A Few Good Men Part 2 | Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

0:01 Beloved, Merry Christmas to you and all your family and friends. I'm excited today to get back into part two of our series that we began last weekend, A Few Good Men. I want to remind you that this is not a series about or only for men, but rather an opportunity for us to take a look at and learn from the men that play a part in the role of the birth of Jesus Christ. Last week, we began with Joseph. Joseph, a righteous man who is connected to the birth of Christ for one reason only, because he's righteous. And as we looked at Joseph last week, he shared with us some lessons about righteousness, about restraining our desire for revenge, about learning to pause, ponder, and pray, about being dedicated to doing what we discern from the Lord.

0:56 Today, as we get into another part of A Few Good Men, I want to invite you back into the Gospel of Matthew and hear the familiar reading of some more men that God uses as part of the miraculous story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Hear, if you will, the story of the wise men found in Matthew chapter 2, and I'll begin reading in the New International Version of God's Word in verse number 1. Matthew chapter 2, beginning in verse number 1. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi came from the east to Jerusalem, and they asked, Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose, and we've come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all of Jerusalem with him.

1:55 When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them, where was the Messiah to be born? In Bethlehem of Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. Quoting from Micah chapter 5, they say, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star that they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

2:51 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warmed in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. Let's talk about a few good men as we look at the wise men. I think I can say without fear of debate or denial that the wise men are critical to the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. You've never been to a Christmas play and there were no wise men. You've never seen a manger setting outside of a church or on your neighbor's lawn, and there'd be no wise men.

3:49 The wise men are responsible for our tradition of sharing gifts at Christmas. The same way they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh to Jesus, we share gifts with one another as family and friends in the tradition of the wise men. Who are the wise men? Well, tradition and legend has added a whole lot more than what Matthew describes. As a matter of fact, our tradition and our legends around the wise men are most clearly seen and heard in that carol, We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we travel afar, Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. That carol gives us some of the legend and tradition that identifies some things Matthew didn't. Number one, that there were three of them.

4:47 Matthew doesn't identify a number, but because of the three gifts, tradition has suggested that there were three wise men. The hymn also, the carol also suggests that there were kings. because of the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, which were reserved for royalty. Tradition has led us to believe that these were kings from the east, from the Orient. Maybe Melchior of Persia, Gaspar of India, or Belteshire of Arabia. We don't know all of that. All we do know from Matthew is that they are from the east, and Matthew identifies them as magi. Let the church say magi. Magi, or in the Greek, as Matthew writes, magoi, plural. Magi in that day was a term that was reserved for sorcerers, magicians, or in this case, astrologers.

5:48 And what we discern from these who come searching for Jesus is that they have a cosmological awareness. They have mapped out the constellation of the stars They've identified a rising star and attached it to the birth of royalty. They are then able to follow and navigate their way through the stars all the way from the east into Jerusalem and ultimately to Bethlehem. They travel hundreds, maybe thousands of miles following the stars. And because of their astrological and cosmological awareness, because they had the scientific wherewithal to map out the stars, because they could navigate terrain by looking at the stars at night, we identify them as wise. So we don't use the term magi. We call them wise men because of their scientific, their cosmological, their astrological awareness and astuteness and ability to navigate by the stars.

6:54 But I would argue with you today that these men we look at, that Matthew identifies, whether there were three or more, that their wisdom is not limited to their understanding of the stars. But if you hang out with these men, you'll see that what makes them wise is not just what they identified in the star, but some other things that we see that I believe teach us some wisdom. The same way Joseph taught us about righteousness, I believe these men teach us about wisdom. The question I asked is, what draws these men to Jerusalem? Well, pagan tradition from which they came suggested that the rising of a star was connected to the birth of a new monarch on earth. Their pagan traditions believe that a rising star, a comet, whatever it was, was attached to the birth of royalty.

7:54 And so when in the East they identify a rising star, their natural inclination is to believe that a new king has been born. And so they begin following the star because they're looking for a king. The Bible says in Matthew chapter two, Matthew identifies that the time in which they come to Jerusalem is the time in which Herod is king. Herod the Great, who's responsible for building the temples, reigned and ruled over Jerusalem at that time. He was king of Judea. The problem is that Herod is a king appointed by the Roman government. His authority rests in the fact that he's been appointed by other human authority. Now, you need to know that part of the reason Herod had such great difficulty ruling over the people is because people then understand what you understand now.

8:56 And that is that monarchs are not appointed. Monarchs are birthed by blood. Kings are not put on the throne by human hands. Kings reign over their throne by their birth line, by their bloodline. It could it be that that's part of the reason Matthew chapter one begins with a genealogy that in Matthew chapter one, Matthew traces the bloodline of Jesus to attach it to David so that you would understand that this king who is born is not given authority by human appointment. He's given authority by birth, by his bloodline. He is the son of God. He is the heir of David. He has the right to reign over his people. So when these wise men get to Jerusalem, they get to Jerusalem when Herod appointed.