Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Myth Busters: Confirmed, Busted, Plausible

Trust God when things aren’t right

Point 1: the three wise men.

In the last two weeks...

A co-worker of Moe’s marriage is breaking up.

Can I meet with them?

A youth pastor of a former church contracts an illness months ago in the boundary waters.

Last week he got a new heart, lungs, and liver.

A friend of a person in recovery overdoses and loses their life.

A person discovers that they have cancer.

A withdrawal of forces from Syria exposes the Kurds (many of whom are Christians) to greater oppression.

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1. Trust God for the Right Time

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Do we know the year that Christ was born?

A comet in 5 B.C.

A conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (7-6 B.C.)

Other celestial events might have been in mind that we aren’t aware of.

It is likely that the interplay of these planets pointed to a king or a coronation in which there would be a King of the Jews who would be born in Israel.

From Tacitus we learn that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea (AD26-36) and Tiberius was emperor (AD14-37) – reports that fit with the timeframe of the gospels.

We can put Christ’s birth

do we know the day that Christ was born?

There were Shepherds in their fields - that doesn’t normally happen in December.

It could be in the Spring or possibly the fall.

As I looked into what the Church Fathers wrote in the 4th century there doesn’t even then have a lot of unanimity.

It just so happens that on the twenty-fifth of December in the Roman Empire there was a pagan holiday that was linked to mystery religions; the pagans celebrated their festival on December 25. (This began in 354 A.D.) The Christians didn’t want to participate in that, and so they said, “While everybody else is celebrating this pagan thing, we’re going to have our own celebration.

We’re going to celebrate the thing that’s most important in our lives, the incarnation of God, the birth of Jesus Christ.

So this is going to be a time of joyous festivities, of celebration and worship of our God and King.”

(Ligionier Ministries - R. C. Sproul, Dec 23,.

2016)

Another view is that the Christians didn’t decide to celebrate, but the Roman emperor decreed that the Christians celebrate on this day so that there would be similar celebrations and no one would identify Christians or the Sun worshippers as hostile to one another.

Chrysostum (writing in the late 300’s A.D.)

Christmas first celebrated on Dec 25 in Rome in 336 A.D.

Zacharias meets an angel in the Holy of Holies at the Feast of Tabernacles in late September.

()

Elizabeth becomes pregnant.

Six months later (late March) an angel visits Mary () and tells her that she will bear a child.

And to visit Elizabeth who is six months pregnant.

Nine months later (late December) Mary gives birth to Jesus.

(note: the Eastern Church still celebrates in early January.)

Does it matter that we know the day?

Confused yet?

Me too.

So how many times have you been confused when in the middle of a crisis?

Almost all of the time.

Where do we go?

We go to bedrock.

We go to the things that do not move.

Not everything has to line up.

Not everything is a die-for issue.

We don’t have to believe in a December 25 birthday to be a follower of Christ.

I have many people who have told me of their decision to follow Christ.

Many of them can’t tell me the day that they made that decision.

I’m one of them.

Does that mean that I’m not a Christian?

OF course not.

We don’t know with certainty the day that Jesus was born.

Does that make him not the Messiah?

Of course not.

For those of you who are going through hardships right now.

Does God know your need?

Yes.

Does God know when he will bring relief?

Yes.

Will God accomplish what he needs accomplished?

Yes.

Friends, God does not have to trust us with the times to accomplish his purposes.

We need to know whom to trust more than when we can expect him to show up.

2. Trust God for the Right People

Magi?

Kings?

Wise Men?

So who were these people?

They were probably associated with Royalty.

Perhaps from Media or Persia.

It is possible that they were Jews or people who studied the Jewish literature from their time in captivity.

We know that they arrived at least 8 days and up to two years after the birth of Christ.

8 days - Joseph and Mary offered a dove at his dedication

Herod ordered babies 2 and under from Bethlehem to be killed.

What would they have known?

Were there three?

Who knows.

It seems likely.

But they would not have traveled alone.

Their entrance into Jerusalem would have made a splash.

The main point that Matthew seems to be making is that the people who would most likely worship Jesus chose to eliminate him from contention to the throne.

The people from the “Nations” were actually the ones who got it right.

Isn’t that amazing?

Sometimes the last ones we think of are the very people that God will use.

My friend Mark was on a transplant list for a new liver.

One day they rushed to the hospital with word that there was a donation match.

But on arriving they were told that it was too damaged to be of any good.

Somehow a Swiss physician was in town to train U of M medical staff about liver transplants.

She was one of only 2-3 people in the world who would be able to repair the liver and then transplant it into Mark.

Did Mark know this?

Was it in God’s plan?

We don’t have to know.

You know some of the story of my own daughter.