the magi who came to see Jesus, the "Three" Wise Men*, were Eastern Religious scholars, not Jews or Christians, and then talked about how God can work through people who aren't Christian and kind of tied into that sermon series' general theme of "Jesus is for EVERYONE".
Indeed. Persian, I'd suspect, but I've heard suggestions that they could have been from as far off as Korea or China. It's quite obvious that it took them some time to arrive because even factoring in that Herod wouldn't have noticed them missing immediately, he still went after male children under the age of 2, so it clearly took them a while to arrive (even if Herod was being a tad conservative in his estimates). There was an
incense route that they may have followed, although the Bible doesn't mark out the route they took. My father suggested to me once that the star they followed may well have been the same pillar of fire the Israelites followed in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, but again, that's speculation. Not really relevant to the discussion here, but an interesting point to consider.