May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pure and acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Heavenly Father, our Master and our King. Amen. You may be seated. Well, as I just told the children, today is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany was actually yesterday. January 6th is the day that's set aside for it, just as December 25th is always set aside for Christmas. The word epiphany means to make known or to make manifest. And it is a celebration of Jesus being made known to the Gentile world, to the wise men from the East. And really, when you come down to it, it's rather a remarkable story that we find there in the book of Matthew. You see, the promise of the Messiah was given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel. The Hebrew people, they heard of the Messiah and they anticipated Him because they felt He would be a king, a great and powerful earthly king. And they felt that He would establish a kingdom on the earth that would dominate the entire world. And the capital would be right there in Jerusalem. Now what's remarkable is that It's found in the book of Matthew. You might say, well, why is that? Well, you have to understand that every Gospel was written with a target audience in mind. Luke was written to the Gentile people. Mark, he wrote because he wanted the Gospel as relayed by Peter to get out into the world. John, he wrote his Gospel the last of the Gospels. He wrote it to correct some errors that were coming up, and especially to confront a terrible belief that was coming around called Gnosticism. That's the belief that has spawned some of these books that people now call the lost books of the Bible. And by the way, just a little sidelight on that. Please understand these quote-unquote lost books of the Bible. Well, they were written 100 to 300 years after the last book of the New Testament was written. These are not lost books of the Bible. These were part of the problem that John was trying to confront and trying to put down. And then there's the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew was written to the Hebrew, or the Jewish people. And it was written in a way that they would find very appealing. You might say, well, now Matt, how do you do that? Well, it's real simple. In fact, if you want to, you can follow along here for the first part of the sermon very simply by opening your pew Bible to Matthew chapter 2, actually chapter 1 and 2. What Matthew does is he appeals to the Jewish people's heritage. If you look at Matthew chapter 1, right there at the beginning, verses 22 and 23, this comes after, first of all, the lineage of Jesus. showing all the ancestors of Jesus, which, of course, the Hebrew people would find appealing, because it's all their forefathers. But then he begins to quote prophecy. Matthew chapter 1, verses 22 and 23. Baphew writes, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will call him Enmanuel, which means God with us. Now Matthew says, this is what the prophet said. Which prophet said that? Isaiah. It's word for word the same as Isaiah 7, verse 14. When we go into Matthew 2, he continues with this. Matthew 2, verse 6. Matthew writes and says, in Bethlehem, in Judea, they replied, this is when the wise men come to Jerusalem. They come to Herod. And they say, We have seen a star in the east. We've come to worship Him. One problem. We don't know where He's at. Would you know? King Herod's a little perplexed. He doesn't know. And so he calls in all the scholars. You know, goes to the local seminary. Gets all the biblical scholars. Brings them over. Where is the Christ supposed to be born? I've got three, you know, guys, these noble guys from the east. They've come to worship Him. They don't know where he's at, neither do I. Where is this guy who's going to take over my throne? Well, it's right there. For this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, and 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. Well, there it is. It's in Bethlehem. What were they quoting? They were quoting Micah. Micah 5, verse 2. And so off the wise men went to Bethlehem. You know Herod, of course, that scoundrel. Jesus called him a fox. Later on, actually a son He called a fox. Herod says, go and find him and when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too. Herod had a funny way of worshipping. He believed in worshipping with a sword or a spear and killing people. That was his idea. We continue on in Matthew 2. Go nine verses later. Matthew 2, verse 15. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, out of Egypt I have called my son. What? Well, remember, the wise men as we heard, they were warned in a dream. Don't go back to Herod. He wants to kill the child. Joseph was warned in a dream. Pack up. Get everything. Go. Get out of here. Herod wants to kill the child. Where did he go? To Egypt, just as the prophet Hosea said in chapter 11, verse 1 of Hosea. You know, when you start looking at this, what are the odds that the Messiah is going to be born of a virgin in Bethlehem and have to move to Egypt? Matthew is setting the stage and saying, look at what the Bible says. What the Bible says about the Messiah, no one would guess. But Jesus fulfills it. Believe. And He continues on. Matthew 2, verses 17 and 18. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted. It's from Jeremiah 31, verse 5. What's that about? Herod did come to kill the baby Jesus. He didn't have nuclear weapons, but he used the equivalent of it. These wise men, they had to travel a long way This could have taken them a couple months. Don't know exactly when that star appeared. Did it appear on the day that he was born? You know, if I kill all the baby boys two years old and younger, I'm sure to get them. But that probably happened during the time of that census. People probably moved out a little bit. I'll just have all the babies in all of Ephrathah. That's the entire surrounding region. It's like the county. Kill them all. Just like Jeremiah has said. There'd be wailing in this area. This is where Rachel was buried. Her children being killed unnecessarily. Continues in Matthew 2, verse 23. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets. He will be called a Nazarene. And Nazarene was not a really popular phrase. The Nazarene were looked down upon. They were despised. And this is exactly what Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, verse 3. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. This is how the book of Matthew continues. I mean, right here in the first two chapters, we have a whole genealogy that appeals to the Hebrew people. We've got six prophecies fulfilled. What's amazing is, you look at that and you go, yeah, okay. Matthew did write to the Hebrew people. But yet it is Matthew, who right here in chapter 2, brings the Gentiles in. These wise men coming from the east. He brings them in to this whole story. And it is the book of Matthew that ends with a note for the Gentiles. We call it the Great Commission. where Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Matthew is the one who points out that while Jesus fulfills all those Hebrew prophecies, Jesus also comes for the Gentiles, beginning with the wise men and going to all the world. Which, by the way, fulfills another prophecy. Isaiah 42, verse 6. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. The wise men, they saw the light of the star and they traveled to Bethlehem. Matthew writes, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, magi from the east came to Jerusalem. But the question is, what is a magi? What is a wise man? You know what? I'm going to give you two stories. First, the remarkable one. The one that I think has possibly been just a little bit embellished. As this story goes, these three wise men have names. Their names are Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior. Each one of them comes from a different country. One comes from India. One comes from Greece. One comes from Egypt. They were wise men. They were very smart. They were nobility. And they did come to Jesus. And they did worship Him. But they didn't have the full Gospel. And so, after Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, Thomas, yes, doubting Thomas, set out to find these three men. And he did find them. And he witnessed to them. And he baptized them. And these three wise men became disciples of our Lord too. And they themselves went out and they began to witness. Unfortunately for them, the same fate awaited them as did ten of the other disciples. They were killed. They were martyred for their faith. Years later, Saint Helena, yes, the mountain over in Napa is named after her. She went about finding them and she found their graves and she removed their bones and took them to Constantinople where they were buried. only to be disrupted through war and strife and everything else. And they were then stolen and they made travels all over throughout Europe to finally end up in Cologne, Germany, where they are buried at the great cathedral there. Which, by the way, if you go to Germany and you go to Cologne to the cathedral, there are graves there, three graves. One for Caspar, one for Melchior, one for Balthasar, the three wise men. Is it really them? To be honest, I kind of have my doubts. I read the whole story and I went, it's a good read, but there's a lot of things there that just don't seem to quite pan out. So if we don't go with that, then who were they really? Well, to go back to the days of Dragnet, the facts. I want the facts and only the facts, ma'am. What facts do we know? Well, the word Magi, it's Iranian or Persian in origin. You have to understand, the country of Iran did not exist 2,000 years ago. In fact, what it was back then was called Persia, or before that, Mede. And the Persians had this name Magus for one of their tribes, plural Magi. Who was this tribe? These were the elite, the noble people. These were the educated people. And these people in this tribe, they had a great interest in religion. They had a great interest in astronomy. and the study of the stars. They had begun working on a calendar based on the rotation of the planets and all. They took an interest in all other areas of human interest. They had basic anatomy. They had all sorts of basic things. They had a lot of ideas that at that time were considered very wise. We look at them now from a scientific standpoint and go, I'm not quite right. But because of their great knowledge, they were considered to be great men. By the way, The Magis also worshipped one God. They believed in a God who created the entire world. They believed in no other gods. And you might say, where in the world would they get that? Unless if they were, you know, coming from like the Bible. You know? Because the Hebrew people lived there too. And this was one of the great claims of Abraham. There is one God. He is the God of creation. The people of Israel had been conquered by the Persians. They had been taken off into captivity. In fact, Ezra lived in Persia. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for the king. I've got this funny feeling that, you know, those Hebrew people, in fact, great people like Ezra and Nehemiah, I had a feeling they kept preaching. And probably from there, the Magis came to believe in the one God, the God of creation. Of course, we also hear of a form of magi in the book of Daniel. The magicians, or the wise men. When Daniel was taken into captivity into Babylon, which is modern day Iraq, Daniel and his three cohorts, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were told to go through this training under the king, under King Nebuchadnezzar. It involved eating the very best foods, but these foods were unclean by the Hebrew standards. And so they made a deal with Nebuchadnezzar. You know what? Let us eat our food, let all these other people training in the art of the magi or the magician, the wise men, let them eat their foods, and then test us at the end. And see if we are not up to snuff. When we read Daniel, we find that Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were found to be ten times smarter, ten times better than any of the other magicians or wise men. So what do you do? Well, King Nebuchadnezzar, he was no dummy. You put Daniel, you put him in charge of all of them. Daniel, who refused to worship any other god, except for the true God. Daniel, who even under the threat of being thrown in the lion's den, continued to pray to God. Do you think that maybe Daniel, as he led that group of magicians, those wise men, maybe taught them in the ways of the Bible? When it comes down to it, we know that these guys came from the east. Iraq and Iran are to the east. We know that they were wise men. They were scholarly. We know that they were most likely influenced by the Hebrew people. And as a result, they probably knew the words of the prophets. Those that said a star would come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel. Numbers 24, verse 7. And so when they see this star, they go, That's what they were telling us about. There's this new star. And a scepter's going to rise. It's a king! We must go and worship this king. He's the promised one to come. And how did they worship him? They brought gifts. Four of them. You might say, Matt, you're wrong. No, I'm not. They brought four gifts. You're probably thinking, wait a second, there's gold, there's frankincense, there's myrrh. You're right. And those are three very appropriate gifts. Gold. Gold is the metal or the element of kings. We see that throughout Scripture. When Joseph becomes second in command to Pharaoh, how does Pharaoh designate that he is going to be second in command? puts a gold chain around his neck with the seal of Pharaoh on it. Daniel, when he was put over the wise men, what did Nebuchadnezzar do? Gold chain around his neck. When the kings and the queens came to visit Solomon, how did they come? They came wearing gold crowns and holding gold scepters. In fact, King Solomon himself, the builder of the temple, he had a throne that was made of ivory. You might say, no, that's pretty impressive made of ivory. Not good enough. He had it overlaid with gold. And then he even had so much gold that he went down to the point that the drinking glasses were made of gold. Gold is the medal of kings. The wise men brought gold because Jesus is the king of kings. Frankincense. It's a very pure incense. In Exodus 30 verse 34, we see that It is used only in the worship of God. In fact, there was a separate chamber that it was kept in in the temple. They'd mix it with the grain and the grain offerings so that it would give a pleasing smell. And they used it when the prayers of the people were offered. This incense would be burned and the smoke would rise up. And that symbolized the prayers rising up to God and that prayers are pleasing to God. By the way, prayers are still pleasing to God. If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, to pray daily. An excellent one. It's like incense going up to God. Incense. Frankincense was bought. Why? Because Jesus is the Son of God. And He deserves that which is dedicated to God. And myrrh. Myrrh was used primarily on three occasions. One, weddings. The bride would wear it so she smelled sweet. Myrrh was used by mixing it with wine to create an anesthetic, and it would numb pain. And third, it was used in the embalming process, very simply, to cover up rotting flesh. Amazing that the wise men brought myrrh, because Jesus came to be married to his church, which he calls the church the bride. Myrrh was offered to him mixed with wine at his crucifixion to cover the pain. There's only one thing that covers the pain of sin. It's not myrrh. It's Christ's blood. And so he refused that myrrh. And as a result, he died. And myrrh was used for embalming his body. These are the three gifts that they brought. And then there's the fourth. Their time. These were rich men. And if you're sending a tribute to a king, you don't leave your kingdom. Because if you leave your kingdom, someone can come in and take over. So you send your tribute via a tarravan. Nowadays, you send a tribute via check and United States Postal Service, FedEx, DHL, UPS, or any of those. These wise men recognized Him as that star come out of Jacob, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And they were not going to miss the opportunity to go and worship Him personally. And they gave their time. To go from Iraq or Iran, you're going anywhere from 500 to 1,000 miles. Round trip, 1,000 to 2,000 miles. on foot and by camel. They gave time. And that's why we're here today, too. You know, there's no way of worshiping God better than to personally come and worship. Just writing a check and putting it in the mail. It's not nearly as good as being here. When we come to church, we're not coming because this is some social club or service organization or some group like that. No, we come because we are the bride of Christ. He came so that He could be married to us so that we can be called the children of God. And when it comes down to it, If you're married, when you say, I love you to your spouse, do you write a note when you're at work and send it in the mail? And you know, say, hey, in case I forget to tell you, I love you. Or do you make sure that you personally say to your spouse, I love you. That's why we're here today. It's just like the wise man. The wise men came to worship, to give God worth personally. We're here today to worship God, to say, I love you to God, and to do it personally. This is where we need to be. And so as we go into this new year, it is my hope that we can follow in the footsteps of those wise men Maybe their names were Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar. I really don't care. What I do care is they came to Jerusalem, they came to Bethlehem, and they worshiped. And I hope that we, this year, we come and we worship. And if you know of a friend who says, ah, you know, I don't really believe that I should go to church. I don't think church is necessary. You know, hit them with the personal nature of it. If you're saying, I love God, what better way than to do it in His house personally? Bring your friend. Come and worship. Or if there's a family member who's fallen astray, make it your New Year's resolution to get a hold of them and to say, you know what? You need to say, I love you to God. And you need to do it in His house face to face. just like the wise men did. May we always honor God. May we always worship Him. For He is the light of the world. He is the groom. We are the bride. Amen. We continue now with the gathering of our tithes and our offerings. One of our ways that we too, like the wise men, bring our gifts to our Lord and Savior, bring our gifts and say thank you to God the Father for the tremendous gift of salvation He has given us.