shepherds may have been despised but I would bet that they all knew that King David, who was one of the most revered kings in the history of Israel had grown up as a shepherd boy and that the Messiah would come through the line of David.
So, what did they say? “Well, that was cool. I hope they come up with a better show next year!”
No! They said, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they go and they find everything exactly as the angel had told them.
Now the Bible doesn’t say explicitly that the shepherds worshiped Jesus but I can only think about what I would do and if an angel told me that the Messiah had been born and then a heavenly host proclaimed glory to God and then I found everything just as they had said I think I just might worship this little baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger!
---------------------------------------------------------
On a side note …
Do you know that theologians have bandwagons? They do.
And one of the most recent bandwagons of popular theologians is that Jesus was not born in a stable.
Their logic goes like this: Joseph was from the house and the linage of David making Bethlehem his “home town”. And based on that information they say that he must have had family there who would have taken them in.
They go on to say that the lower level of a home at that time did not contain the sleeping quarters but contained an area where the family animals could be brought in for the night and so there would be a manger there.
Now, Joseph’s family could have been away from Bethlehem for literally generations.
And, even if there were mangers in some of the lower level of some homes of that time how would the shepherds have gotten into the home to check for that baby Jesus?
Did they just go from house to house asking, “Did anyone have a baby here tonight and if so did you put Him in the manger?”
Of course not. Where could shepherds go and be unnoticed? Stables and caves used as stables.
Do you ever wonder why modern theologians do things like that?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, back to the stories within the story of Jesus birth …
We know that the Magi bowed down to the ground and worshiped the Child.
We know that the shepherds tracked down the newborn Messiah and glorified God by telling everyone they could find about what had happened.
So, who else worshiped the Lord? Well, this story within the story doesn’t take place until eight days after the birth of Jesus.
In Luke chapter 2 we see two people, Simeon, a common man who was righteous and devout. There is absolutely no indication that he was a priest or a rabbi or a Pharisee or a Sadducee or a scribe or anyone important, but, he was important to the Lord for the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that “he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.”
And in Simeon’s prophecies we can hear his heart of worship for the Lord and for Jesus the Messiah.
In this same story within the story of the birth of Jesus we see Anna, an aged widow prophetess who demonstrated her worship for Jesus just as the shepherds had done by the declaration of her words.
--------------------------------------------------
One last story within the story of Jesus’ birth …
Who was the first person to worship Jesus?
Do you remember that Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Mary went to visit her? Mary was just pregnant by the Holy Spirit when she went to visit Eilizabeth.
What happened when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice?
Luke 1:41 says, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the Baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Was that actual worship? I don’t know but when we come into the presence of Jesus we should be “leaping in our hearts” with worship for Him as well!
--------------------------------------------------
So, what can we learn from these stories within the story of the birth of Jesus?
When we encounter Jesus, I mean really encounter Jesus, the result will be worship; genuine heart-felt worship!
What else can we learn from these stories within the story of the birth of Jesus?
Well, one thing that is blatantly obvious is that you can miss what is blatantly obvious!
The Magi go to the palace of King Herod, Herod calls in all of his spiritual advisors who answer the question of the Magi, and, they answer it quite correctly!
You would think they’d be jumping up and down with excitement, just desperate to go with them to find the Christ Child. Did they? No. Herod actually wanted to kill the baby!
What about the people of Bethlehem? They hear this fantastic story from the shepherds about angels and the birth of the Messiah right there in their town.
What do they say? Do they say, “Show me where He is?”
As far as we know, no one from Bethlehem went to find the Baby Jesus.
What about all the others at the temple when Jesus was taken to be presented to the Lord as the first born male? Common Simeon and old Anna are praising the Lord and speaking of the Lord’s Messiah to everyone who will listen.
Did anyone listen? No. It seems they all missed it completely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s the thing, there are Magi and shepherds and Simeon’s and Anna’s among us.
Those who truly recognize and worship Jesus the Lord’s Messiah and who faithfully tell others about Him.
And there are those who hear the words of the Magi’s and the shepherds and the Simeon’s and the Anna’s and they just go on with their lives ignoring the miracle of the birth of Jesus. Ignoring the miracle of a new birth that comes through salvation by faith in Jesus alone.
There are some of both in this church right now.
There are some who if someone in their family did not insist on them attending church would soon become one of those who only attend church on Easter and Christmas. And, soon, even that would probably fade away.
No urge to rush to Jesus and bow before Him.
No desire to tell others about the miracle of the new birth when you come to faith in Jesus.
Just a spiritual deadness inside; only filled with the desire for the things of this world.
Just recently our cat stopped eating for a day or two. We thought she might be dying.
We don’t know how old she is. She’s been a good cat but when a cat doesn’t eat it is not a good sign. No desire for life sustaining food and water.
She’s OK by the way …
But lacking a desire to eat is a sign of poor health.
In the same way a person who has no desire for worship is spiritually sick.
A person who has no desire for worshiping the Lord is either spiritually dead or spiritually very ill and maybe spiritually dying.
We all know the greatest commandment, right? (Matthew 22:37-40) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might and with all your strength, right?
When you love someone completely you have no problem wanting to be with them and to spend time with them.
The desire to be in God’s house worshiping is obvious in the lives of those who truly love the Lord with all of their heart!
Here’s a fact. If you don’t love the Lord enough to have an unquenchable desire to worship Him and if you detest being around the people of God you’re gonna hate heaven and probably won’t end up there!
So, what are you?
Are you a worshipper like the Magi or are you like one Herod’s spiritual advisors who couldn’t bother going to Bethlehem to see if the Christ Child was there?
Are you a worshipper like the shepherds who went and searched until they found the Child just as the angel had said or are you like one of the residents of Bethlehem who couldn’t be bothered with seeing if what these worthless shepherds were saying was true?
Are you a worshipper like Simeon or Anna who were praising God for the arrival of the Lord’s Messiah or are you like one of the priests who just went on offering the daily sacrifices while ignoring the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world?
Look deep into your heart. Which are you?
And the answer to which any one of us is, is dependent on who Jesus is to us?
Is He the Son of God who shed His blood so that you could be forgiven of your sin and have a relationship with Him, a relationship where He will be your God and you will be His son or daughter?
Or is He just a thought in the back of your mind, like the life jacket on a ship; you know it’s there and you’ll grab it when and if you need it but until then it can stay where it is?
In conclusion, I’d like us to sing the old Christmas Hymn, What Child Is This and ask yourself, “What is Jesus to me?”
Is He the King of my life, my Savior or just some irritation that I need to put up with?
What Child is This? (as an invitation song)
