Matthew 2:1-12

Is my life like that of the three wise men who ended up in Jerusalem? Matthew 2:1-12 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 when it rose 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 Messiah 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 shepherd 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 search carefully 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 when it rose 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, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. The day we call Christmas on December 25 is the day after tomorrow. What is Christmas? It is the day we celebrate in remembrance of the birth of our Savior. Our church has come here to this place together in celebration and in worship. Why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus? Why do we celebrate? Is it just because it is a holiday? Is it because of the presents we receive? Is it because we get a day off of work? Why do we celebrate? Why do we celebrate with joy the day we call Christmas? Because God came into flesh to take away our sins. So that is why we celebrate? Are you sure? When we celebrate a birthday we send out invitations. Who receives the invitations? Who receives the invitation to come to the party? The one who is favored by the one sending out invitations. Family. Family? When a grandparent is celebrating their birthday do little children receive invitations to come? We invite friends and the people we desire to have there. We invite those who we are most comfortable around. When you receive an invitation do you feel good or bad? You feel good. You also feel burdened. If I am able to attend the party and reap a benefit from attending then I will be able to suffer a small burden and take a gift and offer it to them. But if I am to attend the party and give a gift but see no gain in attending it then could I go to the party with a joyful heart? Rather than attend you find a way to make an excuse to not go. You make excuses. In any invitation there are different scenarios. If you have received the invitation to the birthday celebration of Jesus, are you sure of your relationship between yourself and him? Are you certain of your relationship with Jesus that you have come here to celebrate and worship with joy in receiving the invitation to celebrate the birth of our Savior? If that is so, then the one who has invited us to this celebration, he is the one who is above all, and if we are burdened to bring a gift worthy of him, what gift can we bring to him as we celebrate this Christmas? What have you brought before him to celebrate this Christmas day? What have you brought before him? Did you bring him money, merit, pride, your will? What can you bring before God and declare to him that Lord I have brought this gift for you? We know that our Lord came to die for our sins. What is the most precious thing that we can give to him? We do not need to say it, but we all know what it is. It is all of our pride, self confidence. It is the decision to participate in the crucifixion with Jesus. Only in this way can we celebrate in this day. Is this not the gift that would be pleasing to our Lord? He is not looking for gifts that you gave based on your circumstance. Jesus came to give us life. He came to save us from our sins and to make us sons of God. He came to gave us eternal life. We need nothing else. Why do we nothing else? Aside from what we eat, drink and use for our needs, we will be leaving everything else behind when we die. We have come into the world empty-handed. When we leave we will also be leaving empty-handed. Just like when we go on a trip we are entertained for a brief moment, this life is but a passing moment. If you had all the money in the world would you be taking it with you in the end? Nobody can take it with them. If you have traveled all 50 states and have enjoyed yourself greatly are you going to be taking that with you? You will not. Though you may have dressed in the finest clothes and eaten of the finest foods are you taking that with you in the end? In the end everything is useless. If you were to use money freely and were to celebrate in festivities daily what use is it in the end? You will be leaving it all behind when you go. Just as we have come into the world with nothing we will be leaving the world with nothing. We will be standing before God and judged for the fruit of our lives. It will be from the decision to lay down our lives and to put our faith in the one who had come to die on the cross for my sins to live a life based on that faith. That is what we will be taking with us in the end. When we go before God we will be able to tell him that we have lived our life for Jesus. But if we live our lives according to our desires then in the end we will only receive punishment. How do we want to stand before God and participate in the celebration of the birth of his Son? As I have said in the beginning, we must be sure of our relationship with Jesus as we come before him to celebrate his birth and bring the gifts of our lives to him. In our Internet café, we have put up some interesting pictures recently. Have you seen them? One of the pictures showed the longest traffic jam in the world and that was in China. Do you know how long it was? 100 mile. 100 miles? That is 160 km. No. 250. 250? Almost. It was about 150 miles. If you are traveling at 60 miles an hour to go 150 miles would take more than two hours. But if you are traveling in a traffic jam it may take days. They did not describe the reason for the traffic jam. There was also a picture that showed the merging of two separate seas. In the resort town of Skagen in Denmark where the Baltic and North Seas meet. Though the bodies of water meet they do not mix. You can see the different colors as the bodies of water hit each other. The reason they do not mix is because of different densities in salt. We don't know the reason for the traffic jam whether it is an accident or if it is construction. In my life that I live to follow Jesus if there is an accident, if I make a mistake, then for those who are following after me, my family and my neighbors, who will resolve this accident for them? Who will fix this problem for them? Unless I fix the problem before me no one will be able to pass. My wife, children, husband, fellow workers, no one will be able to pass because of the problem I have created. I am becoming a major hindrance in their lives. Knowing this can I live the Christian life in laziness? When we live for ourselves, do we realize the results of our actions as we say we live our lives of faith? We do not. When we drive who is the best driver? Is it the one who drives the fastest? The one who drives the best is the defensive driver. This driver is aware of all that is going on around them. Whether someone is on their cell phone texting, drunk driving, falling asleep. Depending on what the other drivers are doing the defensive driver evades those other individuals. The good driver is aware of their surroundings and is able to avoid dangerous situations and get to their destination safely. Our life of faith is the same. I am trying to make it to my Savior, but I must be aware of my surroundings and see if it is safe or if it is dangerous and filled with temptations and situations that are trying to keep me from making it safely to my Lord. If I get into an accident not only will the other person suffer but I too will suffer because of the accident. Likewise in our lives of faith we may think that we are going safely to our Lord, but because of what our wives may say or someone around us may say, if that causes us to stumble and it becomes an accident in our lives then we will all suffer in our walk together. There will be a traffic jam and we will not be able to move. We will be creating a major problem for ourselves. There are times when we experience delays on the freeway due to construction, but these are to better the conditions of the road so that we may travel better. In our spiritual walk through training at times we may suffer delays but if it better our lives we can be patient and work through these times. But in these times when those around us give us guidance, though we may not desire to do that, in obedience as we humble ourselves then can we experience growth and change and progress. But in the accident if we refuse to change and fix the problem that we must re-examine our lives and think of what it is that we are trying to do. Unless we are careful in our thoughts, speech, and action there is a great possibility of having many problems in our lives. As we are able to see two bodies of water merge and not mix because of its densities, when I live the life of faith, though I may go out into the world there will be a separation from it. But if my faith is weak, and I am not for in my foundation of Jesus, and I am unable to overcome temptation, then because I have no foundation, when trials come I will fall, I will not be able to show my faith. When we come to church we put on an appearance of faith but when we open our eyes we notice that we are lost in the world. The world shows us that when there are two different entities that they will not mix, but when we say we believe in Jesus and go out into the world and mix with the world are we truly living the life of Jesus? If we are not then when we stand before God we will be charged for this, but also while we are living here others will see us and not be able to tell if we are followers of Jesus. Then can God receive glory from me? No. No matter where I go or what I do there must be a separation in my life of the Spirit which reflects Jesus and the rest of the world so that I can boldly say I am a Christian. Is this not the life that we should be living? In the hymn All Glory Laud and Honor in verse three the verse says that before the passion and suffering many sing their hymns of praise to him. We all know the story they saying hosanna to him but what happened after he was captured? Everyone left him and ran away. Even the disciples ran away. Though we say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and follow him but if today you were told to die for him rather than die you would want to run away. You question "why should I die?" You say "they should be the ones to die." This makes us the same as them. We sing when we are happy. We sing when things go the way we want. But when we are told to die for Jesus we pack up our things and walk out the door. Is this the life we are to live for which Jesus came and died? No it is not. When we look at today's Scripture how are we prepared to meet our Lord? How can we come prepared to celebrate this day of Christmas? The star that the three wise men were following, why did it not lead them to Bethlehem but why did they go and up to Jerusalem? Have you ever thought about this? Why did the star go to Jerusalem? What would've happened had they gone straight to Bethlehem? What would have not had happened? Have you ever thought about this? Had they not gone to Jerusalem and going straight to Bethlehem, they would have given their gifts and left without incident. But Herod waited for them and when they did not return Herod had all the children under two years of age children. This could have been avoided. Why did they go there and why did this incident happen? I did not understand. Does it make sense to you? Why? And because I did not understand I kept asking the Lord and kept trying to figure out why this had happened and I do not have the time to go over all of the reasons and explanations. But let us look at this one example, when you are given visions and have dreams after are you living your life in obedience according to the word? You do not. Like the three wise men the star is guiding them. Where are they headed? They are going to Israel. Is this not so? Noticing that the star is leading them to Israel, what did they then assume? It is not written in the Bible, but I think they went to Jerusalem because kings are born in palaces. So rather than pursuing the star all the way to the end, they made a decision and went themselves to Jerusalem and ended up in the palace. Today when we pray and we have been given an answer to our prayers, unless you follow the Lord and keep him in mind until the end, you will end up somewhere else and may cause an incident just like the slaying of countless children. I am asking that we do not live this kind of life. When the three wise men were with Herod they explained everything to him including the birthplace of Bethlehem. But did any one person follow them to go see this new King? Was there one person who was curious enough to follow these three men? None. Whether it is the king, the Messiah, or Jesus, unless one finds something of benefit for themselves they will not give up their lives no matter who appears. Though people knew that the Messiah had been born and they had seen people come to worship Him, others did not follow nor even care enough to confirm. Is this the state of my life of faith then what does it have to do with our Lord? What is important is not to see the star, nor to bow down and worship, what really matters is my personal relationship with him and living the life of obedience until the end which is the true Christian life. When they knew that it was Bethlehem they did not need the star to guide them to Bethlehem. When they were reminded that it was Bethlehem and came out and saw the star guide them again, we can see that they did not follow completely in obedience but was sidetracked by their own thoughts. If we examine ourselves we can see that many times in our lives that we make this same mistake. Through these problems good things do not occur Through the Bible we can see that there is great suffering. Should we not be living our lives and keep from making these kinds of mistakes? When someone tells us something that we like to hear we are excited and happy. But the moment someone says you did something wrong, you need to change this, you need to fix this, we respond by saying that I will pray about it? Rather than say yes to the correction and the teaching we decide if it will be something that we will do. We are being told to obey that which we find difficult to do but we respond by saying no. Though we have been invited to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we must examine ourselves to see if we have come in preparation worthy of this celebration. We must be completely committed in living our life of faith so that we may pursue it until the end just as we would follow the star rightly to the end. Then our lives could be without incidence that we cause. But rather than live our lives this way we make excuses and complain that it is difficult. We have been called to be one body in Christ through our relationships and our circumstances, but the temptation of this world is not about becoming one, but it is rather about the individual. It is about your satisfaction your needs and your desires being met with which we are tempted. When we ask children "what is it that you desire most?" It is all about what they want for themselves whether it is the new iPhone, iPad or any other thing. They want to possess it for themselves. I am not sure about in the US, but when I go travel to Korea, I was shocked. The youth gather to dine together, or to spend time together, but what are they doing? Though they have met and are sitting to share a meal one hand is going to the food while their eyes are stuck to their phones. Why meet to dine together? They have no concern for the other person across from them. They are being entertained by their phones. The person across from them may as well be a stranger. I was shocked. Why meet other people? Why gather together? Why not go eat by your self? Though they have physically come together their entire being is focused on their phones. People are continuously building walls around themselves and separating themselves from others. If I sit across from Charles and have a conversation with him and look at him I am able to tell if he is lying or being sincere. But to be completely focused on the material object, though there may be truth and there also may be many lies. If you get lost in these things people forget that you can ruin your lives because of it. You may have more knowledge and more information because you are connected to he Internet, but your relationships with others which is about giving, receiving, serving, helping and being helped, will be destroyed. Who gives this kind of temptation? The devil traps us so that we are unable to help others and to separate us from others by giving us more of the things of this world. This is like the three wise men who were following the star but then thought to themselves that they King would be born in the palace and then headed in the direction where they thought would be right. This is the attitude when we come before God and worship Would he be pleased to accept this worship from us? Would he accept our worship? Parents provide birthday parties for their children. But as a child continues to grow outside of the teachings of their parents would the birthday parties continue to get better? If last year you spent $100 on your child's birthday party and during the year the child received good grades, listened well would you not this year then want to spend $200 on the party? Is this not the heart of someone who wants to give? When we come before our Lord and we continue to grow spiritually in him, would not the celebrations that he gives us yearly be more abundant time continues on? But last year we celebrated with the hundred dollar party, but during the year I did not live a life that was representative of the life that Jesus came to give for me, then how will I be able to attend the following year's celebration? With what guarantee will I have that our Lord will answer my prayer when I call out to him? Will I be invited to the following Celebration? Will I receive an invitation to bring gifts and celebrate? Will I be the one who is able to receive these invitations and to join in the celebrations? The degree to which I am invited and the celebration is set before me is dependent on my obedience. I am the one who is capable of receiving the blessings of God. I must be the one to do it. How? I must persevere until the end in obedience to the word and follow our Lord then will I be blessed. We have come here not just to eat, drink, and rest. We eat, drink and rest by surrendering our pride and focusing all our speech and lives around serving Jesus so that this time can be a time that glorifies God. When God shows us our faults we must truly repent so to be forgiven. Then as we make new plans God will bless us and we can receive the blessings from Him. May everything in your life revolve around Jesus in speech and in action. May this celebration of the birth of our Lord be a time that gives glory to our God. Sermon by Pastor Howard Park Translation by Miguel Park