Well, good morning. My name is Andrew Evans.
I'm one of the pastors here. And this morning I want to tell
you the story of three Kings. So before we get started, let me
pray for us. Father, would you and your
Spirit meet with us here today? Would you open up your word so
that we might go even unto Bethlehem and meet the Savior?
I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Now tradition has it that there were 3 kings who went to
Jerusalem to meet Jesus, but we don't actually know how many
kings there were, right? We know that there were three
kinds of gifts. There were gold, frankincense,
and myrrh, right? And from that we kind of just as
extrapolate there probably were three wise men. 3 magi, 3 kings
makes for a good scene on the lawn or on the Mantel place,
right? We actually don't know if they
were actually kings. In fact, odds are they probably
weren't kings. Greek here is magi probably
means something like sage astrologer.
These were very likely well studied men who watched the
stars for signs and were well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures.
And yet there is a sense, and we shouldn't miss this, there is a
sense in which they are kings. They are rulers of the domain
that God has placed in front of them.
They understand the stars and they can make decisive action in
order to travel for weeks or months to go see a new baby.
They are the rulers of their own lives, and so in that sense they
are kings, and in that way they are very much like you and like
me. Maybe we, you know, can't take
off work from once on end to go travel to the Holy Land, as much
as we might like to. But God has given us each
authority over the realms of our lives to make decisions and to
influence affairs. We are each rulers in our own
small way. And so in this way these magi,
however many there are, are the first king that we meet in our
story. And as such they are inviting us
to go with them to meet the other two kings.
The second king is Herod. He gets wind of these.
These foreign travellers. You can imagine them coming in
with, with great luxurious robes, maybe from Arabia or
Persia, walking into the into the city and asking where is
this new king? And he's, he hears this news.
It gets to him. It gets the wind of these new
travelers with this question and he becomes alarmed.
There's a new king. I thought I was the king.
What's what does this mean? And so King Herod does what
kings and what politicians through the millennia have done
when they have encountered the Christ.
He schemes. Now, I learned at the concert
that was here on Thursday evening that over the course of
the 20th century, actually, several regimes banned the
reading of the Magnificat, Mary's song, which is the song
that she sings after she learns that she is going to give birth
to the Savior. She's singing the Christmas
story. And regimes in the 20th century
had actually banned reading this story about this song about a a
new king who lifts up the lowly. This is a tactic that Herod
likely would have approved of. Now, he doesn't ban talk of this
new king, does he? But in short order, he will do
something even more brutal instead, right here, what does
he do? He deploys all of his guile and
his charm and even his deceit to try to figure out what is going
on and to neutralize the threat. So first he assembles the chief
priests and the scribes. These, these groups, probably
the Pharisees and Sadducees, Sadducees and Pharisees,
respectively, did not get along. We know that.
But he flexes his political muscle, you know, plays both
sides and gets input from both sides.
And he's, he's got to figure out, you know, what's the,
what's the geographical extent of the problem we've got here?
Where is this Christ who everybody's expecting?
Where is he to be born? Then he summons the magi to
figure out what's the timeline that we're looking at here?
What's the when did this star arise?
And then he seeks to win the confidence of the magi.
Go find the boy, then come back and let me know so I can too can
come and worship this new king. Herod was a rich and an
impressive king. He had a lot of political skill.
He built a lot of things. We can still see them in Israel
today. And he's not above using pious
words to further his own political agenda.
In other words, he's an awful lot like the kings of our own
day. There's a great tradition in
politics of using religion to Curry favor with the electorate,
and King Herod, like many politicians today, has no real
interest in actually submitting to King Jesus.
He says the right things, but he intends the opposite.
This new boy is a threat to his throne, and threats to the
throne must be neutralized. This is the second king, now,
the Magi. They meet King Herod.
They learn where the Savior is to be born.
They learn where to go, and then they travel the six miles down
the road to Bethlehem. This is not where the powerful
come to play. This is not where the impressive
buildings are. This is a little farming town.
There are sheep in the fields around it.
There are probably granaries around it.
Bethlehem literally means House of bread.
In other words, it's kind of like going from Washington, DC,
with its beautiful capital and White House and the amazing
buildings we have here, to a small farming community in rural
Nebraska. Some of you might know that
well, but it's here. Not in the capital, not with all
the impressive buildings. It's here where they meet the
king, the third king, the king who has been promised for
centuries, the king who comes not to tax, not to to to
oppress, but the king who comes to shepherd his people.
And what is so striking is that it's it's here, and only here
that they rejoice exceedingly with great joy.
Maybe they were awed in Jerusalem.
Maybe Herod wined and dined them with the best that the
Mediterranean had to offer. But they didn't rejoice there
because there wasn't life there. The true king wasn't in
Jerusalem, only a pretender to the throne was.
But it's in Bethlehem and a House of bread with sheep
bleeding in the distance, where they meet the true king.
A king who comes not with guile but with innocence.
A king who comes not with pomp but as a child.
A king who sits not on a throne but on his mother's knee.
A king who came ultimately not to tax, not to oppress, but to
serve and ultimately to die and to die actually with the same
words nailed over his head that the magi he here are saying
about him. Where is the king of the Jews?
He ended up on a cross. This is the king that they met.
This is the king whose advent brought them overwhelming joy.
And it's this king, this humble king in a backwater city in
rural Nebraska of of Israel with no name parents.
This king is the king that they worship.
Herod might have been impressive, but he was a cruel
overlord. The kings of our day may be
impressive in their own way, rich and smart and charming, but
my friends, they will ultimately prove to be cruel overlords as
well. Worship them and you might get
some power in prestige, but you will find ultimately only death.
But if you follow the Magi, follow him to Bethlehem, and
worship King Jesus, you will find more than you could ever
imagine. He came to give you everything,
all the way to the point of giving you his very life.
My friends, no king is more worthy of your worship.
No king is more worthy to fall down and worship.
Now the irony is here that Herod, when he lied to the
Magine about wanting to go worship him, Herod spoke better
than he knew. He said he would come and
worship the new King. He had no intention of doing
that. That's very clear, you see.
But he was right. He will bow before King Jesus.
All kings will bow before King Jesus.
You and I and every person in this room, every person in
history will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.
We will all bow down and worship Him, and the only question is
whether we will do so like the Magi rejoicing with great joy,
or whether we will do so in fear and dread.
My friends, this is the story of the Three Kings.
We will all worship someone, whether ourselves or the Herod's
of our world. And my friends, they are many or
humble King Jesus. My friends, I implore you this
Christmas follow the Magi, worship King Jesus, find in him
the ultimate joy that only he can offer.
In the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.