THE CHARACTERS OF CHRISTMAS

Wise Men:  Following a Star … Finding a Stable

Matthew 2:1-12

 

    There is a lot we don’t know about the Wise Men, but what we do know is important: they teach us how to keep Jesus at the center of everything we celebrate.

 

 

#1 – When wise people come to a stable, we offer God our VERY BEST

·       They gave their treasures, not their leftovers or even their surplus

 

·       “If my life is fruitless, it doesn’t matter who praises me … and if my life is fruitful, it doesn’t matter who criticizes me.”  (John Bunyan)

 

·       The gifts they gave tell a powerful story:  Gold / Frankincense / Myrrh

 

 

#2 – When wise people come to a stable, we go in a DIFFERENT DIRECTION

·       A deeper look at Herod:  he was one crazy king!

 

·       The birth of Jesus forces us to make a decision.  You can’t stay neutral at Advent!

 

“Only two classes of people found the Babe: the shepherds and the Wise Men; the simple and the learned; those who knew they knew nothing, and those who knew they did not know everything.  Christ is never seen by the arrogant; never by the man who thinks he knows.  Not even God can tell the proud anything!  Only the humble ever find God.”   (Bishop Fulton Sheen)

 

·       A stable is also symbolic of all the changes, trials, tragedies and difficulties of this life …

 

·       See Romans 3:23, 6:23 & 10:9