Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 2:1-13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2003

The Way It Should Be

 

Pastor James Kennedy recalled talking to a man in his home about Christ.

He asked him who he thought Jesus was.

He said, */Oh, He’s a wonderful man.

He was the greatest man who ever lived, the most loving and gracious person who ever walked upon this earth./*

He said; /Let me tell you something I believe will startle you.

According to the Scriptures, and the historic Christian faith, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter of Galilee was and is the eternal Creator of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, and Almighty God/.

Instantly, his eyes filled with tears and this man of about 55 or 60 said, I have been in church all of my life and I never heard that before.

But I have always thought that is the way it ought to be — that */God ought to be like Jesus./*

People celebrate Christmas for all sorts of reasons.

Some love Christmas because it’s a time of eating and drinking.

Some people love the family get togethers.

Others love to give or receive presents.

Most who celebrate Christ’s birthday and forget the real meaning of Christmas!

*/Emmanuel, God Is With Us./* */The King has come to save us./*

When Jesus came there were many responses to His birth.

Today we will look at three responses recorded in Matthew's Gospel.

*/The/* */Magi's Investigation, Herod's Indignation, and the Priest's Indifference./*

/Firstly/ The Magi's Investigation

 

/a.

They Searched/

/ /

*Matthew 2:1-2* /Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?

For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him./

/ /

The magi or wise men journeyed from the East.

The wise men were very diligent.

They devoted considerable time to find the Christ Child.

They may have come from Babylon or Persia.

After the captivity many Jews remained in these places.

The */magi/* may have had access to the Old Testament prophets from the Jews dispersed in their land.

The wise men were probably astronomers.

Perhaps they knew of Balaam’s prediction that a Star would come out of Jacob and connected this with the prophecy of seventy weeks which foretold the time of Christ’s first coming.

But it seems more likely that the knowledge was communicated supernaturally to them.

Regardless of how they came to know of Christ's birth they believed in Him and searched diligently for Him.

They were convinced that this Child was the Messiah and came to worship Him.

This is clear from their conversation with King Herod.

They stated their belief clearly and their intention to worship the One born King of the Jews.

Herod understood it this way for he summoned the religious leaders to find out the Messiah’s birthplace.

They must have journeyed for some considerable time to Israel.

When they find Jesus He is no longer an infant but a young child.

The star that led them to Bethlehem was certainly a divine provision.

Its leading seems to be miraculous to say the least.

They came to Jerusalem because it was the capital.

They may have expected to find the Christ Child in the royal palace.

After all He was born King of the Jews./

/They probably thought that others would be able to guide them further.

Diligent Search Is Rewarded

 

Patience on the part of young Clyde Tombaugh is what led him finally to discover the planet Pluto.

Astronomers had already calculated a probable orbit for this “suspected” heavenly body, which they had never seen.

Tombaugh took up the search in March 1929.

He examined scores of telescopic photographs, each showing tens of thousands of star images in pairs under the blink comparator, or dual microscope.

It often took three days to scan a single pair of photographs.

It was exhausting, eye-cracking work, in Tombaugh’s own words, “brutal, tediousness.”

The search went on for months.

Star by star, Tombaugh examined twenty million images.

Finally, on February 18, 1930, as he was blinking a pair of photographs in the constellation Gemini, */I suddenly came upon the image of Pluto!/*

It was the most dramatic astronomic discovery in nearly one hundred years and it was made possible by patience.

*/The wise men were rewarded for their perseverance and faith.

/*

 

/b.

They Saw /

/ /

*Matthew 2:9-11a* /When they heard the king, they departed; and behold; the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, /

/ /

After King Herod had ascertained Christ's birth place he sent the wise men on their journey.

After leaving Jerusalem the star appeared again and lead them to Bethlehem.

The Lord rewarded the diligence of the wise men.

They had earnestly searched and God guided them.

The Lord used the /Scriptures/, the /star/ and even the /scribes and priests/ in all of this.

The star stopped over the house where Jesus was.

This seems to be further proof that the star was of a miraculous nature.

The wise men saw the Child and his mother.

*/Jesus is mentioned first, then Mary His mother; Joseph isn’t even mentioned./*

That’s unusual for that time.

Usually the father and mother would be mentioned first.

/Yet, it’s how it should be, Jesus must have first place.

/The wise men went in and saw the Christ Child.

You might not think that this is very significant.

But it is!

Many people saw Jesus on earth, but few recognized Him as the King of Israel, the long awaited Messiah.

/Most people saw a baby or later on just a man./

/ /

Josephus Account

/ /

*/Others saw and recognized Jesus the One born King./**

Josephus* seems to record the death and resurrection of Jesus as a fact.

In Vol.

II, Book XVIII, Chap.

III, page 3 of his /Jewish Antiquities/, he wrote: /Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man: for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.

He drew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.

He was Christ.

And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake Him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him.

And the tribe of Christians so named from Him, are not extinct at this day./

*/Tragically, through out history millions have failed to recognize the Christ Child born to be King of the Jews.

He is the King of Kings and wants to be King of our hearts!

/*Praise God that these wise men/ saw/ beyond Jesus' humanity.

They recognized His deity.

They knew that Jesus was the Savior of the world.

/Why do I say this?/

Because of their actions.

/ /

/c.

They Submitted /