The Visit of the Magi

We are in the book of Matthew. We're working our way in the month of December through the first two chapters of the book of Matthew. We've seen what Matthew is really all about.

He has taken a keen interest in showing that the coming of Jesus at Christmas is the fulfillment of the promises of God in the Old Testament. So the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament, or another way to say it, is the New Covenant fulfills the Old Covenant. And Matthew's really all about that.

We saw last week the Christmas story through the experience of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus. So the son of Mary that was born to her is Jesus. And we saw what that name means last week. It means Savior. And we so call His name, Emmanuel, which means God with us. So God has come in that form. And this has certainly been a strange and unexpected story, certainly in the way it happens, and one that causes many to reject, but some to accept Him and be amazed by it.

Today in the account of the coming of the wise men, we're going to see our primary claim this morning is that the Christmas story rightly brings wonder and joy to all people. Then as now, Jesus garnered all kinds of different responses, some respond rightly to him, some don't respond at all, some don't respond well.

We're going to be called this morning to think about what Christmas really means to us. What does the season bring in our hearts? Does it bring apathy and indifference? Does it bring confusion and depression? Does it bring joy and wonder? Does it even register on the wonder scale if we have a wonder scale in our hearts? Those are the kind of questions we're going to deal with this morning.

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