Matthew-001

Let us direct our attention to Matthew 2:2, which is found at the beginning of the New Testament. We will now proceed to read Matthew 2:1-12.

The fullness of spiritual life: Set our minds on God

You are very familiar with this story, so you might say, “We’re going to hear yet another Christmas message centered on a manger, sheep, oxen, and all these other familiar elements. After that, we will have refreshments, and that will be Christmas!” Well, it’s not going to be like that. What I want to drive into your mind powerfully today can be summed up in Romans 8:6:

Listen carefully to these words of Scripture. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit—on spiritual things, on God himself—is life and peace. You might ask, “What has this got to do with Matthew 2:1-12?” It has everything to do with this passage, and in fact, with the whole of Scripture and with the whole Christian life. We are talking about life and death.

In Romans 8:6, Paul is giving a warning to the Roman Christians. He is not talking to non-Christians in this verse, but to Christians. He is saying, “If you, as Christians, set your minds on the flesh, that is, if you are carnal-minded, you will die. But if you set your minds on the things of God, the things of the Spirit, you will have life and peace – not just life but abundant life.” That was the theme of my recent messages in Hong Kong on “The Abundant Life”, which dealt with the question of whether we, as Christians, are experiencing spiritual fullness and abundance, or whether we are struggling on our last legs, hoping to survive.

Do you experience the fullness of the Christian life, or are you strug­gling from day to day, wondering if you will make it to tomorrow or next week? Being spiritual-minded is the essence. If you are not spiritual-minded, not only will you not be able to make it, you will die! To be carnal-minded is death but to be spiritual-minded is life and peace. Here peace represents the whole fullness of the Christian life.

Now I want to put it to you that there is nothing in this whole passage, Matthew 2:1-12, that is intelligible to the natural man. So you gulp and say, “But we’ve been reading it for years!” Let me repeat. There is nothing in this passage that is intelligible to the natural man. In fact, you cannot understand any of Scripture if you are carnal-minded.

Becoming a Christian means a basic transformation. It doesn’t just mean accepting certain Christian doctrines. Of course, it does include that too, but it’s not just that. If you don’t go beyond accepting Christian doctrines, you haven’t become a Christian yet. You become a Christian only when your life is changed from being carnal-minded to being spiritual-minded. Paul emphasizes this in Romans 12:2, where he says we must keep on being changed by the transformation of our minds, because only through being spiritual-minded do we know life – the fullness of spiritual life, eternal life and peace.

You will say, Matthew 2:1-12 is about certain wise men who came from the East to visit Jesus. What’s so hard to understand about it? That part is not the problem. The problem begins when you start asking, “What is the meaning of these things?” Becoming a Christian is not just about understanding certain facts, that there was a person called Jesus, that wise men came to pay homage to him, bowing down before him with reverence, bringing gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. All these are simply facts. Understanding them doesn’t require a spiritual mindset. So, where does the problem originate?

The problem begins when you ask questions like: Why did these wise men, who were not Jews but foreigners, honor a Jewish king? You normally worship and adore your own king, not a foreign king. What the wise men did would be regarded as a traitorous act. That is a problem, isn’t it?

Another question is: How did they know they were to bow down before him with reverence? Jesus was only a baby lying in a manger, he wasn’t in a palace. How did they know he was a king? What kind of message came to them? And how was all this revealed to them? We can press on to ask: What does this star signify? Can we find any astronomical evidence to support the existence of this star?

When we look at all these questions, we begin to understand the problem. I wonder if you can answer any one of these questions. You won’t be able to answer them until you begin to think spiritually, until your whole thinking begins to change. Indeed, this is the foremost point I want to convey to you. It is a matter of life and death that our thinking begins to change. This transformation is not only for the purpose that we understand the Bible, which is very good, but for the words of life to enter our hearts, and for God’s life to become our own.

The Bible being spiritual, does not feed human curiosity

Let us examine the problem, and in doing this we will discover something remarkable: The Bible is an entirely spiritual book wherein God speaks to us through his Holy Spirit. Let me say frankly that the Bible is so spiritual that it doesn’t tell the scholar or us in our human curiosity, the human things we want to know. For example, the only thing we know about these so-called “wise men” is that they came from the east. Well, the east is a very big place. Does it mean that the wise men were Japanese or Chinese, or even Russians from Siberia? Or does it mean the Persians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Arabs? The Bible doesn’t tell us. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? And if you go through the whole Scripture, you will see that the Bible is not interested in the human factors that interest us. We are so human that we are interested in the things the Bible is not interested in. Conversely, we are not interested in the things the Bible is interested in, so we end up in desperate confusion. If you know anything about modern theology, you will know of the endless talk about the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith, and the endless search for the historical Jesus. The scholars are so utterly frustrated in their search for answers.

Let me put it like this. As Christians, we are in the remarkable position of not being able to give the non-Christian a specific answer when he asks us in which year Jesus was born. You know your own birth date, which could be December 22nd or November 23rd, or any other specific day. However, when was Jesus born? Let’s disregard discussions about the particular day or month, and just focus on the year. Maybe it was 7 B.C., or 9 B.C., or perhaps 4 B.C. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Have you ever looked it up in a Bible dictionary? It can’t give you a definite answer. You might say, “At least I know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That’s a consolation since I don’t know which year.” And the Church, being so frustrated because it was unable to say which year, had decided that they must at least tell people which month and day it was. December 25th! That’s it! Well, don’t consult any scholarly books such as Encyclopedia Britannica because you will discover that Jesus might not have been born on the 25th of December.

What can we say specifically? That Jesus was born in Bethlehem? But where in Bethlehem? Never mind where, Bethlehem is good enough. But the tour guides will try to alleviate your frustration by saying, “Right here is the exact place where Jesus was born.” You will feel better now because you know exactly where Jesus was born!

When I visited Nazareth, by some marvelous detective work, the tour guides were able to tell me exactly which room Jesus lived in! How did they find out? Don’t ask them too persistently. Just take it or leave it.

And when I visited Jerusalem, they said, “The Last Supper was held right here.” Oh! They even knew in which room Jesus had the Last Supper. Why? Because we are unhappy if we cannot be precise. The natural man wants to know the historical Jesus. It’s not enough for him that Jesus is King and Lord, or that he is spiritual. That doesn’t satisfy us. We want to know the material details.

What about asking what Jesus looked like? Was he 5 foot 2? No, that’s too short! Raise it to 6 foot 2! No, that’s too tall! Let’s come down to 5 foot 8. Do we know how tall he was? Or what he looked like? We don’t know. Maybe he had long hair. But Jewish men didn’t wear their hair long. So he had short hair. Now we’re getting somewhere. Short hair, how short? Let’s settle for medium. What was the color of his hair, his eyes, his skin? Why didn’t Luke or Matthew or someone else draw us a picture of Jesus instead of just writing about him? In Chinese we have a saying that seeing a person or a thing just once is better than hearing about it a thousand times. Matthew, why didn’t you write down this information? Draw us a picture of Jesus so that we could see how his hair was combed. Did he have a sharp face, a square face, or a round face? If only Matthew had drawn a picture of Jesus for us, and put beside the picture: “Jesus was 5 foot 9 inches, his eyes were dark brown, his hair was chestnut color, and his skin was brownish or olive color.” But Matthew doesn’t tell us anything. Mark doesn’t tell us anything either. Neither Luke nor John does. It’s so frustrating!

The natural man craves physical details! But don’t get too worried. All you have to do is visit a Christian bookshop, and lo and behold, what do you see there? A beautiful picture of Jesus! And what does he look like? Like a 17th century European with long hair and a sharp beard. That was the style in those days. If that bothers you, just reduce the beard a bit and trim the hair a bit in the picture. The carnal man wants to know all this, but God doesn’t tell him anything! It’s frustrating, isn’t it? I want you to examine yourselves as to whether you are spiritual or carnal.

The spiritual man doesn’t even want to know all this. Isn’t that remarkable? Paul doesn’t want to know if Jesus was 5 foot 8, or what color was his hair, for he says in 2Corinthians 5:16,

He is saying, “I don’t want to know about Jesus after the flesh, because all this is external. I want to know him in the inner depth of his being.”

When you get a present, what do you do with it? Do you say, “Oh, what wonderful wrapping paper you gave me! What a beautiful ribbon! What a beautiful box! I’m so happy with all these!” Or are you like most people who quickly tear off the wrapping to look inside? You know how to do this physically. How is it that you don’t know how to do this spiritually? Isn’t it interesting? We want to know what was Jesus’ physical form, but Paul says, “I don’t want to know about this. I don’t care what Jesus looks like on the outside. What’s important is the inside, the spiritual!”

That is precisely the point when we study the Bible. The whole Bible is spiritual. If you try to understand it on the carnal and human level, you will be absolutely frustrated. I can give you example after example of how scholars are so human in their thinking. Aren’t they carnal-minded just like us? Alas, alas!

When I studied theology, one of the things I had to spend time on was something called “Introduction to the New Testament.” If you go to a Christian bookshop, you will find many big volumes that give an introduction to the New Testament. They go into long discussions about when the book of Romans may have been written, or when First Corinthians, or Second Corinthians, or Matthew were written. Was Romans written in the year A.D. 52? And there is a long discussion on this. Maybe it was A.D. 53, or A.D. 64, or maybe A.D. 78. After some time, you get so fed up with the discussion that you say, “Who cares about the year?” I know scholars who spend their whole lives just studying this question, forever seeking the truth but they never arrive at the right conclusion. What difference does the year make? If it were important for us to know that Romans was written in A.D. 62 or A.D. 58, wouldn’t Paul have written, “In the year of Emperor so and so”? The solution is simple, yet Paul doesn’t tell us which year. Yet scholars spend years studying and analyzing this question without arriving at a firm conclusion. Isn’t that remarka­ble? I have spent so much time studying these questions in theology that I have asked myself, “Why am I doing this? I’m just wasting my time!” We do this because we are carnal-minded, and are easily sidetracked from the real issues.

The carnal mind takes offense at what is spiritual

Even worse, not only do we not understand the Word of God as it is meant to be understood, but more seriously than that, if you are not spiritual-minded but carnal-minded, you will die because sooner or later, you will take offense at the gospel. Believe me, I speak from many years of experience in serving the Lord. That is the part that worries me most. When I see people take offense at the gospel, it frightens me.

We talk about gentle Jesus, meek and mild, lying in a manger. We picture the spiritual man in a carnal way. Even when we think of spiritual things, we degrade them to the human level. The situation is desperate! We picture a Jesus who presumably walks around with a smile on his face, always gentle, meek and mild. Isn’t that what Jesus said about himself? “Learn of me for I am gentle and lowly of heart. And you will find rest unto your souls” (Mt. 11:29). But then we don’t understand the spiritual significance of “meek and gentle.” When we read in the Gospels that Jesus went into the temple and made a whip out of cords and lashed the people out of the temple, we are offended. “Jesus shouldn’t behave like this! The hymn says, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” but he comes with a whip in his hands and drives the merchants out of the temple! We are offended. I can tell you that people have come to me pointing their fingers at Scripture, right at the passage where Jesus drove the merchants out of the temple courtyard and overturned their tables. Is that “gentle Jesus meek and mild” to you? No, it looks rather fierce and frightening. Are we offended that Jesus doesn’t conform to our picture of the spiritual man?

Let me say this. The spiritual man is indeed humble and meek, but that does not mean that the zeal of God, the fire and fury of God cannot kindle his soul. And there is nothing more frightening than the anger of a holy man. We think that meek and gentle Christians are ideal Christians. Yet Jesus behaved in such a dogmatic, authoritarian and decisive manner in the temple that it frightens and confuses us, doesn’t it? I thank God that Jesus was not a weakling; he stood up for the truth when it was necessary to do so.

Remember also that God is a God of love, yet he is also capable of anger. The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31), and Christ who totally reflects God (2 Cor. 4:6) can also be frightening in his fury towards sin. If we are carnal, we cannot take this. That is why I was saying that unless you are spiritual-minded, sooner or later you will take offense at the gospel.

You may be offended by the way a man of God behaves, because you don’t understand a spiritual man. I have led Bible studies on the Book of Acts many times, and I have often seen how people take offense at Paul, who behaved with a certain stubbornness and dogmatism that overruled the multitudes. For example, he was determined to go to Jerusalem against the pleas of his fellow work­ers and fellow Christians. That is only because we are not as spiritual as Paul. Spiritual men are not always easy to understand. Yet we think we know what is a spiritual man. I remember vividly that someone in a Bible study criticized Paul’s behavior as unreasonable and stubborn. I said, “Calm down, my friend. When you become as spiritual as Paul, you can take it upon yourself to judge him. Until then, don’t say a word.”

Recall how Paul, this wonderful servant of God, full of love and joy, dealt harshly with a sinner at Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. 5:1-5). It was frightening to see how dogmatic and determined Paul was! Without bothering to ask whether the Corinthians agreed or disagreed, he said to the Corinthian church,

How many Christians have come to me, offended by Paul’s behavior! How can a servant of God behave like this? How can he deliver a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? This is what I meant, that sooner or later you will be offended with the gospel. You will also be offended with the conduct of men of God because you want to judge them on a human level.

In 2 Corinthians 5:16, Paul goes on to say,

When Paul looks at you, he’s not interested in your hairstyle, in what kind of glasses you wear, or whether your necktie is nice, but he looks right into your being wanting to know if your thinking is spiritual, whether the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. He says, “When I come to Corinth, I will not come to listen to the words of those troublemakers in Corinth, but to see what is their power” (1 Cor. 4:19-20). A spiritual man is a man of power. That makes us uncom­fortable because we don’t know much about spiritual power. I can imagine Paul as he arrives at Corinth. This gentle and humble Paul walks into the church, looks his enemies in the eye and says, “Now, what is your power?” Do you understand that kind of language? Do you understand what power Paul is talking about? Or is it just Greek to you?

You can see that being spiritual-minded is the most essential thing if you’re going to understand, what Jesus did and said. Jesus’ disciples took offense at him. We see that in John chapter 6, where Jesus said to his disciples and the multitudes, “If you want life, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.” You’re ready to puke especially if you’re a person who runs for the door at the talk of blood and operations. “Drink my blood”? His disciples said to him, “That’s too much! We can’t take this talk anymore! Even if you are Jesus, the King and Messiah, we can’t stand this talk! We’ve had enough!” Of course he didn’t mean, “Take a bite out of my arm.” They couldn’t understand him because they were carnal-minded, so they were thinking, “Jesus is telling us to take him to the kitchen and put him on the chopping board. That’s disgusting! We can’t take this!” So his disciples left him, as recorded in John 6:66. Jesus is too spiritual for us, so we cannot understand his words.

1. Was the star natural or supernatural?

Do we understand Matthew chapter 2? You might say, “Matthew chapter 2 is easy! Let’s get on to more difficult things.” But first, let’s look at the star. It says in verse 2:

The star of the king. If you consult the learned commentaries, how do they explain it? Here we go again, they are looking for a human explanation for the star. The natural man takes offense at what is spiritual, and cannot understand it. So what does he do? He looks for a human explanation for the star. I invite you to turn to the many commentaries on Matthew. Let me give you some examples from my own notes on this matter, and I invite you to examine the commen­taries afterwards. This constant struggle to bring the things of God down to our level, within our intellectual grasp, becomes very interesting. We forget the words of Isaiah 55:9 where Yahweh God says,

God is telling us, “My ways are not your ways. You cannot under­stand my ways unless you become spiritual-minded.” Yet we prefer to remain carnal-minded.

You have seen the star in a thousand Christmas pictures. I’m sure this Christmas you have seen a Christmas card of the three wise men and their gifts and their crowns. And there is a star that shines on Emmanuel. What is this star?

In The Pelican Gospel Commentaries: St. Matthew, J. C. Fenton says, “There may be some reference to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Matthew.”

In 7 B.C., two big stars—technically planets—Saturn and Jupiter, came together with their paths crossing each other. From earth, the two stars looked like one star, which means that their light might have doubled. This is doubtful. I said that their light might have doubled because when two stars are moving, they can be side by side only for a brief instant, during which the combination looks twice as bright as before. That is why Fenton says, “There may be some reference to this conjunction.” But notice his hesitation.

You see the same uncertainty in the authoritative work, The Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Although the writer is uncertain as to whether the star is miraculous or natural, in the end he opts for the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Why does he choose the natural over the miraculous? Answer the question for yourself. Do you also go for the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn?

J. B. Philson’s commentary on Matthew completely evades the question.

Then we turn to Edersheim, a notable and respected scholar, a learned man, and one whom I greatly respect. And what do I find? Even Edersheim is carried away by the idea of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Although being the learned man that he is, he is uncertain like all the other scholars. He is aware of the serious problems in the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 B.C.

Incidentally, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constel­lation of Pisces occurs only once every 800 years. It was discovered by the famous German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, in the early 1600s. He was able to observe that conjunction with his own eyes. But if the conjunction was significant in the days of Jesus, why wasn’t it significant in the days of Kepler? Again you run into a problem.

2. Can a natural star lead southward?

The second problem is summed up in the Christmas carol, We Three Kings of Orient Are, in the words “Star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light.” You may not be an astronomer, and neither am I, but we all know that stars move from east to west, just like the sun and the moon. To say that a star leads westward tells us precisely nothing, because all stars go westward. You might as well follow the moon, which takes you westward as well. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The reason the stars (or the sun) appear to move, is that the earth is rotating. As it is rotating on its axis, you will see the whole heavenly body move when you look into the sky. The surface of the earth moves at a speed of just over 1,000 miles an hour at the equator, and completes one rotation in 24 hours, since its circumference is about 25,000 miles, as we know from our school-day geography. Every­thing is moving from east to west. To say that the star is leading westward is saying precisely nothing.

The problem here is that this star led from north to south, not east to west! The only time this star guided anyone at all was to lead people to Bethlehem (Mt. 2:9). That was the only time in the Bible account when they caught sight of the star they had initially seen in the east, leading their way once more.

Could that have been a second conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn? Perhaps. But one thing a conjunction could not do was to lead them southward. And Kepler, the great astronomer, was quite aware of this problem, so he claimed to have seen an evanescent star, what­ever it is. No one knows how to account for an evanescent star that had the appearance of moving southward. You only need to look at a Bible map to see that you would be moving south in going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. No natural star in the sky leads anyone south. There is the problem. That is why all the learned commen­tators are hesitant, for they are aware of the problems.

What about the New Bible Dictionary? It offers three possibilities. It reminds me somewhat of the English merchant who says, “You pay your money and you take your choice.” Now this is getting more and more confusing and frustrating, isn’t it? Here are the suggestions by New Bible Dictionary.

First, Halley’s Comet (a comet is a moving star with a long trailing tail) is visible over the earth every 76 years. Astronomers are able to establish that it was over the earth in 11 B.C., but the only problem is that the chronology doesn’t tie in well with the New Testament.

The second suggestion is again the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, but the New Bible Dictionary also points out the problems with it. The conjunction would have to be very brief. That is to say, it would have passed so quickly that it would be hard for you to notice it unless you are expecting it.

Furthermore, the New Bible Dictionary points out that a conjunction of stars (plural) cannot be properly called a “star” (singular), and yet the New Testament calls it “a star.” Also, these wise men being learned in astronomy would not make the mistake of calling a conjunction of stars (plural) a “star” (singular).

The third suggestion is a supernova. A supernova is a star that suddenly turns very bright, and for a short time dominates the whole night sky, and then fades away and becomes dimmer and dimmer. The suggestion of a supernova is interesting, but how exactly does a supernova guide anyone in any direction, much less a specific southerly direction?

Why am I saying all this? I want to show you that when we try to understand the things of God in a human way, we run into all kinds of problems. Let us concede that the facts given by the astronomers tell us that there was a lot of unusual, astronomical activity in the days when Jesus was born. In 11 B.C., there was Halley’s Comet. In 7 B.C., the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times. There was certainly some unusual spiritual activity, but how do we understand the star?

A miraculous star!

Unique among modern scholars as far as I am aware, Professor Eduard Schweizer of Zurich simply says in his commentary on Matthew, “This was a miraculous star.” It is pointless to talk about Jupiter and Saturn, and supernovas and the like. Schweizer simply concedes that it was a supernatural star. There is no other way to explain it.

What the Bible says about this star

Let us look at the Bible information about this star. This star is very interesting. It was first seen in the east, possibly Persia. But again the Bible does not satisfy our curiosity by telling us where. It leaves us without the human information we want, because it wants to direct our attention away from the human to the spiritual. But we persist in wanting to know the human. Isn’t it remarkable! We are so humanly inclined that we insist on the human dimension. The Bible doesn’t tell us where these wise men came from. It could have simply told us, but no, it again diverts our attention from the human. It doesn’t matter at all where the star came from.

Notice first, that this star was seen in the east, possibly two years before the men arrived in Jerusalem, because Matthew 2:16 says that Herod killed all male children two years and under. There was no reason to do this unless Herod had figured out from what the astronomers had told him, that they had seen the star about two years earlier. This fact is problematic for the Saturn-Jupiter conjunc­tion argument. In 7 B.C., there were three very brief conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, but that would hardly span one year, much less two years.

Secondly, verse 9 says they saw the same star that they had seen in the east. It’s very interesting that it’s the very same star! What’s more, this time the star was not going west but south! What star can do that?

Thirdly, in the Biblical account, this star actually stopped over the house where Jesus lay. Have you ever seen a star move and stop in its tracks, move and stop? What kind of star is this?

Fourthly, this star could pinpoint the house in which Jesus lay. If you would like to establish for yourself whether any star could do this, I invite you to stand outside—be sure to dress warmly if it’s winter—and look up, and see whether you can tell which place on earth a certain star is pointing to. You would have an awfully difficult time. I tried it the other day just to prove it to myself. I stood in the open and looked into the sky, and I thought, “Some people may think I am cracked. What is this guy doing?” I looked into the sky to see if I could establish whether I was in fact standing directly under any star. If you find it difficult with a star, try it with the moon. That should be easier because the moon is many times bigger than a star from our perspective. See if you could establish whether the moon is standing over a particular region, never mind over a particular house. But this star over Bethlehem, much smaller than the moon and much higher, could point to a particular house! That is really something!

I discovered that the only way I could establish whether a star was really over my head would be to take a cardboard box, punch a hole through it and put a basin of water under it. Then I would peer through the hole, and may be able to establish whether that star was over my head, provided that the water surface is absolutely flat. Of course, the men who visited Jesus didn’t have to do that.

Are you offended by how God works?

Are we offended by the way God does things? Must we fit something into our human pockets, and when it refuses to fit, we say, “Forget it”? In fact, that is what G. H. Box does in Hastings’ Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, which is an authoritative work. G. H. Box says, “There is no need to try to understand this star literally. It is a poetical way of expressing something.” Expressing what, may I ask? Presumably he means how God had led them. But how did God lead them? If this is a poetical way of describing it, what was the literal way? No answer is given. G. H. Box simply gives up. Do you see how dangerous it is to be carnal-minded? He gives up, still refusing to concede the supernatural character of the star. Why is human nature so resistant to the things of God? At least the other scholars expressed uncertainty about the star because they were aware of the problems. But Box simply describes it as poetry and illusion. So we have several “wise men,” assuming they were wise, since they could all see at the same time, an amazing shining object that guided them to the feet of Jesus. I don’t understand why a person like Box bothers to be a Christian. If I were in his position, I would say, “Forget it! I wouldn’t bother to be a Christian at all.” I say again that unless God is the living God, don’t bother to believe in him! Don’t waste your time!

I believe in God because I have experienced him as real and living. I have seen the supernatural wonders of his ways that I cannot explain. I became a Christian in a Communist prison camp, and was released from it. I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I cannot think of a human explanation for it. My God met with me in this Communist prison camp, and when I responded to his being and turned my life over to him, he brought me out in a miraculous way. I don’t have an explanation if you press me for one. Somewhere in God’s way of doing things, there is an explanation, but I don’t know what it is.

Do you believe in the God who does wondrous things? Do you believe in miracles or not? We are told time and again in the Christian life, “Don’t expect a miracle.” Well, I expect miracles. I believe in the God of miracles. I believe in the God who is not bound by natural laws, who does amazing things. If you don’t believe this, don’t be a Christian because you won’t find anything that is acceptable in the New Testament, because you won’t be able to comprehend anything in it with your natural mind.

Jesus healed the blind, and can you find a natural explanation for this? If you know anything about anatomy, can you explain how a blind eye can see again? Jesus raised the dead; can you think of some natural means by which the dead can be raised? Mary was a virgin who conceived by the Spirit of God! Can you understand that? Can you understand how a woman can conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit of God? The virgin birth at Christmas is incomprehensible. Now, which part of the New Testament is intelligible to you? There are miracles that you can’t understand. When you read of Jesus walking around in Galilee, it’s not his actual walking per se that has spiritual significance for our salvation, but it is his coming that is full of significance. The only way to understand all these things is to realize that they are all of God’s doing.

A Christian is a person transformed by God’s Spirit

How do you become a Christian? It involves the supernatural again. Becoming a Christian is not merely believing in one creed over another, or giving up Buddhism to become a Christian, or giving up a philosophy to accept another philosophy. You can do all that without any spiritual power from God at all. That is not what it means to become a Christian. If you became a Christian by simply saying, “OK, I give up Buddhism, or agnosticism, or human reason­ing. I think Christianity is more reasonable, therefore I choose it,” you haven’t become a Christian. That’s not Christianity.

What is Christianity? The essence of Christianity, the Lord Jesus tells us in John 3:5, is to be born of the Spirit, that is, God’s Spirit comes into your life and transforms you fundamentally. That is to become a Christian. God changes you from being carnal to being spiritual. Exactly as Paul says, how do we become spiritual-minded? Paul goes on in Romans 8:9 to say that if the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are spiritual-minded, because your thinking has been changed. That is what it means. And what is to be born of the Spirit? Can you find a human explanation for that? Of course not! It is God’s power that comes into your life and changes you. If you haven’t experienced that power, you wouldn’t know what it means to be a Christian. I’ve experienced that power. I am sure many people here have experi­enced that power whereby God came into their lives and changed them. That is supernatural, for there is no human explanation for it. The whole Bible is supernatural. Why? Because everything in it is accomplished by God who is at work. It is not a human enterprise, nor is it climbing some spiritual rope to heaven. God comes in and changes us when we yield our lives totally to him. That is Christianity! And Christianity is wonderful!

God spoke to astrologers, not “wise men” or “kings”

However, the gospel is offensive to many Christians so they want to change the picture. Let me give you another example of this. Notice the translation that we have here: Behold, wise men came from the east. You might not realize it, but that’s an interesting translation. In the hymn We Three Kings of Orient Are, the “wise men” have been promoted to kings! Well, isn’t it disappointing that they were not kings? We tend to think, “How nice that Jesus in the cradle had three kings coming to worship him!”

It’s like when we invite speakers to a conference, and we say, “Doctor so and so is the president of this organization, or the director, or the general manager.” We feel that we have glorified God because the speaker is a professor. If he is not a professor, we would say, “Can you give him a title to elevate him a little? It will attract more people to our conference.” So we have “three kings,” not “wise men.”

Unfortunately, they were not kings. Does that hurt your carnal feelings? So you say, “You’ve spoiled my nice picture now.” That’s right. What is more, where do you see the word “three” in the Bible? Does it tell us there were three? How did we figure out there were three? We want specific details: “Don’t just say kings, don’t just say wise men; tell me how many kings or how many wise men!” There were three gifts, so we take it that there were three kings. Perhaps there were six, or five, or two, who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh. You’ll say, “You’re getting me down. I was enjoying Christmas until I heard this message.”

What is meant by wise men? The Greek text speaks of magi, the plural of magus. Do you know what is a magus? Magus is used in Acts 13:6, 8, and is translated as “magician” there. You will say, “Now my stomach is turning! Not only were they not kings, but they turn out to be magicians! What’s going on here? This is getting worse!” The English word “magician” comes from magi. “Sorcerer” is even worse! So you’ll say, “Now this is getting bad!” From the context, you can already see that they were astrologers. Astrologers are not the same as astronomers. Astronomers are scientists who study the stars, and astronomy is the study of the stars, but astrology is the art of finding occultic or spiritual meaning from the stars. What have we got here then? Sorcerers! Astrologers! Again, our natural man is offended. Immediately, we decide that we’re going to change the picture. Let’s call them “kings,” or at least “wise men.”

Why don’t we understand God’s ways? His ways are so offensive to us. To whom did God give a message? To astrologers! If the word magi means “Persian priests,” then we are in even bigger trouble! Priests of a foreign religion? Indeed, Persian priests were called magi. Whichever way you look at it, we cannot find a good meaning for the word magus, and we are offended. Why? Because it shows that God extends his salvation to sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, magicians, and even to astrologers! So you’ll say, “At least make these wise men respectable people, okay? We have descended from kings to sinners!”

Recall how the Pharisees were offended when Jesus reached out to the sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes on the streets. He reached out to them with God’s salvation, and the religious people were upset with that, saying, “Jesus associates with sinners!” But Jesus replied, “Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor. It is the sick who need a doctor.” Does it offend you that these men who came from the east were not kings, or wise men in the usual sense of philosophers? They were wise men in the sense of being learned in the occult arts, especially the art of astrology, although that part doesn’t come out in the translation. God reaches out to the heathen and sinners to bring them to the child, his Christ. His ways are not our ways. Do you see what I am saying? Are you spiritual-minded enough to understand God’s ways, or do you want to change the whole picture and put it nicely and pleasantly as “three kings”? No, they were not kings.

God is willing to speak to you at your level

Notice this beautiful truth: God is willing to speak to you at your level. If astrology is the only language you understand, my God is great enough to speak to you through astrology. God never has a communication problem with man. The communication problem is never on his side but always on our side, because we are so carnal-minded. Have you noticed that there are Christians from every country in the world and from every language? No one has ever said, “God spoke to me in English, a language I don’t understand”? God speaks to you in any language you understand. If you are Chinese, he will speak to you in Chinese. If you are French-Canadian, he will speak to you in French. Isn’t that beautiful? God has no communi­cation problems at all. If you are an astrologer, he will even speak to you through a star. Such is God’s self-abasement, God’s patience, God’s love! He will speak to you at your level. If you only understand engineering, he can speak to you through engineering or perhaps through physics. He will speak to you in any terms or language you understand. That is my God! The problem of comprehension is not on God’s side. He doesn’t try to make things difficult for us. But we are carnal-minded, and carnal-mindedness is death!

These astrologers’ response was costly and spiritual

One last reason why God spoke to these men from the east. Notice their response to God. These astrologers shame us with their response. Think about it. These astrologers could have stayed home. They looked in the sky, and could have said, “Look at the star! Amazing star! A king has been born, but it is a long journey to Israel. We don’t need to go all the way there to honor him, we’ll do that right here.”

Some Christians have said to me, “I don’t need to go to church. I can worship God at home.” But these astrologers had an even better excuse to worship at home. The nearest place to the east would have been Persia, because east of Israel is nothing but desert. A journey from Persia would take many weeks over the Fertile Crescent, as the region is called. They had to make a long journey. No wonder the star appeared to them for nearly two years. Isn’t that remarkable! Having seen a heavenly vision like Paul did, they were obedient to it, and rose up.

They not only followed, but they also paid a great price. If they were kings, acquiring gold and frankincense and myrrh would not be a problem. Do you see the significance in the fact that they were not kings? To an astrologer, gold and frankincense and myrrh were expensive, just as these would be to you and me. They were ordinary people like us, but they bought the most expensive gifts. They probably drained their entire savings over the years to buy gifts to offer to this newborn king. Now we see how costly it was to them.

And did the astrologers intend to just worship any king of Israel? They spoke with Herod, the reigning king of Israel, but did they show any special reverence for him? No, they were not interested in him, and did not give him any presents. Instead, they were again led by the star they had seen in the east to an animal stall further south. In it were animals, a manger and a baby, and they bowed to a baby before they could see him reign as king. That is faith! If that isn’t an act of faith, I don’t know what is an act of faith. Do you see how the spiritual-minded think?

Costly grace, costly discipleship

God came a long way to earth to live in Jesus, to reconcile man to himself and to save them through Christ whom he sent. And who were Jesus’ first disciples? They were not Jews but foreigners, not respectable men but sinners – astrologers, but they made a long journey to bow to Jesus, the king in whom God lives. In other words, they did for God in Jesus exactly what God did for us. God made a long journey to come to us by living in Jesus, and they made a long journey to come to God who lives in Jesus. In coming to God, you and I have to make a long journey to recognize our sinfulness, and see that we urgently need to ask for his forgiveness through cleansing by Jesus’ precious blood. Then we must leave behind our sins and old way of life to commit totally to God. That is costly discipleship.

Do not cause Jesus to weep over your unbelief and faithlessness, just as he wept over the Pharisees’ hardness of heart in rejecting him as the Christ God sent. Jesus said to them (Lk. l9:42, 44b NIV),

The magi did not arrive empty-handed, but came with gold, frankincense and myrrh, having made a long journey and risked many dangers along the way. In those days, it was dangerous to make a long journey through bandit country in the Middle East. Caravans starting out from Persia and the east were often robbed along the way, and many were killed. But these men came bearing costly precious gifts—gold, frankincense and myrrh—for the Lord Jesus, the Christ God sent and lived in. What is your response to him? Will it be spiritual-mindedness which is “life and peace” (Rom. 8:6b)?

© 2026 Christian Disciples Church, all rights reserved.
For permission to reproduce this article, please write the church.
Sermon by Eric H.H. Chang and edited by Winnie W.Y Yee.
Picture by Bentley C.F. Chan using Google Gemini.