NOV 30 2025 | From the Cradle to the Cross S1E1 | Visit of the Wise Men

Sea Change Church · From the Cradle to the Cross · "Visit of the Wise Men" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · November 30, 2025
Matthew 2:1-12
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Use them for Your kingdom and Your glory. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. The Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 2, Verses 1 through 12. 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." When Herod the king heard this he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, oh 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.'" 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. 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 worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. This is the Word of the Lord.

(upbeat music) . Right on. Well, Merry Christmas to all of you. Happy belated, uh, Thanksgiving. I hope you guys had an incredible time with family and were able to put into effect what we learned last week about Thanksgiving and, uh, I know that I personally was, and the scripture is powerful in speaking to us. We're beginning a brand new series on the childhood of the Messiah. I've never done a series on this before, and I was really intrigued about those early years of Jesus. There's not a lot of Biblical texts, but the Biblical text that we do have is rich in reaching backwards into the historicity, but also the meaning behind the things that were happening with Jesus, and his life, and his early life. Very important. And then reaching forward into, uh, his call as the Messiah that would be crucified for humanity for your salvation. So, this pa- this sermon series is called From the Cradle to the Cross, and we're gonna be looking from that childhood and how it reaches into a, uh, into a mes- a Messianic understanding of the Gospel, and one of the places we find that is here in Matthew......

uh, two, one through 12. And in Matthew two, we come across the wise men. And, uh, but before we start that, if you have your notes, I did get the notes in this week, so you should have notes. Happy about that. I was telling all of you in the first service last week, "Circle your notes." And we didn't have notes, but nonetheless, I was just testing you, keeping you on your toes. Uh, keyword for today, we have a keyword every sermon or try to, and the keyword is seeker. This idea of being a person who seeks. What are you seeking and are you a seeker of Christ?

Man, these wise men were seekers. I want to reframe, uh, pr- m- probably most of what you have thought about the wise men today. I know that this, as I dug deeper into this passage, these went from traveling Bedouin Magi to becoming, um, people of the apoc- apocalyptic revelation. We'll talk about that in just a second. Say that 10 times fast, the apocalyptic revelation. And the key idea is the wise men teach us that if you follow the light God gives, that's the star they were following, and seek the Savior He promised, you'll leave differently than you came.

We see that at the end. They go back by a different route, and we'll look back at that. I used the word apocalyptic a moment ago, and until this week, I really hadn't understood the apocalyptic nature of the visit. Uh, until this week, I had seen the wise men as perhaps in a nativity scene. They're o- not actually in this part of the nativity scene, but in a nativity scene or Magi that had heard a rumor and kinda just showed up. They were, you know, kinda just van lifing around the Middle East and they showed up and, "Hey, let's go see, you know, this, uh, exciting event and this exciting event.

And by the way, I heard there's a Messiah that's been born, or a king of the Jews. Let's go show up there." Uh, that's kinda how, I mean, you know, uh, tongue in cheek, how I'd seen the wise men. I hadn't seen the significance of what is actually happening. And one of the ways we can know that is when you, they come across Jesus, go to verse two, at the end of verse two, it says, uh, "For we saw His star." This is, uh, Matthew two, verse two. "When we saw His star, when it rose, we have come to," what? Hang out? Worship.

Him." They were seeking something to worship. These are Magi. We'll talk about what Magi are and what they do, but they are those that are, that understand the, um, and seek religious revelation and they were saying that He was a God. Baby. And that they were worshiping, uh, they wanted to come and worship this God. So what is happening now as you look at this, their arrival, I would say, in regard to prophetic literature- literature, the apocalypse, apocalyptic literature, is an apocalyptic earthquake when they show up.

And it'll have tremors that go out from it, but them showing up is not a random event. It goes back 600 years in history and looks forward. They were told, and they were pre-told, as you will see. But it is apocalyptic. And it is an apocalyptic earthquake. I wrote the wise men weren't random travelers who stumbled into Bethlehem, which was also, um, uh, preordained, according to Micah Chapter 5 Verse 2. That's in your footnotes. The wise men were not random travelers who stumbled into Bethlehem.

They were an aftershock of an apocalyptic storyline that began with Daniel in the exile during the Babylonian captivity. Now, what I learned this week, and I guess if you would've quizzed me, I might've gotten it right. It's one of those things you think you know, but you're not sure that you remember. That these wise men cannot be separated from the great and historical Biblical figure, Daniel. That they come from the line of Daniel, not the biological line of Daniel, but from the religious tradition of Daniel, that they come from the place where Daniel was taken into captivity. That's going to be key.

Because oftentimes, we find ourselves in a place that we think is a captivity and God is working in the captivity. You just don't see it at the moment, right? 600 years earlier, we will look into that, but go to verse one, if you would. And we'll begin this story. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, which I said was prophesied. Once again, prophecy. Micah 5 Verse 2 says, "In the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men," circle wise men. It means more than just wise guys, like you would see in one of those, uh, mobster movies.

"From the East came to Jerusalem." They traveled, they took effort. They came to Jerusalem. Seeking. The keyword is seekers. And they were saying, they were speaking out, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star at rose and have come to worship Him." How would these men even know who Jews were? They were far from the East. Well, like I said, they were probably from Babylon. We assume through the historicity and the study that these were wise men, Magi, from the East and from the, uh, the Kingdom of Babylon, or that area.

And it is the place where the Jews were taken into captivity. They definitely know who the Jews are because the Jews were their slaves. And they were taken into that place, and what we see here is the Gospel...... beginning to penetrate far beyond Israel because of something that Satan meant for bad, for harm, to the Jews. But God sent the message of the Gospel through his people and they were in captivity in this area. So when you think of the wise men coming to Jesus, you have to see them as just beyond some wise travelers, Bedouins that were seeking a messiah that they heard about. You have to see them in the tradition of a Jewish tradition that had been told by the Jews, Daniel in particular, that a messiah was coming, and they believed him.

Daniel was really well-known in that society. He became the third, if you read, I was reading, uh, Daniel this week. He became the third in charge... We'll just shove that in there, we'll be fine. (laughs) Try do it without anybody noticing, right? (laughs) Daniel became the third in line in all of Babylon. In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, he was taken into captivity, I believe that was 605, give or take a decade or so.

When you're 600 years back, from the, the Messiah, it's not that big of a deal, but it's close. And Nebuchadnezzar had some issues, he had some dreams. You remember that he, uh, God, uh, you know, he thought he was, uh, he was a god and God put him into a field and made him like an animal, and he was... Remember, he went into the field and he was eating. If you've never heard these stories before, read the Book of Daniel Chapters 1-6.

First, the historic reference of it. And Daniel prophesied this and Daniel, because he could interpret these dreams much like Joseph before him, was made third in the kingdom, a Jew, third in the kingdom of the place that was considered a captivity. The same thing happened to Joseph. And let me tell you that God can make you one of the highest ranked members in your own captivity. Amen. Let me say that again. You're in a captivity, you're really bummed, you're in this really hard place, and if you're faithful to God, He can rise you up, raise you up out of that captivity.

Who were the wise men? The wise men were members of the elite, elite priestly and scholarly class from the East, probably most likely Persia or Babylon, modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, from that area. Scholars I read believe they were Babylonian or from that area, but nonetheless, it was a... They were handed down and passed through the Jews. Why did they come? They came because God had prepared them in advance. He had prepared their nation in advance.

Daniel had shaped their order, the order of the Magi was completely shaped. Everything that these guys were learning had 600 years of tradition that came down from Daniel. He was third in the kingdom, but he was the number one Magi, he was in charge of the Magi. What you're seeing here is the Gospel, the story of Jesus, which Daniel speaks about. Daniel was probably one of the m-... I would say he's top three prophetic figures in the Bible. You could argue, I, I would say in my pantheon of profe- um, prophetic, uh, voices, you would have John, the apostle, who wrote Revelation. Pretty solid, right, choice?

(laughs) Isaiah. Isaiah, especially in the regard to the, the coming of the Messiah. And I would say Daniel. Those would be my big three. There's a bunch of, uh, others in there that have prophetic, but I would say that those would be my big three. One of the pro- leading prophetic voices took the Gospel... What is the Gospel? The story of Christ coming, the Messiah coming to save us from our sins, took the, the inklings of the Gospel into a c- to a nation that was holding them captive, into Ba- Babylon, and Daniel began to prophesy, had been raised up to the key of their magi, and had passed down this tradition. Although he is not seen as an, is, as, as a, as a Jewish prophet, he's not seen as a Babylonian prophet. He is kinda on his own, almost like Enoch in the scriptures. Kinda seen in his own, but he shaped the priestly order and so now, 600 years later, when wise men have been waiting for the prophecies...

I'm a sucker for a movie with a prophecy. Ju- I don't know about you, but if they, "A prophecy! Watch out for the prophecy! It's com-" I, as soon as that starts in a movie, I'm in. Get the coffee. Boom, I'm in. Give me a bowl of soup, some cookies. I want the prophecy. Sucker for a prophecy movie, right? 600 years later they had heard the prophecies. What were the prophecies? Well, the prophecies came from Daniel, I told you in, in Daniel 2:48. It says Daniel was made chief perfect over all the wise men of Babylon. Are you starting to see the wise men as a little bit different now than perhaps somebody on your front lawn? Okay.

And the story of the Gospel that you see, this is apocalyptically seismic when they show up. Daniel had said this, uh, in Daniel 7, he says, "Who the Messiah is will be the divine Son of Man." He had spoken that in Babylon. In Daniel Chapter 9, he said when the m- the, the, uh, messiah would come, and there's a prophetic countdown. Now, in many synagogues today, this is true. Y- It is verboten, it is not allowed to do the math of the Daniel prophecy of Daniel 9. I know this is true because I was in Israel and I was speaking to a Jewish man at a table in the middle of Jerusalem, and he told me this. And I told him, "Let's do the math." He said, "We're not allowed to study that." I said, "Oh." So I looked it up, it also said that online when I was doing my search.

Because the timing points you to another re- religious figure, name was Jesus. In Daniel 2, it said that, uh, Daniel prophesying... Now once again, this is a prophetic voice in East Persia, Babylon. Said that he would establish an unshakable kingdom.And in Daniel 12 it says he would save and bring deliverance and, and resurrection. And he begins to call them and he also says in, in, um, there's a, uh, another prophecy from the East. There's another prophet, I wouldn't put him in my big three, but Balaam.

Maybe you've heard of Balaam? Balaam, the one that has the donkey that talks. He's got Eddie Murphy walking around with him, right? (laughs) You know, talking donkey! (laughs) I love Shrek, original Shrek. How brilliant is original Shrek, right? He said early, way before Daniel, he had a prophecy. Now, he was a prophet from the East as well. The Persian area, Iraq, Syria area there as well, and in Numbers 24 there was a prophecy before Daniel started prophesying about a star that would rise.

Numbers 24:17, "I see him, but not now. Behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." Go back to verse 2. Now verse 1, "Now after Jesus is born in Bethlehem 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..." Circle star, "When it had rose and we have come to worship him.'" The prophecy.

Whoo. You see, they were coming because they believed in the prophecy. They were willing to walk thousands of miles because they had heard the prophecy. They had faith in the prophecy. They didn't come to be a spectator, they came to worship. They didn't come to gawk. They came to bring gifts to him who would be Messiah, and they knew that a future king of Israel, the Messiah, was coming, and it goes back to one of the key prophets, Daniel. If you wanna, if you wanna study the end times, Daniel is this book in the Old Testament that everything goes... It is the Revelation of the Old Testament. Are you starting to see wise men a little bit different than a few plastic lit up figures on your lawn? (laughs) Do you see? It is the tremors, it is the echo of the Gospel that was going out, that is meant to go out now, and is still going out, and you can do the same thing in Claremont.

Yeah. Thank you, Eden. I think that was Eden, maybe it wasn't. Yes. Oh, yeah. Okay, I see you. (laughs) You start knowing the, the Amen-ers. You start knowing who they are, right? (laughs) You can do it in La Mesa, you can do it in PB. You can do it in San Marcos, you can do it down in Imperial Beach. You can do it in Africa. The echoes of the Gospel, people that are willing to speak and people that are willing to seek. We see them.

What is interesting is every empire that captured and took Israel captive, every empire that ever captured Israel and took it captive ended up, at least for a moment, bowing down to Israel's God. They conquered God's people, but God conquered their hearts. Nebuchadnezzar began to worship the true God. There has never been a nation that has taken Israel captive that has not had some form of people turning back their hearts to God. We have seen that in, in the Old Testament, and I believe that it'll still happen today. If someone takes Israel captive today, I believe that that will happen again.

Now, that's not prophesied, but I do believe that those things happen, because it is God's plan that he brings the Gospel to even people who take his people captive. That is grace. Yeah. You see, the Babylonians at the time did not deserve the Gospel and neither do we. But they were the ones that were going out and seeking and sharing the message of the Gospel. The key point that I put in this captivity, because Israel's captivity... When they're in captivity some of, some of the most apocalyptic Gospel-centered literature in the entire Bible is being spoken about in captivity.

Some of us do our best work in captivity. Some of us fail in captivity, right? We just go back to the old ways. Mm-hmm. But God, I think, does his best work oftentimes in places of captivity. I always do better when I got a struggle to face than when I just got a bunch of free room and margin. I don't know about you. What am I gonna do with my day? When I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with my day it seems harder for me than if, "Hey, I gotta press in right now, man. The world, everything's against me.

I gotta work, I gotta pray, I gotta go after it." I don't know, maybe that's not the right mindset, but God was working and I wrote this. "What you thought was your captivity was your classroom. What you thought was persecution became your fut- fu- future prosperity, and what the enemy meant for evil became your greatest blessing." Because the Gospel that he spoke in captivity would save the Jews, would save the Gentile, would save the entire cosmos, 'cause it is a cosmological redemption that is seismic in nature, where God will not just save us but he will redeem the entire cosmos, it says, to the end of the expansion of space. That is the message of the Gospel.

Are you starting to see the wise men a little bit different than some lit up figures on a lawn? And I will tell you, hopefully, when you see them (laughs) from now on, you will see them differently, but with it you will see the Gospel and be encouraged to seek and share the Gospel. Three quick practical takeaways from this passage. This is rich. I was happy to get up here. It's rich. Had you seen that before? I hadn't seen that before. I was like, "Whoo, let's go." You guys are like, "Yeah, we read all that. That was in Max Lucado's book." Okay.You're like, anybody under 40 is like, "Who's Matt Saccato?" Number one, uh, walk in the light you have. Go to verse 1b, that's halfway through verse one, to two.

"Wise men came from the east of Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship him.'" They didn't see the Messiah. They didn't see the promise. They didn't see all the difficulties that would be along the way to get to Jesus. They saw a star, they got light from the star, and they started walking. How often can we not take a step forward until we feel like we have the full revelation?

When God is just saying, "I'm gonna give you some light, walk in the light." John, uh, 1:9, First John 1:9 says, uh, but if we... I think it's First John 1:9, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin." Was I right on that? Is that John 1:9? It is John 1... Thank you, Norm. I knew where to look. I knew where to look, thank you.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, mm, where's Jesus? In the what? Where's Jesus? In the light. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Here's the problem. We like walking maybe not in the dark, but we do like those shadowlands. We like the dusk, we like the dawn, but the bright, full sun of the noon day exposes too much. I would say if you don't know what to do with your life in a certain situation, there are little beacons of light along the way. There are little lighthouses along the way.

Go to those. Go to the thing in your marriage where there is light. Go to the thing in your work, go to the thing in your school. Wherever the light is, go to the light. Just follow the light. It might not be the manger, but it is the light that'll get you to the destination. The wise men were given a light and they followed the light that they had. Some of us, we just, we just, we're not satisfied with a little bit of light. We want the full revelation.

We want the full answer. "Well, God, how are you gonna sort this out? Well, I, I've given you enough for today." I was reading Winston Churchill this week. My Early Life was his, uh, book, the best-selling book by Winston Churchill, and he had escaped from the Boers. That's a South African, or excuse me, an, an African, um, the Dutch in, in S- in Africa. There was a fight between them and England in the Boer, Boer War, and he had escaped and he was, uh, along a railroad line.

He jumped off a railroad and he found a little bit of water and he had a blanket and he had a bit, bit of a chicken that he had left as he was running through the desert. And I don't know if you know Winston Churchill did escape from the Boers. And he said, "I slept and slept the, the, uh, um, the sleep of, of a, of a child." Of, of, of a child, a, a, a baby or something like that. A, but a good sleep because I knew all of my needs for that night had been met. I'm thinking, "You're in the middle of the desert, bro." Like, there's lions, you know? And he's like, "I just slept like a baby because all my needs had been met." Has God given you some light in, in a situation and are you following it? That's the first one. Walk in the light that you have.

Worshippers are seekers. Go to verse two. It's our key word today. Saying, "Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to," what? "To worship it. We have come to worship him." They went out of their way to worship him. Go to verse 10 and 11, "When they saw the star, the moment they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly." We talked about that last week, rejoicing. "Rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." Go to verse 11, "And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. They fell down and worshiped him.

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." I love all the effort they went through to find God. Jesus says, "If you seek me, you will..." Find me. Um, do you believe it, though? No, I'm s- do you believe it? And if you believe it, what did we do this week to seek Jesus? Did, did you a- have you sought him out in a situation, asked for his wisdom, asked for his revelation? You know, whatever it is.

Binge listen to the Bible. I was way behind on my, my Bible reading, so I did 14 days of the my Bible reading, uh, in, in two days. It's amazing when you binge. If you don't binge, the binge read... We, we binge read Net- we binge watch Netflix and things like that, right? Binge read the Bible? It's a whole different perspective when you're just grinding through it. It's amazing. That's why I was reading all through Daniel and different things of that.

But worshipers are seekers. Anyone, when you're seeking, the- they were seeking for a reason. They weren't just seeking to seek. They were seeking that they might come and worship and bring their treasures. Don't undersell what it means to give your treasure to God. And I mean real treasure, like cash, like gold, frankincense, myrrh. When they sought him, they then came and they gave unto him their financial riches. I'm not saying you have to give it here.

If, if, if, if you're, if you're, if you think I have, you know, I'm t- trying to be manipulative, go give at some other church. I don't care. Just so that you might be blessed. Don't underestimate what it means to worship God by giving him your treasure. Just don't underestimate. I'm not gonna give you any promises of what he's gonna do. I'm not gonna tell you that, "Woo, you're gonna get whatever. There's some prosperity on the other side of it." I have seen him be pretty faithful to those that give. I've seen it.

All I can give is my experience. But don't undersell what it means to take some treasure that you have and your best stuff, not like your secondhand stuff, your best stuff, and go give it away.Why? I'm gonna worship you, Jesus. I'm gonna give this away because I wanna worship you. We can find that there, it is so powerful. And why would they give that treasure? What else could they give when they found the 600-year-old prophecy?

What else would you give when you go from two, a 2,000-mile journey on a 600-year-old prophecy and you find what you're looking for? What else would you give? A ham sandwich? No. You bring gifts. You bring gifts. We wanna be a gift-giving people. Once again, I- I don't wanna be manipulative. I know we're in a giving campaign. I totally get that. I didn't like slide that in. This is straight from the message. You can go find someone else to give it to. See what happens.

But have your heart be willing to give your best. Your heart, your attitudes, your actions, and your financial gifts to God for His purposes. Final one. When you meet Jesus, you never go back the same way. Now, I... Verse 12. We'll just go to verse 12. "And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." Now, the point I'm gonna share with you, I think, is a little exegetically weak, so if you're a study... Exegetically means, like, studying exactly what the root is saying. If you wanna know the root of this text, God is protecting wise men and telling them to go a different rectio- direc- direction, and he's...

And that is the root. That is the, the real understanding. But as I began to pray over this, I felt there was a, a parallel understanding that has to do ab- has to do with routes. (laughs) Jesus and God through the Old Testament is sending people on routes. He sends Jesus... We'll see Jesus soon in this, uh, um, series. Don't miss this series 'cause it's gonna be, this, the, the scriptures are amazing. Jesus gets sent to Egypt, right? Back into captivity.

We're gonna talk about that. The routes we walk are important. The way you get to your destination is important. The geographical places you go and don't go are important. When I got sober, there was places on the map that I said, "Nope. No más. No más Club A, Revolución in Tijuana. No más." (laughs) No more beautiful little hot dogs wrapped in bacon at 2:00 in the morning. None of it. Everybody's like, "Ah, I know what you're talking about." (laughs) Thank you. (laughs) Um, uh, uh, so as we, we look at this... Oh, you threw me off.

Go to verse 12. "And being warned in a dream not to return, they departed to their own country another way." This is what I think, um, is a parallel understanding. It's not the richest of the exegetical portion, which I already shared with you. But sometimes we get to Jesus and then we just try to go back to our house the same way we came. And you get to Jesus on Sunday, but your way back home, the things you do, the people you call, the thoughts that you have, it's the same route when you were tr- trying to find 'em in the first place and doing things, and some of us just need to change our route.

Look at... It's really easy. Get a map of where... You, you only go eight places. I've said this multiple times. You got eight places you go to. You go to the... And they're like 90% of where you go. You go to school, you go to the gym, you go to the same store pretty much. I mean, occasionally you might go to Disneyland. That's a separate little side... But you got about eight places you go, right? And the question is (laughs) are there any of those eight where you're like, "No, not going there no more." (laughs) I felt like the Lord, as I prayed about this, just said to say, "Some of us need to just change our routes." We just don't go to that place.

I don't go to that liquor store anymore. I don't go to that, that relationship. I don't go there anymore. It is all... It, it's not part of my route because I gotta get home a different way this time, or I might not even make it home. The story about being changed is, reminds me of, of someone who was in captivity, and some of us feel like we're in captivity, and this is where I wanna end this story of someone who came to Christ through their captivity and, and through a captivity of another.

Uh, if you've not heard of, uh, Masuo Fukuda, he led the Japanese attack... There's a picture of him right now. He led the Japanese attack, led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was the one on the microphone that said, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" If you've not heard that, that was the name of the operation. He was celebrated and there was about a 18-month season where the, the Japanese were just taking all the land in Malaysia and the Philippines and boom, they were just having their way, and he was at the top of the pinnacle of the military, the peak of his military career.

And, and the military combine in, in Japan during World War II could n- hard- could hardly be rivaled. They were an, an incredible, awesome power, if you look at the Japanese war machine. But it was also a, a culture that was based on honor and shame, and at the end of that war, he went home in what he would describe later on in his life as a deep shame. He said, "I came home defeated, bitter, spiritually empty, and in what I would call my own captivity." And there was years, about 12 years after the war, nine years after the war, he was just struggling. He had gone from this thing to this other and he was just in a place where he was seeking but he didn't know how to change his life and in deep, um, embarrassment. Embarrassment to go into the streets because he had b- was really well known and they had lost, and that was a big thing in a shame and honor culture. You heard about an American POW named Jacob DeShazer.Uh, and he found out, he had heard a story that he had forgiven. Now Jacob deShazer was part of the Doolittle Raid. So, I won't go into the whole history, but we sent bombers, uh, just, uh, as a, you know, kind of a moral, uh, there's a movie about it, uh, kind of a moral victory. But Roosevelt sent these bombers, and they bombed Japan.

It was the first time we'd bombed a positi- it was the answer after Pearl Harbor. And then they kept going 'cause they couldn't get back. So they ended up trying to land in China. Some of them made it, some of them had to bail out. And, uh, Jacob deShazer had to bail out. He got in- put into a, a prisoner war camp and was tortured. Jacob deSazer- uh, Shazer, um, actually gave forgiveness, and it was in the Japanese newspapers later on like in '52 or whatever it was, um, that he had given forgiveness to the man that had actually tortured him. And Fukita was stunned by the forgiveness and began searching for the truth.

Just that story, he became a seeker. Like these wise men, he became a seeker, and he began seeking more and more. And one of the things he sought after hearing that deShazer had become a Christian in the prison camp was that he went and he got a Bible for himself and began to read the Bible from the beginning to the end. And, uh, Mitsuo Fukita got to the passage in Luke where he had Jesus saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And at that moment, as a seeker, he surrendered his life to Christ.

This man who had attacked, had taken people captive, was at the height of the Japanese war campaign, made a decision to follow Jesus. Later on, he met Jacob deShazer, there's a picture here of them, with the Bible, and they went on a speaking tour sharing the Gospel all over the world together. And Fukita said, "My defeat was the place where God had opened my eyes." I guess I wanna end by saying if you feel that you're in captivity, one, God can raise you up if you're obedient. Be obedient in captivity.

God can raise you up into that captivity. And in that ca- captivity, if you are a seeker that walks according to the light that has been shown to you, that God is faithful and God can bring a salvific story and revelation to you. The final point of the day goes back to the main point of the day, was this. The wise men teach us that if you follow the light God gives you and seek the Savior He promised, you will leave differently than you came. Let's stand if you would.

Chris is gonna, uh, if you can, lead us in our new song. Can you do that real quick? No? Too much? Too mu- You sure? Whatever. You got it? Yeah. We r- we put out a new song, Make You Known. I wanna sing it with you guys right now to make Him known. And then I'm gonna come up and I'm gonna bless you as we go from this incredible passage about these wise men and, uh, changed lives. But let's, let's lean into this. You're gonna find it on Spotify, I believe. And this is a worship song that you can take into this advent season. Chris, can you... Thank you.

You created the land and the sea. And it was good. It was good. And everything else in between. And it was good. It was good. We made a mess of your Garden. Our hearts were hardened. We thought we could do it ourselves. But because of your goodness. You left Your throne. To deliver a fallen world. I wanna know you, Lord. And make you known. I wanna know you, Lord. And make you known. Your covenant promise remains. You are good. You are good.

You defeated the grave, we'll proclaim. You are good. You are good. Made a mess of Your garden. Our hearts were hardened. We thought we could do it ourselves. But because of Your goodness. You left Your Throne. To deliver a fallen world. I wanna know you, Lord. And make you known. I wanna know you, Lord. I wanna make you known. Blameless. You are blameless and spotless. Patient and righteous. Heroic and high. Majestic, almighty.

Relentless. Stable. Steadfast. Able. You are the victory. Yeah. You're blameless and spotless. Patient and righteous. Heroic and high. Majestic-I want to know you, Lord. Make you known. I wanna know you, Lord. I wanna make you- We wanna know you. We wanna know you, Lord. We wanna make you known. We wanna know you, Lord. We wanna make you known. Have the prayer team come forward. If you've not made a decision to ask Jesus into your life, that you might have eternal salvation, and you feel that in your heart right now, you will know it. You'll just know it.

Come forward. These people will pray for you, that you might know Jesus as Lord, and be saved, and be baptized, and start a new life. If you've been walking the wrong roads, now is the time. Now is the time. If you need prayer for anything else, for healing, anything else, tonight is our healing service as well. 6:30 PM over there for worship and healing. Come forward. If you could extend your hands, I wanna bless you tonight.

Lord, wise men and women still seek you. And I pray, God, that you would just send us a different way home today, that we have met you today and we come home different than we found you. In this advent season, we seek you now in our readings.