← ArchiveAdvent 2017Sunday, December 17, 2017DateDecember 17, 2017SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextMatthew 2Passages in this sermon1 John 17:43Matthew 210:20John 113:51Luke 221:29John 1:625:27TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Transcription by ESO. Translation by — Transcription by —0:30Transcription by —1:00Transcription by —1:30Transcription by —2:00Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by —2:28Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by — Transcription by —2:57—3:27lighted with 80 lights all encased in these dainty glass eggs the writer said one can hardly imagine anything prettier you see the young man the assistant who actually orchestrated this nativity was a man by the last name of edison and this was the first nativity that had christmas lights that world had ever seen we know that you and i love christmas lights so much so that that this year we in america bought over 150 million sets of christmas lights that does not include the ones3:56that are tangled in your attic right now the ones that you should have thrown away because you're so frustrated you just went to buy a new set that's going to be tangled and thrown up in your attic again some people even estimate that six percent of all energy consumption in december in the united states is used to fuel your christmas displays i began to ponder on that why do we like christmas4:20lights so much well very obviously the hopes that you and i have for our christmas lights is this that someone in the dark that is driving by your house would see that light you see i think there's a deeper spiritual longing that we don't even recognize sometimes we have a recognition that we need light in our life is it any coincidence and we're not going to argue the validity of having christmas4:48in december because you can't prove your case and i can't prove mine but i do know this is it is it any coincidence that december is the darkest month of the year is it any coincidence that december the light of jesus christ so this morning we're going to unpack this nativity story and look at the light5:09of jesus christ and while we do i want you to begin to think about the the movements and the actions and the characters in the narrative of the christmas story because we're going to use first john as a launching pad to look at the different parts of the christmas story you see i believe every person5:35every aspect every movement of the birth of christ functions to point us to the glory of the father god did not give us the christmas story to make a good bedtime narrative god didn't give you the different parts that way you can put up a pretty little set in your living room and say man how awesome is that so we need to ask deep questions about why are the wise men why were the magi there in matthew6:00why didn't why were they called to see jesus because you know this about the birth every birth that i have experienced not you know i realize some of you laters are thinking you don't experience a birth you're a guy i get it right every birth that i've been around my own and those that i have seen in the hospital you never forget who was there when your child or when a child was born do you i can tell you every6:27single person that was there when both of our kids that were born i can tell you every single birth that i went to and prayed over and loved these parents and these kids and more so that the heavenly story shows us the birth of christ those who were there is it why do we wonder the shepherds why were they there in luke these are questions we need to ask lord what are the shepherds showing us about your glory and your majesty i ask questions like this uh andrew right why was the little drummer boy6:55what is he showing us about the lord why was he there at the christmas story and for heaven's sake as a drummer why did he only know one beat he can only do pa rum pum pum pum pum he didn't even learn his cadence he didn't practice his rudiments get that kid a trainer for those of you who don't know that joke the little drummer boy was not there in scripture but we need to ask these questions why why are they there and with that i pray as we open god's word7:24today that we will see something about the father through the wise men through herod through the shepherds that point us to the need and the light of jesus christ in our life so with that let's read first john chapter one and may we never forget those who are there at the birth of jesus christ because we should never forget the light of jesus in our life7:53verse four of the book of john is in the new testament the fourth book in the new testament john says this in him in jesus was life and that life was the light of men the light shines in darkness and yet the darkness does not understand it or does not overwhelm it verse six there was a man sent from god whose name was john8:20he came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him he john was not the light but he came to testify about the light the true light listen the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world let's pray lord we ask right now that you would illuminate our dark hearts well we have a deep desire to have life8:47and light and we know that is only found in jesus christ so lord we pray that you would flood our minds with your grace and your mercy and that you would shine a light upon our path that we who walk in darkness would see a great light and that we would know his name is jesus because he saves the people from their sins well this is our prayer father open up our hearts to know you9:11we pray this in jesus name amen amen amen he is the light very clearly very clearly in scripture in john if you only had one word to describe what john is communicating here about jesus it would be what light verse 4 in him was life and that life was light verse 5 that light shines verse 7 john came as a witness to9:34the light verse 8 john was not the light but he came to testify about the light verse 9 the true light that gives light to everyone who has come into the world i think god that his word was written to people like me who struggle with understanding sometimes god is saying don't you get it my son is light he is light because we are walking in darkness and i ask you this morning consider the magi consider the10:04magi who remind us that jesus is the life and the light that we need so mark your bibles in john let's go now to matthew chapter 2 as we consider those at the birth of christ they're not there simply that we can tell our kids a bedtime story they're there to show us that we need true light10:29matthew chapter 2 beginning in verse 1 matthew is the first book in the new testament after jesus was born in bethlehem of judea the days of king herod wise men magi from the east arrived in jerusalem saying where is he who has been born king of the jews for we saw his10:55star now what do stars do some of you are thinking they twinkle you like twinkle twinkle little star but they shine light we saw his star and it's rising and we have come to what we saw the light and we have come to worship him and when king herod heard this he was deeply disturbed and all of jerusalem with him consider the magi magi were men who lived in the east most likely persia11:22even more likely the modern nation of iran which i would consider a very dark place right now and these men were seeking the truth they were sinking seeking the light these were people who were professional stargazers they were somewhat between modern astronomers and astrologers so they would look at the stars every day but these were not your normal men they've been trained by a chief magi a man that11:49you might have heard by the name of daniel more than likely and daniel had passed down this tradition that one day there would be born the true light and so look at the stars because they will point you in the right direction see this journey would have taken about three to six months from persia to bethlehem now can you imagine just just think for those of you who are married right now think about coming12:18home from work and this is the conversation right magi number one honey i saw a star today wife of magi number one dear you see stars every day magi number one but honey this star is different dear wife number one you see 200 million billion stars how is this star different and he says this12:41this is the star that we have been waiting for this is the star that points us to the messiah the one that has been promised to give light in our darkness the one that daniel has prophesied about hundreds of years ago you don't understand but i have to go on a trip this light is pointing me to the one who is13:09going to redeem us and save us from our sins this is the star and i can imagine the wife saying okay if this is the star then go see god chose us to have light we just have to trust him we have to go and you can imagine that there's one of the wise men that's the wise guy and i can only imagine how many are we there yet jokes that he asked for three or to13:37six months on that camel are we there yet no are we there yet no but you see this was the star that gives life for us this is the star in john 1 verse 4 that john wrote about in him in jesus was life and that life was what that life was the light of men and god is showing us this morning that we are all in need14:01of light his name is jesus see these magi didn't show up on the scenes just to make a good story they showed up to tell us that we should seek light in our life and it is only found in jesus christ he is the light to the glory of god he is our14:29light that's not the only thing that we see in scripture we see also in john that if jesus is the light we struggle because we are by nature not of the light look at verse five again in the book of john that jesus in him is life and he is the light of men but although that light shines in the darkness the darkness did not overcome it you see the glorious message of the gospel is that we are in need of light14:59and jesus is the light but the darkness of our heart is is fighting constantly the light that god wants to offer us and you say well how do you know that well go back again to mark or matthew chapter 2 so mark your bibles in john and let's look at matthew chapter 2 when these wise men show up and they tell herod15:26herod we are looking for the one who has been born king of the jews the one that god said he will be our light if we trust in him he will be our life this is how herod responds in verse 3 of matthew chapter 2 when herod heard this he was deeply disturbed and all of jerusalem with him so he assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the christ would be born15:55and they said of course in bethlehem of judea which is about five or six miles away from jerusalem because this is what was written in the prophet and you bethlehem in the land of judah are by no means least among the rulers of judah because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people israel you see herod did not want to accept the light of jesus christ16:23you know why he did not want to accept the light of jesus christ you have these magi these royal ambassadors traveling six months and they go to the palace and they show up to a man who calls himself king of the jews and they knock on his door and they say we we see the light the light has stopped here show us where is the one who was born king of the jews now do you see the dilemma16:53that the magis are now in they have showed up to herod who is the self-proclaimed king of the jews and they ask him where is the king of the jews and herod wanted nothing to do with true light herod wanted control herod was the one that said i am good enough i don't have to give up control you see herod was like many many of us i believe we only have two paths in this world we are seeking god by our own means17:23by being too good by staying in control or we seek god by saying lord i'm going to do my own thing self-discovery and many of us right now are struggling with being herodians in our own life we're struggling because we have authority issues we're unwilling to give up control god is telling us look if you accept my son he will be king of you and we say how dare you god17:52how dare you say i'm not king god how dare you tell me what to do god how dare you ask me to submit and worship you now of course we wouldn't say that but by all means we live it out do we not we say well i've professed jesus christ as my lord and savior but you know what i really want to live my life like i want to live no we have not submitted to him as king we are saying god i'm too good18:21i i can control this you say well of course pastor i wouldn't do that yes we do look look at the way look at the way that we try to control our lives by the way we respond to our sin often we respond to our sin this way by just trying harder sometimes we sin and and what do we do we say lord if i just you know what i won't do it again if i just pray harder than i will not sin lord i'm i understand i sin because i didn't go to church today18:50if i just if i just go to church more you know what that is doing in our life we're trying to control our lives that is not grace and i love what a pastor says he says he says this about god he says we need to tell our hearts every day that there is nothing that i can do to make god love me more and there's nothing that i can do to make god love me less in jesus christ there's nothing i can do to make god love me more19:17god is not saying well if you just pray more then you'll sin less no he's saying if you trust me completely herod you don't have control let christ take control and then you will live freedom a life free of sin free of shame are you trying to control your sin by more church more prayer maybe you're here today because you you feel like your life is19:47is falling down but through the wayside and you're saying lord if i just go to church and i'll put a little more god in me and everything will be good i understand i've done that it doesn't work that's us saying god i'm going to put you in my life on my terms that is her looking at the wise men and saying how dare he call himself king none of us are good none of us are king he alone is light consider herod a man who was deeply disturbed20:16when he heard that jesus is the only right king c.s lewis says it this way he says christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed you might say landed as disguise and calling us to take part in this great campaign and sabotage this is the religious person's battle we are battling for control and kingship why do we not give like we should to the king because we're saying god i20:45you don't tell me how to use my money and god i can't trust you right now fully i need this to build my kingdom why don't we serve like we should be serving because we say lord i can't give my time up to you right now god i'm king why do we not rest like we should we're saying god i can't afford to rest today you understand the work i have to do god is saying i've called you to rest so you will trust me because i am king and i am good the true king has landed21:14he is light and some of you might say well i don't have any trouble with that i'm not good at all i'm not even worthy to hear the story of grace and redemption well i have some people for you to consider this morning turn to luke chapter 2 some of you are saying well i'm not a magi i'm not herod i'm nothing i'm a scoundrel you don't understand the reputation i have i don't deserve to even hear about god's grace and his redemption we see21:43we see and consider men that would come and help us in our time of need luke 2 verse 8 in the same region shepherds were staying out in the flocks and keeping watch at night over their flock an angel of the lord stood around them and the glory of the lord shone around them and they were terrified22:13in verse 12 the angel said this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in tightly in cloth and lying in the manger verse 16 so they hurried off and found mary and joseph and the baby that was lying in the manger and look at verse 20 now the shepherds returned glorifying and praising god for all the things which they had seen and heard which were just as they had been told you see22:43you see if the wise men remind us that christ is not valued at all unless he's valued above all else then the shepherds remind us that none of us are too low and too lowly to be invited to the birth of jesus christ you see we have this glamorized vision of shepherds that they were in their air conditioned tents feeding the sheep at night but that's not true we know that first century shepherds23:12were the lowest on the economic ladder many had no home they were not trusted they didn't have their own land so if you had sheep and you didn't have land what would you do you would use your neighbor's land without telling them to graze your sheep so they were actually resented in first century we even have babylonian documents that say that their their witness could not be trusted because they were unclean and dishonest why then would god23:40want these dishonest people to come see his son why would god want these people of horrible reputation at the birth in this manger and why would he want them to go proclaim that he is good to everyone else i believe the shepherds invite people who are not good enough who are uneducated who are poor who are needy who are in addiction who are homeless24:09the shepherds remind you that the birth of christ is your light the birth of christ is your light see pastor you don't understand what i have done but you are invited in the darkness is is fighting for our lives and the light of christ is greater than that see some of us today are saying lord we are too good to give you control and some of us are saying this morning lord i'm not good enough for you to love me and jesus says24:39i love you and i died for your sins the beauty of john says that the light shines in darkness and yet the darkness does not understand but the light of christ is for each and every one of us that is the hope that is the hope of the gospel that is the good news that our darkness is competing for supremacy and jesus breaks that and so how do we now live25:09live if he is the light if our darkness cannot even comprehend the light of christ how do we live in light of the light so let's turn back one more time to the book of john who gives us a hint at how we now should live john chapter 1 verse 6 says this there was a man sent from god whose name was john in verse 725:38he came as a witness to testify about the light so that all might believe through him so that who might believe all anyone here not an all think about that all of us have the opportunity to believe not all of us will but the gates of salvation are open to who to me to you all of us can believe because of this light of christ verse 826:07verse 8 and john says that he is not the light but he came to testify about the light the true light that means there's a lot of false lights by the way but the true light that gives light to who to everyone anyone here not everyone no that the light is for us was coming into the world you see the light of christ has now shined upon you because it is shining through you the light of christ shines upon you26:37because it is shining through you if you know christ personally that god's grace does not end with you it is going through you to the world who needs this light it needs it so how do we live out in the light of the grace of christ john gives us some very clear pictures now john is a gnarly dude right john is like your man's man john is the one that if he kills an animal hunting he's just gonna he's gonna kill it with his teeth right he's out in the wilderness camel hair27:06camel hair you know what he's eating he's not eating protein bars he's eating locusts and not even honey not refined honey in the little bear wild honey it's almost like he's smoking out the honeycomb chasing away the bees and eating it and then you know what he's doing he's saying repent and people are coming to him to repent you know what he says who called you here you brood of vipers what a loving man i like i love john this is the man27:34and you know what he says about jesus christ look at verse look at verse 8 the first thing he says in this church this is to be the beat of the drum of our life when people come in here and they say man who are you the first thing he says in verse 8 is i am not the light don't let the the crazy diet fool you i'm just purging don't let the camel hair28:04throw you off and this was a very powerful individual he says i am not the light that should be our heart that should be our cry to the world they should come in here and we should immediately say look don't let us fool you we are not the light we are not good we should almost be charged you know the the world sometimes charges christians with hypocrisy we should be charged with reverse hypocrisy we should tell people we are rebellious we are sinful28:33and we are we are not good in ourselves and they look at us and say well why do you guys do good then and we said because we wanted you to see our good works and glorify our our father in heaven reverse hypocrisy we tell them we are not the light we are not good there is nothing in us that you should follow you should follow but but he he is good he redeems us the light of christ has shined upon my life29:03life so that i may shine upon others we need to know that truth i believe that we should have a very low view of ourselves and a very high view of god a very low view of ourselves and a very high view of god you see this light comes through us it's not for the super religious who were the lights at the nativity story who were the lights of advent we saw in29:31matthew 2 who were the lights the magi where were they from persia they should never have been at the scene of christ they were not jews if you were going to write a story about jesus today would you invite the iranians probably not they might be way down the list but why are they there to show the light of the world shines upon who everyone even people in30:01in st. claire county this is the light of christ this is the glory of the good news if you were writing the story of jesus christ would you invite the homeless people that had no reputation who were unclean who smelled like animals who stole land from their neighbors would you invite them in and not invite them in would you tell them by the way you're going to bring the message of good news but god does why because he reminds us that we are all30:30are all invited in have you shown the light of christ studies show in the past six that 61% of born again believers have not shared the light of jesus christ that's not outside these doors that means 61% of us have not shared the light of christ and 50% of born again believers say that we have not even invited someone to worship you can't invite them to31:00to church only jesus can do that you become part of the church when you surrender your life to him and that should break our hearts you know what happens with light when you put a bushel over it when you put a basket over it you know what happens to a flashlight when it burns out you know what we call light that doesn't shine darkness darkness why why have we forfeited our light God wants us to shine brightly and we have just now started as a church31:30church on Wednesday nights praying for those that are far from Christ and we started that several months ago our list had about two people on it because we were not thinking about sharing our light and this Wednesday when we were praying and by the way we pray for many of you there are people here right now that you're hearing the grace of Jesus Christ and I31:5950 long that we're praying for our neighbors and our grandkids and our kids and our moms and our dads and we're praying Lord let us be lights and I was going to the grocery store Friday because I'm adult now and so going to the grocery store is part of my hobbies unfortunately on my day off and I got a text from a friend and said look can you just stop and pray for Alex he came into work and he needs Jesus Christ I'm like absolutely and I'm getting texts by people saying look I'm being a light I32:29I was pumping gas this morning preparing this message and it's cold and I needed gas and it's a delay in what I'm doing and I hear some people not really using good language behind me and I finished pumping the gas and very clearly I felt the Lord speak to me and say look you need to go in and talk to them I'm like Lord you do understand I have to go to church right you know better than anyone that I'm a busy man I'm important Lord I'm the pastor they can't do church without me32:59me and I was like you've been there before right you're fighting God your darkness33:13and you know God said I don't care I don't care what you have to do are you going to trust me I'm putting that light in the sky I'm not going to give you the plan but I'm putting that light in the sky to bring you to a place of trust and see the light so I pouted right I pouted from the gas pump to inside and I33:43would tell you I don't ever get receipts I don't want receipts so I walked in and told I have truth I need a receipt and able to share with this man and pray for him and I pray that as we pray for him right now that the Lord would be gracious and that he would see the light of Christ and his response to me was this I'm good I'm34:13who are you shining the light of Christ to who were you the light of Christ shines upon you to shine to others and would we be faithful to do that maybe you're here today and you are wrestling control you're wrestling the king of kings and God is asking you to lay down your arms and trust him maybe you're here and you want the plan you say Lord if God gives me his plan then I will trust him maybe all he does is give you a star I don't know if34:43if the wise men knew it was a six month journey when they set off but they did know that that journey would lead them to the true light God is not asking you to know his plan he's only asking you to trust his son and until you do you do not know salvation would you be willing to lay down your arms and trust him maybe you're here today and you have not been living as a light of Jesus Christ and today is a day where you will recommit your life and say God I want35:12want to live for you Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1943 was stuck in prison and it was right before Advent and these are the words that he wrote I want you to listen to these as we conclude this morning this pastor wrote to his friends a prison cell in which one waits hopes and does various unessential things is completely dependent on the fact that the door of35:42of freedom must be opened from the outside is not a bad picture of Advent Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his prison cell recognized that the door of freedom must be open from the outside this is a story of Christmas that God knowing that we are trapped in a cell of our sin sent his son from heaven to earth to live a sinless life to die on the cross that he might open the cell and offer us freedom if we36:12we trust and before you think Bonhoeffer must have ended on a good note right shortly after penning these words the Nazis executed Dietrich Bonhoeffer but he was right the door of freedom opened for him and today is open for all of us I want you to know today that Jesus is the light and he came that all might believe in him that he is the true light because36:41because he gives light to each and every one of us let's bow our heads as we pray you← Previous in Advent 2017When Hope Came DownNext in Advent 2017 →Sunday, December 24, 2017More sermons on Matthew →
