Who were the wise men, and what was the Christmas star?

In the nativity accounts, magi follow a star to find the newborn King — while a villain named Herod plots against Him. In this sermon (Luke 2; Matthew), Dr. Toby Holt opens the lesser-understood corners of the Christmas story.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. Who were the wise men? Gentile seekers from the East who recognized the significance of the King's birth and came to worship Him.

2. Who was Herod? A ruthless and paranoid king who, fearing a rival, sought to destroy the Christ child — the dark shadow over the nativity.

3. What was the star? A God-given sign that led the magi to Christ, testifying that even the heavens declared the coming of the King.

"...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.'" — Matthew 2:2 (NKJV)

Speaker: In the nativity accounts, magi follow a star to find the newborn King — while a villain named Herod plots against Him. In this sermon (Luke 2; Matthew), Dr. Toby Holt opens the lesser-understood corners of the Christmas story.

Once upon a time, there was an incredibly wicked pagan king.

This king was incredibly wicked, he was incredibly pagan, but he was also just incredibly skilled, incredibly smart.

He was incredibly gifted in so many ways, and as gifted as he was, he was equally depraved.

And because he was so depraved, because he was such a bad egg, the people hated him.

They could not stand this king.

Now as this king grew old, and as his health began to fail him, the king observed something.

He began to realize that when he died, that the people would not be sad.

He began to realize that when he died, what might happen would be just the opposite,

that people would celebrate, they'd have a party, they would rejoice because he was gone.

And so this king, out of the depravity of his heart, he did this.

He determined that leaders and noblemen from around the region would be gathered together,

and on the day that he died, on the day that his health failed him,

on the day that he breathed his last, these rulers and leaders and noblemen would also be put to death in mass.

And that way, that way, although no one would miss his presence, although no one would grieve for him, there would yet still be grief.

There would yet still be grieving and mourning in the region, even if it were not because of his own demise.

This man, such a man, would have to be a monster.

What monster are we talking about?

Well, we're talking about the monster that we see in today's text,

the man we know as Herod the Great.

Alternatingly, Herod the Terrible, Herod the Vile,

Herod the King that we see in Matthew chapter 2.

Now, a couple of additional details before we get into our text.

History tells us that this Herod the Great,

He was known as Herod the Great not because he was a great guy,

but because he did things that were mighty and impressive.

If you ever go to Israel, some of the greatest ruins that you'll see there,

some of the greatest sites that you'll visit will be things, things that were crafted at the hand of King Herod.

Some of the best building projects in all of the antiquated Middle East came at the hand of this man, this Herod.

He was impressive, he was skilled, he was shrewd, he was smart, he was able to do a great manner of things.

Even his enemies in other parts of the world admired him for his administrative talent and the like.

Now, as you're probably aware, Herod was actually a king of a vassal state.

It was the Romans who had power over Israel.

So he was more of a vassal king.

And as a vassal king, he would refer to himself publicly as a Jew.

But here's the thing.

He was not a true Jew in the sense of having his ancestry traced back to Jacob.

He was not a true Jew in the sense of having come from Jacob, from the patriarchs.

Rather, his lineage, his ancestry was that of an Edomite.

And that meant he came from Esau.

That meant he came not from Jacob, who God said, I have loved, but Esau, who God said he had hated.

This was his lineage.

Now, if you remember Esau, remember Esau in the Bible?

Esau was the guy.

He was kind of a practical guy.

One day he's hungry and he traded to Jacob, his brother, his birthright in order to get a bowl of stew.

He traded his birthright.

Esau was a practical, pragmatic guy who would trade something spiritual in order for a meal right now.

Well, just like Esau, Herod was also a pragmatist.

Herod was also practical.

He didn't think too much about spiritual concerns.

He didn't think too much about spiritual realities and the like, except in one area.

Except in one area.

Herod, as we see in today's text and as we see in history, Herod had one spiritual concern,

and that was with regard to prophecies about a coming king, about a coming Messiah.

This was one area he was concerned about.

Herod was concerned about the prophecies that spoke of a Messiah, a leader, a king who would come and set up rule in Jerusalem who would be known as a king of the Jews.

And the reason that Herod was so concerned about this, the reason that this was such a focus for Herod was because this king was prophesied to arrive and to induct a reign and rule that would be greater than his own.

As great as Herod the Great thought he was when he looked himself in the mirror, the prophecies said one far greater was coming.

And to a guy like Herod, to a guy who was vain, to a guy who was vile, this was something he wanted no part of.

He did not want to see the arrival, the coming of this child.

Well, in today's reading in Matthew 2, King Herod is going to hear news that's going to set his ears on fire.

He's going to hear news that the king that all of prophecy anticipated, the king that the Jews had been waiting for for centuries,

He's going to hear news that just such a king, just such a child had been born.

Not far from him, in the city of Bethlehem.

So what did old Herod plan to do about that?

Well, let's find out together now.

Let's look at verses 1 through 6 of our text,

and then we'll work our way through the balance of the chapter.

Let's come to understand Herod, and let's come to understand

why he had such animosity towards the one we know as Jesus Christ.

Verse 1.

Now when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and the scribes and the people together,

He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

And so they said to him in Bethlehem, in Bethlehem of Judea.

For thus is written by the prophet,

but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not least among the rulers of Judah.

For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

You know at Christmas time, growing up, we played Christmas music.

My folks had records. I don't know if anyone uses them much anymore, but we had records in our house.

However, we didn't have a lot of Christmas records.

I think we had like three Christmas records, and they got a lot of utility each Christmas year for years and years.

With that said, one of the records, one of the three we had, was by a guy.

And I'll give you his name, and those who recognize his name, you are instantly dating yourself.

But the man was named Engelbert Humperdinck.

I think I was attracted just to the name. I don't know what it was.

But I would play Engelbert Humperdinck back when I was a kid.

I'd spit it on the old turntable. We'd listen to Engelbert Humperdinck.

And my favorite of all the songs that he sung was a song we know as We Three Kings.

Now, I liked the song for a lot of reasons. I thought it had a good catchy tune.

Well, Inglebert really nailed that one, so I enjoyed listening to that song.

And yet, yet over the years, as the years went by, I came to realize that this song is not renowned for its theology.

See, in time, I learned a few things about the three kings from Orient.

First of all, I learned, and I'm sure you've learned in time as well, that these weren't actually kings.

These were not actually kings.

Scripture refers to them as wise men.

Perhaps they were Magi, astronomers from foreign lands.

Not necessarily kings.

Second of all, there was not necessarily three of them.

One of the reasons we come to the conclusion of those three kings is because there was three gifts.

Three gifts, three kings, that's kind of what's commonly been understood.

The third problem is that these wise men, per se, they did not come from the Orient, at least as we would understand it,

but they came in all likelihood from Persia, what might be known as modern-day Iran or Iraq.

This is where they came from.

In any case, Matthew 2 says that at some point after Jesus was born,

not necessarily the night of, but at some point after Jesus was born,

that behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.

And these wise men had been following a star.

They'd been following a star in the sky.

They'd come a great distance following a star that had led them to Jerusalem,

which would ultimately lead them to Bethlehem,

in order that they might worship the one known as the king of the Jews.

Now pretend you're Herod.

This caravan has come in.

We don't know how many people it was,

but it would have been notable when there was dignitaries from foreign lands came in.

So of course Herod knew, and when he heard why they were there,

when he heard that they were seeking out the king of the Jews who had recently been born,

well of course Herod's ears began to burn, his blood began to run hot,

and he would have felt threatened in that moment

and inclined to do something about it.

And so what he would do is he would ask.

He would turn to his scribes and the priests

and people who evidently knew the Bible a lot better than he did

and he would say, all right, where is this child to be born?

And the scribes would report back to him

what Scripture says in the book of Micah.

They would say this child is to be born in Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, out of you,

though you are the least of the rulers of Judah,

out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd, shepherd my people. All right, let's see what

Herod decides to do with this information in verses 7 and 8. Verse 7, then Herod, when he had

secretly called the wise men, he determined from them what time the star had appeared. And then he

sent them to Bethlehem, and he said, go, search carefully for the young child, and when you've

found him, bring word back to me, for I want to worship him also. I want to worship him as well.

All right. As we've said, it was in the book of Micah that prophecies were recorded as to where

the Messiah would be born. Across the whole of the Old Testament, as we call it, across the whole

of the Old Testament, there was prophecies that talked about the coming Messiah, who he would be,

what he would do, and circumstances regarding his birth and regarding his death. The Old Testament

is filled with references to Jesus Christ, and one of them said he would be born in Bethlehem.

Now, there's another prophecy, lesser known in Isaiah 60, that spoke to the star that would come.

Arise, shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness

shall cover the earth, deep darkness upon the people, but the Lord will rise over you. His glory

will be seen upon you. The Gentiles, such as those coming from Persia in a caravan, the Gentiles

shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. The Gentiles shall

come to your light. That's exactly what happened. Centuries after these words were written, Gentiles

were drawn by the light of a star. In Numbers 24, 17, it said a star shall come out of Jacob, a scepter

out of Israel. There were many prophecies that suggested that the birth, the coming, the arrival

of this child would be marked in some way and a star is the one that was most repeatedly pointed

to now what kind of star was it what kind of star was it well there's a lot of theories about that

now secular sources tend to look to secular answers they say well the christmas star that

appeared all those centuries ago what it really was there was a star that went supernova and it

was so bright and so amazing that the astronomers and those confused people of antiquity that they

thought it was something significant, and so they went in the direction of the star. Some believe

that. Others believe that the star, that Saturn, Jupiter, they line up just the right way, cast a

certain light, and that's the Christmas star, that that's what the wise men saw. Others say it was a

comet that they were following. Still others believe it was nothing less than a miracle,

that the God who led Israel by a pillar of fire by night can also cook up a star in order to lead

wise men. There's others who believe that. We'll speak to that in a moment. With that said, whatever

the nature that the star had or didn't have, it had only recently come into view, and Herod had a

question. He wanted to know when. He says, when did the star appear? Why do you think he wanted to know

when? What was his intentions? What difference did that particular detail make? Well, the reason it

was significant to Herod was because the star's appearance, at whatever time it appeared, at

whatever time the wise men started to follow it, that would suggest the birth date of the child who has been born.

Remember, our nativity scenes tend to depict that on the very night Jesus was born,

that suddenly three kings or three wise men just showed up.

That's not the way it worked.

It took time for them to get there.

So Herod wanted to know, when did the star appear?

He wanted to know when the star appeared because that would give him some idea of how long the child had been around.

Now, when Herod questioned these wise men, these Magi, whatever they were, they may have asked him.

We don't know here, but they may have asked him why he was so interested in these things.

It might have been on their face, kind of wondering what he was getting at or what his point was.

I mean, Herod, you have to remember, he was known as, the best word I can come up with is jerk.

He was known as one of the greatest jerks of antiquity.

He was a villain, he was a despot, he was all these things.

And so they probably had heard rumors about this and wondered why he was so eager to know about the child.

You know, there was a Caesar, Caesar Augustus at that time.

And Caesar Augustus knew Herod's tendencies.

Herod had killed his own wife he'd killed his own kids Herod had no problem killing anybody who was

His friend let alone his enemy Caesar Augustus once said this of Herod he said it would be safer

to be Herod's pig than to be Herod's son this was his reputation it'd be safer to be Herod's pig in

His stall than to be his son in his house it's with that reputation in mind that the Magi having

probably heard these rumors, might have wondered why he wants to know. And so he answers. He says,

well, here's the thing. I want you to find the child and come back to me because, oh, oh,

deary me, it's my great desire to come and to worship this child as well. Come and worship

this child. You know, if you ever watched the old silent movies and the villain twirls his mustache

and the like, you can picture something like that here. You can picture this villain speaking

villainous words. And the wise men would have reason to wonder about his sincerity. Let's look

at verses 9 through 12. Now, when they heard the king, they departed. And behold, the star which

they had seen in the east went before them. And it wasn't a far distance, just so you're aware.

Went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. This language suggests

something supernatural. It suggests the origins, the transcendent origins of the star and transcendent

guidance of the star, not necessarily a comet, not necessarily Jupiter. There's a suggestion here

of a star that came and stood over where the young child was. Whatever the case, in verse 10,

it says that when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they'd come

into the house, they saw the young child with Mary's mother, and they fell down, and they

worshipped him. And when they'd opened their treasures, as was customary when you were coming

before a king when they opened their treasures they presented gifts to him gold frankincense

and myrrh and then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod

surprise, surprise, they departed for their own country by another road earlier we said

that the christmas star may have been of divine origin again I think that theory is supported in

verse 9 which says that the star went before them and stood over where the child was whatever the

case is when the wise men followed the star when they got to where the child was they entered they

saw Mary and the child and the child is mentioned before Mary which is significant because that's

not the way you would ordinarily introduce lineage of one's family so they see the child

they see Mary and the reaction upon seeing the child is to fall down and worship them you know

babies we've had a number in our church family in this past year babies are something else they're

wonderful and cute. Everyone loves a baby. Everyone loves to hold a baby, especially when it's not

yours. You give them back. But you enjoy holding babies. You look at babies, oh, this is wonderful.

But your reaction when you hold a baby, your reaction when you see

a baby, if you're a brother-in-law and his wife, they have a baby and they bring it in, your reaction

is not to fall down in worship. Why?

Because it's just a baby. It's another flesh and blood.

There's nothing divine in this one. And yet, and yet, that is not

so with this baby, with this child. When the kings entered

in, they were in the presence of not just a human child, they were in the presence of the

divine. They were in the presence of the Word made flesh who came to dwell

among us, to tabernacle among His people. The kings, the wise

men, the Magi, whatever they were, they knew that this one, this one

was different. And that was not a shock. The angel had told the shepherds

on the hillside as much, that this one was different, that this one was the Savior.

This one was the Messiah. This one was the Son of God.

And because he was, the most natural response in the world was worship.

In our world this next week, there will be all sorts of Christmas celebrations.

There will be all sorts of recognition, even among the secular society,

of the birth of a child so long ago.

But the only difference that child makes is if he is what we see here,

if he was fully man and yet fully God.

If it was something more than a baby, if this truly was God's own Son.

Whatever the case, the wise men got it.

They fell down and worshipped.

That's the first thing they did.

And then they offered.

They offered him gifts.

There's a pattern for worship here.

They come in, they worship, they give to this one, to this king.

And their gifts, there was three of them.

They're identified here in Scripture as gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Now what are we to make of these gifts?

Why these three?

There's got to have been a lot of things in that day and age that would have been good as a gift to bring in.

Why these three?

Well, there's been a lot of ink spilled by commentators over the centuries

to try to guess or speculate to the reasons why these,

to guess at the perceived symbolism of these gifts.

Among the primary guesses that commentators have is that gold was given

because it was the medal of royalty.

You don't go to a king and bring your best bronze.

You don't go to a king and give him silver.

You go to a king and you give him that which is best, that which is gold.

Now, as for the frankincense, if you think of the priestly service, the altar of incense,

if you think of the use of incense in the temple throughout Old Testament worship,

you can see that while gold might have reflected the reign and rule of this child,

that the incense would have reflected the priestly duties and responsibilities that came with it.

Remember, Jesus Christ was our king. He was also our high priest.

Finally, we have the gift of myrrh, a spice that's typically used to anoint the dead.

The primary use of myrrh is to anoint the dead at their time of burial.

In these three gifts, you can reasonably see gifts that suggested the child's royalty, his priesthood, and his death.

His royalty, his divinity, and his death.

Again, we can't be sure exactly why these gifts were given, but they do seem appropriate to his person and work in the time yet to come.

In any case, after having given these gifts to Christ's earthly parents,

the wise men then had an opportunity to prove just how wise they were.

Specifically, they could choose at this time to go galloping back to Herod.

They could have run back to Herod and tell him what they'd seen.

They could have done that, or they could have slipped out of the back door of Israel

and gone home another route.

Well, verse 12 says that God divinely instructed them and warned them what to do.

To find one of them in a dream that they should not return to Herod, but yet depart to their own country another way.

These Gentile Magi, they had a dream that was given to them by God himself.

An interesting dream.

Which brings us to another interesting dream in the next verses.

Let's look at verses 13 through 15.

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,

arise, take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word.

For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

And when he arose, when Joseph arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt

and was there until the death of Herod.

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,

out of Egypt I called my son.

You know, at face value, Herod's plan was bad.

It wasn't as bad in terms of depravity.

It was bad in terms of stupid.

And the reason that it was stupid was because it presupposed this.

Herod's plan presupposed that God in His might and His power

could ordain prophecies from centuries past,

have them fulfilled under Herod's watch,

just as Scripture said that they would,

and then God, out of His power and might,

would send a star, a supernatural sight,

in order to guide wise men around.

And Herod thought that this God who could fill centuries-old prophecies,

who could move stars around and the like,

that Herod could then derail that God's plan.

That Herod could then somehow, out of his own ingenuity and prowess,

He could somehow come in, intervene, kill the kid, and that would be the end of it.

Herod's plan was bad, it was stupid. It doesn't work that way.

Herod thought that he could win, just like Satan thinks that he can win.

Sin makes you stupid. Sin affects your ability to reason.

Sin is by nature irrational, which is why sometimes it doesn't have any real excuses for why we do it.

It can't make sense why you do something that's dumb and stupid and you know better, because it's not rational.

Well, Herod was not being rational and thinking that he could secure his own reign

in light of the manifest signs that God was on the throne and was going to do his own goodwill.

In any case, Herod may have thought he could win, but that's not what happened.

In verses 13 through 15, the angel tells Joseph to take the child, go to Egypt until such time as Herod had died.

Until such time as Herod had breathed his last.

Now, why Egypt?

I mean, that's interesting.

There's got to have been corners or pockets of Israel where they could have gone, right?

If you ever go to Israel, you go out to Qumran, you see the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were.

There's got to be a lot of places you could hang out.

Why Egypt?

Why send them to Egypt? Why would that be God's plan? Well, you have to remember at this time in

jewish history, the irony was that Egypt was known as a place of refuge for Israelites.

Egypt was known as a place to go to escape the heavy hand of Herod and perhaps of Caesar. You

could go down to Egypt. In fact, there was a great many expats, great many expatriates who were down

in Egypt. History suggests there may have been over a million of them. There was a lot of Jews

who had developed a community, a thriving community in Egypt,

and that is where, that's where God tells them to take the child

until such time as Herod has died.

With that said, Egypt had other significance as well.

There was another man long ago, the most important man of his age,

perhaps the most important man of the Old Testament,

who came out of Egypt, and his name was Moses.

Like Christ, Egypt would be the childhood home,

at least for a period of time, for the man known as Moses.

We've said on other occasions that Moses was a type of Christ.

Moses was a very real man, make no mistake.

He was a real man of flesh and blood, and yet his work

and the things that Moses did, they anticipated, they foreshadowed,

they pointed to things that Jesus would do all those centuries later.

Remember, Moses' primary work was that of a deliverer,

delivering God's people from bondage, just as Christ would do

from the bondage of sin and death all those years later.

Moses was the mediator of what's called the Old Covenant, the Old Law.

Well, Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant.

Moses was the intercessor between God and man,

the one who went up the mountain to talk with God.

Well, Jesus is the great high priest,

the intercessor between God and man in the New.

Just like Moses, Christ would come out of Egypt as a child.

Just like Moses, Christ would deliver God's people, just like Moses, Christ would intercede

between God and man. And just like Moses, just like Moses, an evil ruler would attempt to kill

Him when he was a child. Just like Moses. You remember Moses being sent by his mother down

the river in a basket through the reeds. In the same way as Jesus Christ, Moses lived out his

early days his first days under a death edict by a horrific despot a horrific ruler who sought to

kill the infants there is great commonality between Moses and Jesus many reasons to see it

including in today's text let's see what Herod though the villain of the Old Testament villain

Moses day was Pharaoh but let's see what Herod does here in Matthew chapter 2 so Matthew 2 16

through 18 says that when Herod saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, when the wise men

didn't return, when they didn't come back, Herod was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and he put

to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all of its districts from two

years old and under, according to the time which had been determined by the wise men. Remember,

He asked them when that star had appeared.

Then was fulfilled, which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation weeping, great mourning,

rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

Herod murdered his wife and sons.

Herod murdered his close advisors.

It was nothing to Herod to murder all the small children in a town down the road.

He wouldn't have thought twice about such a thing once Herod realized that the wise men weren't

coming back he grew angry and he sought to cast as wide a net of death as he could in order to

ensure that if this child had been born in Bethlehem was within the age frame that the wise

men had suggested that this child wouldn't live to tell the tale this child wouldn't live past

His next breath this was the intent and actions of Herod just as Pharaoh all the centuries ago

it sparked a genocide and Exodus. Herod was trying to do the same thing here in Matthew

in order to make sure that the Christ child would perish. The seed of the serpent. The

seed of Satan has always sought to kill the seed of the woman. Goliath seeking to stomp

out David. Pharaoh seeking to stomp out Moses. Herod seeking to stomp out Christ. Herod's

actions in Matthew 2 brought to mind at that time Jeremiah's prophecy about the weeping and

lamentation of Jewish mothers for their children, this was not the first time this sort of stuff

happened. One of the sad things about Israel's history in the far past and the not so far past

has been the degree to which the physical ancestors of Abraham have been persecuted

almost to the point of genocide by the world around them, to the point that Rachel, who's

considered a matriarch, weeps and mourns of the children who have died. Well, this is depicted

in a microcosm with what happened in Bethlehem, the slaughter of the innocents. But the good news

at the same time was that at least one child would escape. Let's see what happened in our final

verses, verses 19 through 23. Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a

dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, and go to the land of

Israel. For those who sought the young child's life are dead. And then he arose, he took the

young child and his mother, and he came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus

was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And then being

warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city

called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called

a Nazarene. You know, there are, in doing biblical research and studying matters of antiquity,

sometimes there are certain diagnoses that people of antiquity have, and you feel compelled to

research it. Well, when King Herod died, one question that we might ask is, well, how did he

die? And there has been a great deal of speculation. It's written about in various books of antiquity,

and a lot of scholars have attempted to understand, to deduce what happened when Herod died at some

point in his late 60s. And I can tell you that having researched some of the medical opinions

about what he died from, there are things you don't want to Google. There's images you don't

want to see. And among those is this, that some believe that King Herod died of a disease that

would have brought about kidney failure and gangrene to spread to his extremities. And for

our purposes, we'll just say this, he died horribly. When Scripture says that he died,

we have reason to believe he died terribly. And upon his death, upon his death, another angel

came to Joseph in a dream and said that now they could return home. Now they could go back. Now

initially it seems like Joseph's thought was to go back to Bethlehem, to go back to where they were

when Jesus was born. Initially that seems to be his plan. It's actually easier to get to there

from Egypt than many other regions in Israel. However, because that area, which was so close

to Jerusalem was still under threat by Herod's extended family, Joseph was warned by another

angel to go further north, to go further north into Galilee, the area we call Nazareth, which

fulfilled the prophetic tradition of the time that he would be called a Nazarene. And so that's what

Joseph did. In the night, acting immediately, Joseph and Mary, they took the child, they went

to Nazareth, where they settled down. They settled down and they raised their child.

With our remaining moments, let me offer just a couple of final observations from our text.

In this morning's text here in Matthew 2, we've seen the story of what happened after a child's

birth. At Christmas time, sometimes we get myopic. We only see the manger scene. We only think about

the manger scene. And yet the manger scene is part of a greater narrative, which has wondrous parts

and terrible fearful parts devils and dangers pursued Christ all of his days they didn't wait

until he started his public ministry but right from his birth right from his birth this Jesus

had a bullseye on his back right from his birth he was under danger whether it was Herod whether

it was the devil coming at him in the wilderness whether it was the forked tongue of the Pharisees

who regularly poked and prodded him in the temple and elsewhere whether it was the cross and pilot

in the Romans. There's all manner of wickedness and depravity that came against his door that

ultimately sought his destruction. From his first breath in the manger, so to speak, to his last

breath, he was a wanted man, but not for the right reasons. But the good news that we have at Christmas

and at Easter is this, that the world doesn't win. Yes, the world would hate Jesus, and yes, it would

prove it from Herod to Pilate and everyone in between. Yes, the world would come against Jesus,

and yet Jesus would be victorious. Ultimately, he would be nailed to a cross, and yet when he was

put in the tomb, he didn't stay there. Three days later, he would arise. He sits even now at the

right hand of God the Father. The world has always thought, there's always been villains that would

think they could come against Christ or his church. There's another pastor who put it this way,

all the enemies and all the opposition in the world is like a gnat pounding its head against

a mountain of granite. That's a picture of what it's like when the world with all of its enemies

in opposition, attempts to overthrow this one, this Christ. King Herod, who we've read about,

much like Satan before him, thought that Christ's throne could become his own.

No one sits on Christ's throne except Christ. So whatever the next year brings, whatever the

future brings, nothing has changed. The world hated Jesus then, it hates Jesus now. If we run

up the flag of King Jesus on our own flagpole, as individuals or as a church, we will engender

opposition. And yet we know how the story ends. So that's one takeaway that we can look at this

text is that Jesus wins. Second takeaway is this, the wise men, the wise men who grew up outside

of the covenant community, they were given a sign by God. They were given a star and they

followed it to Christ himself. you and I and the world around us has so much more than a star.

you and I have so much more revelation of Jesus Christ than a star in the sky.

And yet, despite all the revelation that should lead us right now into the manger but to the throne,

we can be inclined to drift and forget what we knew.

The irony is when the wise men came to Israel,

when they came and when the scribes and the Pharisees started to look at their holy books,

the only ones that we see that came to worship Jesus were not those in his covenant community per se,

but the wise men, the Gentiles.

Sometimes you and I, in the midst of all the Christmas pageantry

and the lights and the tinsel and the trees and all that,

we can forget.

We can forget who it was in the manger, who it was on the cross.

We can drift in our attitudes and our affections

to Jesus Christ our Lord.

This morning, you have followed something far greater than a star.

This morning, the Spirit speaks to us

and calls us not simply to follow the light towards Jesus,

but to live as Jesus has lived

and to shine that light into a still darkened world around us.

This Christmas, this week is the opportunity to shine that light.

My encouragement would be to do so.

Let's pray.