“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 we have come to worship him.'” – Matthew 2:1–2
We see, from Jesus’ birth, that the global purpose of God is the glad praise of Jesus among all the peoples of the world.
This picture of wise men coming from the nations to worship Jesus as a baby is a powerful picture of the purpose of God in all of scripture. We see from the very beginning of this story, of Jesus’ birth into the world, that the global purpose of God is the glad praise of Jesus among all the peoples of the world.
You think about this story, what God is doing. He’s directing all nature toward this purpose. A star shining in the sky. God is arranging the sky to announce the coming of His son. He’s using the stars to shout the supremacy of Jesus. He’s directing nature, and at the same time, He’s directing nations toward this purpose.
Matthew 2:1–2 Encourages us to Spread the Good News
Matthew’s obviously showing us that Jesus is born King of the Jews. That’s the language in the wise men’s mouth, but think about who’s saying this. It’s these wise men from the nations. It’s exactly what we saw all the way back in Genesis 12 when God promised to bless His people through Abraham, the father of the people of Israel, but God was going to bless them not just for their sake, but for the spread of His blessing to all peoples, so here’s the King of the Jews born in a way that brings about worship of His name from all the peoples, from other nations.
God has purposed to bring about the praise of Christ among all the peoples of the world. That is a clear reality from the very beginning of Jesus’ entrance into the world, and it’s a clear reality today. God has purposed to bring about the praise of Jesus from every single tribe, tongue, and nation in the world.
I want to encourage us and even lead us now to pray specifically for the spread of Christ’s supremacy to all the peoples of the world, to every nation, tribe, and tongue. I want us to pray specifically for the Nosu people of China. These are people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel. They’re down in southwest China. Very few, if any at all, followers of Christ among them.
Matthew 2:1–2 Praises God for His Perfect Direction
As we think about the wise men in Matthew 2, and them coming to see the supremacy of Christ, the King of the Jews, they want to worship him, let’s pray that God would bring the Nosu, and every other people group in the world, to praise Jesus.
God, we join with the wise men in giving glory to Jesus today. We praise You for directing all of nature, and these men from other nations, to see the supremacy of Your son. Jesus, You alone are worthy of praise and honor and glory from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people in the world, and so we pray for the spread of Your glory among all the peoples of the world.
We pray specifically for the spread of your glory among the Nosu in China. God, this group of people, among whom there may be no followers of Jesus, if there are, just a couple of them, Lord, we pray that the good news of Jesus would spread to them. We pray that You would bless us as Your church for the spread of the gospel to them. God, we pray that You would bring the Nosu to bow before Jesus as King.
We pray that You would bring all the peoples of the world to bow before Jesus as King, and that You would use our lives, our churches, to accomplish that purpose. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
