Seek the Lord (Matthew 2:9-12)
Gary McManus, 01/05/2020Part of the Christmas series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
January 5, 2020 Matthew 2:9-12
The Twelfth Day of Christmas/ Epiphany
Christmas, again? Christmas, still?
Christmas, now? Why? How come?
Pastor is glad you asked.
Whose Christmas is it?
Whose celebration is it?
Do we celebrate American retailers?
Do we follow the retail calendar OR
Do we follow the history of Jesus’ coming:
--in Advent: the prophets, the Annunciation to Mary, the fulfillment of the promises—the Messiah,
the news to Magi and shepherds and in
Christmas: Jesus’ birth, the responses of the shepherds, the Magi and Jesus’ appearance to the Magi Gentile foreigners?
Care to guess where Pastor comes down on this?
Twelve days of Christmas; celebrated for over 500 years.
January 6th was the first celebration of Jesus’ birth/appearance.
(December 25th was adopted later as the birth, retaining the appearance (Greek: Epiphany= appearance) on January 6th.
In America, President Abraham Lincoln made December 25th a national holiday.
In the report on the Magi,
the representatives of the nations of Israel
and Judah’s neighbors bowed down to the child
they called, the King of the Jews.
The words submit and bow down have never
been popular words in America.
We review those words this day; Matthew 2:11.
See Matthew 2:2
The Magi do NOT return to Herod.
(Wasn’t that really risky—even rude and
insubordinate?)
But God said. . .Matthew 2:11
(Check out Genesis 40:8, 41:25.)
Remember Matthew 1:20: Joseph.
Americans hate that word “submit.”
Jesus didn’t use the word submit—
Pastors and preachers of Jesus have.
So what did Jesus say?. . .
Jesus said, ask, seek, knock. (Matthew 7:7)
“Wise men still seek him.”
James 4:8 says it better. . .
And Ephesians 2:13
The Bible states “seek the Lord”
over 50 times in the Old Testament!
See Deuteronomy 4:29.
The book of Acts quotes the prophet Amos
(Acts 15:17/ Amos 9:11,12):
“the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name. . .”
Obey the Lord?. . .Jesus didn’t use that word. . .
Jesus said, ASK of our God. . .SEEK the Lord. .. .
knock and the door WILL be opened to YOU.
Amen.
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