Video Transcript: Session 7 From Exegesis to Sermon

Welcome back to preacher preparation presentation a class on making and preaching sermons. Last time we did some exegesis work we did the work of exegesis, like how do you look at a passage historically? And how do you look at it in a literary sense and how you look at it in the canonical sense of, of the rest of Scripture as we try to determine what is the message that God intended for those people back then, what did that author intended as the message and then we draw out of that a message. And so we looked at just a variety of things that would come after about studying Matthew 2:1-12. Well, today, I want to just give a demonstration of how that might work to take what we did last week, and turn it into a sermon. Now, as I was looking back at my files, I find that I have five sermons on Matthew 2:1-12. And so as I looked at them there, I noticed that there are a variety of ways to approach this passage. But we're going to try to look at one which today I just want to use it as a demonstration of how you go from exegesis to sermon. So the passage again, is the visit of the Magi found in Matthew 2. There we read these words after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where's the one who has been born king of the Jews, we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he called together all the peoples chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, so this is what the prophet has written, but you Bethlehem and the land of Judah are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler, who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him report to me so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way. And the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. And coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route. Now I titled this sermon, wise people seek. In other words, wise people seek Jesus or seek the Lord or seek intimate intimacy with God a variety of ways you could look at that. This is the advertising poster for a movie that came out years ago, it was called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In other words, the third kind is you're actually encountering inter Terrestrials or extra terrestrials. And so the movie started with a man a guy named Roy Neely, and and he has investigating all sorts of out power outages in Indiana. And as he does that, all of a sudden, he sees a UFO and he has an encounter with this UFO, in fact, the UFO comes so close that it gives them a great sunburn on the side of his face that's toward the UFO, well, Roy Neely then becomes obsessed with UFOs. And he begins to read about them and he notices in his dreams. And in his subconscious is a picture that begins to appear. He doesn't know it yet. But it's a picture that is very much similar to this. It is Devil's Tower in the state of Wyoming. Now, other people are experiencing this as well. One woman named Jillian that has as a close encounter with it with a spaceship that comes down on her house shakes so much that it that she despairs of life itself, but she too is obsessed. And pretty soon it begins to become obvious that all sorts of people are having this invitation come to them subconsciously. When Roy Neely and others see this on a news report of something that's happening out there, they see this, this tower here. They end up deciding to travel there. So they travel there and when they get there. whole horde of spaceships come and land and out come the extraterrestrials are there small little gray things, the kind of people that you would picture as coming from another planet. And Roy Neely and others actually get chosen to go back with them for a period of time. Now, that's a very simple summary of the movie. It's much more complex than that. But as I was thinking about that in context, in the context of this passage, it just struck me that there are a lot of similarities that somebody gets an invitation to be part of something pretty special. For instance, you got Mary, she gets an invitation. And her invitation is by an angel who comes and visits her and says, you know, Mary, you're favored by God, and you're going to have a child born conceived by the Holy Spirit. Joseph is not immune to this invitation. He's decided since he's engaged to Mary, and she turns up pregnant, that he's going to divorce her quietly. But he has this invitation. And that happens at night in a dream when an angel says, Don't be afraid to take her. Because what's conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. The shepherd gets his invitation. They're out in the fields. And all of a sudden, an angel appears to them, and says, I've got good news for you of great joy, which will be for all the people. And they end that saying, let's go to Bethlehem. Let's go to Bethlehem and see. So there's all these people are starting to converge on Bethlehem, for this great event. And some have received a rather supernatural kind of invitation. Well, that's certainly true of the Magi, as well. They received an invitation which probably occurred months before the actual birth of Jesus Christ, they were seeing something in the sky in the in a star arrangement of some sort, we'll talk about that in a moment. And as a result, they begin to travel to go all the way from where they are all the way to Bethlehem, to be part of this event of the birth of Jesus Christ, the coming of God into the flesh. Now, if you look at these Magi, it can be a frustrating experience, because there's a lot we don't know, we're just told in this passage that they show up, but we're not told about them. For instance, we don't know who they are. We're not told how they have come there, except they've seen the star and it was in the East. And so we know that they're coming from the east somewhere, but who knows where they're coming from? Who are they? Now there have been a variety of traditional kinds of guesses. One guess was that they represent three different countries. And they represent the prophecy of Isaiah, which says that, you know, Gentiles will come to your light. And so the tradition says that one was from Egypt, one was from India, and one was from Greece. And so they come and they they gather representing all those nations. We don't know about that. Another theory is that they were Babylonian because they would know about Jewish things, because the people of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. But probably the best guess is that they were Persian. And that's because it would be people in Persia, who would have this skill of astronomy or astrology. And so they are people who are going to come as a result of a star, but also a strange occurrence in 614, AD or CE, the Christian era, in 614, Persians were taking over the Holy Land, they were conquering it. And because they intended to impose the Muslim religion on the population, they were destroying churches, right and left or converting churches into mosques, well they came to the Church of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, and the intention was to destroy it. It's not a really pretty place, if you've had the privilege of being there. It's, it's just kind of there, and it's been there forever. It was there in 614 AD. Well, they ended up coming up to the door, and with every intention of burning the place down, and then they turned and they left and they went away. And the reason they went away was because on the top of the door, there was a mosaic and it showed three men in turbans of Persian kind of origin, that were entering the church to give homage to the Son of God, Jesus. And so we don't know who they were, but still the best guess is they were probably Persians. We don't know how many there were. Now tradition says there were three of them. You know, we sing in America, We Three Kings of Orient are. But we really don't know. There may have been 12, there may have been 15. We don't know, we know, there were three gifts. And I guess that's how we get to the point that there were probably three of them. We don't know either why they came? I mean, it's a rather strange occurrence. Yes, they came because they saw the star but so a new king is in Israel. So what, in that era, there were kings all over the place. Why would they travel all this time take all this risk, incur all of this expenses, we're not told why they came, they just came, we read because they heard a king was born. And somehow God revealed to them that this was going to be a life changing event. And then we don't know what the star was. What did they see in the heavens? And there have been various philosophies about that one says it was the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter which happened in 7 BC before Christ or before the common era BCE. And that happened in 7 BC. And then 6 BC, Mars joined that Congr configuration of those three planets. So it might have been something like that that caught their attention. And that happened in 6 BC, it might have been a comet. It's reported that in 5 BC that there was a comet that was visible for 70 days in that area. And so maybe it was a comet that they saw in the East. And that brought them to that conclusion. Another group said, it's a supernova. And some astronomers have, you know, said well, right about the right time. That's what was happening in the Middle East that they could see a supernova in the sky. But when it comes right down to it, we just don't know what it was, and strange wording. They saw the star come to rest over the place where Jesus was, what does that mean? How can you see a star, we're not told any of that. So this can be a little bit of a frustrating thing. We are told that they bring significant gifts, gold, which how we connect gold with kings, right? When new tombs are dug up in Egypt, there's always gold in them because kings are connected with gold. And that gold turned out to be a very significant gift, because that probably was what was used to, to finance the flight to Egypt that they're going to go on and just a chapter or so later, frankincense or incense, this was made out of the resin of a tree, it was burned as incense it was used by priests to indicate the prayers of God's people going up. And so this is probably an indication of the High Priestly position of Jesus and his work as high priest bringing our request to God the Father. And so incense and myrrh. Myrrh was used in two ways it was used, first of all, as an anesthetic. In Mark 15, we read that Jesus is given a drink when he's on the cross that has myrrh in it, and he refuses it because it would lessen the pain. And then we're also told that it was used to embalm people. Joseph of Arimethea used a great deal of myrrh, to kind of embalm Jesus after he's taken down from the cross. So here we are, we've got these people who have sought Jesus. Now, they came a long way. And they came seeking, they recognize that there was something happening here, that this birth of this baby was going to somehow impact even their world, so far away. Now, what strikes me, as I read about these people who are earnestly seeking Jesus, wise people seek Jesus, that there were others who didn't we read in this passage, other religious leaders and how they missed it entirely. And you wonder how could that be? You see, one of the reasons I know the wise, the wise men or the Magi saw Jesus is because God has planted the hunger in our hearts for something significant. And we know that that significant thing when we come to Christ is having an intimate relationship with God for Jesus Christ. The Book of Ecclesiastes, in the Old Testament says he has put eternity in our hearts. So we've got it in here, we have a drive in us to try to find something that's going to fill our, our heart, our spiritual need. And so they come. Now, the religious leaders must have had that. Certainly that hunger is there. In fact, that hunger must have been really noted during that time. You see, during the history of the Jews, they were looking forward to a messiah, ever since Genesis 3:15 where a messiah is promised or in Deuteronomy, where Moses says, there's going to come a leader that's going to come out of my people, and he's going to make everything right. And he's going to, he's going to do justice, and he's going to do mercy. They've been waiting for a Messiah and that hunger for a messiah would get worse, or get more intense, during times of oppression. And so we read that in history that people would say, wouldn't this be a good time for the Messiah to come? That's one of my favorite lines from the musical. Fiddler on the Roof. It's a story about these Russian Jews in a little town called Anatevka, and they're forced to leave their homes. And one of the characters comes to Tevye one of the main characters in the musical and says, wouldn't this be a good time for the Messiah to come? And so for leaders have been reading their culture they would have said, this would be a good time for Messiah to come. They knew where the Messiah was going to be born, Bethlehem and the land of Judah. They knew when they knew when because now there's all this sign of these Magi coming, which was a symbol of the Messiah, that even Gentiles will come to your light. And they knew what the Messiah was going to be. Now, they misinterpreted a great deal. But they knew from the scripture study, they knew what he was going to be. And yet they missed it. Why? Why did they miss it? They were only a few miles away. I mean, here, you've got the Magi coming from miles and miles and miles. And here they are just a few miles away. And they missed it. Why? Well, the text doesn't tell us. But if we start thinking about it, I think there are a couple of reasons we might recognize why they missed it. One, I think that maybe they felt they didn't need a Messiah. But some people feel that they really don't need somebody to die for their sins. Remember, Jesus told us a story about the Pharisee. And the tax collector went up to the temple to pray, and the Pharisees stood before God and said, thank you God that I'm not like other men. And then he lists all those holy, righteous things that he does. But the tax collector, on the other hand is on his face before God and He's beating his chest and saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus says, that's the one that went home justified. There's a lot of people like this, who think that their goodness is going to qualify them to get into heaven. They don't need a savior, because if they look at their lives, they don't sin. They don't sin. I've had people say this to me, you know, I don't need a Savior. I mean, compared to Hitlers, and the Idi Amins and cetera, et cetera, and Stalins in the world, I'm a good person. Maybe that's why they didn't know maybe these religious leaders felt like they have things together. And so they didn't need or want a messiah. Or secondly, maybe they didn't just want a messiah. I mean, a Messiah coming would shake up their religious system would shake up their system of control over the people of Israel. Or maybe they were disappointed with God. While back, I had the privilege of being involved in the funeral, a woman from my church died very suddenly. And one of the people I was looking forward to meeting at the funeral was her brother. I had been good friends with him during middle school years. And during high school, we sang in groups together. And I hadn't seen him probably in 30 years. And so what an exciting thing to anticipate meeting an old friend and talking about old times, I was shocked when he showed up. Because he was still doing good work. He was working in Africa with I believe it was UNICEF and he was trying to make a difference in the lives of people there who were poor. But when it came to God, he had, he wanted nothing to do nothing. And it was shocking to me to a shocking because he grew up in the same school I did in the same church I did. He had the same significant people in his life as I did, except for my parents had a family system that was similar to my family system. He learned the things I learned, he knew everything I knew about God, and yet said, don't believe it anymore. I mean, that was his phrase, I don't believe it anymore. There are people who don't go seeking Jesus because they're disappointed with God. I think I shared with you Ted Turner, Ted Turner, the owner of the Atlanta Braves and TBS and TNT and those television stations. When his when his sister died, despite his prayers, he decided he was an atheist who didn't believe in God. And maybe that's what was keeping people. Think about that in your own life. What is there something keeping you from seeking the Messiah, the life changing event that was announced so prominently by God to so many people? Those who don't feel like they need a messiah are pictured for me. In this picture, this is Evan Roberts. One of my avocations is I study revival periods in the history of the world, in 1905, in Wales, in England, there was a huge revival started with Evan Roberts, changing the way he preached and he began to preach directly from the Bible it's significant, we may come across him later again, began to preach from the Bible. And as a result, people were coming to faith and you know, who opposed him? The church and my own experience in the history of the United States, there has been this variety of revival periods, again, all kinds of stuff Spiritual up, spiritual down spiritual up, and spiritual down. And, and in my lifetime there was promise keepers, which was a movement among men to keep promises with people. And you know who opposed it? people in church, when I was a young person, see, it's possible it could have been this, that they just didn't realize. And so we want to take a warning from them to be more like the Magi who are seeking. And then the last person who contrasts with the Magi, for me is Herod. Here's a bust of him King Herod, the great servant of Rome. Now we read that he was the ruler of Rome, he was given that privilege by the Romans, he ruled at their behest, and he gathered taxes. And we know a lot about him, he was a great builder. We also know he was a bit paranoid. In fact, he killed his favorite wife, because he thought she might be plotting against him to take over rule, He killed three of his sons, so much so that he thought that they were plotting against him. And so one after another, he had the oldest son, the one who would inherit the throne, killed. Now this is this is the kind of man who is paranoid. And so we read about him, that when he came, that he was disturbed. It's a wonderful word, it means troubled, emotionally engaged, he's disturbed, he shook up because he recognized that his rule might be threatened. I mean, he lived his life being in charge of that area. And now if there's a Messiah coming, his response is fear. This means I might have to change my life. There are people like that I remember presenting Christ to a couple of young men that we went through the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ, that mankind was created beautiful the world was created beautiful mankind sin and fell into sin. We're all sinners, our world is twisted by sin. And God didn't want to leave us. But he created a way where his justice, payment for sin could be, could be exacted on Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, and that we could now be invited into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And at the end, you know, asking the question, you know, do you understand this? Yeah, they understood it. Do you believe it? Would you like to pray to receive this Jesus Christ into your life? And they said, No, no, I don't think so. So maybe later, I'm having too much fun right now. Because their interpretation was if Jesus comes in, wow, some of the things I do for fun might be limited. So Herod missed it, the greatest event in the history of the world is happening just a few miles away, and he missed it. Now, final question, Are you seeking a savior? Maybe you are someone who identifies with the reasons that they missed. They missed the event. Religious leaders and Herod, then I invite you again, you can hear this is another invitation of God because he he regularly comes and gives us invitations to be part of this great event that is changing the world still today. And he invites you today. I feel like the Magi invite you to keep seeking. And the promise from Jeremiah is from God says, You will seek me and you'll find me when you seek me with all of your heart. And as you invite Jesus into your life, he'll come because that's what he does. He's the Messiah. Okay, that's just the demonstration. Next time we're gonna move on