Matt Chandler - The Promise for All Peoples: The Journey of the Magi

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab Matthew chapter two. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas if I do not see you on Tuesday night. I love this season. I started to think that one of the reasons I find this season so compelling is that it was in December that I was actually hired here as the pastor nearly eleven years ago. It was also in December that I was released from the hospital after brain surgery. One of the first things we did a day or a few days later was actually attend Christmas Eve services. It was my first foray back into life here in regards to our covenant community. I didn’t lead from the stage; Patterson did. I actually sat in the back during the service and just enjoyed celebrating the birth of His Son. There are many things about this time of year that make me more aware in ways that I am normally not. I have been a pastor here for eleven years, and about six or seven years ago, we decided that one of the things we wanted to do was to build a rhythm into how we operate. We wanted a fall sermon series that would lead into a four-week Advent series, which would, in turn, lead to a four-week series focused on prayer and significant cultural issues. We aimed to stake our ground and trust the Word of God to speak into our world and culture for the good of society, discussing topics like racial reconciliation, when life begins, and going to the ends of the earth. We wanted that season to transition into a new extended series in the spring. One of those series will not always be, but one we want to include will simply be a book study. Starting in February, we will begin the book of Acts, which should be a good time. That was the rhythm we wanted to develop so that you would know, «Okay, in the fall, we’re kicking off a series, ” and then at the end of that series, we would move into dwelling upon and considering the incarnation. In those six or seven years, one thing we have yet to do until this year is actually walk through the narrative, really just read the story of the promise of Jesus’s coming, the story of Mary being told, and the story of Jesus being born. You probably didn’t hear that one except for ten minutes at the beginning of last week’s sermon because of Ice-mageddon. Last week, we looked at the angels appearing to the shepherds. Now, this week, right before Christmas, what I want us to focus on is the coming of the Magi—the visitation of the three wise men to the house where, more than likely, two-year-old Jesus was with His mom and dad. One interesting thing for me as I read through the narrative again while preparing these sermons is that there are many large, spectacular doctrines and truths about the nature and character of God woven into the story of Christ’s coming. Even in the incarnation, God is calling us upward to consider all that He is out to accomplish in the coming of Jesus Christ. As I read this passage in particular, my mind drifted back to a sermon that I read years ago by J.C. Ryle. I had to look that up because of some of the things I was seeing in the text and reread his sermon. He was such a godly, incredible man of God. Some of what I’ll pull from this morning, I actually learned from J.C. Ryle. In Matthew chapter two, here’s what I want to do. I want us to read the story of the three wise men showing up, and I want to point out three things that we see in this text that aren’t very Christmas-themed. However, if we grasp them, our experience and understanding of Christmas will monumentally increase, thereby giving us a greater opportunity to experience the fullness of joy that we should feel around this time of year. All right, with that said, let’s go to Matthew chapter two. We’re going to pick it up in verse one. 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. Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ was to be born. They told him, „In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it was 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.’“