December 30, 2007 If I asked you if people liked change, you would all probably just instinctively say, “No.” And yet New Year’s Day is a day to change, a day to start anew some aspirations that will hopefully lead to something better. Everybody seems to want to make a change on this day that would impact…

If Magi were so despised by the culture and condemned by the Scripture, why did Matthew place them at the presence of Christ, God’s Son? In fact, this is not the only scandalous story he told. Let's look at the provocative message of Matthew's Magi story.

Most Protestants aren’t familiar with Tobit, but it foreshadows the gospel in some surprising ways.

Jesus' kingly authourity challenges our proud autonomy, yet his weakness assures us of His selfless love.

The Magi, 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 saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." Who are these wise men? From…

The Magi help us to learn how to deal with disappointment in life. Let us look for Christ and be open to His Divine intervention.

This is a excerpt from an unpublished book by Brad Berglund. It imagines what the wise men would have encountered when they arrived at Bethlehem. The account is purely fictional, but it draws upon the promises that filled the hearts of all who believed when Jesus was born. Enjoy! That night, the Wise…

The gifts the Magi brought to Jesus pointed back to the Tabernacle and illustrate how Jesus "tabernacled among us."

Christmas was over almost two weeks ago. New Year’s has come and gone, and the vast majority of us are back to our “normal routine”. However, the Season of Advent does not officially end until midnight tonight. Some of you who grew up in a faith-tradition other than Baptist may know that this is the…

Some of our Christmas traditions are rather confused. Most of us know that Jesus was not born on December 25th; that is just the day we celebrate his birth. He was not born in the year 1 or 0! He was actually born likely in 4-6 B.C. But perhaps one of the biggest areas of confusion come when talking…

We’re all familiar with the story of the wise men who came to see Jesus sometime after he was born. We tend to assume that Jesus was a newborn when they came, but the fact is that he was probably closer to two old. We know this for two reasons. First, he is consistently referred to in this chapter as…

From the East Most likely from Media or Persia. Could have been as short as 500 but if they came for Persia it was probably around 1000. Camel’s can travel 25 miles a day with a heavy load. That would be pushing it but with 25 miles a day it would have taken around 40 days. If they had to go by foot…

Every page of the Old Testament is about Jesus. That might sound like a strange thing to say, since the birth of Jesus doesn’t happen until the New Testament. But from the third chapter of Genesis, where the first promise of the Savior is given, to the last prophet, Malachi, the central theme of the…

TEXT: Matthew 2:1-12 TOPIC: What is Christmas? Pastor Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Center Point, Alabama Wednesday evening, November 30, 2005 Are you ready to start talking about Christmas? Can you ever hear too much about Christmas? I’m not talking about our modern-day, commercialized version…

Some of you may be wondering, Why in the world are the Christmas decorations still up in the sanctuary? It's the second week of January already! I asked that they be left up for a reason. Most Christians assume that the day after Christmas ends the Christmas Season. We assume this because everything…

Text: Matthew 2:1-12 Title The way in which the story is told is calculated to bring the reader to further theological comprehension of the significance of Jesus as well as to anticipate a number of themes or motifs that are to recur repeatedly in the Gospel before the story is over. [1] Theme: Jesus…

Seeing how God's ways are not our ways through the birth of Christ.

Epiphany: God’s Self-Manifestation Today’s feast of the Epiphany gets its name from the Greek word ep-i-PHA-neia, which means “appearance” or “manifestation.” It’s about the Lord making himself known to the nations in fulfillment of… well, a whole bunch of Old Testament prophesies, like the one from…

A general look into the characters surrounding the birth of Christ. This sermon explores the auxiliary characters of the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men.