Sunday 5th January 2025. Epiphany.

Pastor Pete Myers explains Matthew 2:1-12.

Who, or what, is guiding your life?

Who, or what, is guiding your life?

Who, or what, is guiding your life?

One of the most stressful things we face is making decisions. We don’t want to make the wrong decision. We don’t want to face bad outcomes.

And so, it’s a natural desire to want guidance. And that can express itself in different ways.

Sometimes, we don’t know what is best. And so, we want guidance to point us in the right direction. Sometimes, we have made a decision, but we feel uneasy. And so, we want guidance to reassure us. But sometimes, we have started down a road that deep down we know is wrong.

And so, we want guidance simply to make our conscience feel better about doing something we know is wrong.

A major theme in today’s Gospel passage is guidance: The Magi from the East are being guided by a star. Herod consults the local priests for guidance. And, the priests quote God’s Word for guidance.

And this passage comes at the first Sunday of the year: a time when many of us are naturally thinking about the future, are imagining what might be, and are looking to make wise decisions.

And so, as you look ahead to 2025, let me ask that question again: Who, or what, is guiding your life?

In response to that question, Matthew has three things to say:

  • Without God’s Word we go in the wrong direction.
  • Without faith we resist God’s Word.
  • God’s guidance is for your good: even though you can’t see it

Without God’s Word we go in the wrong direction

The first of those: Without God’s Word we go in the wrong direction. Please look again at vv. 1-2:

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.”

These wise men from the East want to find God’s king. By this point, God’s people, the Jews have had synagogues in the East for hundreds of years. Because they were taken into exile there in the 6th century BC. So, these wise men must have heard something about God’s promises.

But, they are not looking for God’s guidance in the right places: Following the tradition of the East, they look to the stars to guide them, not to God’s Word. And so their partial understanding leads them in the wrong direction.

They’re looking for a king, and so go to Jerusalem, the centre of political power in Judea. It seems reasonable, it seems obvious, it seems wise. But that is the wrong place to go.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:22-25:

Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

As human beings we are incredibly good at generating false signs to confirm the direction we want to go in. In our minds, we make bargains with God: “If I pray, and do something to please you, then this will be a sign to guide me; or that will be a mark to lead me.”

It is easy to make the mistake of thinking that if something makes me feel happy or comfortable or pleased then this is somehow God’s confirmation that I am going in the right direction.

But it is just as easy to make the mistake of thinking that if something makes me feel unhappy or uncomfortable or displeased then this also is somehow God’s confirmation that I am going in the right direction.

Like the magi, we reason in our heads about what makes sense to us and take this as God’s guidance on our lives.

This is how we behave, when we seek guidance and wisdom for our lives outside of God’s Word.

It is exactly what Eve did in the Garden: Placing God’s Word to one side, she relied on her senses and saw that the tree was good for food, she relied on her feelings because it was a delight to the eyes, she relied on her reason and ate the fruit to make one wise.

Since the fall, it is fundamental to human nature: to seek guidance outside of God’s Word, to pretend our senses, feelings or reason are God’s guidance, to justify our wrongdoing and sin by looking to signs beyond what God has said.

Without God’s Word we go in the wrong direction.

It made sense to go to Jerusalem to look for God’s king. That was reasonable, logical, rational. But: it was wrong, and would eventually lead to dire consequences.

And part of the reason for those consequences is because Herod, unlike these Gentiles, was a man who did have God’s Word, but, he did not trust it.

Without faith we resist God’s Word

Which leads us to Matthew’s second point: Without faith we resist God’s Word. Please look again at v. 3:

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;

Herod was not a Jew, but as an Edomite king of Judea, he was very familiar with the Jewish Scriptures. He had advisors from the Jewish elite. And to solidify his power he had rebuilt the Jewish temple.

Herod trusted power. Success. Control. Wealth. Security. These are the things in which his faith rested.

He had God’s Word—but he didn’t trust it. And so we see, when these wise men come to him, clearly asking about God’s promises of a messianic king.

Herod is troubled… …because Herod is threatened. Herod’s actions in v. 4 show he’s familiar with God’s prophecies:

and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So Herod knows of God’s prophesied anointed one. And he knows who to ask for the details about his birth: the chief priests and the scribes.

These are the teachers of God’s Word, the scholars: the experts. And in response to Herod’s query, they know exactly what part of the scriptures to quote.

Please look again at vv. 5-6:

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 least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

In a time when the leaders of God’s people had become corrupt, the prophet Micah foretold that God would give his people a servant leader: a good shepherd. And this prophecy should have excited the religious leaders.

Here is Herod, the Roman puppet king of Israel, asking about God’s promised Gospel. It is the perfect opportunity for them to preach, to appeal to Herod to repent and believe, to be full of joy and excited, just as the Magi are. But, none of this occurs.

Herod is troubled by God’s prophecy, and will now put into action a hypocritical plan to kill to the messiah.

And the religious leaders are indifferent to it: apathetic and disinterested in God’s purposes.

Herod and the religious leaders have God’s Word, but, without faith we resist it.

And each one of us here has reasons in our hearts to resist God’s Word too. Whatever it is for you, whenever it expresses itself: You desire to go a certain way, to do a certain thing, and hearing God’s Word about that particular issue either makes you troubled or indifferent.

That is how a dirty conscience reacts, and our conscience is dirty when it is not clean by faith.

Think of the commandments again: where are you troubled or indifferent?

  • Honour your father and mother: do you grate against those in authority, and hate to submit?
  • Do not murder: do you keep justifying and explaining away your anger?
  • Do not commit adultery: do you think of, or treat, someone as though they were your husband or wife but you are not married to them?
  • Do not steal: do you assume you have a right to other people’s property—physical, intellectual, or otherwise?
  • Do not bear false witness against your neighbour: do you keep bending the line between what is true and what you want to be true?
  • Do not covet: are you good at looking righteous on the outside, and hiding the way you sin, even from yourself?

All of these sins flow from disobeying the first commandment: you shall have no other gods: in other words, God says,—trust me. Don’t trust yourself: your senses, your feelings, your reason. Trust me. God says. Trust me.

God’s guidance is for your good: even though you can’t see it

And God says this because of Matthew’s third point: God’s guidance is for your good: even though you can’t see it. Please look at vv. 7-9:

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had 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 too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

Herod was a hypocrite. He said he wants to worship the Christ. But as we’re told in v. 12, God will warn the wise men not to visit him again.

Because while man looks on the outside, God looks on the heart. And Herod’s heart will be revealed later in the chapter, when, to try and get the Christ, he will murder all the children in Bethlehem.

But God, who is sovereign over all things, here uses Herod’s hypocrisy for good.

Herod has consulted God’s Word, and passes that Word on to the wise men. And despite Herod’s hypocrisy, his evil, his bad intent, Isaiah 55:11 promises us this:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

God’s Word always achieves God’s purposes.

So now, having God’s Word, the wise men can be led to the place of God’s true king. Look at vv. 10-11:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And make no mistake: God’s guidance looks crazy. Bethlehem was a backwater town, with nothing special about it at all.

Herod’s later actions will prove that. Think about violence and conflict in the news: Commit horrific crimes in London, Washington or Paris: This will be all over the global news. Commit those same crimes on an island in the South Pacific, villages in the Central African Republic, or rural areas in norther Myanmar: Sadly, very few people would hear about it.

Jesus does not look important. Bethlehem is not a rational place to look for a king.

But, this is the foolishness of God that confounds the wisdom of the world.

God’s guidance looks crazy, but it will lead to true joy. A lesson the three presents underscore for us:

  • Gold, a sign of royalty—Jesus is a king.
  • Frankincense, a spice used in temple worship—Jesus is God.
  • Myrrh, a balm used to anoint the dead—Jesus will die for you.

This is the heart of God’s good news for you, 1 Corinthians 1:21:

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

And God is sovereign over all. So while his Word may not make sense to us, God simply knows more than we do: and so God’s guidance protects us from unknown threats

Please look again at v. 12:

And being warned win a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The wise men have no idea that Herod is a genocidal maniac: They probably had a royal dinner with him only a few nights ago. They didn’t calculate this. They didn’t predict this. They didn’t discern this through some secret art. God revealed to them that they should not see him.

And now, having received God’s Word, and responding in faith, they are protected from an unknown threat.

As we end the Lord’s prayer we ask: deliver us from evil.

And as we ask for this… we have no idea of the details of what God is doing.

But you can be assured of this—you can trust it: God is protecting you. God is sovereign and is working all things for your good.

Not because you pray. Not because you persuade him to do so. But simply because, in Christ, this God king who died for you… …he decided, unilaterally, to place his love on you.

Who, or what, is guiding your life?

And so, Who, or what, is guiding your life?

Without God’s Word we go in the wrong direction. The wise men followed the star and did was seemed sensible. But only with God’s Word could they know where the Christ would be born.

But having God’s Word is not enough, because Without faith we resist God’s Word. Herod was troubled; the religious leaders were indifferent: Where do you hear God’s Word and your conscience is pricked, through fear or a desire to dismiss it? Where do you resist?

Because, the good news is this: God’s guidance is for your good: even though you can’t see it. God used Herod’s hypocrisy for good. God’s guidance to Bethlehem looked crazy, but led to true joy. God’s guidance protects us from unknown threats.

And in Christ, God is on your side: You can trust him. He is in charge, and is using that power for your good. We don’t understand him. His wisdom looks foolish.

But, this is our God: Jesus, the God king who died for you. This is the word of the cross:

folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, the power of God.