Sermon Tone Analysis

*Experience the Nativity Story*

*The Hope of the Wise Men*

* *

* *

*Hope for the Journey…*

* *

*1.

We find hope on the right path*

/ /

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?

We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Matt 2:1-2 NIV

 

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jer 29:13 NIV

 

/ /

/ /

*2.

We experience hope in the right person*

* *

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

Matt 2:9-11a NIV

 

“She (Mary) will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Matt 1:21 NIV

 

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Acts 4:12 NIV

 

 

*3.

We convey hope with the right presents*

* *

11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matt 2:11-12 NIV

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* *

\\ Intro:

 

I have enjoyed this series: Experiencing the Nativity Story…

 

We’ve looked at some the characters of the Christmas story…and learned some valuable lessons for our lives.

We’ve looked at Joseph: from his life we see courage

 

We’ve looked at Mary: from her life we see faith

 

Today we want to take a look at the Wise Men…

 

The Wise Men have always been the mysterious characters in the Christmas story.

*There is a lot we don’t know about them.

*

 

We don’t know:

 

·    exactly where they came from

 

·    don’t know exactly how many wise men came

 

·    we don’t know exactly when they arrived

 

*But we do know some things about them:*

 

·    We do know they weren’t women.

*How?*

If they would have been wise women:

 

·    They would have stopped and asked for directions

 

·    They would have arrived on time

 

·    They would have helped deliver the baby

 

·    Cleaned the stable

 

·    Made a casserole

 

·    And brought baby gifts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*We also know:*

 

·    They did not arrive at the stable

 

·    Instead they found Jesus in a house probably close to 2 years after his birth

 

*And  another thing we know* about the wise men, was that after a long search: They found Jesus and worshiped Him.

And we know they were on a journey marked by */hope!!/*

 

Someone has said, /“We can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without air, but only a few seconds without hope.”/

*We need hope…*

 

Hope: a confident or certain expectation

 

Not a hope-so-hope; a know-so-hope!!

 

ILLUSTRATION

Fall 2001 Survey Says Many Despair 

 

 

According to a Fall 2001 national poll taken by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research: Only one in five report they often feel hopeful about the future; seven in ten reported such feelings in a comparable 1990 national survey.

Some of you came here this morning needing hope because of:

·    Family situations

·    Financial situations

·    Job situations

·    Etc

 

Good news from Rom 15:4; it says,

4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Rom 15:4 NIV

 

The Bible was written to give us hope.

And in Matt 2 we look back some 2000 years and  find a journey of hope…a journey of the Wise Men.

What can we learn from their example about hope?

\\ *Hope for the Journey…*

* *

*1.

We find hope on the right path*

/ /

Let’s look at Matt 2:1-2,

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?

We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Matt 2:1-2 NIV

 

What we find here is the arrival of the Wise Men~/Magi from the East.

They wanted to find the King of the Jews they had heard about.

We don’t know where they came from or how many there were.

Tradition says they were men of high position….astrologers~/astronomers

from Persia, near the site of ancient Babylon.

How did they know that the star represented the Messiah?

 

*/(1) They could have been Jews who remained in Babylon after the exile and knew the Old Testament predictions of the Messiah’s coming.

/*

 

*/(2) They may have been eastern astrologers who studied ancient manuscripts from around the world.

/*

 

Because of the Jewish exile centuries earlier, they would have had copies of the Old Testament in their land.

Possibly they were familiar with OT prophecies concerning the Messiah’s arrival.

Perhaps they knew of Balaam’s prediction that a Star would come out of Jacob (Num.

24:17) and connected this with the prophecy of seventy weeks which foretold the time of Christ’s first coming (Dan.

9:24, 25).

*/(3) They may have had a special message from God directing them to the Messiah./*

*/ /*

The Magi said they saw Jesus’ star.

Balaam referred to a coming “star. . .

out of Jacob” (Numbers 24:17).

Some say this star may have been a conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in 6 B.C., and others offer other explanations.

But couldn’t God, who created the heavens, have created a special star to signal the arrival of his Son?

 

Whatever the nature of the star, these Magi traveled thousands of miles searching for a king, and they found him.

Regardless of whether God used an existing astronomical phenomenon or created one for the occasion, its function on behalf of the Magi was supernatural in that it announced the birth of the King.

However He did it, God used the star to signal to the Magi that the King had been born.

The hope of the Magi was strong enough to compel them to undertake a costly and difficult journey to find Him.

Their journey may have covered 1,000 miles and taken four to five months.

God’s path no matter how long or how hard is the right path and it will always leads to Jesus

 

Some of you are looking for hope and you’ve been looking for some time…

 

It seems hopeless…

 

 

 

Good news, God’s word says in