Sermon: A Gift to the World

Short little text tonight will come from Matthew chapter two in just the two verses, verses one and two from the gospel of Matthew.

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 has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him For honest. Uh, a night like this. Uh, there are a lot of people in the world that would see this as evidence that you are out of your minds. This is weird. This is strange. Gathered together, uh, celebrate the anniversary,

whether it's the right date or not, of a child that was born in the near East 2000 years ago. It's odd. It's weird. I asked AI this week how many people have been born since the time of Jesus. It's impossible to do an accurate census through the ages, but the population reference bureau, which sounds pretty official, uh, estimates that there have been between 117 and 120 billion people born throughout time. Of those, about 8 billion people are alive today.

Therefore, the number before those living today born in this world is somewhere between 109 and 112 billion people. And it's believed that Jesus was born about four to six bc but what's interesting is that hardly changes the estimates before Jesus has estimated that maybe 10 to 12 billion people were born. So since Jesus was born, 105 to 115 billion people have been born. Or another way of stating that is 90% of all people

that have existed in the world were born after Jesus was born and yet none of their birth are celebrated yearly by people across the face of the earth, throughout countries, in every corner of the world,

every year just as one. This Jewish baby born

just as odd is this passage and that at the very beginning of the gospel of Matthew, we have these three wise men that are coming from the East. It's odd for this reason. Matthew is writing to Jews. Jews are his audience and that's why Matthew more than any other gospel writer, is quoting all kinds of Old Testament prophecies. He's showing them that this king that was to be born to them, the one that was prophesied, that Jesus is indeed that king.

And yet it's not the account of the shepherds out in the field. The Jewish shepherds out in the field that Luke has. Matthew doesn't even include it in his gospel. He begins with the very first people seeking Jesus are these foreigners? The very first ones to be eyewitnesses to this Jewish baby born are people from a distant land. The very first people to bow down and worship him in the gospel of Matthew are Gentiles, not Jews.

It's strange. It's weird. The star shines in the night sky and proclaims that a king has been born and they travel this way to see him.

I did some other research this week too. You know it's estimated there have been between somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 kings in the history of humanity, and yet not one of them that I know of, not one of them has had their birth celebrated by foreign countries, let alone the entire world throughout the entirety of history. Since their birth none, zero.

What do wise men from the east have to do with this one born king of the Jews? What do you have to do? Almost all of you in this room are gentiles. What do you have to do with this one born king of the Jews?

Well, everything. Because he came to be a blessing for the nations, to the nations. That's why Matthew begins his gospel this way. That's why this is the first account of having seen Jesus. I want to think about whether this is something that we see throughout the scripture. Psalm 67, it's a wonderful psalm that begins with an illusion to the Arian benediction, that benediction that we will often use at the end of our services.

And Psalm 67 verse one begins with an illusion to the Arian benediction when it says this, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Bless us. And the reason for asking for the blessing is found in verse two of Psalm 67, that your way may be known on earth and your saving power among all nations. Bless us so that we might go out and your saving power would be known among all the nations.

I want to think together, is it just in Psalm 67 that we see this? If we go back to the garden of Eden, God makes Adam and Eve in his image and his likeness, then just 1 28 immediately upon their creation we're told God blessed them. And then he gave them a charge, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue the earth. And he says, have dominion or rule over it. And there's a lot of ink, a lot that spilled over.

What does it mean that man was created in the image of God? We can't delve into all that, but we must say in part particularly functionally man's being created in God's divine image was so that he was to go out and he was to rule and he was to subdue the earth as the very image of God that he was to as it were, exercise a kingship over the earth because he works created in God's image. And so Adam, as he comes together with Eve, they are

to populate the earth. And so the sovereign kingly rule of God on earth is extended and his glory covers the earth. It has to do, they're created his image and so it speaks of them going out their presence, but not just their presence but their very morality that there is, there is way a moral part of our being. And so as the functional image of God that when God looks upon the earth, he would see a reflection of himself.

He would see his goodness, he would see his love, he would see his kindness, he would see his righteousness. He would see his holiness reflected back to himself.

But Adam fell into sin instead of being fruitful and multiplying, he ushered in death for himself and for us. Instead of filling the earth with the image of God, he filled it with marred beings, marred images of God. That's you, that's me, that's us.

Instead of seeking to subdue the earth he He sought to have dominion over God. And so it's true of you and me, of us.

Instead of bringing blessing, he brought curse not only upon himself, but upon you, upon me, upon us.

But what's interesting, at least to me as we find the same language throughout the Old Testament scriptures, bless, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, abdu and rule, be a blessing to the nations. I just read a handful of passages to us, Genesis nine, one and seven, and God bless Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. God. Abraham Genesis 12, and I will make you a great nation.

Then he says, and I will bless you. He goes on to speak about those who bless him, he will bless and those who curse him, he will curse and then he echoes the earlier promise and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed God to Isaac. Genesis 26, I will bless you. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed God to Jacob. Genesis 28, your seed will also be like the dust

of the earth and in you and your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed? This continues beyond the patriarchs of Deuteronomy seven, right after the great Shema that that great profession confession of faith of Israel, God says that he will bless them and multiply them. Deuteronomy 28, 11th through 12, Israel's told God will multiply you and then he speaks of them impacting the nation. Psalm 1 0 7, Isaiah 51,

and we could actually go on it seemingly forever.

This has been said in many ways. Genesis 1 28 is the first great commission summarize the biblical scour. The commission was to bless the earth and part of the essence of the blessing was God's saving presence going to the ends of the earth that his glory might shine.

That was the commission. But Adam failed and Abraham does not complete the mission. Neither does Isaac, neither does Jacob, neither does Israel. None of them bless the nations, but God does not fail.

He promised that the nations would be blessed and that his glory would reach to the ends of the earth as far as the curse is found,

and it comes in the person of his son, the second Adam, the true Israel, the true son of God.

Why did these wise men travel to a distant land de gaze upon the King of Israel Board?

Why? What do they have to do with him?

Everything Because he's their king. He's the king of kings.

Why are you here this evening?

Why do you come to observe the birth of a Jewish child born 2000 years ago? What does he have to do with you?

Everything

one to come, but bless the nations.

So we returned to those men from the east to who indeed are wise men If if they were not wise men before this moment, they demonstrated in this moment because they say for we saw his star. When it rose and have come to worship him, they not only know who he is, they know what to do when they see him.

Listen, most kings deserve respect. They deserve admiration. They deserve even submission, but they do not deserve worship. But they know. They know not only who they've seen, they know what to do before him. They fall down and they worship him.

That's the response. It's an odd thing. It's an odd thing. The hope, the salvation of the world was born that night and there were no parades. There were no crowds of people. There was no fan fear. It's just weird. That's what's really weird. John will say it this way. In his gospel, he was in the world and the world was made through him. If the world did not know him, he came to his own and his own people did not know him,

but the world will know him.

Paul summarizes this way. He says that when he returns, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he's Lord, that he's king.

This seems so odd, so weird,

but this is the definition of sanity. This is the definition of having a right mind of seen with clear eyes of having your heart in the right place. This is the definition because he's returning on the clouds and when he returns on the clouds, every single knee will bow and every single tongue will confess that he's king.

You know it now. You see it now.

You experience it now,

and what do you do when you recognize this Sam as king? You worship him. You worship.

You can sit here tonight because he is a blessing to the nations. Almost every single one of you in this room is a gentile, and this isn't strange. This is being in your right mind.

He came to remove the curse. He came to remove sin. He came to remove our guilt. He came to remove the penalty of hell. He came to remove the prince of the power of the heir ruling in this world. He came to restore peace and love and harmony and joy forever for his people and he will rule and reign over us forever as our king. The kingdom has come into the world in the person of the sun and that king is returning and when he does, his kingdom shall be consummated in full

bloom and it will be blessing beyond blessing to the ends of the earth. It's worthy of your worship, this baby born. Let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for the gift of your son and Lord Jesus, we exalt you even this evening as the king of kings and Lord of lords and in our hearts, we bow before you and we say you are worthy of all praise and worthy of all adoration and worthy of all worship.

We do pray that even tonight and as we sing and as we go to our homes, that it is you that's in the forefront of our mind that sits and governs our hearts, that we are yielding our lives as a living sacrifice to 'cause. Indeed, you are worthy of all of our, our worship. You're the one mediator between God and men, the king of kings and Lord of lords. We exalt you this evening. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.