SEARCHING FOR A SAVIOR
01-08-12 Sermon
Several Christmases ago all of the national newsmagazines had cover articles on searching. U.S.A. Today, US News Report – “In search of Christmas”. Time had one out on “Finding God on the Internet: Searching for Jesus Online.” Newsweek had one called The Search for the Sacred: America’s Quest for Spiritual Meaning.”
What the media had figured out is that America has become a nation of seekers. As people look around and see the collapse of materialism, the collapse of hedonism and other things, what they’re saying is, “Who can give me the answers to the basic questions of life? The spiritual questions like, “Why am I here? Where am I going? Where did I come from? What is the meaning of life? Is there a purpose in life? Is there a God? If there is a God, does He care about me? How can I know Him?” Those kinds of questions are being asked by millions of people.
If you are a spiritual seeker here this morning, I want to say you’re in good company. It’s good to be a seeker. You have a lot in common with a group of people who were at the very first Christmas – the wise men. Some people call them the magi, or the three kings. But I think the best term for them is The Original Seekers. Because that’s who they were. They were seekers of God, searching for truth, searching for a Savior.
Who were these guys anyway? Who were these mystery men from the east? Who were these wise men, these three men and a baby? The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot about the wise men. It doesn’t give us a lot of details about who they really were. In fact, we know less about them than almost any of the other people involved in the Christmas story. The passage from Matthew 2 is the only place in the bible where the wise men are mentioned. We don’t know really who they were. It doesn’t say they were kings. They were given the term magi in the Bible. A magi is a term for a person who is kind of a combination astronomer, scientist, doctor and philosopher. They were very wise men. They were well educated. We don’t know where they came from. The Bible says they came from the east. They could have come from Persia. They could have come from India. They could have come from China. We don’t really know. We do know that they had to cross all that Middle Eastern desert and that trip probably took months or years to get to Israel. Note that this scripture passage says that they found the child not an infant and they found the child in a house not a stable. That shows that the wise men really don’t belong in a nativity scene coming in right behind the shepherds.
And we don’t even know how many of the wise men there were. We’ve always thought there were three wise men but the Bible doesn’t say that. The Bible says that there were three gifts. Because there were three gifts, people think there must have been three guys. There could have been as many as a dozen. In fact, people often traveled together in caravans for safety reasons, although there is no mention of camels or caravans in the scripture passage. So, there could have been a dozen of these guys.
What we do know about the wise men is what they did. The wise men did three things that caused them to find God.
And if you’re a seeker today, if you say, “I’m genuinely searching for the truth in life. If there is a God I want to know Him,” then if you will do the three things the wise men did, you’ll find God too.
1. SEEK THE TRUTH
If you want to find God today, if you want to know God better, you’ve got to seek the truth. Go after it. Become a seeker. Take it serious.
There’s a big difference between seekers and speculators. There are far more speculators in the world than there are seekers. Speculators are people who say, “Well, I think God is like… My idea of God is like…. I really imagine God to be….” Who cares? Just because you think something doesn’t make it true. There’s a difference between a speculator and a seeker. Speculators just guess, they conjecture, and your guess is as good as mine what God is like. But seekers are people who diligently search for the truth, they search for answers, they search for a person. They don’t just make assumptions. They take the time and effort to find the truth.
And that’s what the wise men were, seekers. Matthew 2, the story of the wise men. “After Jesus’ birth [that tells you this was some time later than the nativity, the event in the stable] wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem asking, `Where is the child born to be king of the Jews? We observed His star rising and have come to worship Him.’” Notice in this verse, you can see three things that genuine seekers do.
First, genuine seekers watch what’s happening in the world. They’re alert, observant. They saw a star that was different in the sky. They were alert to it.
Second, genuine seekers ask questions. They said, “What do you think this means?” and they started asking around. What does this sign mean? Where is it? Where do we go?
Third, they do whatever it takes to find the answer. If you’re a genuine seeker, I encourage you to do that. Do whatever it takes to find out the truth about, Why am I here? Where am I going? Is there a God? Does He care? What is he like? Does he have a plan for my life?
It’s ironic to me that when Jesus was born, the religious center of the universe, Jerusalem, was just six miles away from where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. All of the religious scholarship in the world at that time was concentrated in Jerusalem. They’re only six miles away from Jesus’ birth. But not one religious leader went six miles to search for Jesus.
These guys that did come weren’t even believers. They were “pagans” from some foreign country. But they were genuine seekers so they found Jesus.
In contrast to those religious leaders, these wise men probably took a long time to get there. That revealed a serious commitment to searching for the truth. The problem with many of us today is we all want to know the truth but we don’t want to take the time to find it. We all want to know God but we don’t want to take the time to find out about Him. So people say, “I want to know the truth,” but we’re too busy to search for the answers. To me that’s a tragedy. The most tragic thing in life is to go all through life never figuring out why am I here. Never figuring out what is the reason, what is the meaning of life. That is a wasted life.
When you feel unfulfilled. When you get those feelings of, Do I really matter? Why put forth the effort? You feel unsatisfied, unfulfilled. You may feel a little confused about life. That is God creating that desire in your life. God created you with a God shaped vacuum that nothing else can fill. Not money, not fame, not pleasure, not having all kind of things. Only God can fill that God-shaped emptiness. And that’s really what you’re searching for.
The good news is this. While you’re trying to search for God, God’s searching for you. In fact, God wants you to get to know Him. He wants you. He’s interested. He wants to have a relationship with you. So notice what He promises in Jeremiah 29:13 “When you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me.” That’s a great promise. That’s the Good News. He wants you to meet Him. He wants you to know Him.
So if you’re a seeker, you really want to know the truth, you want to know God, Congratulations. Because God loves seekers. God loves people who genuinely want to know Him. God wants you to know Him and He wants you to love Him and He wants you to trust Him and He wants you to follow Him and He wants to have a relationship with you. That’s what Christmas is all about. The essence of Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. God is not interested in religion. He’s not “into” religion. Religion is man’s attempt to get to God. Religion is rules and regulations and rituals. Christmas is about God coming to earth, wanting a relationship with you.
God is interested in a relationship with you.
The second thing the wise men did was…2. EXPERIENCE THE JOY
Enjoy the fact that God has already taken the first step, hoping you’d come to know Him. God wants to help you get to know Him. So He gives you a sign. He always does this, to any genuine seeker. He gives you a sign, a clue, a trail marking, travel guide so you can find Him. He’s not going to just leave you out there on your own. He gives you a travel guide to find Him.
In the wise men’s case, their travel guide was a star, a very special star. It was no mere, normal star. A lot of people say that maybe the star they were following was some comet or supernova or asteroid. But there’s no star that ever preformed like this star. The Bible says it led them from the east directly to Jerusalem. It led them east. Then it turned south and went south to Bethlehem. No star does that. Then it settled right over the home where Jesus and Mary and Joseph were. I’ve never seen a star like that, have you?
On top of that, we don’t have any indication from the Bible that anybody else ever saw the star. It doesn’t say that Herod or the people in Jerusalem saw the star. The only people, to our knowledge, that actually saw the star were the wise men. It was a special star, a custom made heavenly light. God often does this. All throughout history, God has used different kinds of instruments to get people’s attention. Whether it was opening the Red Sea, bring down manna from heaven, a pillar of fire by night or cloud by day. God has always done different kinds of signs. He always rewards genuine seekers with clues with a travel guide, a star.
Today there are numerous testimonies of God reaching out to Muslims in dreams and visions in Muslim countries where there are no missionaries. God knows the hearts of people. If he sees that a Muslim person is truly seeking God, God wants to be found and he reaches out to them and draws them to Jesus. When they are seeking the light he provides more light.
Chances are, you have a star in your life. You may have just never recognized it. God put it there to bring you to Him. That star may be a book you’ve read or a person you know or an experience you’ve had or a TV show or a movie. It may be some event. It may be a church. I have no doubt that God has brought people across your path in order to be a travel guide to bring you to Him. It may be a believing parent or a believing wife or husband who is a believer, or a neighbor or friend or somebody at work or a pastor, or even a child. But God does not leave genuine seekers without a travel guide. He brings these people into our lives so we can see where He wants us to be headed.
So what’s the star in your life?
There are three possible reactions when God starts to guide your life and you start to realize, “Maybe God is talking to me and trying to guide me through this person, this book, whatever.” You can react like Herod did which was fear. He was afraid of being guided by God. Or you can react like the religious leaders did, be indifferent, be apathetic, be skeptical. Or you can react like the wise men did and that was celebrate. They rejoiced. They experienced the joy of being led by God.
Matthew 2:10 “And when they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” The Greek there literally means they jumped up and down with joy. They were ecstatic. The Greek word is Muchow! It means they were joyful beyond belief. They couldn’t contain themselves. They were overwhelmed with joy.
If you’re a believer, I want to challenge you sometime this Christmas season to thank God for the stars in your life. The travel guides, the clues. They may be people or they may be events. But thank God for the people or events that caused you to find Christ, that led you to the Savior. And rejoice with exceeding great joy for those people.
If you’re not a believer, if you’re still a seeker, you’re still on the way, I want to say to you, use the star, take advantage of it. Don’t just let it be there. Let it lead you to God to find the basic questions of life answered in your life. Use that star.
Because God loves you and He has a plan and He has a purpose for your life, He will use anything to get your attention. And that even means pain if necessary. Because He loves you too much to let you go through life wandering. Some of you have had a tough year. You’ve had marriage problems. Or you’ve had problems with your children, problems with your health. Or maybe you’ve had financial difficulties. Or maybe goals and dreams you’ve wanted just didn’t fit together, you’ve been stymied and you’ve been stressed. Have you considered that the stress might be a star? Maybe God is trying to get your attention. He may be saying , “I didn’t mean for you to live your life without Me in it.” Whoever said you’re supposed to go through life depending all on your own efforts? God is trying to get your attention even in the middle of all those problems.
At Christmas time, I have some really good news for you. Luke 2, the angels said at Christmas, the very first one, “I bring you the most joyful news ever announced and it is for everyone. Your Savior has been born tonight.” Why is Christmas such good news? Because of what Christ came to do. He came to be our Savior. He came to save us.
What does that mean? You hear the words “salvation” and you hear people say, “I’m saved.’ What does that mean anyway? Saved from what? What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to have Christ as your Savior?
It means three things. God has a Christmas gift for you. It’s Jesus Christ, His Son. And wrapped up in that Christmas gift are three wonderful things. He says,
1. I want to give you forgiveness for everything you’ve ever done wrong in your past.
2. I want to give you a purpose and power to live today.
3. I want to give you the security of knowing your home in heaven is there for you when you die.
That’s a pretty good deal. You’re never going to get a better Christmas gift than that. Forgiveness for your past, help in the present, security for your future. That’s called salvation. And that’s good news.
You need to seek the truth and then you need to experience the joy and realize that God has a gift for you. John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came to give you life, life in all its fullness.” Most people don’t live. They just exist. They don’t enjoy life, they just endure it. This Christmas, God invites you to not only seek the truth but experience the joy.
If you want to find God at Christmas, you have to do three things that the wise men did: Seek the truth, Experience the joy and , third,
3. RECOGNIZE THE GIFT
Recognize who this baby really was. What makes this baby any different from any other baby? Hundreds of babies were probably born around the world that night 2000 years ago. Why do we split history into A.D. and B.C. over the birth of this baby? What makes Him so different? You’ve got to recognize the gift. Who was He?
The Bible says He was no mere baby. He was God. Why was He God? God came to earth in human form so we could get to know Him. You can’t recognize God very well just in nature. There are some things you can know about God in nature. You can know God is powerful. You can know God is creative. You can look at nature and realize God likes variety. But if Jesus had not come to earth, you would not know that God is loving, that God is personal, that God is available, that God has a plan for your life and a purpose for your life. Those things happen because God gave us this Christmas gift. He came to earth in human form so nobody would be afraid of Him. Because nobody’s afraid of a baby.
Colossians 1 “Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all and in fact Christ Himself is the creator who made everything in heaven and earth.” That baby made you! That’s the amazing thing of Christmas, that God would so humble Himself, and condescend to human being, and become one of us and put Himself in the hands of normal human beings as an innocent, helpless little child. You’ve got to recognize the gift.
Why do we give gifts at Christmas? Billions of dollars were be spent this year on Christmas gifts. Why do we do that? Because it was God’s idea. He started the whole thing. He gave the first Christmas gift. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world He gave…” He gave His only Son. He took the initiative. And that’s what it’s all about. God gives us His Christmas gifts.
In order to enjoy a gift, I have to be able to do two things: (1) I must be able to recognize them, and (2) I must receive them.
Have you ever got a gift that you never had the slightest idea what it was all about? You open the present. “It’s great! What is it? How do I use it?” You can’t use a gift you don’t recognize. And until you recognize that Jesus really was God this makes no sense to you. You may as well not celebrate Christmas. There’s no use celebrating the birthday of somebody that’s just like us. You must recognize the gift. He was God.
But more than that, you’ve got to receive the gift. If I were to put a brand new Lexus out in the parking lot and say, “I’m going to give that car to the first person up here,” I’d be mobbed. You would recognize the gift, but it wouldn’t be yours until you received it.
The same is true with God’s gift at Christmas. Let’s say you gave me a gift at Christmas, then next summer you say, "How did you like the Christmas gift I gave you?" It’s beautiful. In fact it’s still setting over in the corner of my living room. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to unwrap it yet. You’d think what kind of guy is this? He didn’t even unwrap the gift.
Yet people do this with God’s gift year after year. They put up lights. They put up a tree. They sing the Christmas carols. They go to church. They do all those things at Christmas but they’ve never received the gift.
This Christmas what you need to do is ask yourself the important question: Who was this child? What child is this? Was this really God? Was Jesus really who He claimed to be? If He was, He deserves a part of your life.
How do we know that the wise men recognized the gift? How do we know that they really realized that they were worshiping God? We know because of the way they reacted when they saw the baby and we know because of the presents that they gave the baby. The Bible says in Matthew 2:11 “When the magi, the wise men, went into the house, they saw the child with His mother Mary and they bowed down and they worshiped Him.”
I don’t know when the last time was that you bowed down and worshipped a baby, but this was no ordinary baby. It says, “Then they opened their treasure chests and they offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” We know that they recognized Him as God because they were filled with awe. And the Bible says they fell on their knees. Worship is something that you offer to a god not a person.
Sincere investigation of the wise men turned into sacrificial adoration by the wise men. They worshiped him. It’s interesting to me that when they went into that room; they didn’t worship the star. They didn’t worship Mary. No, they bowed down before the baby. Because Jesus is the only one worthy of adoration. He is our Savior.
Then it says that the magi brought gifts. (One little preschooler said, “The maggots brought gifts. They brought gifts of gold, Frankenstein and Smurfs.”) But even the gifts that the wise men brought tell us who Jesus was.
First they brought gold. Gold is the gift you always give to kings. It represents royalty. In those days, you always offered gold to the king. In giving the gift of gold they were saying this baby is our king.
Then it says they gave frankincense. Frankincense is a very rare and very expensive incense. It’s made from the bark of a tree in Arabia. Frankincense was burned in the temple to worship God. When they brought the baby frankincense, they were saying this is God. He’s worthy of our worship.
Then it says they brought the baby myrrh. That’s an odd gift to give a baby. Myrrh is the spice that in the ancient world they used to embalm dead bodies. Why in the world would you give a death spice to a baby? Because even in that they were saying, He’s not only our king, He’s not only our God, but also He is our Savior who is going to die for us. He’s going to sacrifice His life for the world so we can be saved, so we can go to heaven. This baby did not come just to live. This baby came to die.
What is the Spirit of Christmas? You might say the Spirit of Christmas is giving.…Receiving…. Good will toward all men. That’s part of it. But the ultimate gift, the ultimate Spirit of Christmas is worship. When we realize in a sense, in awe, that God came to earth, became a human being, it is mind boggling. And it is worthy of our worship. It was a holy night. An awesome night. A night like has never been and never will happen again.
So this Christmas, I invite you to recognize the gift, who Jesus really was. And then receive God’s gift, receive His Son into your life and heart and let Him fill you with love. Recognize and receive the gift. The wise men did. And you’ll be wise to when you do it.
What is it that you’re searching for? “I just want to be happy.” Ok. “I just want my kids to grow up safe.” Ok. “I just want to feel loved.” Ok. What is it that you are really searching for in life? “I want to feel like my life counts. I want to feel that there’s a meaning to all of this. I want to know why I am here, what is my purpose. I want to feel good about life.” Beneath all those desires is an even deeper one. It is ultimately, that you’re hungering for God. He made you to have a relationship with Him and until that is in place, nothing else is going to satisfy. It starts with getting in tune with your creator.
The wise men came to Christ as seekers, they left as believers. Their investigation turned into sacrificial adoration, which resulted in personal transformation. They were changed.
The end of the story in Matthew says that after they had seen Christ and given the gifts, it says they went home another way. I think there’s a double meaning in that. They went home another way geographically because they didn’t believe Herod really wanted to worship the newborn king. But, I think they also went home changed people. You cannot come into an encounter with Jesus Christ, the living God and Savior, and experience His unconditional love and forgiveness and remain unchanged. It changes you. It just changes you! And you’re never the same again. You walk around in gratitude, grateful for a God who loves you that much.
Jesus' birthday, which is Christmas, means that Christmas is essentially a birthday party. It’s a birthday party for Jesus. Whoever heard of a birthday where everybody gives each other gifts except to the birthday boy? What do you give the guy who’s got everything? What do you give God who’s got everything?
The fact is, God does not have everything. God does not have your life unless you give it to Him. God does not have your trust unless you give it to Him. God does not have your worship unless you give it to Him. God does not have your service unless you give it to Him. God does not have your treasure and talents and time and your abilities, all He gave you, He does have that to use in this world unless you give it to Him.
I challenge you to give your life to Christ. He gave His life for you. Give your life to Christ this Christmas as your Christmas gift to Him.
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