Let us now turn to the scripture reading. There's going to be two of them. The first one is in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah is one of those major prophets. You'll find that Isaiah chapter 60 is on page 619. 619 in the Pew Bible. And here the reading of God's inspired word. Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and a thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you, and the nations shall come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see, they are all gathered together and they come to you. Your son shall come afar, and your daughter shall be carried on the hip, and then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, and the wealth of the nation shall come to you the multitude of camels shall cover you the young camels of Midian and Ephah and all those of Sheba shall come and they shall bring gold and frankincense and they shall bring good news and the praises of the Lord and then verse 19 The sun shall be no more, and the light by day, nor shall the brightness of the moon give you light. But the Lord will be your everlasting light, your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself. For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall end, and your people shall all be righteous, and they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planning, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation. I am the Lord. In its time I will hasten it." So ends the reading of God's Word from the Old Testament. Let's take our Bibles and let us turn to Matthew chapter 2. the second chapter of Matthew beginning with verse 1, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king Behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who was born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star when it arose, and we have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And all of Jerusalem with him, and assembling the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea for so it is written by the prophet and you O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who shall shepherd my people Israel then Herod summoned the wise men and secretly ascertained from them what time the star appeared And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I may come and worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it arose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they fell down and worshipped him. And opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country another way. You know, when I come to this whole passage that we have in the book of Matthew, it's almost like these wise men, they just appear. And you know, when you come to the season of Christmas, there are several things that you oftentimes see during Christmas. What are they? One thing is lights. You see all kinds of beautiful lights. And people like things that glitter and sparkle. And yet, even gemstones are popular. Why? Because they shine and they reflect the light. Adults like to see gold or things that look like that, that the light is an amazing thing. And people that are blind, they can't see that light. And people that are colorblind, it limits that color that they can see. They might get some glasses to help them, but ultimately it's a limitation. And not only do you see lights, but you also see the giving of gifts. And I think that basically in this whole passage in Matthew, that that's the root of all these different things that we do, is that we see this information that comes to us. The lights of Christmas are everywhere and even Christians and non-Christians will decorate their house. And they'll remember that time of this time of year. And we're reminded that the light of the world is Jesus. As we sing this hymn, it says, the whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in. The light of the world is Jesus. O come to the light, it is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. But have you ever thought about it? Those wise men, they just show up in the Scriptures. There's no explanation in the Bible. All they come and they say, we've seen His star and we've come to worship Him. Where is He? It's almost like they just appear quickly and then they see and they see what they are called to see and they worship Him and then they leave and it's the end. Why is this happening? I think that some of the times that what the Lord does in the Scriptures, that He brings this type of thing, so that we might ask the question, why? You know, when I was a young child, I would look at this story and I was wondering, how did they know? How did they know to come? What was the thing that taught them this? And yet the Scriptures doesn't specifically say, but yet as we know and we read the Scriptures, we can make these connections between the Old Testament and the New. That we can come to the Scriptures and we can say, oh, that's the reason why that happened there. And so the wise men come, and in fact these wise men, The only explanation they give, we have seen a star in the east and we've come to worship Him. You see, they knew something about the Bible that many Christians don't even bother to know, or even Americans. Why? Because they heard the Scriptures. So let us consider that God gives the promise of light in the Old Testament, and then that light comes in the world in the New Testament through Jesus. And then the question is, are you experiencing that light as you come to know the Scriptures? You know, the promise of light, of coming from God, you know, God created light, and He made it possible so that we could have some idea of what that term even means. Our ability to see the light reflect off of things helps us to see colors. And yet, God describes this world as being spiritually blind. Blinded to the things of God. Blinded by the sin of Adam and Eve. And yet God did not leave us without a witness. He continued to present to us that there is the concept of light and that God is that light ultimately. He gave the moon as a lesser light and the sun as a brighter light. And these lights of the physical world help us understand that whole concept of light. You know, in the Old Testament, after the time of Deuteronomy chapter 18, the prophecies or the prophets were restricted to the Jews. But right before that, in Numbers chapter 24, you have Balaam, the son of Beor, And he takes up his discourse and he says, the oracle of Balaam, the son of Beor, the oracle of a man whose eye is opened. Again, speaking of that blindness. The oracle of him who hears the Word of God, who knows the knowledge of the Most High, who has seen the vision of the Almighty falling down with his eyes Uncovered. I see Him, but not now. I behold Him not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." You see, there's a prophecy of a coming light. A star shall arise out of this tribe in Judah. And notice that it's not the firstborn that is given that promise that leads the nation. It's the fourthborn. because God sovereignly chooses to work by His own. And yet the people of Israel would know that ultimately it was Yahweh who was the light that they needed because as they were going through the desert, going through the wilderness, there was a light that shone going through that wilderness and then during the day it would be a cloud during the day. So it would cover them from the heat of the sun and warm them by the night. And so they would see that indeed that God was that light. And when the plagues fell upon Egypt, the darkness that came on all of Egypt, where was it still light? It was light where the Israelites were at. The God was their light. And so when you read this, the Lord was their light, And He taught them the way to go. You come to the wise men, and the wise men, the Magi it's called in Scriptures. If you don't do a translation of the original, it's Magi, which has been translated both kings and wise men. These people come from the East. It doesn't specifically tell us exactly where, but indeed there's people that say that they came from Iraq. or from Iran, that area. Ethiopia and India. But how did they come to this idea of a star? How did they come to it that there's going to be a star that would rise and announce the birth of a king? And even when you read in that Gospel of Matthew, you'll look there and you will find no number that is given for the wise men. If you hear the Eastern Church, oftentimes they'll talk about twelve. There is twelve wise men, but in the Western Church it's three, and so we have songs that talk about these three kings. Perhaps it is based upon that whole passage of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And yet these wise men come, and they come to present these gifts, and if you notice in the passage there, it says they came to a house. It's no longer in a stable because it's been a couple years afterwards. You see, at first there's this announcement to these shepherds that the Savior has been born, and then it just kind of dies down for a couple years. Nothing more. And then these wise men show up. They just show up and all of a sudden the whole city is astir and they wonder, what could this mean? Herod was a paranoid king. He was always worried about his position. And he constantly was trying to stay in power. Even killing his own sons to stay in power. And so he calls and he wants to know more information. But notice what he finds out is he finds out when that star came about, it was two years they'd seen that star, and so he keeps that in mind. Think about that. Two years of age. We're talking about a toddler when these kings came. And yet oftentimes the reason why as Christians we combine these events together every year, we combine the birth of Christ and the kings, is the reason why is because we want to cover that story that talks about the work of Christ at the very beginning of His life. And then as toward Easter and Good Friday we talk about that final years of His life. And so they come and they present Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Subsequent traditions, you know, often times they would speak of them as kings. And the reason why is because they read this prophecy in Psalm 72. May all the kings fall down before Him. And so these magi came and they fell before Christ and they worshipped Him. And they gave Him gifts. You know, if you would ask, when did the Jews come to India? You can find in the Encyclopedia Britannica that the Jews have been in India since the time of Solomon, where he would do trading in all kinds of different areas, and so these Jews had been spreading out, and even since 562. But one of the things that you would find as the Jews would go and spread out, that they would often times make contact with the leadership of the country because they didn't want to be persecuted, they didn't want to be afflicted. And so they would go and they would seek to make connections with that king and explain to them who they are and stuff like that so they could worship in peace. And as they went out, they would oftentimes speak to different guys, they would speak to different kings, and perhaps this is one of the ways that they come to know about this star that is going to come out of Judah. It says, a star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will arrive. This impact has impacted not only the Jews, but also the non-Jews. Perhaps this message was also passed down through Balaam, you know, to other people in that east. That they learned about the teaching of the Jews. But they also learned about also the teaching of the church of God in the Old Testament, because when they had sinned, God had basically taken them out of the land of Israel and spread them throughout all this country. And then when you're in difficulties, what is one of the things that you like to do? You go to the Scriptures and you go to seek hope. You go to seek answers. Why did this happen, Lord? And so they went to seek the answers and in fact, probably their captors asked them for questions about who do they serve and what is their God in some of these prophecies. And so they came to look for that light that was coming, to look for these gifts. And yet the Bible does not tell us how the Magi concluded that the light that they saw, the star that they saw, was about the King of the Jews. But you know, that's not really surprising to me, because if your position is to study the stars, then you kind of know more about him than other people. You know, if you're an electrician, he'll come into a building and he'll count every light in this building because it's just part of his job. If I'm going, you know, and traveling and going throughout the countryside and stuff like that and I drive into a small town to do my work, one of the things I'm always looking at for is how many churches are here and wondering, are they preaching the gospel? Are they preaching about Christ? Or are they going astray from these things? And so it's not a surprise to me that somehow that they saw a star that they made that connection. And so they came and they followed that star and where they went is they went to... Where would you go? Well, you go where the King is at, right? I mean, that's where the King should know about this, so you go to Jerusalem. And they ask Herod, and Herod, take note, he should have known. Why? Because the Old Testament tells you that a king in Israel is supposed to know the Bible. He's supposed to know the Word of God. And he just kind of blew it off. You know, because he was into power. He was not into godliness. And so what he did is he called for the people who knew the Scriptures, the scribes, And He ascertained them about where the Christ was to be born, and they said, in Bethlehem. And so He told them, and then they saw the star, and the star came over to where the child was at, and they knocked on the door, and they visited Jesus. But notice this. They followed the star and so often times people say, well maybe the star was planets that were aligned. And I don't know if that's the case. Or they'll say the stars are basically, but if you notice how the stars travel in the sky, they'll go based upon how the earth is spinning. So we'll see that sun rise in the east and go down in the west. But yet, when they got to Jerusalem, which way did the star go? It went south, because Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem. Perhaps they were following the Shekinah glory of God. and not necessarily a star that we would see in the skies. We don't really know. All we know is that God promised that a star was going to come and that there was going to be light that would be coming. Another promise of life coming is found in Isaiah 42, where it says, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth justice to nations. He will not cry out or lift up his voice. He shall make it known in the streets. And then as you go down to like verse 6, he says, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I have taken you by the hand. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open eyes that are blind and to bring forth prisoners from the dungeon, imprison from prison those who sit in darkness. So perhaps the Magi knew about this, that God was going to provide this light to the nations. So they were looking for it themselves because they were not Jews. Perhaps another promise that the Magi followed was this one in Isaiah 49, verses 5 and 6. And now says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring back Jacob to him, and Israel might be gathered to him. I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength." He said, it is too light a thing that you should be a servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob. I will bring back to preserve Israel, and I will make you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. then another promise of the Magi may be found in Isaiah 60, verses 3-6. And the nations shall come to your light, and the kings of your brightness to your rising. Lift your eyes all around, and they gather together, they come to you. Your sons shall become radiant, your hearts shall thrill and exult, because of the abundance of the sea. shall be turned to you, and the wealth of the nations shall come to you, the multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Median and Ephrata, and those of Sheba shall come, and they shall bring," notice this, gold, frankincense, and they shall bring the good news, the gospel and the praises of the Lord. They came and they brought that message that Christ was born. And so God is sovereignly working not only within the nations of the world, preparing them for that coming of Christ so that once He was born and that He lived a short time, 33 years, and then He died and was raised again, His message went out and it covered and that message spread throughout all those Jews that were all the way through this whole area, that they went to the Jews first and also to the Greeks, to the rest of the nations. God was preparing through the prayer and the preaching to bring it about. And so that's the reason why we have lights at Christmas. That lights remind us of what God did in this Old Testament. We have lights to remind us that God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, and we give gifts, just like the wise men, out of rejoicing. Because Christians want to give gifts to one another because we're made in the image of Christ. We're made in the image of God. And since we cannot bring gifts personally to Jesus, we give them to those who are made in the image of God, did the anointing of Jesus. You know, there's a lot in Christmas that is ahistorical, that does not belong to the historical message of Christ. And yet, the things that we believe about Christ are historical. Jesus is the one, the triune God is the one who knows if you've been bad or good. And that Jesus is the one who knows if you've been bad or good. And so we give gifts to one another because we remember that God gave His wonderful gift to us. And the Bible records that the fulfillment of that light is Jesus. He says that all things, like in John chapter 1 verses 3 through 9, All things were made through Him, and without Him there wasn't anything that was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all may believe through Him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness of the light, the true light which gives light to everyone coming into the world. And then in Matthew it says the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephtali, of the sea beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness. They have seen a great light. Those dwelling in the region in the shadow of death, the light has dawned. This is where Jesus went to live after He was brought back from Egypt, in this area. And Jesus also spoke, He said to them, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of the light. In John 12, verse 46, it says, I have come into the world as light, that whosoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness. And so we have that promise of the light coming. We have the promise of that light being fulfilled. And yet the Scripture says something even more. It says this like in Revelation chapter 2. Only hold fast to what you have until I come. For the one who conquers and keeps my word to the end, I shall give him authority over all nations. And I will give him the morning star. What is the morning star? Well, Jesus goes on and tells us that He is the morning star. It is He Himself. He says, I, Jesus. have sent my angel to testify you about these things for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright and the morning star." Jesus is that morning star. Even though that there was a star that led them to Jesus, He was that light. He was that morning star. And yet Peter tells us this, And we have this prophetic word more fully confirmed. To this you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the morning star dawns, or until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. You see, Christ came as that star. But each one of us need to experience that star coming that we need to understand and come to faith in Christ. That as we read the Scriptures, that it opens our eyes and it opens our minds to understand that Christ died not just for the Christians, but for me. Me personally. God promised the Star of Jacob, the light to come into the world, and may you and me be like these wise men, to know the Bible well enough that you may seek Him. Seek Him in prayer and in your word. You know, in the bulletin I gave to you, an idea of reading through the Bible throughout the coming year. I hope in this coming year you continue to follow the teaching of Scripture and be a reader of God's Word. Do not be like Herod who was ignorant of the Word of God or who had forgotten what it teaches. Come to know the Scriptures as well as a pastor so that you might know that the pastor is also speaking to you the Word of God and that he's not leading you astray. You see, that is where God has called us to follow Him in this coming year. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Father, we're thankful to you that you promised the light, that you came as the light and you announced that light through a star. And Lord, by gifts we give to you, we rejoice in that light as we give gifts to one another during this Christmas time. Lord, help us to follow you and help us to be knowledgeable about the Word. And God, when we're weak and we're not listening and are not opening Your Word, Lord, work by Your Spirit and give us that hunger and desire that we might follow after You. In Christ's name, Amen.