"Matthew 2:1-12"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Jude, during the time of King Herrod, Major from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the 1 who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. Well, when herod Conherod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all of the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They replied, for this is what the prophet has written.

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 Major I 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've heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. So in the passage that we had read before, it follows the wise men, sometimes called Majai, from which we get the word magician. These were mystical people who would look to the stars and try and predict the future, and they'd look at ancient manuscripts as well and sacred scrolls. And these wise men realized that there was a new star or a star that had risen, and they realized that they needed to go on a journey.

A journey to find a king. They realized the king had been born, and they needed to follow that star to find the king. And so they packed their bags to go. They packed the important things. Boys and girls, I wonder what you would think of to pack.

There are some essentials that you've got to pack out there for going on a journey. Especially if it's a long journey. You might need some, well, you might need to be able to cook, so you might take with you a frying pan. You gotta take some food with you as well. So maybe, well, nothing better than hoops.

Gotta have your hoops so that maybe they took them. And of course, you gotta take some clothes. Gotta take some warm clothes in case it's cold, like, this morning. But maybe you also might want to take your swimming trunks, take them. So maybe the wise men, maybe they were wise, so they would take trunks just in case.

And well, I mean, yeah, you gotta take Teddy, haven't you? So they packed their bag to go and to go on a journey. And it would have been a long journey. They probably went well, they possibly went from what's today called Iran or Iraq. And traveled all the way.

It was a long journey that they would have gone on. And once they packed, they set out. Well, they tried to They set out on their journey to go and find the king. And it would have been quite a long way. This maybe might have been how long they went.

Says it's over 2000 kilometers. That's 471 hours of solid walking, which might have taken well, if you did that all in 1 go, that's like 20 days of solid walking. It probably took them a month. To get to travel, at least, traveling all that way to find the king. And at last, they arrived in the land of Israel.

Where the star had led them. And they'd come to find a king, a new king. Now if you were arriving in a land, a new land that you didn't know, and you were trying to find a baby king who'd been born. I wonder where you would go in that land. Talk with the person next to you.

Put yourself in their shoes and say, where would you go? You're arriving in a new land. Where would you head? If you came to this land, and you were trying to find a new baby king. Where would you go?

Talk to the person next to you. See what they think. Okay. What do you think? Where would you go to find a new king?

What do you think? Someone someone put a hannah or Shouter. Shouter. We're not at school. Oh, no.

We are at school. Where where would you go to find a new king? A palace? Thank you. Any advance on a palace?

Hospital. That's good. Works for the NHS. Very good. Sandringham today, maybe?

Okay. Ma'am, you might go you might go to a palace. You might go to you might go to the capital city of the country. Maybe that would be a first place to go. And that's where these wise men went.

They went to Jerusalem, and they asked, where is the 1 who's been born king of the Jews? Now, herod, who was king, wasn't happy with this. He heard them asking where a king had been born, but he was king, and he didn't want there to be another king. So he got together some really brainy people. He got together the big brains group, the people who would know things and who knew their bibles.

And he said to them, where is the Messiah born? Now Messiah is another name for the king. It's god's forever king. And he said, where is this Messiah gonna be born? And so these brainy people they looked really carefully in their manuscripts and in their scrolls, and they looked in the Bible.

And they found a prophecy in the Bible, which was 800 years old. And it was read for us this morning. It was in the book of Micah, and it says this. 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. They'd found it.

They knew where to look. Bethlehem was the place to look. Bethlehem was the place to go. And did you see in the prophecy, it says about the king being a shepherd, 1 who's gonna look after people and bring them back to god, a shepherd who will care for people. This is gonna be a king worth finding, and so they set out.

From Jerusalem to go to Bethlehem. And this is what it says. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them. Until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

So the wise men set out again, and they followed the star again. Now we kind of think the star is kind of nice and sweet, you know, pretty thing. You put 1 on the top of your tree maybe. And you think it's a cute kind of thing. But the star was a big deal.

These wise men, they didn't have satnav. Maybe you follow satnav if you're going on a long journey in the car, they didn't have that. They had something more amazing. God moved a huge star in the galaxy. He moved millions and billions and trillions of tons of nuclear fire across the universe so that these wise men could find the king.

It was like god's big signpost saying, here is my king. And that's pretty incredible, isn't it? That God would do that? If you've lost something and your mom helps you find it, you could say, mum, you're good, but god's even better. He moved a star so that people would know where his king was.

Now I wonder how hard you're looking for the king? How hard are you looking? The wise men, you see, were desperate to find god's king. They traveled hundreds of miles followed a star. They risked upsetting King Herrod, and they studied 800 year old prophecies.

They did what it took to find Jesus. What about you? Are you looking for the king? God's forever king who will bring people home to their loving god? How could you find him?

Well, You could look in the Bible. That 800 year old prophecy is still there in the Bible, and you could read it. And you could find out more about god's key by reading more of the Bible. The wise men, they traveled hundreds of miles. Well, you don't have to travel hundreds of miles.

Maybe you did travel a long way to be here this morning, but it probably wasn't that far. But every week, you could come here on a Sunday morning, 10 30 to find out more about god's king. And I think some people here this morning were invited by someone else. Maybe you were invited. They said, well, how about coming along?

Come along to church. Christmas morning. Come along. How about if you if you've been invited here, the person who invited you, how about if you said, can I take you out for a coffee in the new year, maybe? Tell you out for a coffee and find out from them how they found Jesus?

How they discovered him? Who he is? What he came to do? Find the king. That's what the wise men did, and that's what we need to do.

Okay. So he's picking up on verse 9. After they had heard the king, They went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 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 him when they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, Frankincense, and, thank you, Paul.

So they found Bethlehem. They went there and found the king. They found Jesus, and they bowed down in worship before him. An amazing thing, isn't it? They bowed down in worship to this child.

This baby, this boy, they bowed down before him in worship. And they gave him gifts that they brought with him with them. It wasn't Teddy. And it wasn't well, it wasn't the clothes. No.

And it wasn't a No. Not that. They'd have rummaged around, pound the gifts of gold. And what was the next 1? Thank you, Frankincense.

I haven't forgotten. It's just testing you. And then the last 1 what was it? Ma'am, do I have to spell it or say? Ma'am, and they brought them out expensive precious gifts that they gave to Jesus.

And did you notice in the reading? There are 3 titles or names for Jesus. That were used. We've seen them through the reading. The first 1 sorry.

They found the king, and they worshiped the king. That's the second thing. They found the king, and then they worshiped the king. Like I say, 3 names for or titles for Jesus. First is king.

Jesus called the king. The wise men called him a king. When they went to Jerusalem, they said, where where is the 1 who's being born king of the Jews? A king is a ruler, someone who reigns rules over people, but he was also called Messiah. Do you remember we I said, that's god's promised forever king.

In the old testament, It talks about a Messiah, a particular king who will come, who will be unlike any other king. He's not just king of 1 nation, 1 country, but the king of all countries and all people And his reign won't just last for 10 years or 20 years or 100 years, but will last forever. And he'll be the perfect king. So it says in the Old Testament in Isaiah, of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever, the zeal of the lord, almighty, will accomplish this.

Did you hear in that reading? It says he's gonna be the perfect king. He will have a kingdom which is known to be 1 of peace and justice, and it will go on forever. He's the forever king. And he's called a shepherd.

1 who's come to serve, his flock, not himself. And that's what Jesus did. He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He came to be the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep Jesus loves us so much that just like a shepherd might put himself in harm's way to save his sheep. Jesus put himself through death for us to rescue us, and it's a rescue we all need because we all need rescuing from our sin.

And Jesus came to do that for us. There is no 1 better to worship than Jesus. We should worship him too. Find the king. And worship the king.

The wise men went on an adventure that first Christmas. And people who want to understand Jesus, people who wanna be like those wise men, that's what Christmas is about. It's about finding Jesus, the Christ, the king, the Messiah, the shepherd, and worshiping him. The wise men wouldn't have felt like they belonged with god's people. They'd have felt like they were on the outside.

But that didn't stop them finding and worshiping the king. Don't let it stop you. If you feel like you're a bit on the outside, not really 1 of god's people. Don't let it stop you from finding the king and worshiping him bowing before him. What does it mean to worship Jesus?

Well, it's more than just giving him a 1 off gift to worship Jesus means more than just coming to church on a Sunday or on Christmas day. It means making Jesus number 1 in your life. It means living for Jesus. So boys and girls, if you're fast, you'll wanna win races for him. If you're an artist, you'll want to paint pictures or, you know, or make music for him.

If you're brilliant with people, you'll want to be friendly to people and kind to them for him. You wanna do your work for him, your schoolwork for him, family time, sport, whatever it may be. You wanna do it to glorify him. Whatever God has given you will do it to in thankfulness to him and use those gifts to show other people how brilliant our king is. How much he loves us?

How he helps us as our shepherd? Worshiping Jesus, worshiping the king, is trusting him and bringing him our best every day. So find the king and worship the king. He is definitely worth it.