Different Kings, Different Responses

Merry Christmas! It’s good to see all of you this morning. If you’re a guest here, my name’s Tim. I get the privilege of being one of the pastors here.

And if I haven’t had a chance to meet you, I would love to do that right after the service. I’ll be in the middle of our West Lobby. If you wouldn’t mind just coming up and introducing yourself, it just gives me an opportunity to thank you for joining us today.

I want to say hi to all of you that are watching online, whether you’re live streaming, watching on demand, or our friends that are watching from First Lutheran and Algonac. There’s people in the chat. If you have any questions, they would be willing to connect with you that way.

As we continue in our Christmas series here at Shepherd’s Gate, and what an incredible month to be able to just kind of reprioritize and refocus our attention during the season when everything literally points to Jesus. Every Christmas tree, every song on the radio, every Christmas cookie, everything. It’s just the most magical, wonderful time of the year when we have this unprecedented opportunity to share the love of Jesus with others.

Amen? Amen. And so we’ve been looking at some different topics. We started off by looking at the war behind Christmas last week.

We looked at Mary and Joseph. Give you one guess on what you think we’re going to talk about today. Kings.

Good guess. Which kings? Different ones. You guys are great.

You can read. Aren’t you glad we made these titles complicated? So you have to guess what’s going on. But if you were here on November 30th, you might remember I said that I wanted to encourage you.

And so my encouragement was for you before we left November, November 30th, the last day of November, and then starting in December 1st, I challenged you and I encouraged you to not get stressed out during the month of December. How many of you remember that? If you were here, you remember me saying that? How are we doing on that? You’re doing great? Listen, if you forget to buy someone a Christmas present, it’s not the end of the world, okay? You have next year to buy them a Christmas present as well. Like, don’t get stressed out about the little things.

My grandma, she passed away a couple years ago. And for whatever reason, this has always stuck in my mind. Because she would always say the same thing.

She would say this. She’s like, Tim, don’t ever, ever, ever clean your house before you have people over. She goes, that doesn’t even make sense.

They’re just going to trash it anyways. Why would you do that? Wait until they leave and then you can clean your house. And I was thinking about, you know, that’s right.

Because if your friends come over and they judge you because your house isn’t clean, are they really your friends anyways? And your family’s going to judge you no matter what. And you’re stuck with them. Even though sometimes they become the biggest irritants during the holidays.

You can amen if your family’s not here, okay? But that’s what happens. Sometimes it can be so complicated. And so the point of the sermon series is to really reprioritize and to really refocus, or as we’ve called this, Christmas perspective.

To have the right perspective. And if you’re new to Shepherd’s Gate, what we love to do each and every week, if you’re able to come back and join us throughout the rest of this series, and we hope that you’ll join us in January, because we’re going to be diving into a book of the Bible. The second book of the Bible, Exodus.

We are what you would call text-heavy. Some people call it that. Text-heavy.

Where we love to show you the Scriptures and read the Scriptures to you. Because there’s some beautiful ways in which God shows up in the pages of Scripture. And our perception of what we think is in the Bible so often isn’t actually what’s in the pages of Scripture.

And so that’s our approach here at Shepherd’s Gate. And we hope that you’ll continue to join us and get to know us a little bit more. And so today we’re going to be looking at some Kings.

And the Kings in the Christmas account, the story of Jesus’ birth, start in Matthew. In fact, there’s only two out of the four Gospels that give us any text on Jesus’ birth. And that’s Matthew and Luke.

And so there’s actually truly not a lot written about the birth of Jesus. We have some Scriptures from the Old Testament that are prophecies that tell us about that, which is cool, because you’re going to see that today in the sermon as well. But Matthew is the only one that tells us what we’re going to look at today.

And so let’s see what he says. In the second chapter, he says, Jesus is born. So after Jesus is born, King Herod is the one that’s ruling the land.

And there’s these wise men, they’re sometimes called Magi, that come from the east and they travel this long distance and they finally make it to Jerusalem. And they ask, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw the star when it rose and have come to do what? Worship Him. Now, what’s very intriguing is this, in these first couple of verses, the setup that you kind of need to fully appreciate it.

Because one of the songs that we enjoy singing this time of the year is called, We Three Kings. And often people think that there are three kings, but there’s really no count of how many of these wise men actually showed up. The reason we say or use the expression three kings is because they brought three gifts.

But these wise men actually aren’t kings. They were in service to the king. They were astrologers.

So they were really good at reading the signs in the sky and following stars. And part of this comes from Daniel. If you go back to the Old Testament book of Daniel in the second chapter, God’s people were actually taken out of Jerusalem, out of Judea.

They were exiled. And Daniel was a man of God who, by being obedient and faithful, Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king, promoted him to where he was in charge of all of the wise men. And so here we are somewhere between five to 600 years later.

Just think about that, five to 600 years later. And these are wise men that descend from the wise men that he would have told the Old Testament scriptures to. So the only reason they know about this star, they know about a promised Messiah, is because of Daniel.

And you can see the way that God is at work even in their lives. But again, we don’t know how many of them actually were there. Some theologians think there was a dozen in this entourage.

Some think a double or a two dozen. Some would say 50. Some say it might have even been up to 100 or 200 people that showed up in Jerusalem looking for the Messiah.

And the reason they’re called kings is because of Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60. So if you want extra credit when you go home today, read Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60. And you have extra time to do extra credit today because the Lions game isn’t on until 425.

And we all say praise be for that reason as well. Amen? But this is what it says next. King Herod.

So this is the other one. You got the wise men, sometimes referred to as kings, but they’re wise men. Now you got King Herod, heard that these guys were in town.

And he gets really angry. He’s very disturbed and all of Jerusalem with him. And so often people will point and say, well, why would a whole town be in an uproar if there wasn’t a huge caravan that just showed up in their city? If you don’t know King Herod, there’s a lot you can read about him that is in sources, historical books outside of the Bible.

He actually became king when he was 25 years old. He led by fear and control. I mean, this guy was ruthless.

There’s not really much written about him that’s positive. He was a notorious murderer. If you got in his way, he would have you killed.

He had family members killed, including mother-in-laws and people related to him. Even some of his own sons he had murdered. Even when he got to the end of his life, he tried to orchestrate an event where once he died, a bunch of people would be murdered so that someone would mourn the fact that he was dead.

I mean, just try to get that in your head how sick and twisted this guy really is. And so he sees this caravan show up to town. He knows what they’re asking about.

And so he actually goes and gets the Jewish leaders. He gets the people that advise him. And he brings them in and says, okay, what is this all about? Where is it in scripture that’s being prophesied that they’re making this long journey here? And of course, these guys knowing the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, they said, well, it’s in Bethlehem because that’s what it says in Micah.

Go back to Micah. So they all know that this is where Jesus, the Messiah, is to be born. And so what he does next when he finds this out is he calls the wise men in secretly.

So he kind of does this on the side. He wants to isolate just a few of them. And he wants to find out the exact time the star had appeared.

He wants to be able to interrogate them and find some more information because again, he’s not real happy that they’re in town and that there’s this possibility of somebody else being called a savior or a God because in his warped, sick, twisted mind, he thought he was the savior of Jerusalem. He thought he was the God that ruled over this part of the world. Now, what I find fascinating is that whenever anything’s done in secret, it usually never works out for the good, does it? And when we keep secrets, does it actually ever work out for our good? In fact, I would submit to you that what is ever done in secret always comes to light if we have sins that we’re holding on to.

And then all of a sudden, we’re committing sins that aren’t only against God and ourselves, but now all of a sudden, it impacts other people. We then get caught in having to come up with a series of lies and try to trick people into thinking that the reality that is actually existed doesn’t exist at all. And what ends up happening is we end up torturing ourselves and the devil gets a foothold into our lives.

And all of a sudden, this sin begins to manifest and grow. Now, I want you to know this morning that here at Shepherd’s Gate, we actually submit our sermon slides. What you see on the screen is exactly what I see right here on this screen.

So I don’t have to turn around and look at it. And so we submit those on Tuesday. And on Thursday, we actually come in here and we actually pre-preach.

We call it pre-preach our sermons. So we rehearse our sermons because this is how important the preaching of God’s word is to us here at Shepherd’s Gate. And when I wrote this back on Tuesday, I had no idea that a couple days ago, a coach from a little city called Ann Arbor would all of a sudden be exposed online.

And the way that I found out was when I was bringing my young son Brady, 12-year-old, to youth group. We were driving here to youth group on Wednesday night and he said, Dad, you’re not going to believe this, but the coach for the football team for University of Michigan was just fired. And oh, by the way, this is the reason he was fired.

And I know many of you know this because it’s crazy how quickly it shows up in our news feed. And if you click on the article and you read it, all of a sudden the algorithm thinks that you want to read 20 more articles about the same exact thing. And this guy, his sin that was a secret has become public for all of the state of Michigan and our entire country.

And of course, the world, anybody that follows sports to see. And it’s devastating because our first response is, what are you thinking? Why would you throw away your life? You have a beautiful wife, three beautiful daughters. What in the world is wrong with you? Why would you do that? Why would you give up a $13 million a year contract just to have something on the side? You screwed up.

You blew up your life. You blew up your mistress’s life. You blew up everybody that’s connected to you.

And usually that’s the first response. Then we begin to feel sorry for all of the other people that are involved in how this is all going to play out and what’s next for their future. And yet this is the world that we live in.

And truthfully, none of us would want our sins placed on Facebook real for every single person to be able to access. Is that true? Whether it was the sins we committed this week or this year. And yet the Bible backs this up because it tells us, make sure and be sure that your sin will find you out.

And imagine this, God is not out trying to out people. He’s not out like aggressively, you know, just trying to make our lives miserable. In fact, God doesn’t even want us to carry our secrets and sins.

He tells us that if we confess our sins, he is the one who’s faithful and just. He’s the one that hung on the cross. He’s the one that’s already paid the price for the sins that we commit.

And when we are contrary and we confess those things to him, he is faithful and he forgives us of our sins. And then he cleanses us from all unrighteousness. That’s the beautiful part of the gospel.

That’s what a lot of people that aren’t inside the church don’t understand. And so they’re out living their lives. They’re not connected to a church.

They’re not connected to Jesus. And so all they’re left is to fend for themselves and what they think should be their moral guide. And yet we recognize that we’re all fallen, sinful creatures, that we have this desire to always do what’s contrary to the will of God.

And here in this account, you have this king who is hearing the message. I mean, wouldn’t it be cool if as we continue to read that he comes to his senses, that the Holy Spirit does a work in his heart and he eventually comes to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior and repents of the life that he has lived up to this point. Well, the text tells us this, that King Herod says, well, if that’s where he’s at, if that’s what the prophecy says, go to Bethlehem.

And oh, by the way, make sure you do a careful search, like keep copious notes, track everything. And as soon as you find him, as soon as you know where he’s at, make sure you report back to me immediately. Here’s a burner cell phone.

Call me on this burner cell phone because I too want to go and do what? How many of you believe King Herod? How many believe that this is actually what he wants to do? Well, after the wise men heard this, of course, they go on their way, they’re following the star, and it stops over at the place where the child is at, where Jesus is at. And when they saw the star and they saw it moving, of course, they were overjoyed. Imagine being that like, man, this thing that’s been passed down for hundreds of years.

And in my day and age, I get to be witness to this. I get to be part of watching this miracle unfold. And so finally, over a long period of time, it says, I’m coming to the house.

This is important. Those of you that are new to Shepherd’s Gate, or maybe you haven’t been here for a Christmas series before, you know that I am a stickler when it comes to making sure that we are biblically accurate. Amen? Just like many of you know, and I got a text this week from a member, because her daughter remembered a sermon that I actually had done three years ago, that I really don’t like the song, Mary, Did You Know? If you didn’t know that, I don’t like that song, because Mary knew because the angel came and said, this is what’s going to happen to you.

So every time I hear that song, I have to change it to Jingle Bells or something else. Okay? It’s the same thing with this. The wise men were not there on that first night or first morning when Jesus was born.

Most theologians, most experts will tell you that they arrived 18 months to two years after he was born. And so I have been known, when my friends will have me to their house, to find the manger scene wherever it may be in their house. How many of you got a manger scene? And you got baby Jesus.

And we got baby Jesus in there. And you got Mary and Joe, right? And we never put Mary and Joe together. They’re always on the opposite sides.

You ever notice that? I’ve never seen anybody with Mary and Joe on this. And then we go and we get the shepherds, because everybody likes shepherds. That’s what we’re going to talk about next week.

And then we go and get exotic animals. How many of you got sheep? Anybody with a cow? Any llamas? Anybody put a giraffe just for fun? Even a toy giraffe? No? And we create this whole Detroit zoo scene on the one side of it. And then on the left, we go and we get the wise men.

And how many wise men are there? I told you the beginning there’s more than three. Are you not listening to me this morning? So what I’ll do, because usually people have three, although someone at the nine said they have two, because they broke the third guy. So now they’re down to two.

Is I’ll take those three precious wise men, and I’ll go find another place in their house. Be it their kitchen or their dining room or somewhere else just to mess with them, because I want them to be a biblically accurate house on Christmas. And I’ve always had this dream that I want to create the most massive wise men display.

So when people come in, they’re like, why do you have a hundred wise men in your dining room on your dining room table? And I just think it would be so cool to do this, to just go buy all the different wise men you could possibly buy and keep them as far from the manger scene as possible. And every year I say I’m going to do this, and every year I don’t do it for two reasons. You know why? Number one, I always run out of time.

And number two, it’s expensive to buy those little figurines. Some of you have those beautiful houses and villages, and you spend weeks and months putting that thing together, and you just love looking at those little figurines. But that’s what it is.

They show up 18 months to two years later, and when they see Jesus, they see Mary, what do they do? They bow down and they worship Him. Which is just so humbling to think about, that they would take this posture of humility that was handed to them over hundreds of years, they actually believed it to be true. And of course, this is when we get the presents.

There’s three gifts. There’s gold, there’s frankincense and myrrh, and they all have individual meanings, deep meanings. Gold meaning royalty, the priesthood, the kingship.

The frankincense meaning that he is of the line, of the religious line, that this is a priestly person. And myrrh because it represents his death and his burial. And so there’s lots of different things you can read about this.

We’re not gonna get into it today, but there’s some real deep, rich meaning behind the gifts that are presented to Jesus. And then what’s equally as fascinating is that these wise men are actually warned in a dream not to go back and report to Herod, even though that’s what Herod told him to do, but instead to return to their country by another route, which would have taken an insane amount of time. Like when we read this, we just read a few verses and we just think this stuff is happening in real time.

You know, like it’s a Netflix series until the next day and the next day. I mean, this stuff dragged on for a long time. But you have to ask yourself, why is this in the Bible? Why is it only in one of the four gospels? We believe God inspired Matthew, who wrote Matthew, who gave us this.

Matthew’s writing to a Jewish audience. So his gospel is centered on the Jewish people and wanting more Jewish people to come to know the true Messiah. Why is it that he is writing this? And this is what it comes down to.

These outsiders, these wise men, these Gentiles, if you want to use a biblical word, they confessed in worship that Jesus is not just the king of the Jews, but they signify to us that he is the king of the entire world. That Jesus came to save sinners like you and me. And so it’s not just about God’s chosen people, the Jewish people, it’s about every person on planet earth and that God is in the business of saving souls.

And so he’s sending Jesus to this earth at the hour and the time that he predestined for him to be there even as the world is going through hardships. And pain. Now, maybe you’re here today, and again, you’re a guest.

First time here, maybe you’ve come a couple weeks, and you feel like an outsider. You haven’t been in church in a while. You know, it’s the Christmas season, somebody invited you, something drew you here today.

And listen to me, you are not here on accident. God is always orchestrating the events of our lives just like he orchestrated the events of these people’s lives to put you exactly where he wants you to be so that you can hear how much you are loved and valued by him. He is the one that is at work in your life.

And I know because you may be looking for a church, maybe you’ve been out of church, maybe the church you were at, you feel like that your time there has come, and so now God’s calling you to a different church. And I just want to recognize this, it can be very difficult to find a new church home. I mean, sure, we have technology and you can watch services online, you can kind of get a semblance for a church, but until you attend in person, until you have face-to-face contact with people and figure out are the people of this church actually warm and welcoming, it’s really difficult to navigate and figure out if this is the church that God would have you call home.

And so I want you to know our heart. Our heart is first and foremost for you to know that we are a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church. That we are, again, we’re text-heavy and we believe that God speaks to his word, which is why we’re going to show you the scriptures and take the time to preach the scriptures to you.

But we also, equally as important, we want to be the warmest, welcoming church on the planet. We want you to know how much you are loved and valued by God. We want to know your story, we want to know the struggles you’re going through, and we want to walk alongside of you.

One of the most beautiful stories that I heard this morning after the first services, we have two members, that are both struggling and going through treatment for prostate cancer. Neither one of them knew each other previous, even though they both have attended Shepherd’s Gate for a very long time. And so once we found out that they were both going through the same struggle and they’re about to start treatment at the same time, these two have become best friends.

And so they actually go to the same place to receive their treatment. One started a few weeks before the other, and the other one just told me today that even though the other one’s treatment has ended, he and his wife are still going to show up at the treatment center until he’s done with his treatment. That’s the Shepherd’s Gate that I love.

That’s the Shepherd’s Gate in the community that we want here. We don’t want anyone to just come, sit, listen, and leave. We want you to be part of the community if this is where God is calling you to be.

Amen? You are invited here. You do not have to be an outsider, and you better believe Jesus does not want you to be an outsider either. He wants you part of his family.

Well, the text goes on that when the wise men were gone, now an angel’s going to show up to Joseph, Jesus’ dad. And he’s going to tell him, you got to get Jesus out of here because this king’s about to go even crazier. He’s going to try to find him and he’s going to try to kill him.

And so that’s exactly what Joseph does. He takes Jesus, he takes Mary, he leaves in the night and is to fulfill the prophecy that was written about in Hosea. Now, when Herod realizes this, he is not happy.

In fact, he’s furious. He’s enraged. He is about to do something that is kind of hard for our minds to comprehend.

In fact, it’s one of the most difficult parts of the Christmas account in scripture because he orders the killing of all the boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding vicinity just to make sure who were two years old and younger. So again, going back to the timeline of when the wise men got there and the timeline that they had, he wanted to make sure that Jesus was part of this mass slaughter. And wouldn’t you know that there was families that had their kids ripped from their homes.

There were families that just as Jesus was in the first couple of years of his life on this earth and Joseph and Mary constantly being inconvenienced and having to move around and figure out what their next step was in protecting Jesus, you have families whose lives are being turned upside down. And here we are 2,000 years later and yet we live in a society that doesn’t value human life. We live in a society where we have to turn on the news and over and over again, try to figure out why this keeps happening.

Why there is so much darkness and vitriol and hatred for other human beings even if we disagree with them. And I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why just this weekend we had a watch as college kids.

College kids at Brown University were taking their exams and someone decided that some of them shouldn’t be on the planet anymore and you have a school shooting once again during the month of December. And college kids, man, my heart breaks for you guys that this keeps happening and we have to keep witnessing this over and over again. And in the same timeframe, we’re talking what? The last 24, 48 hours, you look at our world and people are gathering on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, some Jewish people and what happens? Someone decides they shouldn’t be on the planet and pulls out a gun and start shooting people and now there’s other people that have been murdered.

So there’s families right now that are mourning the loss of their loved ones, trying to make sense of something that they’re never going to make sense of. And what’s our response? We cry out to God for mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. God, help us, help us in our time to figure this out, to instead show people love, to embrace those who feel like they’re outsiders, to do whatever we can to try to teach our kids and help our kids understand. This happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus was first on the scene and it continues to happen even in this year that we live.

And that’s why when you look at the very first Christmas, it is, it’s full of hardship. It’s full of uncertainty. It’s full of inconvenience and sadly, it’s full of tragedy.

I mean, look at Mary Joseph being uprooted from Nazareth, sent down to Bethlehem. She’s pregnant, having to go through what they go through and now here they are, they’re gonna be sent to Egypt. All of the things that they didn’t know what was happening in and around them.

And yet they’re the ones that are holding on to the promised savior. God, when does it end? Why do these things keep happening? Why do we have to feel the weight of these circumstances? And you know what God would say? I know your struggle. I know the pain.

I know the hardship that you’re experiencing and that’s why I sent Jesus. Jesus walked into your darkness. Jesus is the one that walked this earth.

Jesus experienced everything that you are experiencing right now because he knew his ultimate mission was to go to a cross to pay for all of that wrongdoing. All of the evil people in the world, including all of the wrong that you and I do so that we wouldn’t put our faith and hope in this life in creating the life that we think we should have on this earth. Instead, our perspective would be that we put our faith, our hope and our trust in the life that is to come when we get off this planet and we’re in the arms of Jesus forever and ever and ever for all eternity.

And I’m okay if that happens this December. Anybody else with me? Because even as I told you on November 30th, you should try to make this December the least stressed December of your life. That’s what I do.

Remember I said that? I just don’t stress about it anymore. Two days after I delivered that sermon, my oldest son, who’s ninth grader, just started a brand new high school, got one of those nasty coughs that’s going around. Those coughs when you don’t really want to put them in a classroom full of other kids because it’s not really nice to do that.

Like we shouldn’t do that parents, right? All the teachers said, there we go. I know we got school teachers in here. And so we kept him home for a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday.

And instead of getting better, he got worse. And his eyes churned yellow. And his wife said, his wife said, my wife said, my wife said, you should take him to the ER.

And I said, he’ll be fine. Let’s put some dirt in it. It’ll go away.

So off he and I went to the ER and they did his blood work and short time later, the doctor came in and said, he’s got mono. Like mono? Isn’t that the kissing disease? And I was like, who you been kissing? And he did not like that question. Now you can’t take him to school for several days.

So he’s at a brand new school, just started as a ninth grader. And you know, there’s always the dynamics of making new friends. And one of the ways to do that is they tell you to get into sports or clubs.

And so he joined wrestling, which Lisa and I were not part of that. It was completely new to us, but he had been at several practices and really getting an appreciation and a love for that sport. And then he signed up for DECA.

Those of you who don’t know what DECA, it’s a business group. And he was really just coming alive and enjoying all the business aspects of being in that social group. And so you have these two groups and wouldn’t you know that because he missed so much school, he missed the DECA exam.

And if you don’t take this DECA exam, then you can’t be part of it until next year. And you’re just like, seriously, like, come on. And then you find out from the doctor because you got, you know, mono that you can’t actually do a physically contacted sport, a physical contact sport for four to six weeks.

And you’re like trying to be positive about it, right? Like I said to him, I said, man, this really is terrible for you. Imagine all the video games you can play now. And you know this parents that when your kids are sick or they’re struggling, or grandparents, it weighs on you.

There’s a heaviness that comes to you when you try to be strong for your kid because you don’t want them to have to suffer in this world. Yet it applies to all of us. There are things that are going on in people’s families in our church that are far greater than what I just told you is going on in my household.

There are things that people in this church are dealing with that are huge, insurmountable things that are mountains in front of them. And we are on our knees and we are begging God for a miracle. God, you gotta show up.

God, you gotta do something. God, you have to intervene. And let’s be honest.

Sometimes we’re like, God, could you move a little bit quicker? God, why are we going through this difficulty and this hardship? And it’s always, it’s always so difficult because we don’t always get the answers to those questions to this side of eternity. But yet he calls us to be faithful to him, to keep our eyes fixed on him, to understand the proper perspective we are to have in this life of who he is and that he has never stopped working out his perfect will and his plan for our lives, even in the midst of hardships. Amen? Because after Herod died, angel shows up to Joseph again in a dream.

He says, you gotta go home. You can take him now. And guess what? When you get there, whether you like it or not, there’s going to be more hardships for you to face as you watch Jesus grow.

But I want you to think about the title of this week. Different Kings, Different Perspectives. I mean, Herod, he never came around.

His heart was hardened. He just wouldn’t accept that maybe there was more to this life than the kingdom that he could build. The wise men, look at their response.

Willing to travel, willing to trust something that had been handed down for hundreds of years. And as a result, they got to see the promised Messiah with their own eyes.