From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, you better understand what genuine transformation means for the new Christian. Here is our question for today: how can you be truly transformed by God from the inside out? How can you see the transformation of salvation take place in your life? There are three steps to take as you follow the wise men, follow the Magi.

Larry Nobles: Merry Christmas and welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve on this marvelous Christmas Day, a day Christians cherish and celebrate. It is celebrated in many different ways around the world. For some, it is a difficult time without loved ones they have lost or been separated from. For others, it is a quiet day of reflection and contemplation. For some, it is just fun.

But no matter how you celebrate it, if you have gone through a transformation after surrendering to Christ, you then know what it means to draw close to the Lord. It transforms you. And by transformation, we mean a thorough or dramatic change in your spirit. In the message we are about to hear from Pastor Jeff today, he shares three steps the wise men took that produced in them and will produce in us real transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The message today from Pastor Jeff is from his new three-message series, The Miracles of Christmas, that we have been in this week. We started with the miracle of the incarnation, then the miracle of salvation. But today, if you are able, open your Bible to Matthew chapter 2 as we begin to understand the blessings of the miracle of transformation.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The little country in southwest Great Britain is known as Wales. It is known for its rugged coastline, mountainous national parks, distinctive Welsh language, and Celtic culture. It is also known for being the birthplace of actor Sean Connery. It is also known in Christian circles as the place of a great revival that began in late 1904. The Holy Spirit did such a work in that small country. At that time, it only had about two million to two and a half million people. The country was swept away in revival and many, many, many people came to Christ.

It was written about the revival in Wales that the impact of the Lord's hand was noticed evidently in the lives of people. Stories of profanity were silenced. Theaters were deserted. Courts were abandoned due to a lack of crime. Can you imagine that? Bars were shutting down due to a lack of business. Entertainment such as football matches simply could not compete with the presence of His glorious visitation. Sales of beer and alcohol declined steeply while pocket New Testaments were snapped up like hot cross buns as people hungered for the bread of life and the true living waters.

The horses and mules in the coal mines were confused with the revival because they had been trained with profanity and abuse. The men no longer used that language and beat their animals like that, and so they had to retrain the horses. The revival so seized the nation that the newspaper in the capital city of Cardiff published revival editions. In these editions, revival news superseded current affairs. Stories and testimonies replaced tabloids, telling of how the Welsh were more interested in God and His kingdom than the affairs of this world. The back of the paper even contained a hymn and a summary of the number of conversions to date.

It is pretty amazing. One of the greatest revivals in history was that Welsh revival. What do we see in that? The people began to seek the Lord, they came into a personal relationship with Jesus, and their lives were changed. Today, we want to talk about the miracle of transformation. What happens when a person receives salvation? Their whole life is changed from the inside out.

It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. The old things passed away; behold, new things have come." People wonder and they often ask this question: how do you know that you are truly saved? The way you know you are truly saved is as you look at your life, you know you are different. Something has changed inside of me. I have a different focus, a different direction. I cannot be the same anymore.

Now, that does not mean you cannot sin. Adrian Rogers used to say when you get saved, that does not mean you cannot sin anymore. It means you cannot sin and enjoy it anymore. You are convicted by sin. So the Lord does a work in our lives. As Philippians 2 said, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Work out what God has worked in. The Lord works in salvation and He works out that salvation through us through the process of sanctification.

Today we want to talk about the miracle of transformation. Has transformation taken place in your life? There is a passage in the Christmas story that I believe shows us the miracle of the incarnation, the miracle of salvation, and the miracle of transformation. It is the passage in Matthew 2. Matthew is the only gospel writer that tells us about the Magi from the east coming to worship Jesus because the focus of Matthew's gospel is to Jews. It is very Jewish and it says Jesus Christ is the son of David and He is the king of the Jews, the rightful king of the Jews.

It says in chapter 2, verse 1: "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.'" When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Why? Because Herod is a psycho. If Herod is upset, it is kind of like the old phrase, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." When Herod is troubled, everybody is troubled because it is like, "What is this guy going to do?" Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. He knew that the king was the Messiah.

They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet: 'And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him."

After hearing the king, they went their way, and the star which they had seen in the east went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down to the ground and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way.

How can you be truly transformed by God from the inside out? There are three steps to take as you follow the wise men, follow the Magi. Number one, you can begin to seek the Lord. That is what they did. They sought the Lord. You can do the same. We run into this group called the Magi. Nobody else talks about them except Matthew in terms of the New Testament, but we know about these guys from the book of Daniel.

When Daniel was taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, he was put along with many others, but his three friends that we know about, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were put into Babylonian graduate school to learn the literature and the language of the Chaldeans, which was the Babylonians, and to become a wise man of Babylon. They were the ones who instructed the king. They counseled the king.

Remember when you read in Daniel how Nebuchadnezzar would get mad at the wise men? He would tell them, "I had a dream. Tell me the dream and its interpretation. And if you don't, I'm going to kill all of you." They said, "Well, how are we supposed to do that? Tell us the dream and we'll tell you the interpretation." He goes, "No, you tell me the dream. You prove that you're really wise men." Remember then in Daniel chapter 2, as Daniel and his three friends prayed, God gave him the dream and its interpretation, and he was able to share that with Nebuchadnezzar.

That is where we see the wise men, and Daniel was chief of the wise men. He was chief of the Magi. He had influence because very few were like Daniel in terms of his walk and relationship with the Lord. He had great influence with those guys. He told them about a prophecy in the book of Numbers that talked about a star in the scepter.

This is what it says in Numbers 24:17 in the Contemporary English Version: "What I saw in my vision hasn't happened yet. But someday a king of Israel will appear like a star. He will wipe out you Moabites and destroy those tribes who live in the desert." It is called the star in the scepter. These guys had been told about that. There is coming one day this Messiah, this king of Israel, and you are going to notice it because the star is going to reveal that.

These guys studied the stars. They were steeped in medicine and all sorts of sciences, and one of the sciences was astronomy. So they had been seeing the star and they saw His star in the east and said, "We need to come and worship Him." The King of the Jews has been born, the one that we have been told about for centuries. So they left their place in the east, probably in the Babylonian area, in Babylon, and made the trip to Jerusalem. They came to Jerusalem.

Why? Because that is the capital, that is the city of the great king. It is about 900 miles. Can you imagine making a 900-mile walk? It would take you probably four months to do that. There was some time to prepare, so they probably came to Jerusalem about six months after Jesus was born. The nativity scene that you see with the shepherds and Mary and Joseph and the baby in the manger and the sheep and the camels and the three wise men—that did not happen.

They came later. The Magi came later, probably six months, maybe a year later. The Bible calls Jesus not a baby, not a newborn baby. It calls Him a child. It says in verse 1, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem," this is what happened. These guys are learned guys and they travel a long distance. We have that song, "We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar." We travel a long way.

900 miles would be a long way. It says field and fountain, moor and mountain. Moor is uncultivated land, like a kind of wasteland. We went through fields, we went through fountains, we went through uncultivated land, we traversed mountains to worship the King. You can begin to seek the Lord, but know this: seeking takes time and effort. It takes time and effort. If you are going to follow in the footsteps of the Magi, the wise men, well, they would tell you, "Yeah, we had to set out on a four-month journey to worship the Christ child. And then it's four months getting back."

They are gone for a better part of a year doing that. It takes time and it takes effort to seek the Lord. Adrian Rogers used to talk about how some people would want to get a word from God and they would just do a lucky dip. They would just open up their Bible somewhere and say, "God, I need a word today." They would open it up and point to a verse. He said you do not want to search for the Lord that way. That is not a wise way to do it. You seek the Lord.

I had a caller the other day that was asking, "How do I grow in the Lord?" I said, "Well, you have to spend time in the word of God." I said, "One of the things you can do is read a Proverb every day." 31 Proverbs. A Proverb a day keeps the devil away, I was told in college, just a little thing I have never forgotten. Proverbs is written to give us wisdom. We can pray, "Lord, help me to be a person of wisdom. Teach me wisdom from your word."

Seeking takes time and effort, and seeking comes with a wonderful promise. That promise is found in Jeremiah 29, verses 13 and 14, where the Lord says, "And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. And I will be found by you," declares the Lord. These guys are seeking. They are not just haphazardly seeking. They are not just halfheartedly seeking. They are obviously all in because you would not make that kind of a trip unless you were all in seeking Him who has been born the King of the Jews.

So they come to Jerusalem. It is a problem, and I do not think they put two and two together, but they probably did not know how much of a psycho Herod was. Herod said he was King of the Jews. Herod is not even a Jew. Herod is a descendant of Esau. The line of the Jews goes through Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob and Esau are twin brothers. Esau is the firstborn, and Jacob is the secondborn.

But the Jews come through Jacob. God does not choose Esau, He chooses Jacob. "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated," the scripture says. Not that He had this thing about Esau like, "I just hate that guy, Esau." It is that He chose Jacob, He did not choose Esau. Herod is an Idumean. He comes from Esau. Yet he fancied himself as the King of the Jews. He was a brutal guy. He was just a horrible person.

Herod feared potential rivals. If he thought you were a rival to his throne, he was going to come after you. He had his wife's brother, Aristobulus, drowned in the swimming pool in his palace. He put to death 46 members of the Sanhedrin. He killed his mother-in-law. It is just a cheap mother-in-law Christmas humor joke. He also had his favorite wife—he had ten wives, but his favorite wife, Mariamne, he had her murdered along with her grandfather and two of their sons, Alexander and Aristobulus IV, and his oldest son, Antipater II, because he considered them potential rivals.

Augustus Caesar, who was friends with Herod the Great, said, "It is better to be Herod's pig than Herod's son." The reason being was since Herod identified as a Jew, he would not eat pigs. You were safer to be his pig because if you were his son and he thought you were coming after his throne, he would have you killed. He was just a horrible person. He is upset at the news. "King of the Jews? You're coming here, King of the Jews?"

These guys—now we get the idea that it is just three guys on a camel. We give them names: Gaspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. Where do you get that? The Bible does not say how many kings, it does not give their names, but tradition just kind of builds up. They are three kings on three camels. They are not kings. They are Persian king-makers. They were involved with the king. Nobody really ascended to the throne without those guys being involved.

That is why they are there. "We saw His star in the east, come to worship Him. He's the King of the Jews." Well, Herod said, "I'm the King of the Jews. How dare you?" He is upset. Jerusalem is upset with him because it is like, "Uh-oh, what's he going to do?" This guy that kills his own kids could start whacking people because of this. Herod finds out from the scribes and the religious leaders, where is the Christ to be born?

He knew there was a Messianic fervor going on in the land of Israel at that time because Jesus came at the fullness of time. People were talking about the Messiah and he recognized that the Messiah is the son of David, he's the king. He says to the religious leaders, "Hey, what does it say in the scriptures about where the Messiah is to be born?" They quote from Micah chapter 5: "He is to be born in Bethlehem."

Bethlehem, which is the birthplace of David. The son of David born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem means House of Bread. It is very fitting that the bread of life be born in a city called the House of Bread. He finds out it is Bethlehem, and so he tells the Magi, "Hey, Bethlehem is only about five-six miles south from here. You're real close. When you find the child, then report back to me so I too may come and worship him."

We know that was a lie. He wants to come and kill him. When the Magi do not report back to Herod, he gets very upset and says, "Okay, I need to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. All the little babies two years old and under." If Jesus had been a newborn, he would not have probably gone to the age of two. He ascertained about what time. He probably—they said Jesus is six months to a year old and he said, "Well, let's go, just to make sure, we'll go two years old and under. Kill all the baby boys."

This is soon before he dies. He is not going to live real long. He dies in 4 BC. Jesus was born either in late 5 BC or the early part of 4 BC. It was not very long after Jesus was born that Herod died. He died such a gross, painful death. He had gangrene below the waist. As one writer put it, he had maggots growing inside of him in this gangrene. The pain would have been unbearable.

I think it is poetic justice because this man was so brutal and so terrible and so horrible that he would die a brutal, terrible, horrible, painful death. That was Herod. He sends the Magi away. They do not know all that Herod has done, probably. They do not know how awful he is. They say, "Okay," and they go and they do not know where to go. They just set out toward Bethlehem.

After hearing the king, verse 9, they went their way, and the star which they had seen in the east went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. It was not any guesswork. This star—and it is not a regular star. You cannot find it in the sky. It is something that God put there just to lead these guys. "And you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." These guys were searching with all their heart and the Lord says, "Boom, this is where you go." They come into the house where the child is. They see the star, and they rejoice exceedingly with great joy. You can begin to seek the Lord as they did.

Larry Nobles: This has certainly been an eye-opening study about those wise men so long ago. But there is much more to learn through their experience with the miracle of transformation. Next time, Pastor Jeff will continue the lesson to close out this series, The Miracles of Christmas. This series is available in multiple formats from our resource center online at fromhisheart.org. You can just click the "Listen" link.

This is Christmas Day, and on Christmas Day, most people spend time relaxing. Activities vary a lot, but mostly focus on the four biggies: family, food, faith, and fun. Maybe that includes opening presents, family meals, playing games, volunteering, calling relatives, reading, watching football, and just being grateful. For many, church attendance is the highlight of their day, attending a morning or midday or evening service celebrating the birth of Christ.

But if we get all caught up in whatever it is and have not taken a significant amount of time being grateful for what God did for us by sending His son to be born of a virgin, to live, to work miracles, to suffer, to die and to take on our sin, and then be raised again from the dead so that we might too have the gift of all gifts, the gift of eternal life with Him in glorious heaven, well, we have missed so much. Our prayer is that you have or are doing that today, giving God the time in your heart and in your activities to honor Him.

We would like to help you wrap your life and heart around God. Pastor Jeff has participated in writing a brand-new year-long devotional book for every day of next year. It is a treasure of a book. It is beautiful, it is a high-quality book, and it is called The Heart is God's Home. It is also our Christmas gift to you for your support to From His Heart this month. A very important month as we plan how much we can reach out next year.

To get your copy, call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-40-BIBLE. Or go online to fromhisheart.org, request the book The Heart is God's Home when you make your best gift today. Again, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org.

I am Larry Nobles and on behalf of all of us at From His Heart, we want to first say Merry Christmas. We want to thank you for joining us today for part one of the message, "The Miracle of Transformation." It is from the series The Miracles of Christmas. Join us on Friday as Pastor Jeff will again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart. Merry Christmas.

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more about that when you go to fromhisheart.org.