The Shepherds and the Wise Men

Series: Preacher: Date: December 21, 2014 Scripture Reference: Luke 2:8-16, 20; Matthew 2:1-11

Let me ask you a question—one that I wish I could actually have time to hear each of you answer. Here it is: “What began your journey to Christ?  What led you to Jesus?” I really would love to hear your replies because those kinds of testimonies are always inspiring to me. I am always inspired when I hear about what got people started on their journey to Jesus.

Here are a couple of my favorite such stories.

I remember Amy Price saying was drawn to Jesus through her work at the National Gallery of Art. As she walked those hallways and looked at all the great masterpieces depicting the life of Jesus—she felt drawn to learn more about Him.

And then there was the testimony of a speaker at Youth Camp years ago who said he was walking on a beach in Florida one day and found a very water-logged Gospel tract that someone had discarded and was floating in the surf. As he gently turned its soggy pages He learned about God’s great love in sending Jesus and that bowled him over such that he was drawn to put his faith in our Lord.

My journey to faith started with the Lord’s Supper—or rather my father’s explanation of its symbolism. That ancient ordinance drew me to Jesus. I’m sure you all have your own interesting stories of what led you to Him. I bring all this up because as we continue our study of God’s Great ADVENT-ure—we are looking at two groups of men who were drawn to find that baby born in a manger…the Messiah. And like us—their journeys to Jesus started in different ways.

First, there are the shepherds who were watching their sheep in the fields outside of Bethlehem. They were just minding their business, trying to get through another night, hoping some storm wouldn’t blow up and wreak havoc or some predator wouldn’t creep down and attack their flock. They were just having some middle-of-the night “shepherd chit-chat”— you know, “How’s the wife?” “Good, good. How about you?” I mean, they weren’t expecting anything different that night than any other.  And then suddenly the sky lit up so bright it was as if every Christmas tree light that has ever been lit was turned on at the same time.I mean, angels in all their God-given glory appeared and announced that a Savior had been born in Bethlehem.   When the shepherds got over the shock they said to each other, “Let’s go and see this thing that has happened.”

Well, a lot of people today are like that.  They are just minding their business and then they meet somebody who tells them about Jesus and something in their heart wakes up. I mean, they aren’t on a spiritual search at all but when they hear the news they have to investigate. They have to go and check out this Jesus.

And then there’s the other group in God’s Great ADVENT-ure—the Magi. These men were not just hoping to get through the night. In fact it was the opposite. They couldn’t wait for the night because when they night came they looked at the stars. They scoured them and studied their configurations; they plotted them on charts. They studied sacred books to learn about prophecies. All this led them to pursue a life-long quest to find the meaning of life. They’d been spiritually hungry since birth so when they saw the star, they followed it. That light drew them to Jesus. Now, we don’t know for certain what this “star” was that the magi followed. It could have been a comet or a special configuration of overlapping planets arranged by God to lead them to make this journey. But, I think the best explanation was that this special light was the miracle of God’s Shekinah glory for it not only led them to travel in a westerly direction but to the very house where Christ was living as a toddler with Mary and Joseph and stars aren’t usually that SPECIFIC in their shining!

In any case—there are a lot of people like these magi even today—people who are hungry for something that only Jesus can satisfy. They believe there must be truth out there worth living and even dying for so they look for it. Many of us refer to them as “seekers.”

Well, Scripture tells us that both the shepherds and the wise men responded to their unique “leadings.” Both went in a search that led to their finding Jesus. And this morning I would like us to focus our fourth pre-Christmas sermon on these men. I want to see what we can learn from the part they played in the Great ADVENT-ure. So take your Bibles and let’s read together the accounts of the roles that the shepherds and wise men played in that first Christmas. Their story is found in Luke 2:8-16 and Matthew 2:1-11.  We’ll start with Luke’s account which tells us about the shepherds.

Luke 2:8 – And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

9 – An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 – But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

11 – Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.

12 – This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 – Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.”

15 – When the angels had left them and gone into Heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 – So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, Who was lying in the manger.

20 – The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Now turn to Matthew 2 and let’s read about the magi.

Matthew 2:1 – After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

2- and asked, “Where is the One Who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

3 – When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

4 – When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

5 – “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “For this is what the prophet has written:

6 – ‘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 be the Shepherd of My people Israel.’”

7 – Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

8 – He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the Child. As soon as you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

9 – After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the East went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

10 – When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

11 – On coming to the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Okay—what can we learn from these two groups of men? Well I think our first lesson can be found in the understanding that they were very DIFFERENT. In fact they could not have been much MORE different.

(a)    For example, they were from a different SOCIAL STRATA.

The Shepherds were not only dirty and smelled like sheep. Due to the constant demands of their flocks they couldn’t observe all the meticulous hand-washing and rules and regulations required by the Jewish religion. And—to make matters worse, their flocks kept them away from the temple for weeks at a time so that they could not be made clean in the eyes of Jewish law. For these and other reasons shepherds were despised and mistrusted by the people. They were thought to be crafty and dishonest, and people ascribed to them an uncanny ability to make off with things that did not belong to them. Their reputation was so bad that they were not even allowed to bear testimony in a court of law. It was assumed that such people would lie. In most people’s minds, shepherds were like gypsies, vagrants, and con men all rolled into one. They were looked down on as being part of the lowest class of the lowest class of their culture.

THE WISE MEN, on the other hand were obviously at the other end of the social spectrum. They were men of influence—definitely UPPER, UPPER class. We see this evidenced in the fact that when they came to Jerusalem looking for the One Who had been born King of the Jews, they had no trouble gaining admission to Herod’s palace—or even obtaining an instant audience with the king himself. The shepherds would not even have been allowed in the outer courtyard.

(b)   And of course the FINANCIAL STATUS of these two groups of men was no where near the same.

The shepherds were among the poorest of the poor while the wise men were among the richest of the rich.  The shepherds in fact had no possessions to speak of. They had their work and that WAS better than being beggars. But so far as work was concerned, nothing PAID less.  Even a manual laborer—a fix-it man like JOSEPH—did better than those who were entrusted with sheep. So—when the shepherds came to the manger where Jesus lay, they didn’t bring gifts—for they had none to offer.

On the other hand, the wise men were obviously men of substance. They had money enough to take a long journey from the East, as well as the leisure to do so. They could afford a large entourage including servants, cooks, people to care for their camels and livestock—even soldiers to protect them. And—when they arrived, they presented the newborn King with VERY expensive gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

(c)    And then—EDUCATION was another point of wide contrast between these two groups of men.

Shepherds were not even educated enough to read the Jewish Scriptures for they had no formal schooling whatsoever. By contrast, the magi were famed for their knowledge, which is why even today most people refer to them as the WISE men. They probably came from what is modern day Iran and were noted for their knowledge of religious documents, healing arts, and astronomy. They were the professors of the day—the scholars of their time.  Their teachings became known as the “law of the Medes and the Persians” and both Magi and their laws are referred to in the Old Testament books of Esther and Daniel (Esther 1:19, Daniel 6:8). These laws of the magi were seen in Persia as the highest unalterable LEGAL code. Our word “Magistrate” comes from the word “magi.” So, in a sense CC Day is a MAGI! In any case these guys were learned men—scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, doctors—as well as the legal authorities of their culture.

They had no doubt studied the Hebrew Scriptures and read the prophecies regarding the coming Messiah. They would have had access to them because of the Babylonian captivity those seven decades when the Jews were there in bondage. So, I’m sure they were familiar with passages like Numbers 24:17 which says, “..a star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel.” They may have even known that their coming fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah 60:3 which referred to the Messiah and said, “Nations will come to your light and KINGS to the brightness of Your dawn.” Because of their great LEARNING, when the Messiah’s star appeared, they were the ones in their land who saw it and understood its meaning.

(d)   And then one final difference between these magi and shepherds is seen in the DISTANCE they TRAVELED to accept this invitation from God.

Luke says the Shepherds were very close—close enough to get there not long after Jesus’ was born. He may have been only a few hours old when they arrived at the manger where He lay. We don’t know how far the wise men had to travel but we can infer that it could have been as far as a two year journey—because when Herod inquired of them exactly when the star had appeared he responded to their news by ordering all male children in Bethlehem age 2 or younger to be killed.

In any case, the wise men had been on their journey for many long months. Verse 11 says that by the time they arrived Mary and Joseph had moved out of the stable and were living in a house. They came from the far reaches of the world, whereas the shepherds were as close to the birth as the nearby hills around Bethlehem.

So these men WERE very different in many ways and—as I said, it is at this point that we can draw our first lesson from this part of the Christmas story—and it IS a WONDERFUL truth.

(1) You see the very fact that two VASTLY DIVERGENT groups of men received this invitation from God tells us that Christ came for EVERYONE!

Rich or poor, educated or illiterate, near or far, Jew or gentile—Christmas is not just for one segment of society or the people who live on only one part of this planet—no, it is for us all. You may be unimportant in the eyes of most people or you may be very important; you may be a mere “cog in the machine” at your place of employment or the CEO. You may be near Christ—raised in a Christian home—or far from Him—reared in a home or culture where the name of Jesus is never even mentioned. None of those things matter for the simple reason that Jesus did not come to be the Savior of only some. He came to be the Savior of ALL mankind.

You know many times people tend to localize or “culturalize” religion. They say that Buddhism or Hinduism is for the Asiatic races; that Islam is for the people of Arabia and that Judaism is for the Jews. Some foolish people over the years have even embraced the misconception that Christianity—with its Christmas story—is only for white people. But as we at Redland know, people are VERY wrong when they think this way because Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea for EVERYONE. As the angel told the shepherds, their good news that night of nights was “for ALL people.”

Christmas is not just for one race or ethnic group but for all: red, yellow, black and white because no matter how different we may appear to be on the outside, we are the same on the inside.  All of us have the same inner need for a Savior.  As Romans 3:23 says, “ALL [of us] have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” And 1st Timothy 1:15 says that “Jesus Christ came into the world to SAVE sinners.”

Let me stop and point out that God’s constant PASSION is to seek and save sinners. That’s the main thought that is always on His omniscient mind.  He loves people—ALL people and longs for them to repent of their sin and come to Him. Let me put it this way. How many ways are there to God according to the Bible?  ONE!  We only get to God through faith in Jesus. He is “…THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE.” No one comes to the Father but by Him. (John 14:6) But—how many ways are there to Jesus?  TONS OF WAYS!  ALL KINDS OF WAYS!  I mean, God draws people to Jesus in a long list of ways.  He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so He draws all people from “shepherd people” to “wise men people” with His great love in EVER way possible. This is what Paul was getting at when he said, “I have become ALL THINGS to ALL PEOPLE so that BY ALL MEANS I might save some.” (1 Cor 9:22) God will use whatever means available to draw people to Him—everything from soggy Gospel tracts to beautiful works of art. He’ll even use YOU if you will let Him. In fact, Paul says we are to live in such a way that we SHINE like stars in this dark and depraved world.” (Philippians 2:14-15) In any case the experience of these vastly different men who first received God’s invitation shows us that the news of Christmas is for all people. God sent His Son for everyone!

And then a second lesson we can draw from the example that these shepherds and wise men set is that:

(2)…our primary response to Jesus’ coming should be WORSHIP.

I say this because this is what both groups DID when they found Jesus. In Matthew 2:11 it says that the Magi “bowed down and worshiped” Jesus as soon as they saw Him.  In fact, they told Herod that the purpose of their long journey was to worship the new King. And—when the shepherds returned from THEIR visit to the baby Jesus Luke says they were “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” So—I think this tells us that the most appropriate way to observe Christmas is not with our culture’s seasonal obsession with things—but with worship, not with giving to each other as much as giving to God—giving to further His kingdom so that more will be led to Jesus. In fact the word “Christmas” literally means, “The Mass of Christ” so the word itself refers to an annual time of worshiping God—praising Him for sending His Son to be born for us so long ago.

James Montgomery Boice tells of Reverend Joseph Ton, a Baptist pastor who served in Romania before the fall of the Iron Curtain. Pastor Ton told him that before Communism the Romanians celebrated Christmas with the giving of gifts—and feasts and Christmas caroling by all ages—as well as with special worship services. But when the Communists took over Romania Christmas was no longer a legal holiday. Everybody had to go to work on that day, just like any other day. For many people the old Christmas customs ceased. But among the truly born-again people of Romania the traditions concerned with worshiping Christ and celebrating His birth did not perish. Evangelical churches would hold services in the morning and evening—before and after work—and not only on Christmas day, but on the 26th of December as well—which those Christians call “The second day of Christmas.” And caroling continued—in spite of the fact that for many years the police worked hard to stop people from this religious activity. One Christmas the local police actually attacked the Baptist choir and beat some of the singers as they caroled. But the singers were out again the next year and were welcomed by many who were afraid to join them but greeted the worshipers thankfully, often with tears in their eyes. They did this—they sang carols even at risk of arrest—because worship is the natural response to anyone who has met the “Word Who became flesh and dwelt among us.” Christmas is empty unless we set aside time to join with the angels in coming together and adoring Christ the Lord.

And to be clear—worship to the Christian is not just a Christmas Day thing or even a Sunday thing—it’s an everyday thing. Worship is giving our lives to Jesus. It’s making Him as Lord and King of every decision. Ironically, Herod understood that and didn’t want to share the throne so he sent his soldiers to find and kill the Christ child. And—you know there is a sense in which many of us are like Herod even today. I mean, we’re not out to kill Jesus but we still don’t worship Him as Lord of ALL.  But the problem is YOU can’t rule your life and have JESUS rule it as well. You can’t be the possessor of your possessions and have Jesus as the possessor of them, too. It’s one or the other, not both. The truth is in our hearts we often set up Jesus as a rival of our kingdom.  We say, “You can rule as long as it’s okay with me and You don’t encroach upon areas that I’ve decided are my domain.” We see this in the sexual customs of our day. For example, I’m saddened and stunned at how many people in the church will go into a sexual relationship outside of marriage.  As I probe those stories, I find there’s a sense of, “Somehow I’m the exception here. Jesus isn’t on the throne on this one.” I’m saddened by the low level of tithing for many Christians. Many people in essence say, “I’m Lord of my checkbook Jesus. I know more about handling money than You do. If I need You I’ll call You.”  And I’m embarrassed to admit that I have a little of Herod’s heart too. I mean there are too many times when I say, “Jesus, this thing I’m going through is too scary for me to trust You with. I’ll handle things. When things get better—when the fear passes—I’ll give you the throne again.”

Well, I have to say—in my experience that NEVER works—and it shouldn’t because an abundant life—a joy-filled life that works—is really a constant offering of worship. It’s constantly saying, “Jesus YOU are on the throne—not me. You command and I gladly obey.”

Okay—to review—the experiences of these shepherds and wise men teach us that Jesus came for everyone! Christmas is for the entire WORLD! They also teach us that the best way to celebrate this awesome news is by WORSHIPING God with every part of our lives. But you know the greatest truth that we can see in their participation in the Great ADVENT-ure…

(3) …anyone who SEEKS Jesus, will FIND Him.

We have read the Scriptural record that says that each group of men RESPONDED to the invitation to the birth of Jesus. They TRIED to find Him. For example—the shepherds—as soon as they had heard the angels’ news they wasted no time but set out at once and FOUND the manger that held the Christ child.

And—the Wise Men—well, they had no doubt been anticipating the birth of Jesus for some time so when the star appeared they were not very long in setting out on their journey. After many months, they too FOUND Jesus. All this reminds us of God’s promise in Deuteronomy 4:29 where He said, “If you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me.” If we truly want to know Jesus—if we look for Him—then just like those magi and shepherds, we will find Him.

I can’t help but remember the video we saw a couple weeks back that told of a man in a communist nation in East Asia who had sought God all his life—and God sent a missionary there to tell Him about Jesus. Do you know why this happens? Do you know when we seek God we always find Him? It’s because God is looking for us as well.  As Luke 19:10 says Jesus came, “to SEEK and to save that which was lost.”  So to be clear, it’s not that God is lost and we are looking to find Him. No—we are lost in our sins. The Bible says that like dim-witted sheep we have all gone astray. And the glorious news of Christmas is that Jesus—the Good Shepherd—has come to bring us back to Him. All we have to do is cry out and He will come. It is in that cry—that seeking—that we find God’s open arms and we discover Him to be nearer than we ever realized.

Wayne Cordeiro tells the story about a church member named Bully, a gentle man who got his nickname from his days of barking orders at construction sites.  After Cordeiro noticed the scars on Bully’s hands, he asked him, “Bully, how’d you get so many cuts?” Bully told the following story about a tsunami that hit the Hawaiian Island in the 1960s: “I was working above the bay that our home overlooks. One morning, the tide receded so much that the children ran out to catch fish in the tide pools left behind. We’d never witnessed the tide so low before, and it gave the kids an unprecedented opportunity to play and romp through the reefs that now protruded above the waterline like newly formed islands in the ocean. But what we didn’t know was that the ocean was preparing to unleash the largest tsunami our sleepy little town had ever experienced. Within minutes, a sixty-foot wave charged our unsuspecting town with a force we’d never seen before. The hungry waters rushed inland.  Like bony fingers, the waters scratched and pulled homes, cars, possessions, and people back into a watery grave. The devastating power of that wave left in its wake twisted buildings, shattered windows, splintered homes, and broken dreams. I ran as fast as I could to our home, where I found my wife sobbing uncontrollably. ‘Robby is missing,’ she shouted. ‘I can’t find Robby!’ Robby was our six-month-old child who was asleep in the house when the ocean raged against our helpless village. I was frantic as I looked over the shore strewn with the remains of the frail stick houses that were now piled in heaps along the sands.  Realizing that another wave may soon be following, I began running on top of the wooden structures, tearing up pieces of twisted corrugated roofs that were ripped like discarded remains of a demolition project. I tore up one piece after another running over boards and broken beams until I heard the whimpering of a child under one of the mattresses that had gotten lodged beneath an overturned car. I reached under and pulled up my little son, Robby. I tucked him under my arm like a football player running for the end zone, then I sprinted back over the debris until I reached my wife. We ran for higher ground, hugging our child and one another, thanking God for His mercy. Just then, my wife said, ‘Bully, your feet and your hands! You’re covered in blood!’ I had been wearing tennis shoes, and I didn’t realize that as I ran over the wreckage, I was stepping on protruding nails and screws that had been exposed in the rubble. And as I pulled back the torn corrugated roofing looking for Robby, the sharp edges tore into my hand. I was so intent on finding my boy that nothing else mattered.”

Nothing else matters—nothing is more important to our Heavenly Father than saving His lost children—so when one cries out to Him—seeking to know Him—He responds. If we seek God—we will find Him!

You know for all their different characteristics, the magi and the shepherds had one very important thing in common. They were wise enough to follow where God was leading and we close our service to give you a chance to be just as wise. So I ask you, where is God leading you today? Perhaps you are a Christian and feel God leading you to join this church or to a deeper walk with Him?  Maybe you have a lot of Biblical knowledge but unlike those magi you have not been acting on it. You haven’t been applying it to your daily life. Maybe you have been raised in a Christian home but you have never decided to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord yourself. And maybe this morning for the first time God has guided you as He did those wise men and shepherds to the point that you have been confronted with the Savior of the world. Today you face a decision: to repent of your sin and accept Him as Lord of your life or to reject Him and walk another way. You know you can’t really celebrate Christmas until you decide to accept God’s gift of salvation through His Son. The truest form of worship is when we decide to Give God our lives. I encourage you to make that decision this morning and share it with me or Bobby or Kevin. However God leads, we sing now to give you a chance to publicly follow. Won’t you come as we sing?

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