This is a part of a sermon series for Christmas 2024. You can watch more here.
This morning we will be in Matthew 2. You can turn to page 77 in our devotional or you can turn to Matthew 2 in the New Testament. Here at North Village Church we believe Jesus is God in the flesh who was born as an infant so that He might be accessible and available to all people. That’s why we celebrate Christmas!
I love celebrating Christmas. I love the decorations. I love the festivities but sometimes my expectation for Christmas and my reality of Christmas don’t match. In my head, I want to see fresh snow falling outside, I want to see chestnuts glowing by an open fire, friends and family all drawing near to the table as we bow our heads in celebration of Jesus’ birth because I want Christmas to be special as it is in my heart.
But then we turn on the weather and it’s going to be a high of 75 on Christmas. The fire isn’t crackling because the AC is running. And the friends and family are nice but, in every family, there are layers of ups and downs, so that over the years it’s possible our hearts have grown a little warn around Christmas.
Maybe some of us are still hopeful and optimistic but I am guessing that all of us have had some unmet expectations around Christmas, so that in our passage this morning we are going to see the first Christmas celebration.
We won’t see snow falling and the crackling of a fire but we are going to see a hodge-podge of unusual characters, people we wouldn’t expect to see gathering together for a Christmas celebration but in this gathering of people we are going to see a warmth and an invitation that is still being offered today. Let’s look at Matthew 2, verse 1:
Matthew 2:1-2, “1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
The book of Matthew is in the New Testament and in the New Testament we see 4 different perspectives on Jesus’ life, death and resurrection from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I was just talking to someone and they said, “Yeah, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are 4 different opinions about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.”
I said, “No, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are 4 different perspectives. 4 people see a car accident, they all saw a car accident but they all have different perspectives, so that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all have the same conclusion that Jesus lived here on earth, died for our sin, and rose from the dead, so that we might have eternal life in Him” and the book of Matthew is one of those perspectives.
In Matthew 2 we see that Jesus has arrived. Do you see that in verse 1? Jesus is born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in Israel, a real location on planet earth and Bethlehem is really important for two reasons.
First, the fact that the promised Savior of the world would be born in Bethlehem is a promise made in Micah 5 in the Old Testament, 700 years before the birth of Jesus. We will touch on Micah 5 in a few verses.
Second, Bethlehem is the most unlikely of places for the Savior of the world to be born. Superman was from Planet Krypton. Thor is from Asgard! That sounds fun. I was born in Dallas, TX! Bethlehem is like Hutto. Anyone born in Hutto? (No, that’s embarrassing!)
There was a time when Bethlehem was a big deal. King David was born in Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem means “House of Bread,” because of its proximity to bountiful fields of harvest in the area, but throughout Israel’s history Bethlehem has become a shell of itself, so that when you read the phrase “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem” it would have been anti-climactic, because you would be asking, “Why Bethlehem?” Why not Jerusalem? Why not Rome?
In addition, in verse 1 we see the phrase “magi from the east” and that phrase would have jumped off the page. “Magi from the east” would have grabbed their attention, because magi, not mogwai, would have been these astronomy / scientists type of people from Babylon, modern day Iraq and they would have been the last people you expect to see in the story.
When I do stand-up, I make a joke about a pastor in a comedy club is like a politician showing up to church, “What are you doing here?” Because you don’t expect to see pastors in comedy clubs and in the same way, you aren’t expecting to see “magi from the east” in Bethlehem.
Historically our nativity scenes always show 3 magi present because there are 3 gifts given but we don’t know how many magi are present in verses 1-2. We just know these “magi from the east” would have been highly educated, high status type of people, so that from the opening of verses we see the beginning of this hodge-podge of people gathering together.
We’re seeing Jew and Gentile coming together, educated and uneducated, high class and low class, wealth and poverty in the opening two verses and it says they have gathered to worship. Do you see that at the end of verse 2?
The word “worship” means to bow down and make something the center of your life. In our culture today, we make ourselves the center of our worship, which is why people are stressed out and overwhelmed in life because we are making ourselves the center of our worship, but verses 1-2 we see this hodge-podge of people coming together to make the God of Scripture their center of worship. Look at verses 3-4:
Matthew 2:3-4, “3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.”
In verses 3 and 4 we see the who’s who of Jerusalem coming together to answer the question, “Where is the Messiah to be born?” Do you see that at the end of verse 4? This means the significance of Jesus’ birth wasn’t something people made up after the fact. The significance of Jesus’ birth was something everyone knew about from the very beginning.
I want to go slow here because sometimes Jesus’ birth comes across like one day people got together and said, “Hey let’s tell everyone this guy Jesus was god!” That’s not the case at all. In verse 3 we see that King Herod knew there was a promise of the coming Messiah. Do you see that?
The phrase “all Jerusalem” in verse 3 is a reference to the people of status and influence in Jerusalem, educated, wealthy, so that people of status and influence knew of the promise of the Messiah to be born.
In addition, the religious people know of the Messiah to be born. In verse 4 the chief priests and the scribes are gathered together, because the chief priests and the scribes knew about the promise of a Savior to be born, and verse 3 tells us everyone was “troubled” by this promise because there are over 300 promises in the Old Testament of a Savior who is going to come as a ruler and a shepherd of the people.
Maybe you don’t know this but throughout the Old Testament there are over 300 promises of a Savior to come. Promises of when the Savior will come, where He will be born, what He will do, and everyone in verses 3-4 are nervous because they know about these promises also!
In fact, that’s why “magi from the east” are in Bethlehem, because they had heard about these promises when Israel was in exile in Babylon with books like Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel in the Old Testament, so that these promises are familiar.
Every Jewish boy and girl would have been raised knowing what the Savior will look like, where He will be born, what He will do, so that Matthew 2 is filled with anticipation like Buddy the Elf, “Santa! He’s here.” They have been waiting for this day! Look at verses 5-6:
Matthew 2:5-6, “5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: 6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’”
In verses 5 and 6 the priests and the scribes respond because in verse 4 King Herod asks, “Where is the Messiah to be born” and the priests and the scribes know the Old Testament, so they are like, “That’s easy…in Bethlehem.”
The priests and the scribes know Micah 5 from the Old Testament. The book of Micah in the Old Testament is about a pastor who goes around calling out the corrupt religious leaders of his day and says, “One day a Savior / Messiah is going to come, He will rule His people as a shepherd in grace and truth, and you will know it is Him because He will be born in a little town of Bethlehem.” That’s 700 years before Jesus’ birth!
So that when the Jewish audience in the first century would have seen verse 1, “Jesus was born in Bethlehem” it should have been a party for them! For us, for Gentiles, it’s like Hutto, what, but for Jewish people it’s like, “Hutto, we made it! This is what we’ve been waiting for?” Look at verses 7-8:
Matthew 2:7-8, “7 Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.”
Spoiler alert. Herod doesn’t want to worship Jesus. First, Herod the king wasn’t really a king. Herod was the son of high-ranking official, an enemy of Israel and ultimately functioning as a puppet for the Russians, I am sorry, the Roman Empire who is oppressing the people of Israel.
Second, Herod probably doesn’t know all 300 promises of a Savior to be born in Bethlehem but Herod knows enough to know this baby isn’t coming play patty cake. Herod wants to squash this story as fast as possible, because Jesus’ birth is never presented as a warm fuzzy story to tell around the holidays.
Listen to me, we are all here this morning at different places on our spiritual journey, so that you might think of Jesus is fictional or if He is real He was about love or comfort, but Jesus’ birth is never presented as love and comfort.
Jesus’ birth is never presented as a consumeristic holiday to drive up the sales. Jesus’ birth is never presented as a good philosophy. Jesus’ birth is never presented as a good guy with some good words. Jesus is always presented as God in the flesh who calls us to abandon all things and follow Him with our lives.
In Matthew 8 Jesus says, “Let the dead bury the dead, follow Me.” Matthew 10, “Abandon anyone that comes between you and following Jesus.” Matthew 19, “Sell what you have and follow Me.” John 14, “I am the way, truth and life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Jesus is not only calling us to follow Him but Jesus makes it clear that our lives will find the greatest satisfaction when we follow Jesus. Think about those times when we binge watch shows and how we feel afterwards. We’re exhausted! It never satisfies.
Think about those times when we have been laying around for hours to rest and we still feel unsettled. Think about those times when we come back from a vacation and feel like we need a vacation from our vacation. Why? It’s because the things of this world were never meant to be the center of our lives.
I love my wife but my wife can’t be the center of my world. I love being a pastor but I am okay if I am not a pastor. It’s because only Jesus can be our solid foundation. It’s only Jesus who is strong enough and powerful enough to be our solid rock in all of life, so that over and over Jesus says, “You can turn to those other things in this world but they are going to let you down, therefore, turn to Me, trust in Me, follow Me.” It’s because Jesus’ birth is never about love and comfort. Jesus’ birth is always meant to be disruptive! Look at verses 9-10:
Matthew 2:9-10, “9 After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
Sometimes we get really excited about the star in verses 9 and 10 but I don’t think the star is the focus. Maybe the star is angels glowing that the shepherd saw in Luke 2? Maybe the star is a comet flying through the sky? I don’t know.
I think the focus of verses 9 and 10 is that the “magi from the east” show up rejoicing exceedingly with great joy. Do you see that phrase? The word “exceedingly” at the end of verse 10 in the original language means “great” so that the phrase in verse 10 is “rejoiced greatly with great joy!” It’s a lot of joy!
It means the magi are pretty excited, so that we need to ask ourselves this morning, “How do these magi from the east show up to worship Jesus with great joy” but not these other people in the story. Does that make sense?
The chief priests and scribes would have been people who were saturated in God’s Word. The chief priests and the scribes would have been the ones who knew God’s Word forwards and backwards and yet there is this disconnect for the chief priests and the scribes. Does that make sense? What happened?
We know it isn’t about who you are and where you are born? Jew and Gentile are gathered to worship the birth of Jesus. Educated and uneducated are there. Wealthy and poor, so it doesn’t matter who you are and where you are born. It doesn’t matter where you stand economically. It just matters if you believe the things of this world won’t satisfy and only Jesus is worthy to be worshipped.
The very fact that our soul gets excited about Christmas is evidence that our soul is longing for something more than what this world has to offer. Sure, we are excited about presents, friends and decorations but there is also a part of us that is attracted to the idea of intimacy and warmth that is captured in Christmas.
The longing in our soul is evidence of God’s fingerprints drawing us to Himself but it isn’t fresh fallen snow, it isn’t a crackling fire, it isn’t even the warmth of friends and family but it is the God of creation rightly dividing our souls and calling us to Himself.
The passage we are reading this morning is a gathering of misfits. It is a hodge-podge of people from all walks of life that don’t have anything in common but because of Jesus there is family. It isn’t earthly family, but a heavenly family established in Jesus, so that we can ask ourselves this morning, “Where’s my heart?” Am I looking for the world to satisfy my soul or am I willing to admit it is only Jesus who can fill that void? Look at verses 11-12:
Matthew 2:11-12, “11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.”
Can you imagine what that must have been like? One pastor wrote, “These magi have not seen any miracles from Jesus to convince their belief. These magi have not heard Jesus utter any wise words to convince their belief. These magi only see this baby on the lap of a seemingly insignificant woman, and they bowed down to worship Him.”
At the end of verse 11 we see gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold is a symbol of kingship. They recognize this baby isn’t just a baby but He is king of kings, ruler, creator over heaven and earth.
The frankincense is an expensive fragrance is what priests would use at the temple, so that we are reminded this baby isn’t just king of kings but He is our mediator between God and man.
The third gift is a gift of myrrh, an antiseptic for pain and ultimately used in burial ceremonies to hide the stench of death, so that we are reminded this baby isn’t just king of kings, mediator between God and man, but He is also going to one day take the ultimate death upon Himself at the cross.
In Matthew 1 the angel appears to Joseph and Mary and says, “You shall give birth to a boy, you shall call Him Jesus, and He will save the people from their sins. How does that happen? It’s why Jesus stands in our place at the cross!
The celebration of Christmas isn’t just about a birth of a baby, but the birth of a baby who is the One who will live a perfect life and take our sin at the cross, so that we might have life in Him!
Lately I have been going to these open mics for comedy and there was this 20-year-old talking about her frustrations with Christmas, because of the traffic, parties, shopping, consumerism, and like any good comic, she is drawing out the frustrations of life and says, “Whoever thought of Christmas needs to be killed!” And I said under my breath, “Don’t worry. We’ve already done that!”
Jesus’ birth isn’t about a holiday. It isn’t about warm fuzzies. Jesus’ birth is about believing the things of this world won’t satisfy but instead bowing down and worshipping Him. That’s our invitation this morning. You can be Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, male or female, significant or unimportant in the eyes of the world but we are all invited to worship.
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
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