Pastor Slaughter
Epiphany Day
January 7, 2024
Good News of Great Joy for All People
Text: Matthew 2:1-12
What makes you happy? What gets you excited? You know those times where you do something, or receive something, that just leads you to rejoice. I mean you just can’t help but be happy. Is it a person? Is it hobby? Is it a way of life? There are just some things in life that causes us to rejoice, to be joyful.
Was that your attitude as you came here to worship this morning? Or when you saw it was Pastor Slaughter preaching you thought I should have stayed home? Were you excited to come? Or just going through the motions? When you think about Jesus are you filled with overwhelming joy or just indifference? Today we are celebrating Epiphany. When the Wise men from the east came to worship Jesus. We see for the first time when Gentile (non-Jew) worshipped Jesus. Verse 10 we hear that “They rejoiced with overwhelming joy.” What made them happy? It was Jesus! What did they do? Worshiped him. My prayer is that we too can find that joy in Jesus. Our theme for today is, “Good news of great joy for all people.”
Today we celebrate Epiphany. When we read this lesson of the Wise Men, we hear a lot of details, but we are also left wondering. How many Wise Men? Where did they come from? The meaning of the gifts? What was going on with the star? We can make guesses. People think of three wise men because of the gifts they gave but maybe there was more. We can guess they came from Babylon because of the connection with Daniel but all we are told is they came from the east. What we know is the why they came. They came because God and his grace led the Wise Men to worship Jesus.
We know that these Wise men weren’t from Jerusalem because they made their way to King Herod to inquiring, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” If they had known anything about king Herod, they wouldn’t have asked him. The Bible says, “When King Herod heard this, he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him.” This was in character for him. He guarded his throne so carefully that he had murdered his wife, children, and other family members to keep it from being taken from him. Considering this, no wonder the whole city of Jerusalem was troubled with him.
He knew enough about the Messiah to inquire from chief priests and experts in the law, where the Christ was to be born. Not only did he find out the location but he summoned the Wise men back to find out the time when the star had appeared. And he told them when they found him to report back to me so I can ‘worship’ him.
Notice the difference reactions to Jesus’ birth. Herod connives and is paranoid. The City of Jerusalem is disturbed because of Herod. The Wise men? Are overjoyed when the star appears to lead them.
Why these different reactions? For King Herod, Jesus was a threat to his way of life. For Herod’s throne, was his desire. His power was his salvation. What once probably brought him joy and happiness, now left him paranoid. Herod was trying to arrange his life without Jesus because Jesus was a threat to his love and passion, his throne and himself.
Do we wrestle with a similar sin in our lives? Let’s go back to that question in the introduction. What makes you feel happy in life? Is Jesus a threat to that thing, or person, or activity? If we follow Jesus, we will have to give up some things. Sinful behavior like partying and getting drunk. What about your time? Fishing and golfing on Sunday instead of worshiping Jesus. Is what makes you happy money? Is the threat then giving offerings, or time to make more money or the way that money is used. If we try to arrange our life without Jesus, it will ultimately lead to hungering and craving for more and more and never being satisfied.
Notice the reaction of the Wise Men. The Bible says, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with overwhelming joy.” Why? Why were they filled with such joy? Was it because they were excited that their reached the end of their long journey? No. That the savior had been revealed to them! They were Gentiles (non-Jews) who had heard about that promised Savior. They had some contact with Gods prophecies and believed those prophecies!
Verse 11, “After they went into the house and saw the child with Mary, his mother, they bowed down and worshipped him.” This scene just amazes me. We can assume that Jesus was younger then 2 because Herod killed all boys that were 2 and under. Can you picture this. Think about your, or a 2-year-old. You don’t bow down to them, right? And yet this Wise Men did that with Jesus. They humbled themselves before Jesus. Their status, their wealth, their wisdom, was nothing compared to this 2-year-old Jesus. Herod did everything to keep his power and control and that led him to spiral down to paranoia. The wise men humbled themselves and found true joy and happiness and responded with worship.
Yet how many of us today came to church and rejoiced with overwhelming joy when we stepped in here? Did you come here with a big grin on your face excited to hear about your Savior? Or did you roll out of bed and come reluctantly? As you worship, are you hoping the service ends soon so you can get on with the rest of your day? When you think about going to Church and Bible study, do you feel like your whole day is shot as opposed to being the highlight of your day?
Sometimes its almost like there is an apathy towards the gospel. When we grow up in the church when we have heard the same accounts again and again, when we hear about God’s grace, is it an attitude of “I know this stuff already, let’s hurry and get this done with so I can go out to eat before the football starts.” My life is so busy I just want downtime and the first thing on the chopping block is time in the God’s Word. I know what I need to know to be saved, why do I have to sacrifice time and energy?
Instead of rejoicing with overwhelming joy, we just kind of shrug off the importance of Gods word. And yet what does God do for us? He doesn’t’ just send us away and say I want nothing to do with you. Instead he points us to the Savior that came for all people. Even when we were apathetic toward his word, God became man. Even if we downplayed his grace, he shows us what grace truly is, undeserved love for sinners. The message of cross isn’t something we shrug our shoulders at, but leads us to fall to our knees because why would he save a sinner like me? Why would he give me salvation? I can’t even fathom it but yet I will rejoice in it with an overwhelming joy.
The wise men were filled with this overwhelming joy that Jesus was their Savior. That he would rescue them from their sins. This joy in experiencing God’s grace led them not only humble themselves but they offered them their finest gifts, the Bible says, “Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, Frankincense, and myrrh.”
What does seeing the grace of our Savior move us to do? It leads us to show our thanks by worshiping him and offering him our finest gifts. A lot of people focus on the gifts presented to Jesus, but I think they miss the other gifts that were given. Their time and effort and energy spent to travel to go to Jesus and worship him. If they came from Babylon, it probably took them several months to make that trip. They gave their time and resources out of thanks for the salvation, Jesus gives. We do that too as we make time for worship and study of God’s Word. We do that was we help and volunteer. When we get burnt out and when we begin to be apathetic towards God’s Word trying to replace God’s word with other things, we need to go back to see God’s grace that has been so richly and abundantly poured out on us.
What makes you happy? What leads you to rejoice? I hope and pray that your answer is Jesus. Because today we are reminded that Jesus is the savior for all people. He is our savior and he brings to us an overwhelming joy that leads us to worship him and give him thanks. Amen