Wise Men’s Delight - Part B

Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Whatever sort of wise men they were before, they're really wise now because they bowed down and they worshiped Jesus. I believe, my belief, these aren't just Gentiles, these are God-fearing Gentiles. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, we'll hear the conclusion of Skip's message, Wise Men's Delight, and learn more about these strange men who came seeking Jesus. Stay with us. Now, here's more about this month's resource package that brings you inspiring teaching to deepen your faith and understanding of Scripture.

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Call 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com. Now, let's turn to Matthew 2 as Skip begins today's teaching. When these guys show up in Jerusalem and Herod, who works for Rome, by the way, remember, Caesar Octavian was renamed Caesar Augustus by the Roman Senate, and Caesar Augustus was also called by the Roman Senate the savior of the world. So when these guys show up looking for a Jewish-born king of the Jews rivaling Rome, that's how Herod sees it, he thinks of one thing, I gotta kill him.

I gotta kill him. Now let's consider their astronomy. They're following a star, we are told in verse 2. Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.

Get down to verse 7. Herod, when he secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go 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. Such a rat.

Such a rat. And when they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. Apparently the star led them to Jerusalem, and then it disappeared for a few days.

They went to meet with Herod, then they go outside one night. There it is again, because in verse 10, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. Now what is this star? What is this thing in the sky that they see? What is it exactly?

Well, take your pick. There's lots of theories about this, and I always marvel every Christmas season, you can count on National Geographic Channel coming up with yet another theory. We know now what the Bethlehem star was. There's just so much talk about what that was. Nobody really knows what it is. I have books and commentaries, and there's a lot of ink has been spent, and things have been written guessing what it might be. Alfred Edersheim, the Jewish scholar said, perhaps a conjunction of planets, Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces.

Eh, maybe. Others say a supernova, that is a star that explodes in amidst light for weeks, even months. Or others say a comet in the Earth's rotation. Others say a low-hanging luminous meteor in the night sky. Honestly, I don't care. I don't care what it was. I mean, I hear all this arguing, what is the star?

What could it be? We have to discover. Listen, listen, listen. God became an embryo. That's the news. The embryo grew into a fetus, and he was born in Bethlehem. God in human flesh. Don't care about the star. What I care about, and what's important to the story, is that a king has been born who is God and born who is God in human flesh, and even Gentile kingmakers knew that.

That's the intent. That's why Matthew includes it. Whatever it was, it was something unusual, because if you'll notice in verse 2, they don't say, we have seen a star, or we have seen the star.

We have seen his star, his star. It indicates it's something very unusual. It must have been unusual to motivate them to travel 500 miles from Parthia to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem. What exactly it was is, again, inconsequential. The point is, even Gentiles, foreigners, knew of his birth.

And here's my guess, just a guess. If it's anything supernatural, and that's what it is, it's supernatural, it's miraculous, I think it was the Shekinah glory of God. It's what we have in the Scripture that led the children of Israel through the wilderness. They could actually see the glory of God. It showed up as a pillar of fire at night, led them for 40 years in the wilderness. And the glory of God shown around the shepherds, it was something luminous. The prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of God, like a light form, leave the temple, and he could see it travel from the threshold of the temple to the eastern gate, from the eastern gate to the Mount of Olives, and then disappear. So it's something that you could see that traveled and moved and shown.

So if it's anything that fits the description I read here, it would be that. So the Magi had been in Babylon for years, for generations, for centuries. They had previously come in contact with Daniel, who made them aware of Jewish prophecy. Not just Jewish prophecy, but in particular messianic prophecy. Remember it was Daniel who was given the information about Messiah the Prince. Those are Daniel's words, Messiah the Prince. And he wrote in Daniel 9, Messiah the Prince. It was Daniel who in chapter 7 had a vision of the Son of Man, and the Son of Man goes to the Ancient of Days, and the Son of Man is given an everlasting kingdom.

That came to Daniel. It was Daniel who interpreted the dream that everybody, including all the Magi, knew about. Daniel interpreted the dream of the king as there's going to be a series of kingdoms.

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and eventually a king is coming whose reign will be over the entire earth. All of that came through Daniel the prophet. So Daniel, as well as other Jews living there, had influence on the expectation of the Magi, probably even sharing other Old Testament scriptures. Imagine Daniel, for example, sharing this with the ancient Magi. Numbers 24, 17, 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. Or Isaiah 9, verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, on them a great light has shined. Or Isaiah 60, verse 3, the Gentiles shall come to your light. These men were Gentiles and kings to the brightness of your rising. I'm guessing that those scriptures, along with what Daniel talked about, just kept their senses heightened. And when that appeared in the sky, they said, boys, this is it.

Let's take that trip. That was their astronomy. Now let's finish out the story in what I consider is really the best part, and that is their humility. Verse 9, 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. This is, again, why I think it wasn't a comet or a meteor or a supernova, because they don't like stop over houses.

I don't know where you live in town, but you might look up at the North Star or the Milky Way or Pleiades or whatever you're looking at. It's not like over just your house, right? I mean, it's everywhere. So this is something very, very singular. And I love verse 10. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. I just love the way that is worded. It could have just said they were happy or they were joyful or they rejoiced. But no, they rejoiced, and not just with joy, but exceedingly great joy. My translation, they were stoked. They were stoked. This wasn't just, yeah, that's nice. Wow. Yeah, yoo-hoo.

Exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary. By the way, when Matthew writes about Mary, it's always he mentions Jesus first.

It's because He's the focus, and these guys don't worship Her, they worship Him. So it's the child with Mary, His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Whatever sort of wise men they were before, they're really wise now because they bowed down and they worshiped Jesus.

I believe, my belief, these aren't just Gentiles, these are God-fearing Gentiles, and that when they looked down and they saw that child, it's protocol to bow before a king. But the word for worship is proskuneo, and it's always a word that refers to something you do to God, God alone. Jesus said to Satan, you shall worship the Lord your God, Him only shall you serve. The worship proskuneo, worship only God. When John in the book of Revelation tried to worship an angel, proskuneo an angel, the angel said, don't proskuneo me, baby.

Proskuneo, God alone. It's reserved only for God. So they bowed down, they worshiped this child because I think they looked and said, this is the Messiah Daniel spoke about.

We've been waiting for this ever since that time. So they gave him gifts, and we know them well, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold makes sense. He's a king. These are king makers.

They recognized the king, and this is the king of kings. Something else that I think was helpful, Joseph and Mary were poor. They were so poor that when Mary goes to the temple to get purified, the standard offering a Jewish couple brings is a lamb. But if you couldn't afford a lamb, there was a stipulation in the law you could bring a bird, you could bring a turtle dove.

And so they brought a dove for her purification, which indicates they were so poor they couldn't afford the standard offering for the purification. Keep in mind, he has quit his job in Nazareth. He has traveled all the way down to Bethlehem. The baby has been born. Jesus has been presented in the temple.

All that time has elapsed. Still no job from Nazareth. Maybe he had piecemeal work while he was in Bethlehem. Plus, they're about to take a trip all the way to Egypt, very costly to travel.

They were there for a couple years, probably before they went back to Nazareth. So what sustained them financially for that trip? This, the gold that was given, would be used to fund the trip to Egypt and to escape Herod's wrath.

So they gave gold. And second, they gave frankincense, very expensive, very aromatic, a fragrance from the east. There's a certain tree in Arabia that when you cut the bark, a white resin pours out that dries and crystallizes, and it emits a beautiful odor only when crushed. Only when crushed. Isaiah would say he was crushed for our iniquities. He was bruised for our sins. Frankincense is what the priest would use in giving the meal offering.

Jesus is not just a king, but he is our great high priest. The third gift is the gift of myrrh, which is like the odd gift. You know, it's the gift from your weird uncle at Christmas. You go, huh, yeah, you really missed on that one.

But thanks, uncle. You know, it's like, hmm. It's an aromatic, beautiful smelling substance, myrrh is, but at the time of Christ, it was used principally for two reasons. Number one, as an anesthetic for great pain, they tried to give it to Jesus. They mixed it with wine, tried to give it to him on the cross.

He wouldn't take it. And second, it was used when you die to take the stench of the corrupting body away. Jesus was buried with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, the Scripture tells us.

So, important stuff, but weird for a baby. It's like, yeah, thanks for the embalming fluid. See ya. Unless you realize that predicted where he was going. You will call his name Jesus, the angel said to Joseph and Mary, for he will save his people from their sins. How would he do that?

How would he do that? Death. Let me throw something else out at you, just for fun. The rabbis associated myrrh with death, but not just death. The rabbis associated the substance of myrrh with sacrificial death, sacrificial death. The rabbis connected the term myrrh with a particular mountain not far away. Because the Hebrew word for myrrh is mor, M-O-R we would say, or we would spell in English, mor. And so, the rabbis associated Abraham giving his son on Mount Moriah. So, myrrh to a rabbinic scholar at that time spoke of sacrificial death.

So, gold, frankincense, myrrh. And that is why at Christmas time we make it a point that you understand we just do not celebrate a baby born in Bethlehem. And yay, say hi to the baby.

Isn't the baby cute? The baby came to die. The baby came to grow up and make claims upon people. The baby came to come into the world and say, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

The baby was born to die on a cruel cross for the sins of you and I to save us. There's a story about a mom. She's shopping at Christmas time with her kids. It's hectic. She's feeling pressure. Hours of looking at toys, hours of hearing her kids ask for every toy they have seen, feeling overwhelmed.

Plus, she's thinking all the Christmas parties I have to attend and did I buy the right gift for the right person, all that. She gets on an elevator packed full of people. She's just at the brink and she blurts out, whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up, and shot.

That's a frustrated mom. From the back of the elevator, a calm voice said, don't worry, we've already done that. We crucified him. Dead silence in the elevator.

Could have heard a pin drop because everybody knew, boy, has our focus been way off. This is why he came. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Sacrificial death.

So, as we bring this to a close, here's a few takeaways for you. Number one, Jesus is for all people. All people.

Poor, rich, Jew, Gentile. Even wise and rich people like these men needed Jesus and they knew they needed him. They were willing to make a long trip to see him. Number two, distance is no barrier.

They traveled 500 miles. How far are you willing to go to meet Jesus, to meet up with Jesus? Are you asking all the right questions? A lot of people, I'm searching for God, really.

How are you doing that? On your cell phone all day or are you asking the right people the right questions, really searching through the purpose for your existence? Because when you really search for him, the Bible says in Jeremiah 29 13, we always memorize 29 11, but in 29 13 God says, you will find me when you seek for me with all your heart.

So, if you search for him, you'll find him. The next thing is giving is part of worshiping. They brought gifts with them. They first gave themselves by worshiping him and then they gave their gifts.

To them it was one and the same thing. This is the king giving is a part of worshiping. And the last takeaway is this. Once you meet Jesus, you'll never be the same. We're told in verse 12, I don't want to make too much of it, but I do want to draw your attention to a point. Being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

Now, I know what that means. It means they took a different route, but it's also true that when you come into contact with Jesus Christ, you leave differently than you came. You leave differently than you came.

You come one way to him, you leave another way. You come as a sinner to him. You leave as a sinner. You leave as a sinner. You leave as a sinner. You leave as a child of God. You come one way, you leave a different way. If any man is in Christ, he is in new creation.

All things have passed away, all things become new. That's Skip Heitiger with a message from his series, Into the Night. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series com. Now, here's Skip with an invitation for you to join he and Lenya Heitzig on a Holy Land tour next year. Hey, our 2024 Israel tour is coming up.

This is Pastor Skip, and we still have space on this trip that Lenya and I are hosting. We will be touring Israel from May 1st through May 12th. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sights like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Garden Tomb, the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st, so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime. Find full Israel information at connectwithskip.com. God works through the support of generous friends like you to change lives all around the world in some truly incredible ways. And when you give today, you can help grow the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig to broadcast into more cities in the US and around the world, connecting more people to the life changing message of Jesus Christ. To give today, go to connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Join us again tomorrow as Skip begins a message about the light that shines into darkness and death to bring life. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.