Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01:12 Oh, yes. Ben should be on stage. Let's go try it. What are you doing, man?
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Everybody in the band. Ready? Yup. Okay. I'm turning down music.
Speaker 0 00:01:39 Liana. Can you make sure that I'm centered before you come on up? Yeah. Good. Okay. Good morning. Village church east. Good morning. It is great to see you this morning. We are glad that you are joining us this morning, and we are glad that we are able to be in your homes this morning. We're excited that we get to share God's word with you. We're excited that we get to worship with you. We're excited. It is advent for that means that Christmas is only a couple of days away. I know it's crazy, but we are, uh, we're excited that we're able to share this very important day with you. We have an exciting morning plan for you this morning. Uh, some really cool things coming up, uh, but before we get into any of that, I want to give you a couple of announcements that you will definitely want to know.
Speaker 0 00:02:22 First of all, uh, because it's Christmas and the next thing on your agenda. And my agenda is Christmas Eve, and that is December 24th. It's on the same, same day every year. And this Sunday, we're doing Chris home for Christmas. I want to invite you to be a part of our service. Uh, if you would like to join us, if you're comfortable staying at your house, we haven't had, um, we haven't had a lot of folks, uh, because of the shutdown that we've been going through, uh, come together to open their homes. So what we're doing is we're encouraging our folks. We're encouraging you to maybe invite some folks over you feel comfortable with them. If they're like in your closer circles, uh, and spend Christmas Eve with them or on at four o'clock, we're going to be doing a home for Christmas service. We'll be zooming it, or the link will be provided in the newsletter, which will come out tomorrow.
Speaker 0 00:03:15 Uh, and all you have to do is hit that link and you'll be there where we fixed zoom. So Lord willing so that we're going to all be able to sing together. And so you'll get to see all of our faces on the screen and we'll sing together. We'll worship together. We have a devotional plan for you. It'll be about 45 to 50 minutes. So if you're with your friends, you can plan to invite them over and maybe do an evening with them, uh, but include this time of worship with us because we're really looking forward to it. That's four o'clock on Christmas Eve and hope to see you there. Again, the link is going to be on, on the newsletter that comes out tomorrow. It will also be on our website. So it would be very easy to find VC, east.org, hope to see you there.
Speaker 0 00:03:59 I also want to tell you how we're doing on our Christmas sharing project. Every year we do an outreach project. I sent a little video at this week. Hopefully you saw it. Uh, every year we try and help our community around this time of year. This year, I am so excited because there is a hundred families that were Lord willing. We're going to be participating with a group in our own community to bless, uh, this organization. This Carol stream outreach center, uh, is regularly involved in the community and they have partnered with us. We've partnered with them so that we're putting a hundred dollars gift cards into the boxes that they're sending out to the community. They've identified a hundred families that need a little extra help to have a Merry Christmas this year. And so we are excited to be able to be a part of that.
Speaker 0 00:04:44 We have, uh, put a, put a goal together of $2,500. We want to put a hundred dollar gift cards in 25 boxes so that they can go shopping and get some food for their Christmas day. And so, uh, so we're very close to that. A lot of you have been, uh, participating in that project. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for responding. A lot of you have been extremely generous. We have a little way to go last. I looked, we were right around $1,500. We have a thousand dollars left to go, but again, I haven't seen the most recent figures. So we're hoping to get 20. If we have more than that, we're going to put more in the boxes. So we just want you to be aware that, uh, this is our project this year, and there's so many different things that you can give to.
Speaker 0 00:05:27 You never quite know where the money's going, where your donations going. If you give to this project with us, our Christmas sharing project this year, you can be sure it will go directly to, to, to help feed, provide groceries for Christmas groceries for these hundred families. Uh, you can do that online. Do that this morning, click on the give button. It'll take you right through the process. Look for Christmas outreach, Carol stream, easy to find, just keep clicking through the process. And you can any amount you want, it's secure, easy giving. You can do that this morning. If you'd like to next Sunday, we have an amazing Sunday planned as well. Uh, our goal was to be together to worship. We're not together to worship yet. We have a scale and crew here providing online, uh, assistance so that we can get the message out and stream a service for you in the mornings.
Speaker 0 00:06:18 But unfortunately we are not able to gather together as a body yet. Uh, hopefully that day will come soon, but not yet. Yeah. So next Sunday, we wanted to give you one opportunity to see everybody in person. So next Sunday, we're going to join with Carol street. We're going to join with village church of Bartlett in Bartlett. And you hopefully, you know where that is. If you don't know where that is, uh, just, uh, you can, uh, uh, put it on your search bar village church of Bartlett. Find out it's, it's easy to find, uh, nine o'clock and 11 o'clock are there services call a friend from village churches, find out when they're going and we'll all go together, but don't forget. You have to sign up in order to attend the service. Please remember to sign up one final thing that I actually forgot to tell you about, uh, backing up to our Christmas Eve service.
Speaker 0 00:07:10 We want to make this as much of a normal Christmas Eve. It says we do. And as you know, we usually finish with silent night singing silent night together. We have actually purchased candles for you. Uh, we've had some leftover. We want to make sure that we have enough. And, uh, we would like for you to come and pick up those candles, if you could. Uh, we're just not going to be able to deliver them to all of the different homes. And so we're encouraging you to come and pick up a candle. Everybody gets a candle, they're battery powered. So even your kids can use them. You can come to my house to get them. You can go to village, church of Bartlett to get them. You can go to Kathy gracious house, Kathy and Joe grades his house to get them. Those are three locations.
Speaker 0 00:07:48 Oh, and Megan Patterson's house to get them. So you can find those candles at any of those locations. We tried to make it easy for in spread them out. If you have questions about that, please text the church. Uh, and we will be able to give you directions to each one of those, uh, homes where you can pick up those candles. But again, our goal is to sing that final song with the lights down candles lit and us singing together as a church silent night, that's all the announcements I have for you this morning. Again, it's great to have you with us this morning. I want to ask the Lord to give us a good morning of worship and join our hearts together as you're at home. And we're in this place and give us a moment where we can really focus on worship on him.
Speaker 0 00:08:33 Would you join me in prayer father, be with us this morning, as we worship you, may you be pleased with our offering as we give you our hearts and our minds are at our attention completely. So many things just occupy our thoughts, especially this time of year. I pray father that you would occupy our thoughts this morning. Bless us. As we look into your word, bless us as we sing these familiar, Carol, some, some not so familiar, but as we lift our voices and sing praises to you, may you hear from our hearts when you hear what we, what we want to say because of who you are and how we long to worship you. B R B R R attention grabber this morning. And may you Lord be pleased with us as we worship you. Thank you for our church, for all those that are joining us today. And thank you for this wonderful blessing we have of coming into all of these homes. It's all yours. It's your day. Be pleased with that. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. I want to introduce to you, uh, the Conti family. Come on up here. I forgot to do that already. This is a net and Leanna, and they're going to be, they're going to be reading our, our advent reading today.
Speaker 2 00:24:29 God, we thank you for all. You've done all you've done for our son, your son. She does, has it be having a cross for our sins? God, you didn't have to be love us so much that you did. Thank you for all he's done for us. Your love in your life, out of you. Our hope, pray for it. As much as the message this morning that God can. We just come into our hearts and tell us what he needs to know, kind of what we need to do.
Speaker 0 00:25:03 Village church. It is great to see you this morning. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church east. And it is my privilege to bring God's word to you this morning. Love those songs. Thank you worship team for helping us worship in song this morning. Now we're going to worship. As we look into God's word, does religion ever make you weary? Our series has been a weary world rejoices, and we've talked about different things that make us wearied in life. Wearied from promises that are not kept wearied from promises from government are wearied from expectations that are never seen in our lives. We would be remiss if we ever walked away from this and didn't acknowledge the fact that sometimes religion really makes us weary. And there's so many to choose from so many different religions in our world to choose from. And so many of them can be so demanding, uh, give us money and we'll send you a prayer cloth and God will be more inclined to answer your prayers, initiate personal suffering, and you'll gain more favor and a better standing with God. Give us your money. It'll guarantee you better favor and better standing in the afterlife. This kind of language is oppressive. It is abusive and it is extremely wearisome.
Speaker 0 00:26:32 And the world in Jesus' day was exactly the same as the world. In our
Speaker 3 00:26:36 Day, there
Speaker 0 00:26:38 Were several people in Jesus' day who had already come in and said that they were the, they claimed to be the Messiah. They had followers and lo and behold, they died and they never rose from the dead. There were groups of people that claim that if you follow them, you're falling the truth. And all they were were shysters people looking to get rich off people who are desperate, the Pharisees constantly oppressed the people they said. If you didn't do things according to their way, that God would not be pleased with you. And I want you to know something, whether it's in Jesus' day or in our day, our church stands firmly against any religion that oppresses people with this kind of language. In fact, we regularly as a pastoral staff at village church, we talk about this and it's everything we can do to lower our blood blood pressure when it comes to this. Because if anybody is selling you a religion, because of something you can get out of it, they most likely are lying to you or looking to maintain a power over you. They don't deserve to have
Speaker 3 00:27:44 We agree
Speaker 0 00:27:45 With Jesus in his evaluation of these kinds of language, this, these kinds of churches in these kinds of religions in Matthew 23 in verse four, Jesus describes these kinds of religions like this. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear. They lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with a finger. And if you become involved with our church, you know, that not only do we stand against this kind of oppression and abuse, we do the exact opposite here. The contrast is interesting because last week we talked about the oppression of the government on people and how the government overreaches makes us weary. Jesus lived in the same kind of world then to a crazy political out, uh, overreach from the government in Jesus' day. And Jesus arrives as a ruler. In contrast to that, he arrives as a ruler who brings peace in the same way.
Speaker 0 00:28:41 Joseph and Mary existed in a world where there was a religious oppression all over the place. And Jesus arrives as a teacher who brought truth. Jesus is the answer to all of these overreaches that we have in our lives. All of these oppressive sinners Mario's in John, one 14, John talks about Jesus' birth in a theological concept. And he says this, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, the glory as the only son from the father full of grace. And what church truth. When Jesus arrived, God went way out of his way to establish the fact that this was the promised Messiah. He supernaturally impregnated, a teenage girl. There's at least a dozen visits from angels to different people. People were having dreams all over the place where God was speaking to them angels in the sky, a host of angels, speaking to the shepherds and telling them this is where you'll find the Messiah. God goes way out of his way to establish the fact that Jesus is the true Messiah. Jesus will tell you the truth. This person who I'm sending you is not an oppressive religious leader. He is a man I'm sending you. He was my son. I am sending you in order to bring you peace.
Speaker 0 00:30:09 Those who see you, the signs in Jesus' day respond in two different ways as God goes out of his way to show that Jesus is his only begotten son. God sends these angels. God's gives these signs, God, God, and pregnant, SIS, this child, and, and even gives Elizabeth in her old age, uh, the ability to have a baby there's miracles galore, God goes way out of his way to say, Hey, scream to us. He goes out of his way to scream to us. This is the truth. You don't have to be oppressed by all of these false religions anymore. I'm giving you the truth and I'm going way out of my way to show you. This is my only begotten son.
Speaker 0 00:30:52 And he puts a star in the sky. People see all these signs, they hear the signs. They, they see what's happening. And you have two groups of people that respond to the signs. You have one group of people that hear the offices. They can read it for themselves. In the old Testament, they learn of the birth of the Messiah. They see the star in the sky and their response is fear. They protect what they have. They fear what might change. And they resent the work of God. And then you have a second group of people. They hear the prophecies, they learn of the birth of the Messiah and they worship. They give up their life pursuits. They sacrifice their lives. They offer him their most precious treasures. And so church, I take you on this final day of advent, this final Sunday, before we get to the crisis, Kendall on Christmas Eve, I take you to the story of the wise men, take your Bibles and turn, if you would, we're going to start reading what we already read this morning that a, the Conti family brought to us. Thank you for reading this first, Matthew chapter two, starting at verse one. And it goes like this. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise, men came from the east to Jerusalem. These wise men in the Greek are called Madai. And maybe you're familiar with that word. That's a Greek word. That simply means wise men. These wise men were kickback from age old.
Speaker 3 00:32:29 Era's
Speaker 0 00:32:31 In fact, if you know your history, which we try and include a little bit of, so you understand how the Bible is put together, because it is a powerful life-changing living book. If you understand some of that, you understood. And in our, actually in our advent study, there's been 400 years of darkness of, of not much happening, but a lot of soap, operas, Anthony and Cleopatra, and the mat can be in rebellion. There's a lot of stuff that the rise and fall of the Greek empire and the rise of the Roman empire, the end of the old Testament, there's no temple, there's no Pharisees. There's none of this stuff. But by the time you get to Matthew, mark, Luke and John, the gospels, all these people are here. Where did the Romans come from? All of that happened during that 400 year period, but you should know one thing with the, one of the constants that was carried over is that at the end of the old Testament, the children of Israel have returned from Babylon to rebuild their city.
Speaker 0 00:33:30 And there's a group of people that were very influential in those days and they were Wiseman. These are the people that we read about in Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. These are the same Wiseman, the same kind of folks. In fact, if you read the old Testament, you'll find that Daniel is kind of at the end of the old Testament, believe it or not. And when Daniel in the lion's den, you remember the story, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When all of that is happening, Babylon is in charge and there's a group of people that hate Daniel and they try and get rid of Daniel. Do you remember this? And so they watch for him and they find out that he prays every day. And so they want to get him praying to God. Do you know what those people were called?
Speaker 3 00:34:12 Guess Wiseman.
Speaker 0 00:34:16 This is the same group of people in Daniel's day. They've carried through the 400 year period. And apparently they're still alive and well, this group of people that were called mad jive or wise men, these are the high ranking people who plotted against Daniel 500 years earlier. Now these are not the same men, but it's the same kind of a job that these men would have. These are called wise men. They were versed in science, agriculture, mathematics, history, politics. They interpreted dreams. They studied all kinds of different religions. Even the occult. They were the, the wise people of the day. If you had questions and you were wondering like, what does this religion teach? Or what does this call teach? They would be able to tell you, if you had questions about where the universe began. If you had questions about mathemat, these were the wise men of the day.
Speaker 0 00:35:11 They were unrelenting pursuers of the truth. The knowledge of, of their world around them was their goal to understand the world around them. And they were the most sought after advisers of the day that made them rich. People pay them. Kings, paid them countries, paid them lots of money so that they could bring them in ask, what does this mean? Is it a sign what's going to happen next? Tell me what, why is this happening to my kingdom? WhatsApp? What does this disease mean? They were, they were scholar scholarly individuals that were paid big bucks as consultants to big time people. And these are the magic guy that sought out Jesus Christ. They were probably Persian and they were probably living in what we now know as Iran by Jewish standards. You should know one thing, God did not hold these people in high regard.
Speaker 0 00:36:15 Do you want to know why? Because they considered every single pursuit to be equal. This religion holds value just like this religion holds value. They didn't make judgment calls. And so they pushed a pluralistic idea of God theology. In fact, you should know in Deuteronomy 18, God speaks about these kinds of people. In verse 10, there shall not be found among you. Anyone who practice divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sourcer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead for whoever does these things. Listen now is an abomination of God. And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God is driving them out before you, these men would look at the stars and they would interpret the future. Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 0 00:37:10 And God said this, your life is not about looking at the stars and finding out about your future and planning for some far SAIC future event. Your job is to trust me every single day. And so if you find somebody that tells you, you don't have to trust me. Every religion is value is equal value. You need to be very aware of those people and get rid of them, move them out of there, your camps. So what I find is most interesting is this church, God gave a star that directed people who were of what ilk they were magic. They were these kinds of individuals. God chose to reveal the glory of his son to pagan astrologers from the east whom the old Testament demanded. They should not be a part of the Jewish lifestyle. You know what that tells me, God is obsessed with saving people, no matter where they are, God is obsessed with getting into our lives no matter where we've come from.
Speaker 3 00:38:16 And apparently
Speaker 0 00:38:17 God loves to show us truth. Verse two, say these wise men came saying, who is he born? King of the Jews? No, hang on a second. If that doesn't strike you weird yet, from our message last week, you haven't been listening. Listen, this is what they're saying. Where is he? Who has been born king of the Jews for, we saw his star when it rose. And we have come to worship him. They're pursuing a prophecy. They knew they had obviously studied old Testament, scripture. They had studied all kinds of religions, including Jewish religion. And what we know is the star has not appeared in the sky before. There's something miraculous about the star. And there's something about the star that is really unique in that it looks like it's moving. They followed this star.
Speaker 0 00:39:16 I wonder, like I got to tell you, I searched through old Testament passages and it was really hard to find anything about a star. So it makes me wonder, like, did they have extra revelation? Did, did they get a dream? Did they get an angel? Did Gabriel say I got some time on my hands. I'm going to show up to these magic and just give them a little hint, like come on over and let's see the star. What did God do where we're not told? All we're told is there is an old Testament passage in numbers, 24 17, that talks about Jesus. And it says a star shall come out of Jacob and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. There's just not a lot in the old Testament about stars,
Speaker 0 00:39:56 But these guys, whatever it was, it was beckoning them. They had to pursue it. And what I love about these wise men is this the Wiseman pursued truth, no matter what cost, no matter what it costs them. No, no matter how much evidence is presented about Jesus Christ. Some people just do not pursue it. They're not interested for one reason or another. They are not interested in pursuing Jesus Christ. But these wise men, there was something different about these wise men. They were honestly in search of the truth. Here's a couple of things I noticed in their honest search. Number one, they walked 900 miles. That's a pretty sincere search. Wouldn't you say they would've had to pay for an entourage to go with them. So it's not just a matter of Joseph and Mary walking from Nazareth to Bethlehem. These guys are walking with an entourage.
Speaker 0 00:40:47 They're paying people to go. It costs them 900 miles. They put their lives in jeopardy. You don't walk through the desert at nighttime. You don't walk through. If you've got cash. These guys, guys are walking through. And the dangers that they face on this journey would be profound. I also love these guys because they have a profound, but genuine heart to search. They're not sure what they would find. They don't know what they're looking for. So I like the shepherds that said, go find them. And SWAT he'll be in a manger in swaddling clothes. And then, you know, that's it. They don't get that all they get as a star. And it's just enough to make them curious enough to take the risk. I love these guys cause they cause they investigated God's word. They all already have been in God's word and give, giving their attention and their, their minds to this, no matter what mythology they've studied in the past, they're digging into God's word.
Speaker 0 00:41:44 I love these guys because there was an additional risk to their room. Their life's work may be a waste. What if, when they discover whatever the star is, leading them, it is the only truth. And their whole life has been for not let's read on in verse three, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem. Why him with him now? You know why Herod was troubled, right? Because of last week's message. Why was Harriet troubled? Who was king of the Jews? Church. Herod was king of the Jews. You are right. Jesus is king of the Jews. But at this time Herod thought he was king. Listen, Rome appointed in the job, Antony and Cleopatra. You remember all that? Anthony put in a good word. So Rome declared that Herod would be king of the Jews. So when wise men show up and say, where is the king of the Jews?
Speaker 0 00:42:40 What do you think Herod would say? He would probably say, Shizam, you're looking at them, but oh no. They're not looking for Herod. And yeah, Herod would have said, listen, you are looking for me. Rome gave me that designation years ago, I am king of the Jews. Don't mess with me. You know what I've done to my own children, my own Emily heritage reactor, which one was diametrically different from the wise, the wise men were searching for truth. Herod refused to hear it. I think to myself, like when they show up and they talked to Harriet, I think to myself, like, all right, Harold, listen, we're, we're looking for the king of the Jews. Do you know where he is? Yes. That's me. No, no, no, no. That's not you. It's not you all right. The Star's not hanging out. It's not you. Of course.
Speaker 0 00:43:27 It's me. No, listen, come on outside. We'll show you that. See at that star there, that's taking us to the king of the Jews and it's not you. How do you think Herod would respond to that? Uh, now you know why Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him because of these wise men who were sought after, by extremely powerful people in this day, declared that there was a king of the Jews that was not Herod. How do you think Herod's going to respond? He's just drowned his own son because he's afraid he's going to take the throne from him. How do you think he's going to respond? When they find the king of the Jews and it's not him. Heritage troubled all Jerusalem with him. They see the same sign and they have two totally different reactions. Wise. Men were compelled by the star and the prophecy Herod was threatened by the star.
Speaker 0 00:44:24 And the prophecy, all of Jerusalem is sinking. This is bad. This is so bad. If Herod thinks he's about to lose his position as king of the Jews, all hell is going to break loose. War will break out. Listen. It may not even be the true Messiah. Remember lots of other messiahs has showed up by this point. They're all faults. So how do we know this is the real one? I don't want to lose my kids and my family and my home in, in a, in a war that heritage initiates because we're threatening his position as king of the Jews.
Speaker 3 00:44:57 Hm. So you know what
Speaker 0 00:44:59 Harry does. He calls in his own Wiseman and he says, why don't you guys do in your job? Have you have you not? I've been reading the same prophecies. Do you not see this star here? What does this all mean? Tell me what it means. Tell me right now what it means. And you know, what is Wiseman said?
Speaker 3 00:45:16 It's in verse six.
Speaker 0 00:45:18 Yeah. They said Herod. There's a prophecy that Micah gave that might be coming true as we stand. And you Bethlehem in the land of Judea are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for, from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. This is Micah five, two. It is written 500 years earlier. It's one of the last verses of the Bible that Jewish people have been reminding themselves of this verse for 400 years. Herod thinks he's king of the Jews. And apparently this product fussy is coming true. The Jewish people, you think this is what we've been hoping for. This is what we've been doing, waiting for for the most devout they're hopeful. But I think they just waited and been wearied for too long to take it seriously for people who had power, they were threatened.
Speaker 0 00:46:15 And when people get threatened to have power, they have a tendency to lash out. Herod was appointed king of the Jews. Jesus was born king of the Jews. See, there's a problem here, heritage for his title. And he wasn't gonna, he wasn't about to lose. Jesus was born into the title and there's no one who could take it from him, verse eight. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, this is Herod sending the wise men, send them to Bethlehem saying, go search diligently for the child. And when you find him, bring me word that I too may come worship him. All right. Show of hands. How many people believe that heritage genuine here. He is not genuine. I can tell you why he's not genuine, genuine. And just a moment. But let me just tell you this. So far, heritage is scared to death of what he's, what he will lose. Jesus is the true son of God, scared to death, of what he will lose. His prophecy is true. That Jesus is who he claims to be. Heritage scared to death of Jesus. It's just telling the truth.
Speaker 0 00:47:23 The magic. I are willing to give up everything in order to find the truth. Do you see the here they were compelled by Jesus inherit with threatened by Jesus. And so church, let me ask you how much has changed in our world. Today. You bring up the fact that you love Jesus in certain circles and you watch the response. Some people are thrilled by Jesus. Some people are threatened by Jesus. Jesus is a dividing factor because there's no other name under heaven given among men. Why bear whereby we must be saved. Jesus is the only begotten son of God. John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus is telling the truth and that scares the living daylights out of some people. But for others, it's enough to make us excited for the chance to worship because we know the truth. The point is this church, Jesus offers you everything or threatens your everything. It's all in how you see them.
Speaker 0 00:48:33 That's why later on in verse 16, this is not a story. This is a true event. Herod loses his mind and he sends his soldiers into Bethlehem to kill every baby boy up to two years old. Can you imagine you can read about it in scripture. I'm not going to read those verses, but it says a voice was heard in the wilderness. It was Rachel weeping for her children because it was a massacre of babies from a man who's threatened by Jesus Christ and losing his power. Verse 11, look at the contrast, these match. I, these wise men going into the house and they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and they worshiped him. Then opening their treasures. They offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. If you look up this word worship in the Greek, you know what it means?
Speaker 0 00:49:39 It means to fall down and grab the feet. These wise, men who had more money than you could possibly imagine, more fame and more power than you would dream of find Jesus, realize the truth and forfeit at all, just for the chance to worship Jesus Christ. All we know is that when they arrived at Jesus manger, they worshiped him and he became their God wise, men worship Jesus, nothing has ever changed. Why's people worship Jesus. If you think you're wise and you don't worship Jesus, you're not that wise wise people worship Jesus. It'd be very difficult to believe in this point that they maintained all of their beliefs in the occult and all their beliefs, astrology and all of their beliefs in the mystic powers of the world, around them. When these wise men, these match, I fall at the feet of Jesus Christ. See the truth and they worship him.
Speaker 0 00:50:41 I think their lives completely changed. I think they went back completely different than they came. I think they came curious and they'd left Christians verse 12 and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod. This is angels. They're so busy in this day, warned in a dream, not to return to Herod. They departed to their own country. By another way, they defied Herod's order. What do you think Harold would think if he said, listen, when you find Jesus, when you find this king of the Jews, let me know. So I can come and worship him. And then they don't ever show up. And it's like, are they ever coming back? Where are these guys? Are they ever don't they have watches. Come on. They're supposed to be smart. Where are these guys? And then to find out, oh, Herod, they left a couple of days ago. Oh, he would be so ticked.
Speaker 0 00:51:30 In fact, ticked enough to kill all the newborns. Under two years old, these wise men left as seekers from Iran and they came home as worshipers. And what I love about these guys is simply this, the Wiseman pursued truth, no matter where it took them and no matter what it costs them. So what number one wise, people pursue truth, no matter where it takes them or how much it costs them directly from the story. When you find out what is true, you relinquish everything you've pursued in the past. You believe it to your core. Why wise men relinquish all of these pursuits of religion because they found the real thing. And let me tell you a church, religion that wearies us, that stretches out us and demands from us and forces us and pulls at us and wears that us wears us out. If your religion feels like that, you're in the wrong religion, Jack, you are in the wrong place because of the religion that Jesus offers. The religion that Jesus gives us demands, nothing in return.
Speaker 3 00:52:44 It compels us to worship,
Speaker 0 00:52:48 Give to him like the, like the wise men. We put our treasures at his feet. Not because he demands, but because we love him. It's a totally different scenario. Instead of loving things. We love him. Your love for him will cause everything else you desire in life to, to look a little less shiny, to look a little less worthy of our time. When, when we understand who Jesus is, it's like, that's all we need Jack. That's it. We found it. This is the truth. We're like the magic. That's it. Everything else. God, Harrison, the Wiseman had totally different responses to exactly the same information. Herod was terrified of what he would lose. And the Wiseman gave everything they had.
Speaker 0 00:53:40 When you find religion in Jesus Christ, you discover a love for Jesus. A love that is thrilled to give, to give back, listen, this happens constantly. I've seen it in my own life. I've seen it in people's life that I've dealt with. I've seen their lives change the pursuits of all this stuff in their past. Just kind of lose their luster. When Zacchaeus came to Jesus, this little short tax collect, remember this guy. And then if you don't know, the story of Zacchaeus is a great story. Is that kiss was a short little guy. Jesus comes to town. He's curious to know who he is. The whole town hates sec. He is. Cause he works. Works for the IRS. I mean, who likes him? Right? Nobody likes this guy climbs a tree. Cause nobody lets him in front. He short little guy. Can't see. So he climbs a tree to see Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:54:22 Jesus sees him in the tree and says, Hey Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house today. It's going, how do you know my name? Okay, come on over. We'll have lunch. We don't know what happens at lunch. All we know is this. After Zacchaeus has lunch with Jesus, he comes out of his house and he says, I've stolen from everybody. I'm giving it all back four times worth. You see when you come to love Jesus Christ, you love things a lot less. That's why when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and Jesus said, if you really love me, you got to give away all your stuff. He's not saying give away all your stuff. What he's saying is you got a heart issue. You don't really know who I am. You don't get it. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta understand the story of the bad guy. I don't ask for anything. But a love for Jesus wants you to give everything. And the rich young ruler walked away because the Bible says he had a lot of stuff.
Speaker 0 00:55:15 Story of the match. I is permeated throughout scripture in the book of acts. When the church sprang up and took over the world like crazy. The Romans were scared to death of this brand new entity called the church. Jesus had established this thing and is turning the world upside down. The disciples are making churches on every, every corner in the, in the Roman empire, Asia's becoming full of worshipers of Jesus Christ. And you know what? They were doing church. They were pooling all their resources together so they could give to everybody as they had need. Not because they were told to, but because they wanted to and what you, but when these wise men realized that they were following false religion, their whole lives, and they saw Jesus Christ. They gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh. So I tell you the 0.1 more time, church, Jesus offers you everything or threatens your everything. It's all in how you see him.
Speaker 0 00:56:13 This is why Jesus says the greatest commandment is love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, because love for everything pales in comparison. Listen, this is why I love Christmas so much. No, I know Christmas is hijacked by capitalism. I get it. Let's be a little, let's all be judgemental and Hottie. And how we talk about Christmas. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about. Christmas gives us an opportunity to do what the magic I did. Christmas gives us an opportunity to give something to somebody else so that we can show the love of Jesus. So we can experience the joy of giving.
Speaker 0 00:56:58 We can keep the core of it alive. We give to one another out of love. It's like the Grinch that stole Christmas. You know the story you remember when the grins, when his heart was changed and it became so big that it went out of the microscope. Do you remember that story? This is what happens. When we come face to face with the truth, we follow the pattern of God, the father, because God loved us so much that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not be perish, but have eternal life. Religion makes us weary because it faults religion. Corrupt religion makes us worry because it takes, it demands. It forces an a dictator. But religion that Jesus speaks about is about giving, not about taking it's about love and nothing else.
Speaker 0 00:57:48 So number two, there's only one true religion and it brings rest to weary souls. I know this flies in the face of pluralism. I know we all wish that there was more than one way to God. I know it's not what our culture believes, but you should know this. These wise men didn't see Jesus. As an addition, they saw him as the truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth, the baby given to them by God compelled them to see him as God's plan. And to see him as God's truth. Our world today says it's narrow-minded to teach us this only Jesus concept. They says, it's they say to us, it's not progressive. They say to us, it's old fashioned to believe that Jesus is the only way they say it's judgmental. And so church, I would point to you. I would point you to the manger of Jesus Christ to see the gift of God that gives us eternal life.
Speaker 0 00:58:47 And I would point you to the words of this very baby, as he grew up into a man and taught us in John 14, verse five, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. And how can we know the waiver? Six Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father church. What does it say? Except through me this path to God, through Jesus Christ is a path for every weary soul. Jesus gives relief. Jesus gives a rest. Jesus doesn't offer you a heavy handed religion. Jesus offers you the truth. Matthew 1128 says, come to me all you who are labor and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. So church or your weary, do you know people who are wearied from religious pursuits just stretched beyond belief. They're there. They're heavy handed. Religious leaders are telling them it's about this or that. Or, or they get some smiling guy in a white coat to tell them that life is just a box of chocolates. My life is about Jesus Christ because he is the only truth. Your life is about Jesus, because he loves you. God gave you his son so that you could see the truth. And you're hearing this message this morning because he's pursuing you wise men pursue truth,
Speaker 3 01:00:19 No matter what it costs them. And
Speaker 0 01:00:21 No matter what it takes them. And when they find it, they submit enjoy. Can you imagine what it would be like for these wise men to come home? Now? You know how they left powerful, influential, rich. They sold their intellectual abilities to anyone who would pay them enough money, but they came home different. They came home knowing and seeing and touching the truth. How do you think they responded? How do you think they behaved when they came home? Would you like to know? There is a tradition about what happened when these mad I returned home, they took their faith in Jesus Christ. Seriously enough to believe the angel and go around heritage to come home. And when they came home, you can bet they would be evangelists. Wouldn't you say you can bet they tell their families and their friends and anybody who'd listened. Listen, you've been looking for the truth.
Speaker 0 01:01:20 We're not into the stars anymore. We're not telling future anymore. We're not talking to the dead anymore. We want to tell you there's a serious thing that we just found out. It is the truth and nothing but the truth. We got to tell you about Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what they did. Entire people. Groups were converted by the testimony of these mad Jai spreading throughout the east. There are pockets of Christians that rose up throughout history. Most traditions think they came because of the testimony of these Mads. I, when they traveled 900 miles home, by the time the Mongols conquered that part of the world, a thousand years later, there appears to be a unique line of Christians woven into the fabric of the geography, where these match. I came home to. One of the daughters of these groups actually married into the line of Gangas Kahn.
Speaker 0 01:02:13 There were Kings of the Mongols around and this woman, whoever she was welcomed in these visitors from the west, because when the Mongols ruled, they ruled at all, entourages would come and visit them. And one entourage that visited them in 1243, found a church, found a place where they worshiped Jesus Christ. He was from the Sicilian kingdom under what we know as modern day king, uh, Turkey, and one of these Mongolian Kings welcomed him in. And he writes a letter home to the king of Cyprus, which is way over in the west. And he writes this letter home and he says, no, that the power of Christ has been and is great in this place. The people in this land are Christians and the whole land of Katia believes these three, the Kings 1200 years later, listen to this. Yeah. In the letter, he writes as he's visiting this Mongol king, he writes back. I have myself been in their churches. I've seen pictures of Jesus Christ and the three Kings offering gold second frankincense and the third murderer. And it is through these three Kings. These people believe in Christ and the Chan and his people are now become Christian.
Speaker 3 01:03:32 Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 0 01:03:35 You see. Cause when you find out truth and you search for it, honestly you have no choice, but to surrender to it, enjoy, and it will change your life. Unfortunately, there's still the some in this day Jesus' day and in our day who are not satisfied with the truth, they still live for false religions because of all the promises they are made in these religions. They still look for truth, other places other than Jesus. And they call those of us who follow Jesus. Narrow-minded the Bible speaks about them as well. In second Timothy four verse three to five, Paul, the apostle writes to Timothy, the pastor at Ephesus. And he says to him, Timothy, a time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And they will turn away from listening to them truth. And they will wander off into myths. But as for you always be sober-minded, you know what that means? Be realistic.
Speaker 0 01:04:49 Be confident, always be sober-minded endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry church. When you find Christ, when you find and the king of the Jews, when you find the fulfillment of old Testament, prophecy, when you find the one who offers you eternal life in scripture, that will change you forever. He will change forever. Don't wander off into myths, be cautious of religion that tickles your ears, but doesn't challenge your life. Watch out for religion. That demands things from you by promises, name things for you know, that the majority of folks prefer to listen to religious teachers. Talk about themselves rather than talk about Jesus. And remember you have a limited time take advantage of your opportunities to serve others and discover in Jesus, a religion that truly brings your weary needs soul rest.
Speaker 0 01:05:53 It breaks my heart that every Christmas season we celebrate the birth of Jesus. And so many people have yet that to worship him, people will be glad to sell you their religion. Plus a little of Jesus. People will be glad to take what you have to give them and throw Jesus in a mix for you. But true religion is this. You need to find a church. You need to find a group of people that worshiped Jesus and talk about them constantly because he is the way the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father, except through him. Let's pray, father. I am grateful that you have given us this amazing story of the magi. We talk about it. Every EV every Christmas season, we're reminded of the story of these three or four, or how many of those were, we're not even told them.
Speaker 0 01:06:48 We're just told these wise men, these match. I came in and when they found Jesus, their lives changed, they worshiped him and they took the message of the gospel. They did the work of an evangelist. They took the message of Jesus back to the places where they live. And they made an impact that lasted for a thousand years. God, I'm grateful for what you do in the lives of people, for how you change people so that your kingdom will grow through us, help us at this time of the year, help us at this Christmas season to not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is a power of God unto salvation for all who believes. And so father help us to proclaim it boldly loudly, to remind people that Christmas MIS is about Jesus. He is the reason for our season and we rejoice because of your gift in him. Thank you father, for giving us your son, where would we be? Where, where would we be without him grateful for all who have listened this morning and pray that they've gotten maybe a little glimpse, a little deeper understanding of who you are this morning. And may we Bower Indian worship to you always every day in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 0 01:08:09 We come to our time of communion and we've decided to do communion through our Christmas advent season. Sometimes we don't do that, but it's an opportunity for us to get together with you in your homes and do something together. A hands-on moment together. You should know in scripture that there's nowhere in the Bible, that we are taught that the juice becomes anything other than juice or the bread becomes anything other than bread. Jesus simply uses this as an example to us. And we're reiterated that example in a passage I will read to you shortly from first Corinthians, chapter 11, where Jesus says, I'm about to give my body for you. I'm about to shed my blood for you. This is necessary because without this sacrifice, you can't have a relationship with God. We have a problem. See, our problem is sin. It blinds us. You wonder why everybody doesn't follow Jesus.
Speaker 0 01:08:58 Shizam, that's why our sin blinds us. Our love for stuff. Blinds us our need to be important, blinds us. And if you shared the gospel with people, you think of yourself, it is so obvious. Why don't you just understand that? It's because they're blinded where they're just blind. It's like explaining color to a colorblind person. It's very difficult to understand. But for those of us that do for those of us who have bowed our knee and worship Jesus Christ, we understand without this gift, without this wonderful gift from the father, we're hopeless, we're helpless, we're lost. And so every Sunday we do communion. The reminder to us of what Jesus did for us. He was born so that he could die. That's the only purpose he was born. He was born sinless. He lived a sinless life. His blood was the only sinless blood that ever walked on the planet. He was the only sacrifice possible that God would accept because sin our sin infects us to the core and we need desperate help. Jesus gave us that help when he gave us his son or when he gave us his life on the cross. God gave us the gift when he gave us his son. And when that perfect blood flowed in that perfect body was pierced by sinful human beings. Jesus prayed, God, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. They're blind.
Speaker 0 01:10:29 We do communion as a reminder, each Sunday that we know the truth and we've been given eternal life. And we've been given every promise in the scripture because of Jesus Christ. So we drink this juice and we eat the bread as a reminder to us of what it took for us to be right with God. Because when you come to God, he does not remember your sins anymore. I love it because of Jesus Christ. You're going to be praying. You'd be saying, God, you remember when I did this, like I asked you for forgiveness. And I just don't feel like I've been forgiven. God's gone. What, what, what are we talking about again? You see, because God chooses not to hold our sins again, all because of Jesus Christ. So I want to encourage you. If you're home, participate with us in communion, it doesn't have to be juice.
Speaker 0 01:11:15 It can be orange juice and the milk. Give me whatever you got at home water. It can be anything. Grab a cracker. This is what symbolizes what we are grateful for. We are grateful for Jesus Christ. So I encourage you to grab what you have at home, gather around the television, uh, gather on your screen and I'm going to, uh, can you bring that up to me? Thanks. And I'm going to read you a passage of scripture. Thank you. And before we, uh, participate together, I'm giving, giving, giving you a moment, uh, as the band plays to just spend some time in prayer, maybe the Lord's spoken to you this morning in some special way. I hope that he has, he has a tendency to do that when you read his word, but if you've spoken to in a special way, thank him for that. Spend some time with him this morning, our lives get so full of other things. Focus on him for a moment. And in the quiet of your home, would you bow your head and just thank him for one thing today,
Speaker 3 01:12:17 Whatever it is. Thank him for one thing,
Speaker 0 01:12:21 I'm going to give you a moment to do that before we eat and drink together, just hang on to whatever you have at home. I'll tell you, I'll tell you when we're going to do it. We're going to sing a song, give you a moment to reflect, and then we'll eat and drink together. Would you take a moment in the silence now and bow your heads at home here in this place. And let's spend a little time talking to God together. <inaudible>
Speaker 0 01:12:57 Lord Jesus. It is a privilege to again, take communion together with our church family, with those who are joining us online, I'm grateful for the fact that we can do this no matter where we are as a church, maybe we belong to another church, or maybe we're not a part of Illinois church east, but we do this as your family, the church. So father, I'm grateful. We get to do this every Sunday. Remind us Lord that on this final advent, before we get to Christmas morning, we are grateful for the greatest gift we could ever receive the gift of your son, who gives us every reason to hope, to believe. And to know that we are right with you. What a guilt free blessing. That is what a wearied free religion that is. I'm grateful that you give are wearied. Soul's rest. Bless us. Now, as we sing, reflect one more time on what it means to dwell on the truth of this sacrifice that covers our sins. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 0 01:18:26 I want to read to you a passage of scripture that we read each time as we take communion together, to remind us why we do this each Sunday, Paul, the apostle writes the church located in Corinth and he writes these words to them. For I received from the Lord. What also I delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way. Also, he took the cup after supper saying this cup is a new covenant in my blood do this. As often as you drink it in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And so church, if you would join me from your homes and those of you in house this morning, would we eat and drink and proclaim the Lord's death until he comes together?
Speaker 0 01:19:35 I think it's only fitting as we finish our time of worship together this morning, to invite you to our Christmas Eve services. One more time again, sorry to not remember about the candle situation. If you need a candle Phillips shirts or Bartlett my house Kathy's house, Megan Patterson's house. If you don't wear any of those things are look at village church of Bartlett. You can find that text us. We'll give you directions. We have these candles for you. We'd love to have you join us and sing with us and love to see those candles online. As we sing together on Christmas Eve, we're going to be talking a little bit more about what the, what the gifts meant, why gold, why frankincense and Weimer. We're going to finish the story of the wise men in sh in a short devotional on Christmas Eve. And because of that, I think it's only proper to read to you one more time from this passage. When they saw the star, this a church, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going to the house. They saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and they worshiped him and opening their treasures. They offered him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Why? Because that is what Jesus
Speaker 4 01:20:49 Causes us to do.
Speaker 0 01:20:51 He changes us from being oppressed by religion, that demands to loving and giving because of who he is to us and church. I pray that he is everything to you. This Christmas season, God bless your church. Have a wonderful Lord's day. I can't wait to see you on Christmas Eve on my little computer screen and sing with you. As we celebrate Christmas Eve together, see at four o'clock on Christmas Eve, God bless your church.
