Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Here we are the Sunday before Christmas, in a couple days we will celebrate our Candlelight service here on Christmas Eve, 5pm.

I want to encourage you and your family to come and be with us that afternoon.

It is a beautiful time, we will take the Lord’s supper during this time, it will indeed be a special time my friends.

And today at the end of the service, we have treat bags for you curiosity, of the Men’s Sunday school class, be sure to get one as you leave this morning.

And as we think about receiving gifts today, please take your Bibles and lets go to Matthew chapter 2 and lets look at the first 12 verses....

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A beautiful passage my friends, just a blessing to see the continued story of the birth of Christ and the things that continued to happen after His birth.

So from this text we know we are focusing upon the visit of these Gentiles from a distant land, men who are considered men of great influence, and they have traveled to see the one they have heard about....

And so lets walk through the text and consider what the Lord is saying to us today.

1.

Who were the Wise Men....

Now we know from the testimony of the Scriptures that all these things happened after the birth of Jesus, which we looked at last week.

This truth is the testimony of Matthew chapter 2, verse 1.

And it is in this same verse that we are enabled to see that something out of the ordinary happened, Magi, wise men from the east came seeking the child born King which the y had been led to see through the witness of a star.

So who were these Wise men, or Magi as they are called here in Matthew as well.

So who were these Wise men, or Magi as they are called here in Matthew as well.

The Magi or wise men are just that, they are not Kings necessarily in the sense that we know or understand it, but men of prestige, of influence who were considered both Wise men and priests, probably from the courts of Persia.

They combined astronomical observation with astrological speculation.

They played both political and religious roles there in their home land.

They combined astronomical observation with astrological speculation.

They played both political and religious roles and were figures of some prominence in their land.

In truth these are powerful men and we know their temples still exist today.

They have ties all the way back to the Babylonians and Medo-Persian Kingdoms of the Old Testament.

We that even Nebuchadnezzar sought their advise when he could not interpret his dream in Daniel chapter 2.

And according to the Scriptures, a star has lead them to this place, (they being observers of the heavens along with other materials have paid attention to these things closely).

So they have been around for a very long time...

Now there is one more piece of information I will share with you about these men..

In 600 AD we know that the Armenians listed these three Magi as

Melkon, Balthasar and Gaspar.

Three kings who brought three gifts.

This truth is certain, Wise men came from the east in search of the child born king.

You have heard me tell the story before of George Brasswell, the last IMB missionary in Iran before the govt collapsed to religious radicals in the late 70’s.

He came across a Magi temple there in Iran and inquired if the story held significant for them.

They told Him yes, their records indicated that 3 of their Preexists did go in search of a child born King.

So from our Scriptures to their records we know the story is accurate, they went in search of and found a child born King and His name is Jesus.

You know you might be here today in search of something, something that will give you peace and hope here at Christmas… Its Jesus.

Jesus makes the promise for those who seek after him will be found of Him.

He promises if you knock the door will be opened and if you ask He will answer…

Let me assure you, Jesus is all you need.

Let us help you find Him and your need today....

Now secondly today, let me share this thought with you..

2. A Star Led Them....

One of the most mysterious things from our text today is the truth of the Bible that these Wise men, the Magi came to the land of Israel from a distant country, being led by a star.

Now people have used the stars to sort their locations and directions.

People have used the season and stars to know when it is time to move from one place to another..

But one one has had a star lead them in this sense...

Why did they know this star was special?

How did they recognize things were different?

Remember these are people who astrologers, they sought answers from the heavens, from the things moving in the heavens as seasons and times passed.

But also being Wise men, they studied other sources of wisdom looking for truth.

We know that Jews themselves lived int he land of Persia, They had been in captivity for 70 years during the time of the Babylonians and the Medo-Persian kingdoms, so they had also studied the OT books of the Jews.

Let me share Numbers 24:17

17

And while people have always wondered about this star it is safe to say that God gave these Magi a special sign, a miraculous star that told them the world was changing for good.

And what did they want to do… they said they came to worship Him.

This fact is a tremendous phrase.

for considering what lies ahead, they came to worship Him.

Now we can’t say that Herod was pleased to hear this … let’s go back to our text in the Gospel of Matthew

Now the Magi make their way to Jerusalem, as traveling dignitaries, they come to the capital of the country they are in and to the reigning leader.

Now they state their reason for making the long journey, and verse 3 says that Herod is troubled at this news and all of Jerusalem with him.

Now Herod is the king at the moment, and we know that often such leaders were at times paranoid of others who might try to seize power from them.

So he is troubled at this news, a child born King indicating a possible heir to a throne, his throne.

And then the passage says not only is Herod troubled, but all Jerusalem with him.

The reference to the city itself has two possible meanings: One is that when the King is upset the people suffer and the other is the fact that those who Herod had appointed were nervous is their opportunities might be coming to an end as well.

The scene is not good..

So Herod inquires of the scribes and the Pharisees, and Herods asks those religious leaders where this child would be born, and they give him Bethlehem and the prophecy associated with it.

Look at verses 5-6

So the information has been confirmed and taking what he discovered, the Bible says Herod met secretly with the Magi and asked them when the star first appeared to the.

He told them to go to Bethlehem, but told the Wise men to be sure and come back and tell Him where this child born king could be found...

And listen to this… Herod says “So that I might go worship him as well..

And the Wise men departed from Jerusalem.

Now listen to the last portion of verse 9

Matthew 2:

Again the star rose and went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was...

Just as the star had led them in the beginning as they set out to the Holy Land, and now leaving Jerusalem and heading to Bethlehem the star appears to them a second time, and takes them to the place where the child stayed… How remarkable my friends for these Magi to experience these events.

There are lots of ideas concerning this star, what it was or wasn’t… but that is truly not important.

It might have been a star or angel, but I simple tell you God did it and it happened...

The truth that matters is that they came and found the child born King, Jesus.

We were once in search of that great thing we knew about… the one we longed for.. God guided us to Christ.

We found him, and we are blessed my friends.

Now we come to just one more thought for this mornings message…

3.

They Worshiped Him...

The most beautiful truth we see in our text is they worshipped Jesus… Now we know that this isn’t right after his birth but is sometime between his birth and two years of age.

We know this for the command that Herod later gave to kill all the male children two years of age and younger in attempt to kill this child born King.. .

But lets go back to our text once again… Verses 11-12

Imagine with me them, entering the house and seeing Mary and the baby Jesus, we are not told about Joseph, he might be there and perhaps he is not for some reason.

But their response is precious.

They fell down and worshipped Him.

He was not of their people, He was not of their land, But they knew he was worthy of worship.

They knew He was the ancient of days from what they had studied for hundreds of years.

He was the Messiah.

Worshipped, means to do just that, to ascribe honor and glory to a greater one, reverencing and to kiss the hand of another.

We find a instance like this later on in (Story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter)

And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!"

And with worship, they brought gifts to the child king and laid them in front of him.

Gifts of gold, incense or frankincense and myrrh

What of these three gifts…

matt 2 1-9

Gold… Well we know gold is a precious metal, just in currency, valuable, more valuable than anything else and would be acceptable even in today’s world, but especially back them.

Frankincense or incense…These are ingredients that were used in making perfumes, more times than not, it was used for sweet smelling aromas to be used in worship, like in the tabernacle or temple worship of God.

Zechariah, would have been burning such a ingredient in the temple the day the angel appeared to him.

Myrrh ….