Born To Die

Sermon Transcript

Matthew 2, I’d like to start reading there in verse 1. It says, “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, 2 saying, ‘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.’”

I’m reading my Bible with new eyes this Christmas because I just held my first grandchild. Little baby Emilia was born on November 5, so I have that feeling of the wonder and sort of the power of a newborn where you look in that little face and you think, Who is this little one? What will their destiny be? That was never more true than when Jesus came into the world, the question of: Who is this little baby Jesus, and what will His destiny be? We’re going to get some help tonight from the wise men. We’re going to follow their example, but ultimately, we’re going to try to connect Christmas with Communion, because they are connected in the Word, and we get a chance to have the bread and the cup before we go home tonight. Hopefully, the wise men will have led us to the right conclusion, and we can follow their example that they came to worship Him.

Verse 1, again, it began, “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.” The phrase “wise men” in the Greek language is mágos, and we get the idea of Magi, and the English word “magic” comes from it, but they weren’t magicians. The word has a far greater meaning than that. These were wise men. The dictionary would actually even say they were like scientists. To me the most fascinating thing is this word only occurs six times in the New Testament—four out of six are right here in Matthew 2, a couple more times in the book of Acts—but when you connect the Old and New Testaments, and we do that through the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, eight times this word appears in the Old Testament and it’s all in the book of Daniel.

If you remember Daniel was a wise man, and as you read through Daniel, eight times it talks about the king’s court and all of the people that served in the king’s court, so these were like the king’s advisors, and they have a whole cluster of different names, but Daniel was among them. It is possible, this is one of those questions we have to wait until heaven to ask these Magi, “How did you know? Who told you? How was this passed down?” The only thing we have, the clue, would be that in some way these wise men were connected to or at least in some influence of Daniel, leaving his mark in the East, perhaps Babylon, that they had something in their hearts about the truth of God and the coming of Messiah and they saw His star in the East, and they’re looking for the “King of the Jews,” and is it possible? We’ll get to ask them in heaven, and we’ll find out for sure. But some would say they were more than just the king’s court, some would say they were like king makers coming to give their blessing on this baby that they’re calling the “King of the Jews.”

Notice it says they came, “ . . . from the East,”—and again, in verse 2—“saying, ‘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.’” As the crow flies, if they came from the East, if they came all the way from Babylon to Jerusalem, on a straight shot it’s about 500 miles; but you couldn’t do that because you would have to cross a desert too vast, so they took the caravan routes, and these followed the river valleys and maybe you’ve heard of the Fertile Crescent that the Middle East is so much desert, but then there’s these arid areas where you have the rivers, so they would have followed the Tigris and Euphrates and would’ve come across down the Orontes through Syria and ultimately down the Jordan River Valley. That journey is maybe more like 900 miles. This is a long ways that they’ve come looking to find out about Jesus.

This is a part of what draws me to the wise men is that they are maybe the purest example of worship in the Bible. You might say, “Well, why would I say that?” It’s because that somehow in this unique moment in history, Jesus, the incarnate Son of God in flesh, is just a little baby, and as a little baby, there’s just nothing that He could really do for them or give back to them, that’s why I think it’s so pure. There are many famous worshipers in the Bible. I think of Job as one of the greatest worshipers in the Bible. He lost everything, and he still kept his testimony. He still worshiped the Lord in his time of physical affliction and grief. You have David is a great worshiper, and wrote the psalms.

You know in the New Testament I love the book of Revelation filled with worship, the crescendo of all history so much centered on the throne of God and the worship, but somehow this story, these wise men are worshiping the Lord when He can’t really do anything for them; and ultimately, worship is more about giving than getting. Worship gets a little impure when we start doing the, “I, me, mine,” remember George Harrison? I, me, mine, or we’re thinking more of what can worship do for me and what can I get out of this, and what is God promising me, and how do I appropriate this and that and all of those things. You can find your promises, and you can ask God, but when you worship, and you just come to purely give and not to get, there’s something so deep and pure about this worship. When they say, there in verse 2, “ . . . we . . . have come to worship Him.” They’ve come a very long way, and they’ve come just to give, not to get, and I think there is a perfect example of purity in worship.

Verse 3, “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 So they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem, of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6 But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler, Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

Ultimately, worship is anchored in the Word. If it’s not according to the Word, then it’s not worship. Truth is essential. Jesus said it like this, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” I think there was a lot of spirit and passion in the demonstration of the long journey that they were passionate enough to make that journey and to come seeking. They’re still not exactly sure where He is, but there’s a passion, there’s a spirit, and maybe you could even say the Holy Spirit was leading them. But ultimately, what does the Bible say, and this is the thing, where is He going to be born? The chief priests, the scribes, they know the answer, verse 5, “So they said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,”—and then they quote Micah 5:2; verse 6, there—‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler, Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

When you have spirit and truth, you’ve got worship. Jesus didn’t say time and place. You know, sometimes we limit worship, “I’m going to go to worship on Sunday morning at 8:30 at Revival.” Well, that is just a time and a place. Jesus didn’t say worship was a time and a place, He said it was “ . . . spirit and truth,” so that means anytime, anywhere, I can worship; and when those two things are happening, worship is happening.

I have to note that these chief priests and scribes know the Word, but there’s no passion, there’s no spirit. They know where the Messiah’s supposed to be born, Bethlehem. Do you know how close Bethlehem is to Jerusalem? Six miles. On a clear day in Bethlehem, you can see Jerusalem. To get from Jerusalem to Bethlehem—six miles—this is like a little morning walk or a little afternoon walk. It’s not even going to take you all day to walk six miles, right? It’s not very far, but there’s no sign, there’s no indication that these chief priests and scribes, although they knew the truth, had the right answer seemingly instantly, “Where’s Messiah going to be born?” “Yeah, Bethlehem.” There’s no indication here that they ever went looking for Jesus, no spirit, there’s nothing in them. This self-righteousness that they possessed blinded them to Jesus, blinded them to the timing, blinded them to a passion to go and find out for themselves. They just have the right answer, but there’s nothing of spirit driving them. But the wise men know. Now that they’ve got that answer, “Oh, we’ve got to find Him. We’ve got to keep going.”

Now, verse 7, “Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and 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.’” Can I go back to the playground for just a minute? Liar, liar, pants on fire! Herod has just said one of the biggest, boldest lies in the Bible. He’s saying that he wants to worship, too. Is that true? No, in just a matter of verses we’re going to see that he was criminally jealous. He wanted to kill this potential rival, and he had a whole lifetime in history of this. The story of Herod the Great is so shocking because he would put people in his own family to death, if he felt like they were in any way a rival to his throne. So, when he hears about a king being born, a “King of the Jews,” his thought is not to worship, his thought is to assassinate Him, to kill Him, to get Him out of the way, and history tells us all of that.

Here you have another little lesson about worship is that worship does involve warfare. In fact, just already you’re seeing three different responses to this baby Jesus. You’ve got the chief priests, the scribes, have just shown complete indifference. It just seems like in their self-righteousness they have need of nothing, and they’re just going to ignore Him. They could care less. Then, you’ve got Herod, who’s going to just violently react and bring violence down upon Bethlehem in just a few verses. He’s opposing, he’s fighting against this King. But then you’ve got the wise men who are the wisest of all. They’re the ones that were following. They’ve come to worship Him, and now they know the truth of where He is, so they are going to search. They are going to find. They’re driven. The Spirit of God is leading them. They want to worship Jesus, and nothing is going stop them. Have you noticed this is sort of how it goes? That if you’re a worshiper, that there’s going to be warfare. There’s going to be a reaction.

Have you ever done any Christmas caroling? I like to Christmas carol. I like to take worship outside of my church building. We’ve worshiped all over our city. I especially like to go worshiping in our neighborhood. Our church is in the very residential neighborhood. I like to knock on the door—and usually I’m the one, I’ll knock on the door and my church, they’re singing outside—and then I like to say, “Have we been a good neighbor this year? Are there any problems we need to solve? Have we parked in your driveway or crushed any of your flowers?” Here’s what I’ve noticed. Even though we’re out there singing, there’s a lot of joy, we still get these three responses. Some people could care less. They’re not interested in a bunch of people singing about Jesus. Some, and I really don’t want to exaggerate, I’m really thinking about one neighbor who is…I can’t compare him to Herod, that’s too strong. I have a neighbor who doesn’t like us, so he’s going to turn off the lights and maybe turn on the sprinklers. He has something, and it’s not personal, is it? It’s we don’t fight against flesh and blood. In fact, I find myself praying for this neighbor a lot because what he loves to do is call the police to get tickets for anybody in my church that parks within six inches of his driveway, and he does this a lot. We pray for him all the time. You know, “Get him, Lord. Bring him to his senses.”

Have you noticed when you carol that some people could care less, some people actually will oppose you, but then the true worshipers start singing about Jesus, and there’s something of the same spirit and love of the Lord. You know, worship brings warfare. The Bible says, “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel,” Psalm 22:3. Can I quote the King James? “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” When we praise the Lord, God in some way makes His presence known. But then there’s also the flip side where when we praise the Lord, there’s an act of war going on. It’s like a battle of kingdoms that Jesus is looking for allegiance, so when we praise the Lord, Psalm 8:2 says, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, You have ordained strength,”—or Jesus said, praise—“That you may silence the enemy and the avenger.”

I remember years ago I heard Jon Courson say that when God’s people are worshiping the Lord, to the devil it sounds like the dentist’s drill, it’s just a noise and a sound that drives him crazy. There’s a sense of battle and warfare, it’s happening right here in our text, these different responses, but ultimately, the Lord is calling. He’s calling us all to worship, that even with the baby Jesus there’s still a call to a Kingdom, and to bow down before a King. All these things, there still the same, but somehow it’s in the purest form here. He’s just a little, little One, a little baby, but He is a King worthy of our worship.

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. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.” Part of our Christmas celebration and worship is just great, great joy that you can get loud about it, you can get happy about it. These words, sometimes I wonder as the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write, that these phrases just are kind of clunky. I’m no Greek scholar, but I studied the words. This “rejoiced with exceedingly great joy,” there’s a repetition in it. It’s got the word “joy,” chará, and it’s verb form and it’s noun, and then they’re put together, but then he says, “exceedingly great.” All of these words are powerful words. This was the response when they got to where they needed to be, “ . . . they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.”

I was just studying the book of James, finishing the book of James with my church on Sunday, and that Scripture about Elijah, that he “ . . . was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly,” as I was unpacking that verse, the same thing happens. It’s very clunky. It’s got the word “prayer” in it twice—he prayed with prayers. He prayed while he was praying, and I’m like, “What does this mean?” The translators just say, “ . . . he prayed earnestly,” but it’s like doubling down. It’s like somehow saying that this was genuine prayer—he prayed when he prayed. And, here you’ve got, you’re rejoicing with exceedingly great joy.

Sometimes people will put us down for joy. They want us to be quiet. They want us to be silent. People say, “Don’t get too excited about Jesus! You’re going to become a fanatic!” I find that that is one of the greatest double standards in the world that somehow we need to be quiet about Jesus. The day after Thanksgiving I went to a hockey game, the second hockey game in my whole life. I don’t even really know the rules. It was the Ducks and the Kings. Is anybody there? It’s great. We called a match game. I was with the Ducks fans, so the Ducks went down 1-0 and then they came back 1-1. Then, the Kings went up 2-1, and the Ducks came back 2-2. But then things went bad. The second period the Kings went up 4-2, and we got to the third period and then we scored a goal, and that was 4-3; and it got down, and we were down to 90 seconds left and it’s going to be over and we scored a tying goal, 4-4. The place was going bananas.

Then, we go into overtime. I don’t know the rules. Overtime it’s three on three, and my friend said, “You know what? Three on three, usually this is over in 30 seconds because whoever gets that puck first is likely to score.” I’m like, “What?” But, no. We went the whole five minutes, nobody scored. The crowd was going crazy. Then, we get a penalty shootout, and they go back and forth, back and forth, and then suddenly we score, the Ducks, who I barely know, but I’m there, and I’m along for the ride. The Ducks score the winning goal, 5-4, penalty shootout, and that place went bananas! I found myself hugging people I didn’t know. There was tears. There was high-fives. It was like lifelong friends just sort of swaying, and then this whole thing going on, and people say, “That’s normal. That’s cool. That’s good.” But, man, if you start worshiping Jesus, you get excited about Jesus, “Oh, no, no, no. You Christians, you need to be quiet.”

You might have already figured out, I’m not one of those quiet Christians. That’s not how I roll, and when my Bible says that I need to rejoice “ . . . with exceedingly great joy,” why should I tone it down at Christmas? Why? Shouldn’t I turn it up? Disclosure: I am a guitar player. I do like the number 10—turn it up because Jesus has come! But now, watch this. This is how worship works, verse 11, “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.”

You know that repetition, it’s just happened again. We just “ . . . rejoiced with exceedingly great joy,” and now in the moment of walking in the house in the presence, they “ . . . fell down and worshiped Him.” It’s two different words to fall down, píptō, and then to worship, proskynéō, but they’re both describing physically the same action where you just get down. You’re humbled, you’re overwhelmed. Worship is about bowing down to the King Jesus, and this is just this little baby, this little One, and they worship and they bow down.

You know, this is the nature of worship. This is the nature of the psalms, which is sort of our hymnal. It’s our guide into worship. Even as Christians, that you see in the psalms in times of great, great joy and how loud can you get, “Shout to God with the voice of triumph!” That’s Psalm 47. Do you know what Psalm 46 says? Right before it, just verses before, “Be still, and know that I am God.” They’re right there together, Psalm 46, Psalm 47, “Be still,” be quiet, humble yourself, bow down before the Lord, and then, “Shout to God with the voice of triumph!” These wise men are worshiping, and they’re kind of taking us to the height of joy but also to the depth of worship, and those things are appropriate.

You know when Nathan led us in “O Come Let Us Adore Him,” did that do something to you to sing that first Christmas hymn maybe of the year here, and to do it in such a worshipful way? It just humbles you before the Lord. At different times God will do that, and I remember the first time I went to Bethlehem. I was pretty excited about going to Bethlehem, and I understood that the site there is one of those oldest sites that archeologically there’s a lot of things to look at there, but then you get there and realize, What did they do? They built a giant church over the spot where they believe Jesus was born.

As I went down in there, it’s down below the church, I went in there and was just so disappointed because it wasn’t the picture in my mind. I guess we all have pictures in our mind of what the birth of Jesus looked like, and kids are endlessly fascinated. I know at my house every year there’s a big fight over how to actually set up the nativity, and it’s a family tradition to fight over Jesus. We all have pictures in our mind. I got down there underneath the church in Bethlehem and the floor was marble, and then there was this gold star, “This is the spot.” I just looked at it and thought, This is not the Jesus that I know. It’s not the One that I worship. I actually had a moment. I kind of went down on the ground as I was hungry for God, and I went down on the ground.

What happened was I looked up and realized that the ceiling was rough, and it was stained with smoke from all the candles and incense, but I could see that I was in a cave. Earlier in the day we were out in the shepherd’s fields outside of Bethlehem where you could see these natural caves where they would have the sheep pens, and you could see that. I realized, I’m in a cave. I’m in one of those sheep pens. I looked up and saw that rough ceiling and thought, Ooo, this is it! This is what I’m thinking that Jesus was born in humility. He was born where the animals were kept. He was put in a manger, and when it just hit me I began to worship. You get overwhelmed. You go down. You take a knee, and ultimately, you’re bowing before the throne, aren’t you. You’re bowing before the King, Himself. You’re worshiping.

I stopped there in the middle of verse 11. In the middle of verse 11, “And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” There’s sort of two ways to interpret the gifts. These gifts you could interpret them literally in that these are precious materials—gold, frankincense, myrrh—all sort of compact well. You could carry your wealth with you, very valuable commodities, and we know that in just a few verses, Joseph is going to lead Mary and Jesus down to Egypt for a period of time to keep the Boy safe. There’s no doubt that this would fund all of that, so there’s a practicality to these gift that they’re almost like dowry presents, they’re so valuable, that this is wealth, and it would’ve worked and helped the family as they flee to Egypt. That’s all true, but it’s hard not to see some of their symbolism as well.

Song writers have written about the gold symbolizing a gift fit for a King, or the frankincense being reminiscent of the incense before the Lord in the temple and you burn incense like a priest. You put those two things together, you’ve got a very unique and special person when you combine the office of King and Priest. Isn’t it Melchizedek? Sometimes when I say that I want to say, “God bless you,” (in a sneezing kind of way) “Melchizedek!” is the king and the priest in the Person of Christ. That prophecy was fulfilled. I’ll come back another time and we’ll talk about Melchizedek all night, but what really got me is the myrrh because the myrrh, why would you give a baby myrrh? When you look it up in the Greek dictionary it’s a perfume, it’s a scent, but it’s also an antiseptic. It was used for embalming dead bodies. As I was studying the Word, I saw something I’d never seen before. This word “myrrh” in the New Testament is only used two times—once here at the birth of Christ and again at His death.

As we get ready for communion right now, can you go over to John 19. Two times this word is used in the New Testament—the gift from the Magi, the wise men, but also at the death of Christ, John 19. This hit me in my study the other day. I just had to pause. I just maybe had not seen this before, but watch for the word “myrrh.” Watch for it. Here we are. Jesus has been crucified, John 19:38, “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of”—help me. What does it say?—“myrrh,”—there it is—“myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.”

I didn’t tell you the title of the message at the beginning. I didn’t want to shock you, so I’ll give you the title of the message at the end, again as we prepare our hearts for communion. It’s “Born To Die.” Even at His birth, with the great joy and the worship and that pure worship of the wise men just giving to Jesus the gifts have sort of that weight of meaning and significance and ultimately the myrrh to me connects and points to this, He came to die. He did come. He did come to die for us to give us that gift of eternal life. That plan of God was set in motion from before the foundation of the world. He’s the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, and even there at that moment in the birth of Christ there’s a pointing to this, that ultimately Christmas does have to do with communion, with the death and the resurrection of our Lord. He was coming to give us this gift, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”