Bad King, Pseudo-Kings & The True King!

SERMON OUTLINE:

The wise men's question (vs 1-2)

The foolish man's reaction (vs 3-8)

The journeymen's adoration (vs 9-12)

SERMON BODY:

Bible Reading: Matthew chapter 2 verses 1-12

Ill:

• In December 1903, after many attempts,

• Wilber & Orville Wright were at last successful,

• In getting their "flying machine" off the ground.

• •Wilber & Orville tossed a coin to see who would fly,

• And Orville won and so he was the pilot.

• Triva: The wingspan of a Jumbo 747 is longer than their first flight!

• Thrilled by what they had achieved, they telegraphed a message to their sister Katherine:

• "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."

• Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message.

• He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas."

• He totally missed the big news and the story of the decade!

• Man had flown at last.

• TRANSITION: How many people every Christian,

• Miss not just the story of the decade but of the millennium!

Ill:

• Another bit of useless information,

• When in 1969 Neil Armstrong took that historic first "step for mankind"

• Onto the dusty, desolate surface of the moon,

• Inside his spacesuit pocket was a piece of muslin fabric,

• That came from the left wing of the original 1903 Wright Flyer plane,

• Along with a piece of wood from the airplane’s left propeller.

• TRANSITION: Man overcoming the laws of gravity and being able to fly is impressive,

• To be able to leave planet earth and its atmosphere, even more impressive!

• But I like the quote by Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin,

• Irwin was the eighth man to walk on the moon and the first to ride in the Lunar Rover.

• Some 238,000 miles from earth, Irwin’s life forever – he fully trusted in Jesus Christ!

"The greatest moment in history was not when man walked on the moon, but when God walked on the earth.”

Ill:

• Now, Christmas would not be Christmas without a Nativity scene.

• Here are a few of the good, the bad and the ugly!

• (photos available in the PowerPoint).

• Hoover Nativity scene.

• Ducks Nativity scene.

• Nativity scene.

• Balloons Nativity scene.

• Cupcakes Nativity scene.

• Dogs Nativity scene.

• Coke cans Nativity scene.

• Jenga Nativity scene.

• Hipster Nativity scene.

• TRANSITION: When it comes to the Christmas Nativity,

• Most people in the UK get their knowledge from Christmas Cards, Nativity plays,

• Or a Nativity scene like in the photographs.

• Sadly, many today are clueless when it comes to the Biblical record.

• And so, these events are discarded as myth or fairy story.

• TRANSITION: I can almost guarantee in every Nativity scene.

• The Magi (Wise Men) will be there alongside the shepherds,

• But as we will see from the passage, that is not necessarily so!

• We will divide today’s passage under three main headings,

• Starting with…

(1). The wise men's question (vs1-2)

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.””

Question: What is the very first thing you learn in this verse?

Answer:

• We are told that The Magi or Wise Men - whoever they are,

• Show up in Jerusalem AFTER the birth of Jesus.

• Now that runs contrary to every nativity play, nativity scene. or card you have ever seen!

• That one verse knocks on the head the notion,

• That the shepherds and the Wise Men arrive in Bethlehem at the same time.

• Not so. The shepherds were there the night Jesus was born.

• The Wise Men appear sometime later.

Question: How much later?

Answer:

• No one knows, it may have been a few months,

• Although many scholars think it could have been a year, many opt for two years later.

• A couple of hints we get from verses 10&11 is,

• The Wise Men find Jesus he is with his mother in a house in Bethlehem, not in a stable.

• And he is twice referred to as a child and not a baby.

Question: Who were these men?

Answer: All we know about them is found in these verses.

(a). Wise Men, Magi or kings - which is right?

• From the Greek word translated in English as “wise men” or “Magi”,

• We get our English word “magician”.

• But these ‘Magi’ are not magicians as we would think of today,