Wise Men Still Seek Him Series

WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM

TEXT: Matt 2:1-12

INTRODUCTION

1. Beloved of Jesus Christ, we are gathered here today to worship the King of Kings, that Babe that was laid in a manger. That Babe that was born into hardship and grew up in difficult times. That Babe that would one day stretch out His arms and accept the cruel nails for your and my sake.

2. Friends as we continue in our time of Christmas, let us take a few moments at this time to adjust our focus to where it really needs to be at this time of the year.

3. I have yet to finish my Christmas shopping, and as we all know, even though Christmas shopping is fun, it can be often times difficult. Did you hear about the guy that bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas? A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those sporty 4-Wheel drive vehicles." "She did," he replied. "But where am I going to find a fake Jeep?"

(Fresh illustrationhttp: //www.freshministry.org/illust

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4. We are here today to worship the Messiah of the World, named Yeshua, and yet this Messiah is of old. He is God in the flesh, Emmanuel.

5. Friend, I want you to take a few moments and consider your life’s actions. Have your actions always been pure and selfless, or have you ever foolishly gone against what God disired for you in your life. Have you ever done what you want, regardless of what God or anyone else wants? Has it ever been about me, me, me or I, I, I. (PAUSE TO LET THEM THINK)

RO 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

6. This foolish attitude of the flesh that you have had in the past, and perhaps some of you are even plagued with it today, is not the wisest way to conduct our lives. In fact choosing this selfish way of life, is possibly the dumbest attitude that we could adopt, as it is this attitude that distances us from the Creator of all Heaven and Earth, and guarantees us a place in Hell. RO 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

7. Many who foolishly have this attitude, will often times in the flesh, try to earn their way out of punishment and back into relationship with God. This too is foolish, as there is no way that we can in the flesh, earn our way into the good graces of God. EPH 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

8. Our text today is taken from MATTHEW 2:1 "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." 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: 6 " `But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’ " 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." 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. 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."

9. These men are called wise men, or in our text, they are called magi, which is the short for the word magician, or one who watched the stars and did divination. They are not wise because they did these things, but they were wise because they searched for the King of kings, the Messiah, even though they were not Hebrew.