Sermon Tone Analysis

The Arrival – 2

The Guests

Introduction

[Cover picture] The December 2013 edition of National Geographic carries the cover article entitled “Our Greatest Journey - One Man, 7 Years, 21,000 miles.”

Journalist Paul Salopek begins the article by saying this - “Walking is falling forward.

Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked.

In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith.

We perform it daily: a two-beat miracle - an iambic teetering, a holding on and letting go.

For the next seven years I will plummet across the world.”

He goes on to chronicle that he will indeed be taking a 7-year journey [map pic].

He already began a few years ago in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, humanity’s birthplace.

And by the end of 2020, he will have traced the migratory patterns of humanity over 21,000 miles to Tierra Del Fuego in Chile.

That’s quite a journey.

Tom Cochrane was correct in his famous song, Life Is A Highway.

I want to ride it all night long.

Life is a profound journey.

Every one of us is on some sort of journey, whether intentionally or not.

We are a people on the move.

The earth is continually revolving around the sun at a rate of 67,000 MPH.

That means that in any given year, the earth travels 587 million miles.

Add to that the rotation of the earth on its axis.

While the speed of that rotation may vary depending on where you live on the planet, it averages 1,000 MPH.

Even if you never moved, you are constantly on the move.

TS - As we continue looking at the Christmas story, the Arrival of Jesus, we are going to walk with a group of men who were guests at his arrival, though they had to take an amazing journey to get there.

Traveling unknown miles, these guests show us that the most important part of any journey is the destination.

- Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod.

About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking,2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

Here we are introduced to a strange group of men known as the Wise Men, or the Magi.

They are a traditional piece of the Nativity Scene.

Typically, we see three (We Three Kings of Orient Are) and they are hanging out with the shepherds at the manger.

Not really how it went down, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

While this journey seems to conclude a bit after Jesus had been born, the journey was motivated by Christmas.

Though they ended up being late for his birth, Jesus’ arrival is what prompted these men to travel so very far.

TS - Two questions about these men…Who are they and how did they know to look for the newborn Jesus?

There is a lot of contributing factors (OT prophecies and astrological events) happening to make this journey a reality.

Who are the Wise Men, the Magi?

The short answer is we don’t really know much about them.

Scholars have made a few conclusions about them.

“Magi” comes from the same root word for “magic.”

It is best for us to think of them as astrologers, not magicians in the card-trick sense of the word.

Matthew identifies them as coming “from the East.”

The language points us towards Babylon and Persia, modern-day Iraq and Iran.

So, think Jafar from Aladdin [pic] minus the wickedness and talking parrot.

They are wealthy, as seen by the gifts they bring (gold, frankincense and myrrh).

If they brought only small amounts of these gifts, we are still talking about thousands of dollars today.

They have some sort of prestige and clout, most likely some sort of royal court astronomers.

How did they know what they knew?

What star did they see?

Let’s start with how they knew what they knew.

We usually picture places like Iraq as outside of where Bible events take place, but that’s not the case.

Some very important biblical events take place there, most importantly the Babylonian Exile.

In the OT book of Daniel, we read about King Nebuchadnezzar invading and conquering Jerusalem (586 BC).

He takes Israelites from the royal family and the nobility back to Babylon to work in his court.

One of them is named Daniel and he becomes very important to King Nebuchadnezzar.

In fact, he becomes one of the King’s most trust advisors.

In , Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that frightens him.

He calls in his Wise Men - his Magi - to interpret the dream for him.

They are unable to do so, but Daniel is called in and successfully interprets the dream.

Look at what the Bible says about Daniel:

- 47 The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.”

48 Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts.

He made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men.

Almost 600 years before Jesus is born, a Jewish man becomes the Chief Magi in Babylon (later being conquered by Persia).

Coincidence?

Daniel led these Magi and would have most definitely left the message with them of an eternal King to come (as evidenced in the prophecies later in the book).

Daniel knew the OT prophecies of the Messiah to be born.

This is how these Magi in know that they are looking for the King of the Jews…because a Jew had told them about a King that was to be born.

Even beyond Daniel’s influence here, or even because of it, these Magi were living in a time when people were anxiously waiting for something big to happen.

Jewish and Roman historians both write about the general consensus at the time was that an Eternal Emperor was going to rise out of Judea.

The entire world was looking toward Judea just waiting for him to arrive.

What did they see in the stars that led them to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem?

Some point to Halley’s comet that was recorded in 11BC.

The most likely phenomenon (outside of a miraculous star created by God just for this purpose) that they saw was the rare alignment of Jupiter and Saturn.

When they align it looks like an insanely bright new star in the sky.

This rare alignment happened three separate times in the year 7BC, on May 29, October 3, and December 4. One more crazy bit of info here…according to ancient astrologers, Jupiter was known as the royal planet, and Saturn had long been the symbol for Israel.

TS - So the planets representing royalty and Israel align, and that prompts Magi looking for the Jewish Messiah to come asking to worship the newborn King of the Jews.

A mixture of naturally occurring events in the stars, biblical prophecy, and God’s work sovereignly orchestrating history, all combine to prompt this amazing journey.

These Magi head towards Judea, not knowing their final destination.

The star hadn’t given them an address, so they go to the place you would logically go if you are looking for a King.

They go to Jerusalem, the capital city, and end up in the King’s palace, asking to see this newborn King.

That’s doesn’t go so well.

- 3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,

are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,

for a ruler will come from you

who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared.

8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child.

And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

Herod’s reaction is to be “deeply troubled.”

The word literally translates as “terrified.”

And here’s why…Herod’s title is King of the Jews, given to him by the Roman Senate in 40BC because of his friendship with Marc Antony.

But he wasn’t born as that.

He had to work for it.

Herod had married 9 times to secure allies and his political power.

He politicked and maneuvered to get his position and eliminated any threat to that position.

Herod killed one of his wives, her two brothers, his mother-in-law, and three of his sons because he suspected them of treason, along with half the Jewish Sanhedrin and hundreds of prominent citizens.