Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.
Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Look at verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east, to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, For thus it is written by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah, are not the least among the princes of Judah.
For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child.
And when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. When they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream, that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. God's always in control, isn't He? Father, we thank you for this morning, and Lord, as we look at the subject of wise men still seek Him, Lord, I pray that we will seek you during this special time of the year that is supposed to be all about you. And Lord, help us not just to seek you at church and seek you at Christmas, but Lord, help us to seek you in every area of our lives. And I pray you bless your Word this morning as you always do, in your name we pray, amen. Let me give you some introduction this morning first if I can about the wise men.
Some of you would maybe know some of these things, but I want to make sure we are all on the same page. And there is some information about the wise men that sometimes is a little bit misinterpreted, I guess the best way. Number one, there isn't much known about the wise men.
That's the first thing, before I give you information about them let me say there's not much. People assume that the wise men were standing side by side with the shepherds the night Mary delivered baby Jesus. We always have that picture that there they were as Jesus was born. And you know it's funny because our opinion of wise men is never that they just stand straight, apparently wise men can only do this. You know our nativity scene, what if you're left handed they do this.
But we can't ever stand straight, you know. We have all these opinions about wise men, but the truth is that by the time the wise men showed up Jesus could really probably have been around two years of age. Did you know that? Herod slaughtered, listen to me, Herod slaughtered all the male children in Bethlehem two years and under because of the information received from these travelers. So, but when they came through with Herod before they had even found Jesus, Herod had all the young children two years of age and under killed.
And so when they told him that, that means this that Jesus probably was at least two years of age when they finally found Him. Second thing is this, we're not sure how many there were, everybody thinks there's three. And you know the song, We Three Kings of Orion are, you know, trying to smoke a loaded cigar. You've heard that song.
Don't tell me you haven't heard that part, I know you have. First many people assume that there were three or magi as some people call them. And they came and they brought their gifts.
Now there's three gifts, like sometimes people think that's why there was three because they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh and they think one handed them gold, one handed them frankincense, one handed them myrrh. But the truth is we don't know how many men traveled from the east. And however it was probably at least more than three, probably at least more than ten because it was unsafe in those days to travel unless you were in a large group.
And if they were wise they would have been safe. And so normally it probably was a bigger group than just the three, but let's be honest, you know, if we had that many pieces how would you fit the nativity scene on your buffet? You know, so we stick with three. Hey, I'm wasting a lot of material here this morning folks, come on you've got to catch up, let's go.
Alright. Another thing is this we're not sure what they rode on. We have no idea. We don't know if they rode a camel.
Everybody thinks they did. We don't know if they rode a donkey. We don't know if they rode a horse. We don't know if they rode a dog. We don't know what they rode. Another thing is this we're not exactly sure where they came from. We don't know the particular town.
We don't know the city. We do know this that they did know prophecies about Jesus' birth. That's what spurred this whole thing on. They knew about that. And we believe that the Bible calls them wise men. You say, well what made them wise men?
Well, the Bible calls them that. And here's the only reason we can figure out why, because they were seeking Jesus. And so the Bible, that's a whole message in itself. That the Bible says, hey, if you're going to take your time to seek out Jesus you're wise.
You know why? The Bible says the fool has the path set in his heart, there is no God. So, the fact that they were trying to find Him and seeking Him means they believed there was a God.
So, that's wise. If you say, well I don't believe there's a God, well as I tell everybody you will four seconds after you die. There is a God. He created you and you're wise if you believe that. And you're wise if you seek Him, but you're foolish if you don't. So, that's why they're called wise men.
By the way there isn't much certainty about what the star was, and we're going to talk about that more in just a minute. We do know this that the wise men faced several difficulties. Number one, they faced the difficulty of distance. They had come from a far off land. So, they had a long way to travel.
Second thing we notice is this they faced discomfort. It would have been a very long trip. They didn't have Cadillacs. They didn't have Amtrak's. They didn't have airplanes. If it was a camel. If it was a donkey. Even if it was a chariot, they didn't have recliners in their chariots.
It would have been a very uncomfortable long trip. Third thing is they faced danger because they had to deal with King Herod. The Bible says that Herod was the kind of man he didn't have a problem killing anybody. And they came in danger immediately when they faced Herod. And they were in danger when they left the Savior because if Herod had known that they were going to leave without coming back why did Herod want them to come back? Because he wanted them to tell him where Jesus was.
He said, I want you to come back and tell me so that I can worship Him too. Now Herod in the Bible all the way through the New Testament is a sign of the world because Herod was against Jesus, and the world is against Jesus. The world was against him when he lived here on earth, the world is against him now. By the way folks that's why the Bible says you cannot serve God and mammon. You can't have one foot in the world and one foot with Christ and expect to live a peaceful life. The Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Dear friends you are going to have to determine who you are going to serve because the world doesn't like Jesus, never has. Another thing we know is that this, I looked at Matthew chapter 2 and I'm going to give you a free outline not that you care about this, but in Matthew chapter 2 if you want to write this down search this out. Some of you that teach Sunday school or you might enjoy this I see in Matthew chapter 2 three things. Number one I see the ministry of the Spirit, how it led these wise men to the Savior.
Are you listening? You know what you and I believe? We believe that the way a person gets saved is because they are drawn to Christ by the what? The Holy Spirit. Do you know that that light that they followed is a picture of the Holy Spirit? It led them to Christ. If you are here this morning and you've been saved by the grace of God you have only been saved because the Holy Spirit led you to Christ. It drawed you. It drew you. Listen to me you say, well that means if I don't get saved that He didn't lead me.
Uh-uh. Listen the Holy Spirit I believe convicts all men, leads all, but you have to receive it. So we see here the ministry of the Spirit. Second I see the message of the Scripture. They looked into the Scripture. The Scripture told them what to expect, what to look for. Thirdly I see the miracle of the star.
We are going to talk about that in just a second. But this morning I want us to kind of look at two main categories and then a couple things under that and we'll go on with things this morning. Number one I want us to first off I would say I want us to look at how the wise men sought Jesus.
What did they do? What did they go through to seek Jesus? Number one they sought Christ by looking to the sky. I want you to notice if you would in the passage that we read verse 1 the Bible says this, For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.
We have seen what? His star. So it all started by seeking Christ by looking into the sky. You say why were they doing that?
We're going to talk about that in just a second. But I find this very interesting under this. First the wise men began their search because they saw a star. Now what was that star?
Well we don't know. We don't know if it was an actual star. We don't know if it was something that God put there. I believe personally and others do also that that star was the Shekinah glory of Christ.
You say why is that? Well Exodus 13 verse 21 says this, And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. That was God Himself. See I believe it could have very well been that that was God Himself was that star leading them to Jesus. You say do you know that for sure?
No, I don't. Let me read you another verse about this same account that might shed some light on that. Look at, well I don't have to look at it, but listen to me Luke chapter 2 verse 9, And lo the angel of the Lord came upon them, notice this, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were so afraid. Talking about the wise men finding Christ we see here that the glory of the Lord, the Shekinah glory of the Lord shone round about them. The Bible says in Matthew that we read that when the star led them that the star hovered directly above Christ. And then in Luke we find that the glory of the Lord shone round about them. So I think it might have been the Shekinah glory of God that led them. But whatever the case might be we know this that it started because they looked for a star.
You know what that tells me? Secondly it means this, they were not satisfied with looking at earthly things, they were looking to the sky. In a sense this whole passage is a sign that these guys were wise, they were seeking Christ, they believed that He would exist, they believed what the Scriptures had said, and now they had their eyes looking heavenward instead of earthward. And you and I that believe that Christ existed, that He died on the cross for our sins, those of us that have given our heart to Christ, you know where our eyes ought to be? It ought to be on heaven. We get so discouraged when we look at everything around us.
Let me tell you where this journey ought to begin, it ought to begin with us looking up. We shouldn't be satisfied with earthly things. That ought not be our desire. Our desires ought to be heavenly things. That's why the Bible says hey don't lay treasures up for yourselves on earth, it's just going to corrupt, it's going to rust. It says lay up treasures in heaven. And the Bible says where your heart is, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So we're going to lay up treasures in heaven so that our hearts in heaven, so that our desires in heaven, we've got to get off this earth in our mind and we've got to get on heavenly things. Oh, if we would only do that. It seems the most heavenly some of us get as we pray before our food.
If we can only get our minds where it needs to be. Let me read you a verse, I thought this was interesting in Colossians chapter 3. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Hey, set your affection on things above. Because you've been saved, if you've asked Christ to come in your heart, you ought to be dead to earthly things. These things ought not mean anything to us as compared to what Christ means to us.
It started with them looking to the sky looking to the sky. You know if you and I aren't careful all of our attention can be focused on the daily physical issues of life. That's all we see. And as believers you and I have to realize that this world is not my home. We have to live here. There are things we must do and give attention to physically. But we must allow heaven to control our lives.
I better move on. Number two, they sought Christ not only by looking for a star, but second they sought Christ by looking to the Scriptures. Notice verse 5 if you would, and they said unto him and Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem and the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. Why were they even looking for a star? Why were they looking in that direction in the sky? Why were they convinced that that would lead them to Christ? Where did they get all that?
Are you listening? They found it in the Scriptures. You say, well where do they find it? Well, obviously these wise men probably had access to scrolls, to Scripture, and they would have had access to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 24 verse 17 listen to this, I shall see him, talking about Christ, the Messiah that was to come, I shall see him but not now. I shall behold him but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. Somehow they saw that verse. Somehow they read the Scriptures. Listen to me, Isaiah predicted that he would be born of a virgin. Daniel predicted the time of his coming.
Micah predicted the city of his birth would be Bethlehem. Perhaps they didn't have access to all the sacred writings, but they had access to enough of them that they read it, and believed it, and they acted upon it. You know where you and I ought to seek Christ? Look at me. If we're not seeking the Scripture, we're not seeking Him.
Because this is Him. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Let me tell you why they were wise, because they were seeking the Scriptures. They happened to have this concept of believing what was in here.
Oh, if you and I would only believe what's in there. If we would base our life on it, if we would spend our time in it, if we would allow our lives to be governed by what Christ has put in this book. They sought Christ by believing and looking to the Scriptures. I don't know about you, I find first that they continued their search by consulting the Word of God. Second, they believed and responded to what was written, and brought them to Him.
Look at me, the only reason they got to where they needed to go is because they looked into the Scriptures, saw it, believed it, and then did it. You know what the Bible says in Hebrews? It says, ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise. Do you know our whole life is this?
We ought to be searching this, and getting from God through His Word, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, telling us what we need to do, and then we ought to do it, and then God rewards it. That's the life of a Christian. You say, what if people make fun of you? That has nothing to do with it.
You say, what if it sounds a bit strange? That has nothing to do with it. You say, what if people don't think that's the best route for your life?
That has nothing to do with it. We search the Scriptures, we believe what it says, and we act on it, and then God takes us to where we need to be. My time is about gone, but when I was in college, my sophomore year, my second year of college I got done, and I was kind of studying. I was in Bible college. I was a music major, and a youth pastor minor. And I was out of college, and I just, I don't know, I was doing what I knew God wanted me to do in a sense, but my heart wasn't right, and my heart wasn't in it.
And that summer I worked at a church in Lakeland, Florida, and God just got a hold of my heart through that pastor. And I changed, and when I changed I changed, and it wasn't anything bad with the college I was going to. But I knew God was leading me to a different college, leading me to a different set of friends, leading me to a different this and that, and I just knew it. And God had told me that, and I, you know, withdrew from the college where I was going, and I enrolled in the college, in the new college. I went down there, and I just went down to see the college.
When I left I was enrolled, I was a student, and I had a job. God provided a job, everything within two hours of going on that campus. I just knew God was in it.
But you know what happened when I got back home? And there are good people, but my youth pastor at that time, and people that were in the church where I was going, they all told me, hey, if God led you there He would have left you there. God's not in you changing. God's not in you leaving. God's not in you moving.
And I would tell him, yes He is, I know He is. And these are good, Christian, wise people that were telling me I was making a mistake. And you know as a young Christian I guess you would say I had to all of a sudden come to this point, either I'm going to do what I feel God wants me to do, or I'm going to listen to other people. I did what I felt God wanted me to do. Let me tell you something, and I hesitate to say this because you all might be saying, man, but if I hadn't made that change I would never be here as your pastor. I would never be here as your pastor. Some of you are like, why did He change colleges? God wasn't in that. I changed, and you all have heard the story, Tanya Burchette and I were good friends in college and she had gotten her assurance of her salvation, got her salvation settled down there in Florida, came home to get baptized and she wanted somebody to ride with her.
Her dad said, hey, you need to bring a guy or something for safety. And I rode home, came here that weekend, spoke to the teens in Sunday school. At that time, man, it was like a year later, year and a half later, Brother Joe calls and just God laid you on my heart. And I came here and went and came back.
It all started because I moved where God wanted me to go. And even though I had really good people telling me I made a mistake, listen to me, when you look into the Scriptures, you've got to look into the Scriptures. And what the Scriptures tell you to do, you got to do what the Bible says, not what mama, or daddy, or anybody else says. You've got to do what the Bible says.
That's what these guys did. Third thing I see is this, they sought Christ by looking beyond those that scoffed. You see, when they obeyed the Scriptures they had some problems. Number one, Herod responded in anger. The Bible tells us literally the word that Herod was troubled. That word troubled means stirred up. It was driving him crazy that this baby was going to be the king, and he didn't like that.
He sought to get more information from the scribes. I mean he was trying to manipulate them. Look at me folks, when you're saved, this world will try to manipulate you. Look at me, if this world knows you're a Christian, they will do everything they can do to make you fall. And when you fall they will chew you up and spit you out. This world loves nothing more than to see a born again Christian mess up. They love it.
And yet they'll do everything they can do to try to make you fall. That's what Herod was. Herod responded in anger. Second, the religious leaders responded with indifference. Here these wise men felt, hey this is what the Bible says, but you know what the religious leaders, boy they were indifferent towards that, they didn't believe that. They liked the way things were. They liked their little religious practices. And all of a sudden now they're going to have to put their faith and trust in a Messiah, in a baby coming.
They didn't have any part of that. By the way, nowadays the religious crowd still has a problem with Jesus. Third thing we see is the city responded with fear. Herod was ruthless. What did he do? He went and killed all the male children two years of age and under. Just the coming of Christ. Look at me, he was just a baby and already there was division, hatred, killing. You tell me there's not power in the name of Christ.
Look at all the trouble it caused. Second, this morning before we go I want you to notice not only how they sought Jesus, but second, what the wise men brought Jesus. I thought this is very interesting. The Bible says in verse 11 that they brought three things, they brought gold, they brought frankincense, and they brought myrrh.
Now I dealt with this Wednesday night, and if you weren't here Wednesday night I would encourage you to get the CD from Wednesday night and listen to it, alright? It's just a lot of information. But they brought three things, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You say, why did they bring these three things? There's a lot of things they could have brought.
Why did they bring three things? Well, in the Word of God we find these three things stand for something, and I just wanted to give them to you. Number one, gold always speaks of God's sovereign dominion, His sovereignty, His divinity. He is God.
Look at me. Gold always speaks of the fact that He is God. And because He is God, if we believe He is God, He is in control of everything. He is sovereign.
Do you believe God is sovereign here this morning? So, when these wise men brought the gold, look at me, it was literally they couldn't talk to a baby. You can say a lot of things to a baby that mean they're going to understand what you're saying. Man, I talked to my four-year-old husband when I was in, he still don't understand what I'm saying apparently.
I'll talk to my wife and she doesn't even understand what I'm saying. You talk to a little baby, you can't really say, hey, I believe that you're sovereign. So, when they brought these gifts and gave them to Him, it was them saying we believe you're God.
Okay? So, we see first that gold was for His sovereignty. Second, frankincense, frankincense was an incense tree. It was obviously something that you would, you know we see incense nowadays that kind of smoke, smoke fills the air. And smoke works very good by the way, especially in a bathroom. But anyway, frankincense speaks of something.
What is it? Frankincense speaks of purity. It means that that frankincense was saying that He had sinless perfection. That they knew that this was the perfect, pure Son of God. So, it speaks of His sinless nature.
So, the gold says you're sovereign. The frankincense was them saying you're sinless. Third was myrrh. Myrrh was an ointment or an oil that they would use, you would put on. Obviously for the smell, they also said it had therapeutic things.
It was very expensive, all three of these things obviously were. What does myrrh speak of preacher? Well, myrrh often times is what they would kind of dress a body with after it had died. For they would bury it in different things if very wealthy people would do that.
You say, why is that? Because myrrh speaks of the subject of sacrifice, of death. Look at me, when they brought gold, frankincense and myrrh, when they brought the gold they were saying, we believe you're sovereign. When they brought the frankincense they were saying, hey, we believe you're sinless. But when they brought the myrrh they were saying, we believe that you're the sacrifice. And that baby Jesus was born to die. I want to read you a verse this morning about this thing of why men still seek Him. I used to preach on this a lot in evangelism, it will be done.
You don't have to turn to it. But Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13 has a very interesting verse and it says this, listen to what God says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. I believe somewhere way back in the process of these wise men, I don't know if they all kind of put their faith in the Messiah as a group or if one did and got his hand on the scriptures and began to read.
I don't know if he got his other friends and began to show them what it said. But I believe as they came in Isaiah and Daniel and Numbers and found out all these things that he was going to be born in Bethlehem, that a star would come out of the east, that all these things however they got the scripture, I believe somewhere in all that look at me, they came across Jeremiah's scrolls. And somewhere while they were reading and they knew all this stuff about Jesus all of a sudden they saw this verse that God said, if you seek me you will find me if you search for me with all your heart. Somewhere right then and there those wise men determined that if we give everything, if we give ourselves totally to this, we'll find them. So they loaded up on we don't know what, in the town that we don't know where, in the city that we don't know what they're even from, and they made a long, difficult, dangerous journey, came through Herod, searched, slept at night, slept in the cold. Can you imagine as they followed that star and it finally stopped, and all of a sudden they see that child and they knew it was him. By the way you always know when it's him. Can you imagine all of a sudden their minds go back to Jeremiah, he said that if we search for him with all our heart we would find him. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.
