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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

10 Kilometers From Christ

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time.

Thank you Lord for the blessed Sabbath day.

As we come to worship you, as we come to seek your word and seek your face, Lord may you please speak so tenderly, so clearly to each and every 1 of us.

Help us to understand the message for this morning, but more than that, help us to understand how it applies to each and every 1 of our lives as well.

You know, the title of our sermon this morning is 10 kilometers from Christ.

And the question I have for you to start off is how long does it take for you to run 10 kilometers?

My knees are bad, I have flat feet and I remember a charity run that I did about 5 years ago We had to run 6 kilometers, okay?

6 kilometers and it took me about 15 minutes I remember some people took about 20-25 minutes and some can run 10 kilometers easily in an hour Definitely not me But if you were to walk and the average person walks about 4 kilometers per hour, if you were to walk just a fast walk, you would probably be able to walk 10 kilometers in about 2 hours.

And we can definitely do it in 1 day for sure.

And you know they say that the distance from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is approximately 10 kilometers and you got to be careful I looked this up in Google maps and there are 2 Bethlehems that you got to be careful of.

Okay there's 1 that's just south of Jerusalem which is where Jesus was born and there's 1 up in Galilee which is north and so you know Bethlehem It is about 10 kilometers from Jerusalem.

And it is a small town compared especially to the city of Jerusalem, which is the center of the whole country back then.

But 1 of the most important events in human history took place about 2, 000 years ago surrounding these 2 cities and you know what I'm talking about.

It's the birth of Christ and even as we are in the Christmas season, look friends, I know that Christ was not born on December 25.

But especially during this festive season where everybody is thinking about the birth of Christ, it is a good time to reflect on this story, to go back and look at a couple of stories surrounding this event and especially 1 that we're going to look at in Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew chapters 2 and starting in verse 1.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel." In this story that we see leading up or surrounding the events of Christ's birth, we see that there are 3 groups of people mentioned here.

First is the wise men and they came looking for the Redeemer, the King of the Jews.

Then the second person we see there is Herod who is the current King of the Jews and thirdly we see the Pharisees and the scribes.

And I want to look at these 3 groups this morning to see how it applies to us today, to help us to understand even the situation that we're looking at as we are waiting not the first coming of Christ but the second coming.

Look we don't know much about them at all.

We don't know where they came from but yet they were just following a star wherever it led them.

And they had been studying the stars and the writings of Balaam.

In fact he wrote about this in Numbers chapter 24 and verse 17 when he was trying to curse the children of Israel and instead he uttered a blessing altogether.

I shall see him but not now, I shall behold him but not nigh, there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth.

So he gave this prophecy that there would a star come out of the children of Israel or the star of Jacob And so these wise men were looking at the stars.

They were looking at the heavens, looking for something different and they saw a star that was not an ordinary star, that was not part of the solar system that they were used to seeing up there in the heavens.

And so they decided to follow this star as it began to move.

And look at what the pen of inspiration talks about this in the Desire of Ages 59 paragraph 3.

The light of God is ever shining amid the darkness of heathenism.

As these magi studied the starry heavens and sought to fathom the mystery hidden in their bright paths, they beheld the glory of the Creator.

Seeking clearer knowledge, they turned to the Hebrew scriptures.

In their own land were treasured prophetic writings that predicted the coming of a divine teacher.

Balaam belonged to the magicians, though at 1 point a prophet of God.

By the Holy Spirit, he foretold the prosperity of Israel and the appearing of the Messiah, and his prophecies had been handed down by tradition from century to century.

But in the Old Testament, the Savior's advent was more clearly revealed.

The Magi learned with joy that his coming was near and the whole world was to be filled with a knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

And so these wise men took off following this star that appeared in the heavens and according to this star that we just read in Matthew chapter 2, this star would lead them first to Jerusalem.

The question that I have as we pause here for a second is why didn't the star lead them straight to Bethlehem?

Why did it have to lead them to Jerusalem first?

Jesus wasn't there and in fact it was more discouraging for them to go to Jerusalem, something that the wise men didn't deserve because their enthusiasm for finding the king of the world was doused a bit and could have been brought to doubt more than helping them.

In all outward appearances there was no benefit for the wise men to make a pit stop at Jerusalem before heading on to Bethlehem.

You see many times friends when I have to make decisions I like to write on a whiteboard, on a piece of paper, the pros and cons, like coming back to Malaysia from Taiwan.

You know, what was the pros of staying in Taiwan?

I'd like to write all these things down to make sure that you make a clear and informed decision, logical decision, the straightest path to what you want to achieve, choosing the best option and making the wisest decision for your life, right?

Well, with the wise men, when you write down the pros and the cons of why they followed the star to Jerusalem, there was no advantage.

Number 2, no 1 was interested in what they were looking for.

And more than anything else, they would find pretense and insincerity there.

A sure way to make someone leave the church and leave Jesus altogether.

We don't know how it really impacted them, but what we do know is that the reason why God led the wise men to Jerusalem is He was trying to give the Jews a chance, a chance to wake up from their slumber, a chance to have their eyes opened that the Savior was born right down the road from where they were.

God was trying to witness to his own people and he was trying to save them.

You know sometimes you might reflect on your life or maybe even now you're in the midst of it.

You're looking at your life or you look back at your life and you look at this current situation and it makes no sense why you're going through what you're going through and you're wondering why God is leading you down this path.

You're trying to assess your situation and it just makes no sense.

And in fact, it seems like an utter waste of time.

Well, you're in good company because that's exactly what happened to the wise men.

God made them take a detour for no apparent reason at all just down the road from Bethlehem.

And this is the first lesson that we can learn from the wise men here in Matthew that God doesn't always do things just for your benefit.

You know, God is the rule of the world, and He has in His hands 8 billion lives, and He has to make sure that every person has a chance to come to know God.

And so sometimes He allows you to take a detour from the aims, the goals, the processes of your life just so that you can help somebody else.

Just so that you can give a chance for someone else to be saved.

And on top of that, when we look at this picture in Matthew chapter 2, okay, no 1 really is benefited by the visit of the wise men in Jerusalem there.

When they leave Jerusalem, the people that they leave behind are in the same condition as when they first appeared, or maybe even worse.

It seemed like, as I said, an utter waste of time.

And this is just where we have to trust God, friends.

And hold on, because only when we see clearly in heaven will we understand the intricate workings and the mysteries of how God guides each and every person and how He's giving chances for every person to be saved.

He sent the wise men to Jerusalem just simply to be a witness.

They were looking for someone and something, but they didn't find Him there.

The star led them there just simply to be a witness.

So the next time you're in the midst of a situation in your life that you don't know what you're going through, friends, just hold on and trust God.

They would eventually leave that city and see the star in the sky again and it would lead them this time to the King of the Jews and the Savior of the world.

The second group that we want to look at is King Herod.

He was the king at that time, the king of the Jews, and when the wise men came searching for Jesus, they didn't ask for a Savior actually.

Look at this, Matthew chapter 2 and verse 2 saying, Where is he that is born, what?

For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.

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10 Kilometers From Christ

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