The awakening call of the wise men

Sermon notes from Sunday 6 December 2015

Matthew 2 verses 1 - 12

This journey that the wise men took is an awakening call through their experience.  God had done something very special in this world.  It was fallen in sin and rebellion, they had fallen away from God.  God did something special and he wanted men to see that.  There is an awakening call to us today. To the church of Jesus Christ, to those professing Christ`s name.  God is doing something marvellous in this world today.  It wa 2 years since Mary had given birth to Jesus.  We don`t know how many wise men there were exactly but we read in verse 11 they came to see the child in the house.  In Luke`s gospel we read of the shepherds hurrying to see the baby in a manger.  In this verse we are told they saw Mary with the young child in a house.  There is no mention of Joseph and some commentators would say that Joseph died when Jesus was young.  Mary is no longer in the stable but living in a house.  Time has passed between the time the shepherds came and the wise men came. 

The interruption in their lives.  "We have seen his star in the east."  These were the Magi which is how we get the word magician today.  They were philosophers, they studied the stars, religion and many different things.  God breaks into their lives through their studies. It was every day behaviour, it was by means of the star that God interrupted their lives.  They saw one star that was different than any other.  God was breaking into their lives.  They recognised this star as being God`s star.  That is what brought them to this place.  God was trying to grab their attention.  Has God grabbed your attention today?  Maybe by way of salvation or by way of service, maybe by asking you to correct something that is wrong?  He is beginning to break into your life, interrupt the every day proceedings of your life.  Remember Samuel was a little boy who was doing a good work in the temple with Eli. Hannah his mother had come down and dedicated him to the work of God.  He was the gift of God and Hannah offered him for the service of God.  Samuel would have got up in the morning and opened the doors to the temple.  A menial task but someone had to do the task.  All is a service to God.  One night as Samuel put his head on his pillow in the normal routine of life God broke into his life.  God didn`t bring something into the sky, no he used an ordinary voice.  Samuel got up and ran to Eli asking "did you call me?"  God was breaking in.  Maybe God is trying to break into that life of yours just like God did with Samuel.  Eli recognised it as the voice of God.  He told Samuel what to say "speak Lord for thy servant heareth."  God had something greater for Samuel`s life.  God was breaking into his life to show him that important job he was going to do later in his life.  Remember the burning bush in Moses` day.  Moses was taking his flock to new pastures and as he walked past the burning bush he realised it was not burning up.  God spoke to him there and then.  Don`t push off something that is happening in your life as a coincidence.  That is the very thing he is breaking into your life about just to unsettle you in your circumstances.  Moses never thought for a moment that God would come to him.  God grabbed his attention, interrupted his life through that bush.  God had a task for Moses and made it known to him.  Has there been something this week, somehow it was an interruption and God had his hand on it?  God spoke clearly.  He wants to use that life of yours, asks you to surrender to him just like these wise men studying the stars.

God was beginning to inform them.  God had done something marvellous in a little village.  God wanted to inform these men of this wonderful event.  God wants to interrupt you.  He needs our undivided attention.  If we are not prepared to stop and take a moment God cannot do anything with us.  God would reach them through their own studies.  God sent one different star, the Messiah star.  God informed them of something.  God is maybe informing you of this wonderful Saviour born in Bethlehem all those years ago, informing you that you have sinned and come short of God`s glory.  He interrupts your life.  That he gave his life that you through him might be saved.  Has he shown you that today?  That he has prepared a way for your salvation?  The love he had for you in sending his son to the cross of Calvary.  God turned his back on him as darkness fell.  He died for you and I.  Amos chapter 3 verse 7 "surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."  Amos had in mind the message to go to his backsliding nation.  He told them about every day things - lack of rain, shortage of bread.  Why - because God was informing them of the situation.  He reaches down to where they are.  Amos was just a man who walked behind the flocks.  Amos 7 Amos answerd and said to Amariah who was questioning who he was. "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet`s son, but I was an herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me Go prophesy unto my people Israel."  God broke in as he cared for the flocks.  God wanted to challenge him of a greater challenge ahead.  God wants you and I to take heed and go through with God.  He wants us to inform those around us too.

God wanted to involve them.  It must have been a tremendous honour for them to look at the star and realise this is the one who created the earth and all around us, here`s God trying to break into our world.  God is trying to break into our lives.  He wants to involve us.  God informs us of a lost world today, perhaps a family under our roof that is lost without God.  What about the neighbours around us? Lost in sin.  You have the message in your heart. God wants to involve us in his plan.  God wanted to involve these men, he wanted them to come and gaze on his own son.  God wants to inform us of what he has done for us this Christmas time but sadly we don`t want to get involved.  We see that clearly whenever Herod brings religious leaders together here and asks is there evidence of this child`s birth?  He gathered all his own chief priests and scribes together and asked them to tell him where Christ would be born (verse 4).  They told him "in Bethlehem of Judaea for thus i is written by the prophet."  They handled the word of God but did not get involved with it.  We need to be involved in telling others.  There are people today who do not want to hear about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ or the death of the Lord Jesus Christ or nothing of the blood shed for their sins.  Jesus himself said "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."  The wise men were influenced by the God of heaven to follow the star - "we have seen the star".  What influences you and me?  The star was from God.  He was informing them of what this marvellous thing was.  Remember Abraham`s servant who was sent to find a wife for Isaac.  He saw lots of women but he saw God`s guidance.  He later said "I beng in the way the Lord led me."  He had made the effort and knew God would not fail him.  Are we influenced by others?

The instruction of God to them.  The star was the means of instructing them in the way they should go.  "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."  The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us if we rely on him.  The Lord brought these men to the very place where the child was.  When they used their own thinking they got off track.  That was what brought them to Herod`s palace.  It was only after this that they started to trust entirely on the Lord.  God would not abandon them nor leave them.  That star would lead them to the road God would have them to be on.  Is God interrupting your life today?  Why not stop and let him inform you of what he wants you to do and where he wants you to go.  He wants to involve you in he word of God, to pray for men and women, to visit homes.  He influences the way we should go and instructs us every step of the way.  You have a decision to make.  God is awakening you to himself, he wants you to be at the battle front.

Sermon notes from Sunday 13 December 2015

Matthew 2 verses 1 - 12

The responsibility of man through these verses

Faith in that which God reveals should involve action.  As we read the word of God this morning as he speaks to our heart do we put it into action?  Through simple childlike faith God has shown to us something - will we act on it?  James tells us "faith without works is dead."  Let us examine the faith of these wise men.  There is no mention of there being 3 wise men but rather they brought 3 gifts.  There could have been 3 or 300, we are not told.

They had a faith that was serious.  They were in the business of the creator, they came to Jerusalem and openly told everyone "we have seen the star in the east and are come to worship."  They acknowledged the baby as a king.  They had a seriousness in their faith.  God had shown them this Messiah would come.  There was no unbelief about it.  God had shown it to them and they wanted to come after it.  "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea in the days of Herod the king."  Think for a moment of what God did for you and I.  For this poor degenerate lost mankind.  He took his only Son Jesus Christ and sent him down into the world to die on the cross for lost mankind.  God at that moment turned his back on him.  God watched through the streets of Bethlehem, watched that family as they moved about.  Mary was great with child.  They came to the innkeeper`s door, to the place where they might find warmth and refuge for the night only to have the door closed on their faces.  Then they both made their way out to the back of the inn to a cave.  They had to bow down to get into the place, it was small in size and only used for keeping sheep and cattle.  Imagine as they made their way through the dark and dismal place, imagine the smell of it alone.  As God looked on, watched his son being born into this situation, born and placed in a manger.  God looked on the day when this world would be changed forever.  These wise men prepared to set aside their business and go on God`s business, to go on a journey.  Is that the seriousness we find ourselves in today?  The moment we trust Christ as Saviour and Lord - are we serious about it?  Things come across our pathway, things he would have us to do.  These men set aside all their own business to go and pursue what God had for them.  A sacrifice setting aside all their own business.  Peter said "Lord we have given up everything, our families, our homes to go out and take the message of the gospel to this lost world."  The Lord told him "you haven`t given up all that you will ever lose because you gain something that you will never lose."  How serious do we take our faith in God`s word?  Can see these man looking at this star and give time to find out the meaning of it.  Insistent to follow it.  Do we take time to study God`s word?  To reflect on it, to see what God is really teaching?  We cannot read the word of God like a newspaper, we need to take time to study God`s word.  Perhaps this star was different in shape.  They realised it was God`s own star.  Jonah gives a great example of a man not serious about God`s word.  He was sitting on one occasion when God spoke to him.  He told him he had a task for him.  Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  That was his response.  Have you ever been there?  Sitting with the word of God, showing you something that needs to be done and you have said "no Lord I am going to flee from this."  Jonah sat and listened to what God had to say.  He fled from the word of God.  That brought havoc to the life of Jonah and the lives of those around him.  It spelt danger not only to him but to the sailors and those he came into contact with.  There is a warning here for each of us.  We need to make sure we are doing what God would have us to do.  In the word of God we learn how we should live and how we should act.  These men had a faith that was serious.

These men exercised a faith that was simple.  These men come to Jerusalem asking people.  God has spoken to us, he has shown to us there is a Messiah born and we have come to seek for him.  The responsibility is ours.  How simple is our faith with those we come into contact with.  There is a simplicity demonstrated here.  Back home in the east I am sure there were many debates about will they go or will they not.  There are many things hard to understand, to get our mind around.  How can these things be?  They followed what God had said by faith and they expected to find what God was speaking about.  Spurgeon once said "preach what you believe and believe what you preach."  Think of the faith of the maid in Naaman`s house.  He was cut down with leprosy.  This maid had been carried out of Israel in one of the raids.  She exercised the faith that was simple in the loving God.  She had never witnessed a miracle before yet she told her mistress "if my God went to the prophet he would be healed."  Some bible commentators have tremendous views of what this star was - one said it was still the glory of God shining on the hills of Bethlehem from the shepherds day, another said it was a comet in the sky but the Bible says God placed a star in the sky and the wise men followed that star.  Remember what Balaam said "I shall see him but not now, there shall come a star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel." (Numbers 24 verse 17)  These wise men came on no other ground but only the grounds of faith."  "Without faith it is impossible to please God for they that cometh must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11 verse 6)  It is good to examine how simple our faith is today.  Don`t know the road or our problems, they just come.  Sometimes we count the cost and that is good.  Have to be careful that you don`t count it the wrong way.  Is what you do for God more than what you do for yourself?  If we don`t serve the Lord it will cost a lot more.  Consider Moses as he went down to Egypt to bring the people out.  Moses didn`t feel up to the task.  If we were to consider what God wants us to do I am sure we would feel the same way.  Their faith was simple.  Moses probably thought what would happen to his sheep he was looking after.  Maybe he couldn`t speak properly or that the people wouldn`t listen to him.  The Lord told him to go and he would sort everything else out.  If you are serious about God and he says to go, God will make the pathway for you.  Willie Mullan said "if God asks you to jump through the wall you jump and believe that God will make the hole."

Their faith was stedfast.  If your faith is not on the Lord it is not on God`s foundation.  These men met with opposition but would not give up.  Their faith was in the star that had shown them the way - verse 10.  They got back on course.  Sometimes on our spiritual journey we are led through a very dark difficult time, seems no signal from God.  Maybe there is sickness, death or upset.  There is no reason for it.  they followed the star and then all of a sudden it was gone.  Their faith remained stedfast.  Maybe there is an obstacle in our lives at this moment in time.  We feel like turning away from God.  Peter was the first one after Jesus` death and resurrection to say "I go a fishing". (John 21 verse 3)  He was going back to that which he knew best.  When the way gets dark and dull, if there is pain and opposition and oppression it is very easy to turn back and say I will not go that way, it is easy to go back to something we know.  John Mark turned back from Paul and Barnabas, gave up the battle field.  For us as saved people of God it is a battle field.  When God takes us to do a task there is a battlefield.  When you get involved in preaching, praying, or teaching Sunday School the devil comes with much opposition.  Sometimes we feel like throwing in the towel.  Joh Mark walked away, he said ‘no more’.  He witnessed a time of opposition.  Elymas the sorcerer was trying to turn John Mark`s boss away from the faith.  John Mark said he was turning back, he didn`t realise that the devil used that to cause a division between Saul and Barnabas.

Their faith was strengthened.  He brought the star back again just when they had lost sight of it.  When we lose sight of what God is doing in our lives it can be a difficult time but then he comes again and strengthens our faith once more.  When we begin to examine God`s word back to where God would have us to be, he confirms our faith.

Their faith was sealed.  They found the child and worshipped at his feet.  Then God revealed to them something - don`t go back the same way.  Maybe God says to you I have a way for you to go, to do something for me.  God speaks specifically to you and shows us his way.  Through these wise men we can see and examine our faith.  Maybe as we look today we need our faith strengthened and sealed.