Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20041212.htm

CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE: GOD'S GIFTS TO THE NEEDY
Part II: God's Insight For The Untaught
(Matthew 2:1-12 with Acts 17:24-31)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Ignorance of important information can be very destructive:

(1) Last Monday's December 6, 2004 issue of The Hartford Courant detailed the tragic death of former football star, Pat Tillman; Pat was the NFL defensive end with the Arizona Cardinals who had given up a $3.6 million football contract to join the military and fight terrorists in Afghanistan. It turns out that he died from gunfire from his own platoon due in part to a LACK of INFORMATION!

(2) However tragic this incident might seem, it can pale in significance to the damage that spiritual ignorance can bring: three years ago, a family in our church attended an infant baptism service for extended family members where they heard the minister claim the baptism was performed in order "to bring the baby into the family of God." People in that Church believe if they have been baptized as infants, that act will cause them to enter heaven when in reality the salvation of one's soul comes only by faith alone in Christ according to Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 3:23-27. One wonders how many people will then go out into eternity thinking they are headed for heaven because they were baptized and be shocked to find out that, like Matthew 7:22-23 reveals, they will not enter heaven because they never believed in CHRIST and in His atonement for their sin?

(3) Spiritual ignorance can damage believers as well! Two weeks ago, two members of our body attended a Church where they heard its pastor who was a graduate from the same Bible School I attended claim before hundreds of his listeners that if they harbored secret sin in their hearts, he could not be sure they would go to heaven!

One wonders how many of his listeners are now agonizing in their hearts because they are not sure if they are harboring some sin that will supposedly bar them from heaven! Never mind that John 5:24 says we permanently pass from death unto life by faith alone in Christ -- many believers suffer greatly in their hearts and minds due to such errant teaching!

Well, if WE or an ASSOCIATE knows he lacks key insight or is IGNORANT of CRITICALLY IMPORTANT truth, where, when or HOW does GOD intervene to solve the problem? What can WE do about it OURSELVES?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section for the answers . . . )

Need: "Either I or a friend may KNOW he lacks key insight or may even be IGNORANT of the critically important truth he needs. CAN GOD change this state? IF so, HOW? What may WE do about it?"
  1. When the magi BEGAN their journey to find the King of the Jews, they were OBLIVIOUS to the TRUTH they ACUTELY NEEDED:
    1. Pagan Middle Eastern soothsayers in Christ's era believed a new star would appear to signal a king had been born under its astrological quadrant, s. v. "Star of the Magi," Zond. Pict. Ency. of the Bible , v. 5.
    2. Thus, in asking for a human infant who had been born under a new star specifically to worship him as another PAGAN god, the magi of Matthew 2:1-2 revealed they were without God, without God's true salvation, and that they were oblivious to His important saving truth!
  2. Yet, as they SOUGHT spiritual fulfillment the ONLY way they COULD, GOD GRACIOUSLY led them to His TRUE BLESSINGS:
    1. That these pagans acted on the beliefs they had by traveling to Israel to worship her infant King meant they sought spiritual fulfillment!
    2. Well, Acts 17:24a, 26-31 reveals God has so framed history that men all over the world can discover His TRUTH if they but "grope" after Him (or His blessings) like these pagan magi did, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 486; Arndt & Ging., A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of N. T., p. 900!
    3. This fact is wonderfully illustrated in the lives of the magi as follows:
      1. As Acts 17:24-31 notes, God framed history so the magi would be led to His truth if they but "groped" after Him as best they could:
        1. The new star these magi saw (Matt. 2:2) had long before been predicted by God's gracious interference in pagan Balaam's effort to curse Israel: (1) When Israel traveled to Canaan from Egypt centuries past, the pagan seer, Balaam was hired by Balak of Moab to curse Israel to keep her from harming Moab, Num. 22:1-6. (2) Yet, each time he tried to curse her, God made him bless Israel (Num. 22:38 et al.), so Balaam's pagan predictions were overturned by God with one of them foretelling of the Hebrew Messiah's birth along with the arrival (as in paganism) of his new star, cf. Numbers 24:15-17!
        2. Thus, God graciously arranged for Balaam to make a prediction about a new star set in a pagan idea to DRAW the magi in Jesus' day to come to faith in His Son, the TRUE God!
    4. As these pagan magi of Jesus' day then sighted that predicted star and came to Jerusalem seeking spiritual fulfillment as best they could , GOD GRACIOUSLY gave them BIBLICAL insight and miraculous signals to guide them to His Son and His truth (as follows):
      1. In accord with their sighting the new star, the magi asked Israel's leaders where they could find the infant only to hear the Biblical truth of Micah 5:2 , that he would be in Bethlehem, Matt. 2:3-8.
      2. Armed with such BIBLICAL insight, the magi applied it by starting to travel south from Jerusalem toward Bethlehem to find and worship this infant King of the Jews, Matthew 2:9a with 2:2b.
      3. When they began to heed this BIBLICAL insight, God moved the STAR miraculously to point the magi to the very house where Jesus abode; God thus revealed that the child they would find was the CREATOR of that new star, the true CREATOR GOD, 2:9b.
      4. This realization that came from realizing the meaning behind God's supernatural moving of the new star gave the magi great joy, 2:10!
      5. When they found Christ, they fell down and worshiped Him as the true Creator's King, and presented their valuable gifts to Him, 2:11.
  3. Once these magi trusted in Christ, God CONTINUED to GIVE them spiritual GUIDANCE and INSIGHT, Matthew 2:12:
    1. The magi had initially planned to report back to Herod where they found the infant, for Herod had said he wished to worship Him, 2:7-9.
    2. Yet, after they came to the truth about Christ, God showed the magi Herod planned to kill Jesus, so they were to avoid Herod, Matt. 2:12.
    3. From Revelation 12:1-5, 9, we know Herod was being used by Satan as Satan's agent to try to kill the infant Jesus!
    4. The magi obeyed God by staying away from evil Herod, so God led them to grow in holiness through this additional divine insight. [Note how this Matthew 2:12 event illustrates God's guidance of believers into additional truth as Christ promised in John 16:13!]
Application: (1) As GOD has LED us ALL to His salvation truth in our being EXPOSED to THIS MESSAGE about it (like He led the pagan magi by the star to come to His truth in Christ), may we ALL trust in Christ as Savior from sin to receive eternal life and become a child of God, John 1:11-13. (2) Then, we can trust God to lead us from now on into all truth by means of His indwelling Spirit and Scripture, John 16:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17.

Lesson: In fulfillment of Acts 17:24-31, God so arranged for the pagan magi of Jesus' day to have ACCESS to the TRUTH about His newborn, God-incarnate Son, all they had to do to FIND the TRUTH was to SEEK fulfillment AS BEST THEY COULD, and GOD would do the REST!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 The same edition of The Hartford Courant that is cited in the this sermon's introduction section ran a story of a student pilot who landed his plane after he had lost its right wheel in windy weather.

It happened last Sunday at the Windham Airport: 47-year-old Graham Lawson of Patterson, New York was flying alone as a student of the airport's flying school. As he tried to land his 1974 Beechcraft Sundowner around noon at the airport, a sudden gust of wind forced his plane to the side of the runway, sending the right wheel into the dirt, snapping off the wheel shaft's metal leg and damaging the wing. Graham managed to accelerate the plane and get it airborne to avoid a serious crash, and he began circling the airport at about 1,000 feet.

Rescue crews were alerted and an experienced pilot in another plane flew up alongside him, sharing vital suggestions with Graham.

Summoning all the insight he had been taught and heeding the instruction of the experienced pilot who flew in the plane next to his, Graham Lawson made several trial runs at the runway just to test how he could control his crippled craft before making the final landing run.

Then, in that final landing run, he put his plane down safely, bringing it to a stop on runway 27 with minimal additional damage.

Philip Gaudette, an employee of the Windham Aviation, Inc. company that hosts the flight school reported of Graham's landing: "'He did an incredible job. It was textbook . . . My heart was in my throat. That just shows that all the training you go through works.'"

Though he was just a STUDENT pilot, Graham Lawson saved his life and the damaged plane he flew by doing the BEST he COULD with the LIMITED insight at his disposal. Heeding what TRAINING he had along with the ADVICE of a SEASONED PILOT who flew in the plane next to him and making PRACTICE RUNS at landing the crippled aircraft all worked to bring him down safely on the Windham Airport runway.

That event illustrates how GOD works to bring us out of spiritual darkness when we are in darkness: if we PURSUE what we KNOW as BEST we CAN, based on Acts 17:24-27 [and John 16:13 for believers], GOD will see that we come unto HIS TRUTH.

May we then ACT on the insight we KNOW as BEST we CAN, and see GOD in GRACE lead us into His FULL LIGHT of the TRUTH in Christ and His Word!