Sermon Tone Analysis

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

4 So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ would be born.

5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet:

6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah:

Because out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.”,e

7 Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared.

8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.”,f

9 After hearing the king, they went on their way.

And there it was—the star they had seen at its rising.

It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.

11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

12 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.

1) ME (orientation)

Good to be back with you.

Last week Luke and I had the privilege of getting to hang out with several people in our favorite Caribbean island.

They send their love and wanted to let you know they are praying for you.

Thank you for praying for me and realized something while I was down there.

As I have made this transition to church based ministry my travel flexibility has decreased.

Now that is not to say that I can sit anywhere and I was so tired I actually got some good sleep in the plane, but the reality was not knowing language, where I was or even when things were going to happen was more of a challenge for me this time then it has been in the past.

I had more internal struggle then I thought I would have, and there were times when I would wrestle with situations and honestly I did not like what I saw.

No one else really saw it, as far as I know, but I knew what was going on, and it was a peace problem.

Boiled down I had to wrestle with where I was going to find my peace.

Was it going to be in my situation or in my Lord.

The funny thing is this is supposed to be a season of peace.

Where we care about more important things and celebrate the coming of our King, but let’s be honest this time year is often not associated with living in the peace He offers.

Sure we pay respect the idea.

We sing songs about it, or we see commercials that take the Angels statements in “Peace on earth to men” and we hear statements like what if we treated everyday like Christmas.

These are all great things; we should sing, recite verses and hope we treat people better but between the rushing around the awkward family and business interaction and the crazy schedules we keep to make everyone happy we often find much peace.

In reality though as I look at the biblical portaryals of the Christmas season I do not see much that has to do with what we envision as peace.

I actually see more struggles like what I dealt with last week.

People having to decide, do I find peace in my situation or in my King?

Let’s be honest this time year is often not associated with Peace.

Sure we pay respect the idea.

We sing songs about it, or we see commercials that take the Angels statements in “Peace on earth to men” and we hear statements like what if we treated everyday like Christmas.

These are all great things; we should sing, recite verses and hope we treat people better but between the rushing around the awkward family and business interaction and the crazy schedules we keep to make everyone happy we often find much peace.

In reality though as I look at the biblical portaryals of the CHristmas season I do not see much that has to do with what we invision as peace.

2) WE (identification)

Most adults deal with these challenges and on our good days we remember that most of our struggles fall within the first world issues types of struggles.

What about those of us who struggle with a deeper level of turmoil.

We wrestle with memories of lost loved ones or broken relationships we long to have healing in.

Or some of us are struggling with just getting buy.

We would love to have enough to be able to buy presents but in reality we may not even be able to pay the electricity bill.

No matter the origin of our lack of peace, lack of peace is a very real thing.

Lack of peace is extremely challenging and can lead to deep spiritual, relational and emotional pain when left unchecked.

So what do we do about this?

I seriously doubt any of us really want to get rid of the Christmas season or the celebration of Jesus.

As we wrestle with this idea of lack of peace I think it is important to redefine the struggle a bit.

I have already mentioned this but I think the struggle is more about where are we trying to find our peace.

Take a look at one of Jesus’ promises about peace,

3) GOD (Illumination)

Jesus’ peace is a peace that brings courage and stability, it is more then just feeling at rest, but feeling at rest as result of God faithfully comforting and faithfully building reliance in His follower.

Peace is the idea of God doing something in us that brings benefit to us and to those around us and gives us satisfaction.

This will first happen when we decide to receive his free gift of eternal life.

As we walk with Him the awareness of Him being our peace becomes clearer so that we choose to trust Him.

For many of this this is not new but it is a good reminder that He is our peace.

Lets take a couple of min to watch this video.

It really helps put this idea of peace into perspective.

(Video is 3:30).

Understanding that peace then is not just the absence of conflict but the existence of wholeness or completeness.

Means that in a broken world we will not be able to conjure up long term satisfying peace.

It is impossible.

The reason why is becuase we are a people born to rebel.

We take life and see the beauty that could be but then twist it into something that is self-serving, self-protecting or self exalting.

The peace we long for, the wholeness that is found in an eternal relationship with God, is cut short by the broken peace we try to replace it with by filling in the gaps with fractured artifacts that last only so long until they wear out and are needing replacement with other fractured artifacts!

To understand this more lets take a look at a familiar passage for this time a year.

Turn to

,

,the wholeness that is found in an eternal relationship with God, is cut short by the broken peace we try to replace it with by filling in the gaps with fractured artifacts that last only so long until they wear out and are needing replacement with other fractured artifacts!

To understand this more lets take a look at a familiar passage for this time a year.

Turn to

The nature of this gift of peace brought by Jesus may be easier to explain by stating what it is not.

It is not an end to tension, an absence of warfare, domestic tranquility, nor anything like the worldly estimation of peace (; ; , ).

Its presence may, on the contrary, actually disturb existing relations, being a dividing “sword” in familial relations ().

Jesus’ gift of peace is, in reality, the character and mood of the new covenant of his blood which reconciles God to man (; ) and forms the basis of subsequent reconciliation between men under Christ ().

Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Peace,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1635.

[1] Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Peace,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1635.

Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Peace,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1635.

3) GOD (Illumination)

This story is so familiar it easy to assume we have a full grasp of it.

We look at it and think of claymation figures walking to see the baby Jesus, or the nativity scenes that do not take the fact that time is an actual thing in the bible and not all the characters they are selling were there the night Jesus was born.

But don’t get too comfortable with this passage.

As we look at it we see people looking for peace.

Lets take a look at how they are looking for it and if they find it!

The story of the wise men has definitly

Lets read .

Matt

This part of the passage introduces our main characters.

Let’s take a second and meet them so as we move through the story we will be able to see how they find peace.

The first and most important person we meet is Jesus.

The passage does not tell us how old He is at this point but we can guess He is younger than 2. When He is born a new Star appears in the sky.

At this point Jesus is walking around and probably talking like most toddlers do.

In this passage He is referred to in two different ways.

“The King of the Jews” by the magi and “the Messiah” by Herod.

These titles are important they show the mission of Jesus.

Matthew’s goal in writing this letter is to provide an apologetic to those who question Jesus being God and man.