Matthew 2:1-12
The Hope of the Wise
Men
Open your Bible to…
Rom. 15:12 And again, Isaiah says:
“There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”
Pray
Intro
√ The hope of the Wise Men
Christmas is the season of hope! In the weeks leading up to Christmas you’ll hear things like…
“I hope I get an iPod for Christmas”
“I hope I get an Xbox3”
“I hope I get a car that works!”
This kind of hope is a wish for something good that is sometimes fulfilled but often not.
While we may be disappointed if we don’t get what we hope for the consequences are usually not devastating.
New Years is also a season of hope, but this kind of hope is usually less trivial.
“I hope I get to keep my job this year”
“I hope I beat my cancer this year”
“I hope we get pregnant this year”
Hope ~ even the sound of that word can lift your spirits when you’re down!
Hope is the thing keeps you going when life seems to be going nowhere or going in the wrong direction.
Hope gives you something to cling to when you’ve lost your job, or your health, or someone you love.
Hope is a spark inside your soul that tells you that tomorrow things will be better.
Ex. Norwegian Wharf Rats
But the problem with this kind of hope is that it is always based upon uncertainty. For example, we may say…
“I hope they’ll get a See’s Candy store at the Mall!”
That kind of hope is a wish, not a certainty.
We can hope all we like for something, and all the indications may be that it will come true, but life is unpredictable and things can change at the last moment to dash all our hopes.
In the Bible, however, there is a unique kind of hope that is never a wish.
Biblical hope is always based upon an absolute certainty.
You can hope for these things with the complete confidence that they will happen.
It’s the kind of hope that the Wise Men of the Nativity Story had.
A hope based upon what God had promised, and, since God always fulfills His promises, they were able to look forward with absolute hope.
So, what were the Wise Men hoping to find when they traveled
all the way to
A king ~ more than a king, the King of kings!
How did they know He was coming?
What did a star have to do with their search?
And what has all of this to do with me?
Ap. Hope!
It has to do with me because hope is one of the strongest motivators in the human soul.
Even hope built on the slightest possibility of something good can keep you going ~ like our rats!
But the best kind of hope is hope that is anchored to a certainty. That’s what Biblical hope is all about!
The Bible talks a lot of about hope in order to encourage us when life goes wrong.
You’ll discover that this kind of hope is always tied to the firm foundation of Jesus…
If we believe in Him we have the hope (certainty) of eternal life.
If we follow him, we have the hope (certainty) of His guidance, protection, provision and care every day of our lives.
Jesus is the anchor that links us to all of the promises of God that lie in the future for God’s people.
Ap. This lesson is illustrated for us by the Wise Men
The Magi arrived in
What brought them to
They were certain that the King of kings had been born and they had come to worship him!
The Wise Men teach us that . . .
God is the source of hope
Jesus is the fulfillment of hope
We gain a certain hope when we follow Jesus
I can’t think of anything I’d rather have this Christmas than the certain hope we have in Jesus!
The source of hope (vs. 1-2)
Matt.2:1 Now after
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to
Matt.2:2 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.”
√ God is the source of hope
Matthew tells us that in the days (or months) after Jesus was born that “wise men” came seeking Him that they might worship Him!
Who were these guys?
Much of what has been written about the Magi is based upon speculation or traditions that probably have no basis in fact.
For example, they were not kings but were rather advisors to kings.
The word “wise man” comes from the word in the original text “magoi”, which means…
“a Magician, that is, an Oriental scientist; by implication a magician:-- sorcerer, wise man.”
They were probably from either
Historically the Magi functioned as the religious, civil,
and political counsel to the kings of Media and
They were trained in astronomy, astrology, science, and religion (ref. Daniel 1).
They studied the stars and the influence they believed the stars had on the lives and destinies of people and nations.
They were interpreters of dreams – as we see in the example of Daniel and his friends.
So, why was this group of Gentile “wise men” looking for, and excited about a Jewish King?
After all,
What did they expect from a Jewish king?
Why would they undertake such a long, dangerous, and costly journey to see Him?
Because, I believe that the text strongly suggests that they believed in the God of the Jews!
“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.” ~ vs. 2
They hadn’t come to worship…
Caesar,
though there was a
Nor had they come to worship Herod, though he called himself the “king of the Jews”.
They had come to worship a specific king, a king proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets who would establish a kingdom of righteousness and love!
√ The Word of hope
So, how would these Gentiles know anything about the promised Messiah spoken of by the Jewish prophets?
They must have had studied God’s Word!
It is very likely that they had learned of the One true God and His promise to send the Messiah through the writings of Daniel and the rest of the Old Testament.
Remember, Daniel was carried to
We know that Daniel had access to the Old Testament (ref. Dan. 9:2) and wrote part of it.
That Daniel and his friends earned the respect of the magi
and the rulers of
In fact, we know that Daniel was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as the chief of the wise men (Dan. 4:9)
So, many Bible students believe that Daniel had such a powerful influence on the Persian culture that centuries later these wise man were still studying the Jewish scriptures…
…had believed in the God of Israel, and were looking for the sign that the Jewish King had arrived!
√ The sign of hope
Presuming that the wise men had in fact been studying the Word of God…
…what scripture
would they have discovered that motivated them to travel to
I think there’s a hint in vs. 2…
“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.”
That is, these wise men had seen some sign in the heavens that they interpreted as a fulfillment of God’s Word announcing that the King of the Jews had come!
What sign? A star…
“His Star”! ! vs. 2
Ex. The prophecy of Balaam
Balak, the king of
Num. 24:15 So he took up his oracle and said: “The utterance of Balaam the son
of Beor, And the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened;
Num. 24:16 The utterance of him who hears the words of God, And has the
knowledge of the Most High, Who sees
the vision of the Almighty, Who falls
down, with eyes wide open:
Num. 24:17 “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.
That is, the prophecy speaks of a coming King, but not in the days of Balaam or Balak…
…rather, in the future a King (Scepter) shall arise out of Jacob (Israel) whose coming would be marked by a Star.
What kind of a star? We’ll cover that at the end of our study!
The important truth that we glean from these wise men is that they left their homes with the hope of finding the King that they wanted to worship…
…and that the source of their hope was God and His Word which is always a certain hope.
The dilemma of hope (vs. 3-8)
Matt.2:3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all
Matt.2:4 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.
Matt.2:5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for
thus it is written by the prophet:
Matt.2:6 ‘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.’”
Matt.2:7 Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men,
determined from them what time the star appeared.
Matt.2:8 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.”
√ The dilemma of hope
Matthew tells us that Herod, the false king in
Matthew tells us that they were “troubled” literally…
“to stir, to agitate, like rolling water”
Ex. Your boss wants to talk to you privately!
Doesn’t matter what the subject is, good or bad…
…now all you can think about is what he might say to you!
Your stomach gets upset (stirred up)
You can get your mind off it
You can’t sleep
That’s what “troubled” means.
√ Why was Herod troubled?
Herod was troubled because news of the newborn king presented him a dilemma.
The hope of the Messiah didn’t fit with his agenda because Herod was sitting on Messiah’s throne!
This was “Herod the Great” (the father and grandfather of
the other “Herod’s mentioned in the New Testament) and he was troubled because
the throne in
…wasn’t his to occupy!
While he was a son of Abraham, through Esau, he wasn’t truly
Jewish because he couldn’t trace his lineage to Jacob (
Nor was he a descendant of David
Therefore he did not have the legal right to the throne or to the title “king of the Jews” and sought to destroy anyone who threatened his rule.
Ex. Herod’s dilemma
A dilemma is defined as…
“A situation in which one must choose one of two or more unsatisfactory alternatives.”
Herod’s dilemma was that he had to choose to either…
Acknowledge that he was wrong and surrender the throne to Jesus.
Or, to continue his masquerade and try to prevent Jesus from taking the throne.
For Herod the choice was clear, he would rather fight with God than surrender his throne to the Hope of God!
Ex. Herod’s choice ~ violent resistance
He would seek to kill Jesus just as he had killed all those before who he thought might take his throne including…
3 of his own sons
His favorite wife ~ Marianne
His mother-in-law
His brother-in-law
His uncle
300 court officers who protested the execution of his sons
Herod’s choice is an extreme example of all who reject Jesus.
That is, everyone who rejects the hope that the wise men sought does so because God’s hope presents them with a dilemma.
The dilemma? Once I realize that Jesus truly is the promised King who will one day rule the World, I must chose to…
Acknowledge that I am wrong and surrender the throne of my heart to Jesus.
Or, to continue the masquerade and try to prevent Jesus from taking the throne in my heart.
The unrepentant person, like Herod, doesn’t like either choice (that’s why it’s a dilemma)…
…but, they rather fight with God than surrender the throne.
Ap. Have you surrendered the throne in your heart?
Are you more like the Wise Men, or Herod?
The curious truth is that those who surrender their heart to Jesus will find that they gain far more than they ever gave up!
While those who try to hold onto their life will ultimately lose it and everything they hoped for!
Jim Elliot captured it best…
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”
The hope that God offers presents each of us with a dilemma, to gain what He has promised requires us to give Him our life…
…we cannot receive His promises and still sit on the throne of our heart!
The fulfillment of hope (vs. 9-12)
Matt.2:9 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.
Matt.2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great
joy.
Matt.2:11 And when they had come into the house, they saw
the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their
treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matt.2:12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not
return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
√ The fulfillment of hope
Matthew tells us that once the wise men had received greater revelation (from the Word of Hope)…
…that they set out again to find the object of their hope.
“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.” ~ vs. 9
At first pass my assumption would be that the star they had seen in the East, and that they now followed to where Jesus lived…
…was a natural star like the North Star, Polaris.
Ex. Many suggest that it was a natural phenomena
Conjunction of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, or a comet.
Perhaps it was!
But, consider the following…
1) “Star”, astare, in Greek is used both literally and
figuratively (i.e. Rev. 22:16).
2) The star was first seen from the East, disappeared, reappeared (vs. 9) and led them to the house where Jesus was living.
3) Natural stars don’t appear, disappear, then reappear.
4) The
star led them from
…natural stars travel east to west across the sky.
Couple of possibilities…
It could have been an Angel (referred to as “stars” in Revelation 12:4), like the Angel’s that shone out in the night sky when Jesus was born!
It could be that the “star” the wise men followed was the Shekinah glory of God!
The same glory that led
the children of
Whichever, the result was the star led the Wise Men to their hope…
…their hope was fulfilled in the Person of Jesus!
√ They worshiped
Once they found the hope they sought we read that…
“And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him” – Vs. 11
The word “worship” is the Greek, proskuneo and literally means…
“to lean toward to kiss”
The picture is of a person who bows down on their knees, and then kisses the feet of the one whom they seek to honor…
…not what one would expect a Gentile nobleman to do to a Hebrew child living with a poor family!
√ They gave gifts to the King
Matthew tells us that the wise men also presented the King with some very expensive gifts, but not gifts that one would normally give to a child!
Ex. Baby blanket, crib, toys!
Rather, the wise men present Jesus with…
Frankincense
Myrrh
Many scholars suggest that these gifts are symbolic of the character and ministry of Jesus. That is…
Gold = King (ruler & deity)
Frankincense = Priest (incense of the
Myrrh = Savior (fragrance for embalming)
It is also likely that the heavenly Father prompted these
gifts as a means for Joseph to
provide for his family when they were forced to flee to
But the main point is that their worship and their gifts communicate to us that they had found what they were looking for…
…the fulfillment of their hope in the Person of Jesus Christ ~ the King of kings!
Paul confirms this promise…
Rom. 15:12 And again, Isaiah says:
“There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”
Reminding us that real hope is always tied to the firm foundation of Jesus…
If we believe in Him we have the hope (certainty) of eternal life.
If we follow him, we have the hope (certainty) of His guidance, protection, provision and care every day of our lives.
Jesus is the anchor that links us to the promises of God that lie in the future for God’s people.
Close
√ The hope of the Wise Men
The Wise Men teach us that . . .
God is the source of hope (His Word)
Jesus is the fulfillment of hope (His Son)
We gain a certain hope when we follow Jesus (His Promise)
I can’t think of anything I’d rather have this Christmas than the certain hope we have in Jesus!