Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. When a new member of the royal family is born, TV covers it wall-to-wall. Even Americans want to catch a glimpse of a future king or queen of England. But when the King of Kings was born, no video crews were waiting with bated breath. But there were those who did pay homage to the long-awaited baby.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the whole story of traveling wise men from the East is steeped in mystery. Today, you'll tell us what happened as you teach on the King's Worshippers. Yes, indeed, it is steeped in mystery.
For example, we don't know that there were three. The reason the idea of three has been used is because there were three kinds of gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We also don't know what motivated them to come to Bethlehem. But here's what's so exciting. They must have been seeking for the true God.
So God led them with a star, and this is critical. He did not lead them to Bethlehem. He led them to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem, it is the scribes who said that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. God never bypasses his word.
But that being said, it is so important for us to take our positions with them in worshiping the Christ child. And one way we can do that, even as we anticipate the new year, is to begin every single day with a verse of scripture with an admonition from God's word. I've written a 365 daily devotional, pairing it with the writings of our founder, D.L. Moody, and it's waiting for you, and I hope that you take advantage of this very quickly. Here's some contact info.
Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Of course, the New Year's just around the corner, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now, let us go to the pulpit of Moody Church. Of course, we all know the song, Come, let us adore him. Come, let us adore him.
Come to Bethlehem and adore Christ. It's interesting that in the passage of Scripture that was read, you remember Simeon said those interesting words. He said, This child was set for the rise and the fall of many in Israel, and that the thoughts of many will be exposed. Whenever people are in contact with Jesus Christ, the true condition of their heart is exposed.
Some of you who are here today, the condition of your heart will be exposed as we are in contact with Jesus and as we talk about him, read about him, and sing about him. It is a barometer check on where your heart is. In Matthew chapter 2, the passage that I hope that you take time to turn to, Matthew chapter 2, a very familiar passage, we have here a beautiful illustration of three different ways in which Jesus Christ was responded to. The condition of the hearts of those who are listed here in this chapter and whose stories are told are revealed in answer to Simeon's prayer and his prediction. I'm going to take the time to read a few verses, and then we'll think about how Jesus reveals the true heart of humanity.
Matthew 2, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose.
Some translations have in the east. Of course, the sun rises in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ was to be born. They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet.
And you, 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. And after listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
Just that far. Notice this. In the presence of Jesus, Herod revealed the fact that he had a very hard heart. Very hard heart. Herod the Great is known for being the great because he was a great builder.
He built, for example, the temple that was in existence during the time of Christ, a beautiful structure which unfortunately, because of the providence of God and the judgment of God, was totally destroyed. He built huge fortresses in Caesarea. He built what has been known as Masada. When you're in Israel, you always hear about the Herodian period and Herodian stones. He was a great builder, but he was also a murderer.
He murdered at least one wife. I think I read that he actually murdered two wives and several of his sons And here a baby is born in Bethlehem that he hears about and suddenly he totally intimidated And what bothered him about this baby is the fact that there was a delegation that came from the east Persia almost certainly This delegation, this caravan if you please, came all the way from the east to see this baby and Herod who didn't think that there was room for two kings. He was, after all, the king of the Jews, and so he couldn't tolerate a rival. You see, what he was thinking in his mind is this. Why are these people coming to see this baby?
Why don't they come and see me? I'm the great king. What if others come looking for this baby and they bypass me? And because of his paranoia and because of his jealousy, he simply could not take it.
So he does two things. First of all, he lies to the wise men. He said, go find the baby, and after you have found him, come to me and tell me where he is so that I could worship him as well. Of course he was lying. He had no interest at all in worshiping Jesus.
He had a great interest in trying to kill him. But then he does more than that. When the wise men don't return back to Jerusalem, he knows that he has been tricked in response to a revelation that God gave them to depart a different way. When he finds that out, he becomes a gross murderer, and he asks that all the infant boys in the environs of Bethlehem be killed. There are various estimates as to how many were killed, perhaps 20, 25, maybe less, maybe more.
Nobody really knows. But isn't that terrible? but it does also give us insight into a timeline here. You see, inquired of the wise men when the star appeared, apparently it appeared perhaps a year before that time or more, and so he feels that if he kills all of the infants, the infant boys two years of age and under, surely in this net that he casts, he will catch Jesus and have him killed. What a terrible thing.
Now, the ironic fact is that he dies two years later. He dies two years later. And what he didn't realize is that his ability to be king was totally dependent upon that baby. Herod's own power and authority was derived from Jesus, the king of kings, who was born there in Bethlehem. But he didn't acknowledge that.
Very jealous heart. Could not stand competition. wanted to destroy anyone who would deflect attention from him. And yet he wasn't in control, but he thought he was. And he grasped for control.
What a terrible control it was. But in the end, he wasn't in charge. God was. I love to tell the story of a stroller that I saw at Fields one time during the Christmas season. It was a little boy who was in a stroller, and the stroller was like a little car, so it had a steering wheel on it.
And he was crying profusely. He was angry with his mother at something. And he was taking that steering wheel and he was just cranking it to the right. But all the while, he was going the opposite direction because his steering wheel wasn't connected to anything that mattered. It's his mother who determined where he was going.
You know, that's the way we are. We grasp for power. We grasp for significance. We are angry when somebody outshines us. We hate competition.
We are filled with jealousy. And we think that we are in control, but at the end of the day, we discover that God is in control. And you know, the scripture says very clearly, Why should you glory in that which you have received from God? Who makes you to differ from another? What do you have that you've not received?
And if you have received it, why do you glory as if you received it not? I hope that you and I always rejoice in the success of people who are more successful than we are. Jealousy, competition must be nailed to the cross so that we are set free. Herod had a very hard heart, and it showed.
Now, when you get to the scribes, very interesting, you have an indifferent heart, and we could say that this is an indifferent academic heart. because notice they knew exactly where Jesus was to be born. They understood the scripture in Micah. They understood it in context. They knew where to go for it.
And lo and behold, in the midst of it, they do this, but the more they know, the less they care. They are like people who've heard it all, who've been involved with it all. They know the words and they sing the songs, but they never investigate for themselves. They never receive Christ personally. Their relationship is not personal.
It is academic. It is a knowledge that is filled with pride, but the knowledge is not transforming them. They grasp the spirit of Christmas, but they don't grasp the Christ of Christmas. And so they miss it all. And that is known as nominal Christianity, a cultural Christianity, a Christianity that makes people immune from getting the real thing.
They think they have it because they may attend church or know what Christmas is all about, but their hearts have never been transformed. Basically, indifference. You hear about Jesus, you even love Jesus, you admire Jesus, but he's like a book on a shelf. And when the Christmas season is over, you take the book and you put it back on the shelf and you'll pull it out again next year and have sentimental thoughts about the baby Jesus. The scribes had an indifferent heart.
But of course, in contrast, we see that the Magi had a seeking heart. They had a seeking heart. Recently we were with some friends who said that their teenager is going into atheism Well you and I know that that often part of teenage rebellion young people wanting to assert themselves in contrast to their parents faith And so what you have is frequently the fact that children will say this. The main thing that you need to emphasize to such children is remain a seeker. Keep investigating.
because there does come a time in a child's life when he has to get the faith of his parents and it has to be his own faith. It can't be simply a hand-me-down.
So all doubt isn't bad. It's bad when it is dishonest doubt. It is good when it is honest doubt. These magi, these wise men were wise seekers. And they were not filled with dishonesty.
They were honest seekers of truth. I hope that's true about you. I hope that that is true about me. Honest seekers about truth.
Now, of course, you know, we sing a song about them. We three kings of Orient are. We have no idea whether or not they're kings. We have no idea whether or not there are three. I tend to think it was a whole caravan.
I can't imagine that Herod would be shook and all Jerusalem with it because three guys showed up on camels. I just can't imagine that. But the interesting thing is that the star did not take them to Bethlehem. The star took them to Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem they learned where Christ was to be born, and then the star appeared and took them the rest of the way to Bethlehem. But God does not bypass his word.
Now, frequently I'm asked this question. In Muslim countries, many people are having dreams about Jesus and coming to faith in Christ as a result of those dreams. As a matter of fact, a book has been written about it, which I don't have, which I will read sometime if I ever get my hands on a copy. But nonetheless, the question I receive quite often is, could that be the case? In the instances that I know about, these dreams do not lead them to personal faith in Christ.
These dreams lead them to God's word or to other people who can explain the gospel to them. The dreams prepare them for the gospel rather than being the gospel itself. Many years ago, I interviewed a young man who was born in Jerusalem, actually. He woke up. He was pinned against his bed.
He had this vision of Jesus that was so powerful. It was as if he couldn't get out of bed. And he cried up and said, Jesus, I know that this is you. I promise if you let me out of bed, I'll find out about you.
Well, you can almost predict the rest of the story. He went about, and a couple of days later, somebody gave him a New Testament, which he began to devour and to read. And he came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. God does not bypass his word no matter what means he may use to help people to get to the message that actually saves.
Well, here are the wise men. What I'd like to do is to give you some barriers that they overcame, barriers that they overcame to get to Jesus. I know that there are many questions about them. There are many questions about the star. Was it a supernova?
Was it an alignment of planets? Was it a very special star? Was it a miracle? I'm sure that it was. Whatever it was, God is willing to go to great lengths for people who are honest seekers.
Dishonest ones, dishonest seekers, people who don't want to know the truth, who are looking for reasons to not believe God generally does not give them those kinds of special privileges. But if you are a seeker here today and you genuinely are seeking for the truth, God is willing to meet you at the point of your need.
So here they are. What are the barriers that they overcame? First of all, distance. If they came from Persia, we're talking about a thousand miles. You know, and it is sometimes said that the journey took a year.
It may not have taken that long. It took a good length of time. and that's why, by the way, Jesus was in the house when they arrived. The wise men did not come to the manger as some Christmas cards would have us believe. The wise men came to the house because Jesus was perhaps almost two years old at the time.
Mary and Joseph went back to Nazareth. Then for reasons that we don't know about, they came back to Bethlehem and that's where Jesus actually was. I think it probably took weeks for them to prepare just to come. I mean, if you're thinking about going across the desert in a caravan, you're thinking about water, you're thinking about food. Let's suppose they did 10 miles a day, which I think would be a lot in the desert.
We're talking about at least 100 days. We don't know how many months it took for them to get there. And so they went to great lengths to go on this journey, most assuredly. And they were willing to do that.
Now, there's some people who say, well, if I'm going to find the truth, I want the truth to come to me. I'm simply going to sit here and I hope that somehow by osmosis or other ways the truth is going to come. I say to you today, investigate the truth. And by the way, you've never investigated Christianity unless you've thoughtfully read the New Testament. And you've never investigated Christ unless, of course, you begin to open your mind to the possibility that he is who he is.
come with your doubts, but come to Christ. Read about him. That's why I always give atheists the 21-day test or the 21-day experiment, I call it. They always say, well, what do you want me to do for 21 days Take out 10 minutes a day read the gospel of John one chapter every day for 21 days What you don understand don get too hung up on but try to answer this question even if you don believe in Jesus what did John believe about Jesus and what did Jesus believe about himself? What you need to do is to overcome that barrier and become a truth seeker, even if it costs you.
Like one man said that when he read the New Testament, and all of his arguments were like puffs of smoke in the presence of Christ. These men, God blessed them, and perhaps there were women among them, though we don't know. Perhaps astrologers, as some people think, astronomers, perhaps involved to some extent in the occultism that took place in Persia. We wish we knew more, but we don't. But they were willing to come a long way to find the truth.
The first barrier they overcame was distance. The second one, and we'll put this together, is both race and religion. Race and religion. Think about this. You have Persians who are bowing before a Jewish king.
Imagine that. And you know that in Persia they had their own religion. It was, of course, filled with a lot of occultism, but Persia had a religion. and they could have said, I was born in this religion and I'm going to die in this religion. Just like some people today.
I was born a Protestant, I was born a Catholic, I was born a Hindu, I was born a Muslim and I'm going to die in that religion. Or I was born in other kinds of faith, maybe Baha'u'llah, the Baha'i faith. I say to you today that we must be willing to adjust our view of truth If the truth leads us down a different path And I commend these magi, these wise men I commend them because they were willing to say no to their religion And they were willing to bow before this Jewish king Because they said even in the religion in which we were born If it's wrong, we're going to leave it in the interest of truth and worshiping someone who's actually qualified to be worshiped.
So they overcame the barrier of distance, of race, and religion, of pride, of pride. Oh, I hope that when we get to heaven someday, God will show us the video. I think we're going to watch videos in heaven. I think we're going to see this. Because I can imagine all of these men adjusting their turbans, getting themselves all prim and proper.
They've come a long distance for this moment. And notice what it says. We have to read it. After listening to the king, verse 9, they went on their way, and behold, the star they had seen rose, 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 worshipped him. Imagine. They are worshipping a toddler. They're worshipping a child who undoubtedly was younger than two. and God had so impressed upon them the fact that this child was the Redeemer that they were willing to fall down and to worship him believing indeed as they must have that he was God on earth God of very God as the creeds will later say Isn't this a remarkable story?
Of course, as I emphasize, we join them in our worship of the King. You know, we here at Running to Win have the privilege of sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Fifty different countries, seven different languages, and we continue to want to grow this ministry. And the reason we can do that is because of our many partners.
So many of you listening support this ministry, and we are deeply grateful. and we in turn want to help you on your spiritual journey. We're offering a 365 daily devotional called Running to Win. It's authored by D.L. Moody and myself.
Each day you'll get a verse of scripture. You'll get commentary from Moody paired with what I write. I think it'll be a wonderful resource to remind you 365 days of the year that we worship the King of Kings. Here's what you do. You can go to rtwoffer.com.
I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, and I'll give you time to get one, because the new year is just around the corner. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word. rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. And even as you receive this book, I trust that it will be with deep gratitude and with a prayer that this ministry of Running to Win will continue and will grow in the new year.
Thank you in advance. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. It's a story of intrigue and drama. Bearing priceless gifts, several wise men from the East were among the first to honor the one called Jesus. The Roman governor is quite scared about their talk of a king to rule.
He then commands the death of all the males under two in Bethlehem.
Next time, final thoughts about the king's worshippers. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
