We Two Kings

David Poland

Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Sermon on the visit of the wisemen to infant Jesus.

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 94:1-15.

What a wonderful reminder, the Lord will not forsake his people!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 93.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

well, I will start here by saying that I missed you all. It was a nice time of visiting as I had the privilege of sharing at our sister church in Zionsville, last week, but this is home and I missed you guys and am glad to be back this morning.

Well this morning as we pick up again and continue, I don’t like to take breaks this early in a series, it makes it feel like we are starting in fits and starts, but this morning we are continuing through our series in the book of Matthew. Today our passage is Mathew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12, so if you have your bibles I would ask you turn there with me this morning. And this story, well it has portions of it that are very familiar with. We read it almost every Christmas. But I would argue that though we have heard it, we know and understand this passage not as well as we probably should. So as we have Christmas in October this year lets read about the visit of the wise men.

Matthew 2:1–12 ESV

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men 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.” 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 was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘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 Israel.’ ” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained 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 when it 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.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Lets PRAY

Well from this passage we get a very famous Christmas song. And so we seem to be starting this sermon with another episode you could say of “David doesn't like Christmas songs”… but I would like us together to think through the song: We Three Kings. And even just looking at this passage on which that song is based on a surface level we see that the song gets it wrong. and I see at least three different ways that this song gets it wrong.

For starters we three KINGS! these men were not kings. In the ESV it translates to “wise men” some translations “magi” which is a little bit of cheating because that is just a transliteration of the Greek word, some translations go with “astrologers” because it seems like that is what they are doing, trying to read the stars and ascertain things. but they indefinably not KINGS! these were men who probably served as advisors to kings, probably served in the courts of kings giving wisdom, insight, serving idols and reading the stars. these were certainly men of power and influence as noted by their ability to gain audience with Herod, but they were not kings. they were GENTILE (that will be important later) wise men.

Second, location. the song says “we three kings of orient are” and while we don’t have a more exact position than “east” it is safe to assume they are not from as far east as the orient. More likely they were from Persian or more particularly were from Babylon. Men who probably being from Babylon had in their lineage would have people who would have known Daniel and thus this would have been their introduction to the “king of the Jews”.

but finally we look to the number, three. We have no idea if there were three wise men who came. we don’t know the exact number. the number three comes from them bringing three gifts and from a whole extra biblical account where some even claim to know their names. but three gifts doesn't necessarily equal three men. there could have been tow where one guy brings gold the other guy brings frankincense and myrrh. there could have been 7 and in total, with this guy bringing some gold and this guy some more and this guy bringing the frankincense, etc. For all we know there were 30 and they all went split-sies on the three gifts… we don’t know if there were three kings.

So the song “we there kings” might get this passage wrong, but it gives us the start of a very interesting question to ask: well how many kings are there in this passage? and I submit to you today that this passage is about two kings.

The first king is King Jesus. the wise men come to Jerusalem to the place of Herod and they ask (in verse 2) where is the one who is born “king of the Jews.” Matthew here lays the groundwork for us seeing “king Jesus”. this phrase “king of the Jews” will only appear one other time in Matthew and we would have to flip to the very end, to the crucifixion to see it. and thus we see that Matthew is book-ending the entire life of Jesus with “king of the Jews”. this would have ben a title given him not by the Jews but given by the gentiles to title the Messiah. Jesus is the first king and the second is King Herod.

Matthew is intent to belabor the point that Herod was a king. Verse 1. and verse 3. and really in the scope of this whole passage Herod being King is of central and critical importance. and so what Matthew is juxtaposition for us is two kings, King Jesus and King Herod, and thus the ultimate question, to just spoil my entire sermon is going to be which king will you offer your allegiance and due honor and respect. Will it be king Herod or king jesus? a king made king by the titles of man, the works of man who held onto his power in mans ways or the king from heaven?

You might think this would be an easy decision, will you choose Herod or Jesus, especially if we lay it out like I just did, earthly king or high king of heaven. but it gets (you would think) even easier if you were to look at who exactly Herod was. So some historical thoughts: Most of us know what is going to happen in Matthew after this where Herod goes on an infanticide killing countless infant boys. but his whole life is marked by evil vile and despicable acts like that. He is known to have had some of his wives (plural) and sons (again plural) killed because they were plotting and conspiring against him. Herod who was so hated by the people, that before he died, as one sort of last hurrah of evil wicked awful king-ness he decreed that the day he died they would gather noble and important men in Jerusalem into one place and kill them all. He wanted to ensure that on the day he died there would be no rejoicing only crying. And the best way, in his mind, to do that was to murder loved and respected men. Herod was an Awful vile king.

Jesus is the high king of Heaven to whom all glory honor and praise is due. He is great in love abounding in steadfast love to us. he is our perfect savior. Kind. gentle. He is our king. It seems like this should be an easy decision and yet. as history has shown and just as we know to be true, it is not easy to choose to give your allegiance to king Jesus. Put simply it is because he requires everything of us. we must abandon our loves our desires all the things we cherish. W must forfeit those things in service of the king. and many people will not do that. they would rather have Herod than Jesus.

And so today what I would like to do is highlight in this passage is THREE RESPONSES TO THIS KING

Three Responses to King Jesus

three ways that we see people choosing to respond to this thought. We have to choose between king Herod and king Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon wrote this: The worlds Kingdom is opposed to that of our Lord: and wherever Christ be “born” [and by born he means literally born that's the story here, but he also means wherever Chrsit be proclaimed] there is sure to be a Herod in power.

The first response that I want us to note though is one that I honestly did not pick up the first few times I read through and studied through this passage. But then IT sort of started to dawn upon me and then i read one of my commentaries that really drew this out and I see it now as a critical and even heartbreaking portion of this passage. One of the first responses we see to King Jesus is that of INDIFFERENCE

INDIFFERENCE

The characters in this story that will be indifferent are the scribes and the chief priests. In our narrative the Wise me come and ask: where is the King of the Jews? and Herod is like whoa whoa whoa, there is a king of the Jews?!?! I didn’t know about that and we read that he is deeply troubled. and SO verse 4 he assembles all the chief priest of the people. He gets all the pharisees the Sadducee the scribes the leaders of the temple, probably the officers of the temple, the people most familiar with and most in tune with the scriptures and he says “I need to know where is the Christ, where is the Messiah the one that these wise men claim is King of the Jews, where is he going to be?” And they answer. Its clear in Scripture, this is not some secret, and we really thought you were going to ask us a difficult question. He will be born in Bethlehem.

And that is the total response of the scribes and chief priest, the Most learned me of Scripture in this whole narrative. they know that he is to be there they know that is where he comes from and yet they just don’t seem to care. We contrast this with the wisemen. They travel for miles and miles days months of time across dangerous deserts risking quite literally life and limb. There could be those who would seek to rob them. the roads were not a safe place from afar, o’er field and fountain moor and mountain. from the east they come to look for this king. and they make it all the way to Jerusalem and they ask the scribes and chief priests, the ones who were the most learned, the most knowledgeable and honestly the ones who should have cared MOST about the Messiah they ask: where is this king? And really they say, we know these here, we know we are close, we just need to know exactly where to find him. and they scribes and chief priests shrug and say, hes probably in Bethlehem. And then they go back to their study. Bethlehem to Jerusalem was not some long journey, it was but a days walk maybe its around 5 miles... yet these men cannot be bothered. they are indifferent to King Jesus.

Now when we hear that we immediately probably think, yeah there are those outside of the church that are indifferent to Jesus. And I would say that there may be a small percentage of people outside of the church that deal with him this way, but by and large the world is marked by our next point, we will get there. Instead I would say that indifference often makes those INSIDE the church.

there are a lot of people that don’t necessarily love king Jesus they love church. they don't necessarily love serve and are devoted to Jesus they love serve and are devoted to their tradition, their thoughts, and what brings them comfort. and so this indifference looks like: yeah I know all the verses, I know all this stuff, I've been there done that, and Got the t-shirt. But yet when a call comes to serve know and love King Jesus, one that is going to possibly have me give up my comfort, give up my preconceived Ideas, give up what I know and instead I will be forced to go out and be uncomfortable to share the Gospel, to spread his fame. Well, that's too hard. and so we have people, this is what I just preached on when I went to annual conference, Because dare I say that even pastors are guilty of this, we exchange the joy and hope of serving and loving and being devoted to king jesus for rote routine and comfort. for that which is ho-hum.

For those of you who do not know the reason I was gone last week Is I was in PA at the annual conference of the Bible Fellowship Church, the denomination of this church. And they asked me of all people, David, the one dude in New Mexico in the whole BFC of a little church in Las Cruces, they asked me to preach one of the times there, I was one of eight men they asked to preach and they asked me to preach on the letter to the church in Laodacia in Revelation. And not to give you the whole sermon, but to give you just the thought the premise of the sermon because I believe it resonates here in this passage.

I preached on the church in Laodiacia. so at the beginning of the book of Revelation, just so we are all on the same page, there are seven letters to seven churches. And in each of these letters there is a general form. there is an introduction of Jesus, then A good job on this church, bad job on that church, fix the bad, here’s your reward, and the tag line, he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Words of Jesus in Revelation.

and every single church as at least one thing that Jesus can praise them for. even the (up to the last one, Laodicia) ever church has even just a little something. The worst church in the first six is defiantly Sardis, and at least Jesus can say of them, hey, at least there are a few people that have clean names, have not been defiled by the world. faint praise but faith note the less. and then we get to the last church, the one they asked me to preach on the church of Laodiacia and they are wretched awful, jesus says: wretched pitiable poor blind and naked. Not one thing are they doing right.

and so we might begin to think: well then what is the great sin of this church what is making this church so bad. Maybe they have fallen into some sort of sexual impropriety. are they like Corinth or Galatians that have it real messed up where there is sexual sin abounding. nope. maybe it is idolatry, they have fallen into some crazy pagan idol worship. no. the sin of the church of laodiacia is this:

Revelation 3:15–17 ESV

“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

the sin of the church of laodicia was lukewarmness in one word, but in a different one is tis what we are talking about today, it is indifference. They should have known who Jesus was and yet they were indifferent to him and his calling. they lost their love their passion and their fervor for the Gospel and more particularly the person of Jesus Christ. and so they are marked by indifference.

To be indifferent to the great king, the high king of heaven who has come is a great tragedy, and dare I say that we find this often in the church. but we move on now to the next way that we could respond to king Jesus, our example here is Herod and he responds with ANTAGONISM.

ANTAGONISM

The wise me come to Herod and they say where is the king of the Jews. from the get to it is interesting that they would expect him to know. Herod who was the king in Jerusalem, and therefore in some sense might carry the title of King of the Jews so they are asking him: ‘hey, where is the guy that's gonna take your throne?” and Herod immediately verse 3 is troubled. so troubled that he calls everyone together the indifferent scribes and chief priests and he gets an answer. then it is interesting, in verse 7 we are given hints that something fishy is up. Next week we will talk about how vile and evil Herod is IN his antagonism. but even in seven we see that Herod is scheming, and he is going to set himself against King Jesus. Because he summons the wise men secretly to try and ascertain when the star appeared. So he is already starting to form his battle plan. Ok I need to know when this king showed up but come secretly.

Why is secretly important, well, this is some sanctified imagination, but possibly if everyone knew Herod was afraid that this king of the Jews would be able to garner some support. and so secretly I am going to go to the wise men and just ask, hey just so I know. He lies through his teeth, I want to be just like you, I want to go worship him, says this man who killed his own wives and sons. How long ago was he born, whats his name, tell me what you know, he is already planning how he will get this king. He sets himself in direct opposition to King Jesus.

Note here the hostility of the world. even now this is how the world reacts to Jesus. It is not just enough for Christians to “live peaceable lives as so far as it depends of you.” because the world hates king jesus. they have set them selves not just in an indifferent attitude, like “its OK well you believe Jesus, Ill not and well be OK” they are actively set against him. for he taught such vile and heinous things like that marriage is to be between a man and a woman, so we HATE him. Because this man taught that you must live a righteous life we hate him. Because he had the audacity to teach that sin would condemn you to hell he is an awful person. Even in his time it was: this man claims to be God, so crucify him!

the world sets itself against Jesus. So much so that if you read much of modern literature, which can be useful, but it can be a waste of your time. But there is a giant movement in the world, those who would look at the bible as just literature and do studies like comparative religions. they set out on a quest that they would describe and finding the “historical Jesus”.

and at fist blush to us that sounds good. the Jesus that existed in history that’s who we server and love. but in their mind what it meas to find the historical Jesus is to find a jesus that they create in their own hearts and minds. Gone is the supernatural, gone is the divine. gone are all the miracles. instead what we are left with is a bare bones outline of SOME of the things that jesus taught, but not the parts we don’t agree with. And they set, then their historical Jesus against the Jesus that truly existed in history, when God entered into creation. they set their “historical jesus” against the true Jesus the one proclaimed faithfully in the scriptures. so much so that those that claim to follow him follow only theirs and they set him in opposition to Jesus. they want a teacher they want a wise man they want a magi, like we read about in this passage they don't want the divine son of God the second person of the trinity who came to take away the sins of the world.

And so the world is antagonistic towards him. like Herod they scheme and plot, they seek to devise ways that they can usurp his authority. the world sets itself in antagonism towards Jesus that is the second option, but then, but then we have the example here of some sinners. Of some people that are engaged in practices that Scripture clearly prohibits. and yet the grace of God is able to reach them and their response to King Jesus is to WORSHIP

WORSHIP

Verse 2 they state their intentions clearly

Matthew 2:2 ESV

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.”

and then Matthew 2:11

Matthew 2:11 ESV

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.

Now a lot has been said about the uniqueness of these three gifts of the gold frankincense and myrrh, and if you would like to see what the tradition teaches these could symbolize, then come to Grace groups on Thursday. But ignoring that, the kind of prophetic work that is going on in these gifts, here what you NEED to understand in terms of Worship and what the wise men were doing is that this is a picture of extravagance. this is like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk (that may be a bit overstated, those are like the three richest guys in the world), coming to some lower middle class child and bringing gifts of Ferrari Rolex and French caviar. It is extravagance like no other that is being offered to this child. And we see in the wise men people who are willing to abandon all to bring to this king what he deserves.

Matthew Henry says this: “Those who live at the greatest distance from the means of grace often use most diligence, and learn to know the most of Christ and his salvation” I thought that was a fascinating thought because I believe it to be true. In america, and in american evangelical Christianity there is this sort of Phenomenon. We as preachers fight against more often than not people who know but don’t seem to care, this thought of indifference that we talked about before. and yet when you see and hear of missionaries going afar and you read accounts of missionaries that are the first to bring the hope of the Gospel to the far world, it is often accompanied by yes the antagonism and hostility we noted, but also there is a miraculous unveiling when those who have never ear the gospel hear it afresh they are astounded and filled with awe and wonder.

and so what I would encourage us, is that those of us who have read this story some thousand times, we who every Christmas we hear this same story of the visit of the wise men, and we set up our little nativity sets and we make sure we have the three dudes with their little camels and three little boxes, lets make sure we understand that what is being said here, and then in that picture is that King Jesus is worthy of our worship.

As I was thinking about this i had a realization. I started with an example of a Christmas carol that many of us assume is biblical but that misses the mark just a little bit with “we three kings”. But as I contemplated this point I was reminded of another carol that is surely “extra-biblical” this story does not happen in scripture and yet the truth that it proclaims, well, it is right inline with this message. that is the Little drummer boy.

We have no account anywhere in Scripture of some young child who played thy drums being asked to bring a present to king Jesus. But in this song, it is almost a lament that this young drummer boy has no gift rich and good enough to bring to the king. and so he brings the only thing he has, the only thing he knows, he brings his playing, his “rum pum pum pum”. Might I submit that is an adequate representation of what we should do in response to this story.

We might not have the greatest means, we might not be the most wise the most eloquent, we might not be the most talented the most well learned, we may not always have all the right answers, we might not have very much to bring before the king BUT Scripture commands and the authority and kingship of Jesus DEMANDS that we bring him everything to honor him.

May our lives be a testimony of worship as we bring our hearts, our souls, our lives, our everything in honor and in service to King Jesus. Lets Pray.