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I probably should have read another text for this message, but I confess that I read the majority of the 2nd chapter of Matthew simply because it is one my favorite passages of scripture to preach from. I am teased by many for often preaching about Christmas when it is the hottest time of the year, but I still maintain that if Hobby Lobby can put up their Christmas decorations out before Labor Day, then I can preach about the birth of Christ in September! It is probably better for you to hear it today than before the trappings of the commercialization of that season has deadened your senses to the true meaning of the holiday!

In the 2nd chapter of Matthew, we read of the wise men coming to worship Jesus shortly after His birth in Bethlehem. They were wise in that they were able to put "two and two" together about this strange star shining westward and the ancient prophecies of a Messiah to be born. It is likely that these astronomers from Persia had only copies of the first five books of the Bible written by Moses and maybe the book of Daniel and yet were able to piece together and understand the prophetic words to realize that this event was something that they did not want to miss! So with careful detail, they loaded their caravans and gifts and began the long trek to where the baby lay.

It is apparent from the text that the star at first led them only as far as Jerusalem, because it was there that they first turned to others for guidance. Upon arriving at Jerusalem, they went to the king's palace, and there met with Herod to explain all that they had done and seen. Herod was troubled, the scriptures say! An adult king troubled by a newborn baby whom he has never seen! Even today, the very thought of Jesus makes the rulers of this world a bit uneasy! Herod consulted his Jewish advisors who with very little effort were able to quote Micah 5:2 and pinpoint the little town of Bethlehem to the south as the prophesied birthplace of the Messiah.

As the wise men left the palace in Jerusalem, the scriptures say that they were overjoyed to see the star reappear guiding them to the very town of Bethlehem and eventually to the very house where the child was staying. I can understand how excited the wise men were to see the star suddenly come back to them, because they had traveled a long, long way for the opportunity to see Jesus. How even longer the trip back would have been had they come all that way for nothing. How disappointing they would have been to understand the prophecies, see the star, come close, but to miss actually seeing the child! How disappointing it would have been to return home and return their gifts to the treasure rooms, knowing that they came close but were never ever able to actually present their best to this beloved promised One! It's no wonder that the scriptures say that when they saw the star appear a second time that they "rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Because that reappearing meant that their trip was to be fruitful, and the reason for their coming was to be fulfilled! They didn't stay long at the house where Jesus lay. Long enough to worship and offer their gifts, and yet I can't help but think that the return home was a happy one and one in which the miles flew by as they went, because they had seen Jesus! Their reason for the long trip was fulfilled. But how sad it would have been to follow that star across desert after desert and come close to their object, and yet leave never having accomplished what they had set out to do. In short, it would have been a long way to come for nothing! It would have been a long trip to come for no reason at all!

Let me preach to you this bright September morning. We are not sure how far exactly the wise men traveled to get to Bethlehem, but it was several thousand miles and a very long way for men in those days before cars and airplanes. But yet, their distance traveled cannot even compare with the distance traveled by the baby whom they bowed before! From Persia to Bethlehem is a long way, but we can measure it and comprehend it. But how do you put a measuring stick on the span between heaven and earth? How far was it from the throne of glory to a stable of hay? How far a journey was it from everlasting plan to a manifestation in the here and now!? We never hear of the wise men complaining about their distant journey because perhaps they understood that their steps were nothing to the great expanse that had just been crossed by this new-born infant! From eternity to Bethlehem, this baby king traveled the greatest distance of anyone to get there. The King of Glory had made a visit to His Creation! Heaven had come to earth and the great gulf between God and man had been traveled in 9 short months by God Himself! What a journey! What a trip! Go ahead, little baby and sleep because you have just made the longest trip in the history of the human race!

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The wise men's reason for coming to Bethlehem was to see Jesus, but what of Jesus' reason for coming to earth!? I can't help but think that it would have been a long way to come for no particular purpose. It would have been such a waste to travel such a long way and not accomplish what it was that you had come to accomplish! Let me preach to you today about His reason for coming then. The star of truth that once shone to bring men to Christ back then is shining today in a second appearing. And yet it's light will do you no good unless you realize the reason for it's shining:

Never before had men been able to as the wise men, travel any distance and find themselves within the very throne room of God. The inaccessibility of the Law of Moses which had one man entering into His presence once a year was now reversed as men who were not even Jews were able to enter and bow before the very Lord of Lords and offer Him their gifts of worship.

The greatest tragedy of the Christmas story is not that the King of Kings first laid His head in a manger in a stable. The greatest tragedy is not that there were no room for Him in the inn. The greatest tragedy is that there were not more to meet Him in Bethlehem. The greatest tragedy is that only a few wise men and some shepherds were there to worship. If ever anyone deserved a fanfare and a multitude of people thronging to see Him, it was this baby who had come so far!

And an even greater tragedy is that He would be visited by men such as the Gentile wise men who came so far and yet the Bible scholars and Jewish religious leaders would be just up the road and very familiar to the scriptures and yet not even attempt to come and worship Him! Their inaction haunts me. When asked by Herod, they quickly responded with chapter and verse as to the exact location of His birth, and yet even after alerted by the wise men of the star and the event, not one of the Jewish religious leaders bothered to walk the few miles south to Bethlehem and worship Jesus! Why? I think that they were jaded by their religious tradition of Moses' law that said that only one man -- a Levitical High Priest -- could enter into the presence of Jehovah. They did not come worship Jesus as they could have because they followed their religious tradition that stated that they could not have such a close encounter with God Almighty!

Even today, religious tradition keeps many from coming and worshipping God directly! They think that they must go through an idol or a priest when He has come so that they could go to Him directly! And yet like the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day, people today let their tradition keep them from worshipping God as they could, and that tradition and lack of worship keeps them from receiving from Jesus all that they could! He did not come so far to have men worship idols and bow at graven images! He did not make such a trip from glory to earth to have men continue in their traditional worship taught of men and ignore Him! How sad it was that these same religious leaders would get up the next morning and head to the temple for their morning sacrifice without the court of God's presence and yet they could have knelt that morning at the very feet of their creator Incarnate! And yet even today, people choose to worship Him from a distance even after He has come so far so that they could worship Him directly! It is not a far journey from tradition to His feet, and when you consider how far He came -- it's a distance that your traveling is the least that you can do!

He deserved multitudes to worship Him simply because of who He is, and there were many who would not have had to made any trip at all to come worship Him already around. When Joseph and Mary arrived, the inn was full and the town packed with people who had come to pay what they had owed to an earthly king. And yet their heavenly king was present in person, and they did not one stop by to pay the worship that they owed to their heavenly king. The multitudes were there but they did not come worship Him because they did not realize His true identity! Many recognized or heard that a baby had been born, but they did not realize that the baby was the very one who sat upon the throne of the Universe!

Jesus came to reveal to us the Father. He came to bring us into interaction with the invisible Spirit of God that fills the universe. In John 14, we read:

Jesus said "from now on you know the Father and have seen Him." And when Philip who was a little slow to catch on asked to see the Father, Jesus replied with "have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? Later in the chapter we find that Jesus told His disciples:

Orphans? A fatherless child? Jesus said "I will not leave you as orphans." How, Jesus? "I will come to you!" I am your father and I will not reject you!

The baby has come and how many people today realize that a baby has been born and that Son was given, and yet like the people of Bethlehem, they live their lives never giving Him the praise and glory due to Him because they do not recognize that the Son is the Father in flesh! They do not recognize that Jesus is the visible image of God Almighty -- not another person in a Godhead, but God, Himself come as one of His creation to save them! Need I remind you of scriptures that state that this baby is Immanuel, God with us?

How sad that like those of Bethlehem, people would know that the Baby was born and yet not realize the true identity of this Son! How sad that many would pass by Jesus and not praise Him for He really is! He came a long way to reveal to us the Father, how sad that many would not realize Him as such!

We read at first in our text:

Jesus was God become flesh so that He would have flesh and blood to die for you and I! Spirit do not have blood to shed, and the only way the price of sin was to be covered was through the shedding of a blood sacrifice. By God becoming flesh, He became the blood sacrifice so that you I could live free from sin. That is why the scripture declare such things as:

It's very important to understand that "all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Jesus bodily." God did not love you enough to send some other person to die because that would not be love but abuse. The Son was the Father come in flesh. The Son was the Spirit of God being born or woman. Spirit mixed with flesh in a miraculous way. Jesus could only rightfully say "if you have seen me you have seen the Father" if He was the physical manifestation of the Father. But the God of Glory loved you enough to come a mighty long way to provide you salvation! And so we read this in our text:

It's an unpopular word in today's society: "sin," but the truth will never be politically correct. The scripture declares that those who live in sin are "of the devil." Sin makes you the devil's possession. As Eve discovered, obeying his voice and disobeying the Word of God puts you firmly within Satan's destructive power. And without the delivering power of the cross of Jesus, there would have been no hope for you and I. We would have no choice but to continue in living for sin and for the devil, and the end result would be to reap the devil's reward.

And so this great God whom we served loved us enough to become flesh and reveal Himself to us and provide a plan for us to be freed of sin. Repentance gets Him involved and bridges the gap between His holiness and your state. Water Baptism in His name according to scripture is not a public confession of faith because there were many who were baptized in private or by themselves. Water Baptism according to scripture is for the "washing away of sins." According to scripture, it is a spiritual circumcision, or "mark of a covenant between you and God." Water Baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus is a burial of your old man and washes away your past sins so that you can be a new creature in Christ Jesus. And the Holy Ghost comes so that you have power within your life to overcome sin and not continue in willful sin! This is the plan of how to apply the redemptive work of the Gospel to your life! This is the plan implemented by Jesus Himself and taught and preached by His disciples in scripture. This is the plan that would bring salvation to people that was the main purpose for which He came and died!

As the wise men traveled so far to bring gifts to Jesus, so did Jesus come to bring gifts to men. How sad would it have been for Mary and the baby to refuse such gifts that were not only precious in themselves but were even the more precious because they bore the effort and great journey that it took to accomplish their delivering? How even sadder, that this baby who traveled even a greater distance to bring the gift of forgiveness and remission of sin and the destruction of the power of the devil in men's lives, should find that men would reject those gifts and offerings! The question is not -- as I have said many times -- "why would a loving God send someone to hell" -- but rather "why would men reject the gift of salvation and deliverance from sin provided by a loving God?" He came a long way to offer those gifts to you!

How sad it would be that He journeyed such a long way and yet for no purpose. And I would even go as far to say that the great expanse between heaven and earth did not seem as long to Him as those few miles between Jerusalem and the hill called Golgotha! What a truly great journey it was to carry a cross, bearing the sin and judgment of people yet unborn. Despite the mileage, it was a longer trip up that hill to Calvary than it was from Persia to Bethlehem. What a horrible price to pay, and yet He must have thought you and I worth it to make such a journey. He must have considered your life and your salvation as a worthy enough cause to keep taking another step and to endure the agony of that sacrifice! Your salvation is the reason that He came! He came to destroy the works of the devil and remove sin from your life!

The scriptures say that when we continue to sin willfully that we "crucify Him afresh" (Hebrews 6:6). The memory of that long trek of Calvary becomes one of joy when Jesus sees someone bow their knee in repentance, and allow their sins to be washed away in the waters of baptism and receive the Holy Ghost and allow the Word of God to work in their life. But when people refuse such a plan or after obeying it, refuse to allow it to deliver them from the works of the devil and they use whatever excuse to continue living in willful sin, then the memory of that journey for Him is one of agony. Because the realization is that He came a long way for you, and suffered much for you, and yet it was a mighty long journey for nothing in your life! The baby came bearing gifts -- the gift of life, the gift of the forgiving power of His blood, the gift of His Word, and the gift of freedom from sin -- don't reject His gifts, because He came a long way to deliver them!

The scriptures say:

This great Savior that came as a baby the first time will come back again as a triumphant King! At the end of His ministry and after His resurrection on the third day, the disciples of Jesus watched as He ascended into the clouds. And the scriptures say:

What a promise! This Jesus will come again in just the same way as you have watched Him go up! His ascension was quite different from His descent into Bethlehem. He came as a baby, but He will come back in full power! He came with no great fanfare but to a few, but this time just as a great multitude watched Him ascend, so will all the earth see Him appear in the clouds! This time a trumpet will announce His arrival and we find:

Every "eye will behold Him!" And His reason for coming will be two fold: He will gather together His own to fly away to a place that He has prepared, and also:

Those who have prepared themselves will welcome His return, because they were watching for it! His return will be the second appearing of the star that will cause them to rejoice with exceeding great joy just as the wise men did at His first coming, but those who have not prepared for Him will be like Herod at His first coming which along with Jerusalem were "troubled" and anguished that He had arrived! Let the lesson of the first coming be a lesson to you: He is coming back! And you do not want to shrink away from His second coming and you will only do that if you realize and receive the reasons for His first coming! Those who will worship Him directly now, will worship Him directly then. Those who recognize Him as the Father come to earth now, will recognize Him then. Those who have received His gifts of salvation now and allowed Him to destroy the works of the devil in their life today, will reap the ultimate gift of eternal life then. Those who respond to His visits in our midst today will be those sensitive enough to be ready for His Second visitation! Jesus is coming back and His first coming was to get us ready for His second!

And so I close with this:

Whatever distance that you must travel to meet Him at the point of His second coming is worth the journey! Whatever distance that you must travel, then do it! Maybe, like the wise man, the journey to meet Him at His second coming is a long one and as someone who was raised a long way off, it's a leap of faith and a learning process and requires a long trek across the desert of disbelief and leaving what you've always been. If you began your life a great distance from God with no religious tradition and no plans to serve God and yet you make the long journey to meet Him at His second coming, then know that it will be worth it! The length of the journey does not matter so much as whether or not you see it through to bow before Jesus! Whatever you have to do, come meet Him at the point of His Second Coming!

Or perhaps you stand in religious tradition that has you much closer to where you need to be to meet His coming but yet it also serves as a barrier to your traveling that small distance. Whatever you do, don't stay in your religious tradition as the Jewish leaders and miss Jesus second coming! You are so close, it's time to walk just a little further down the road of obedience and receive everything that He has for you! You are so close, but don't think that being close is good enough, do whatever you have to do to be completely ready to be at the precise point of being altogether ready to meet Him at His second coming. Don't be like the Jewish leaders and have a religious lifestyle and tradition and be so close, and yet miss Him because they were unwilling to take the last few steps toward Him!

It was a long, long way to come, but He thought it worth it to enable us to be set free and to know Him! And obviously He thinks it a journey worth repeating. Jesus Christ is coming again! And He wants you and I to be the reason for His coming!