God is in control
The Magi & their Gifts
Welcome to our recording of this morning’s message, which is featured below. Our two video’s today are firstly one from Melanie Penn, Love’s Coming Down (Isaiah’s Song), followed by O Come O Come Emmanuel by Hymns & Hers.
Every blessing, Andy.
Here is this morning’s message, The Magi & their Gifts:
Mat.2:1-12 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 ‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written:
6 ‘“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”[b]’
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Footnotes
- Matthew 2:1 Traditionally wise men
- Matthew 2:6 Micah 5:2,4
Biblegateway.com
A significant birthday! Israel at 70
Today is Israel’s 70th birthday, 70 years since the modern State of Israel was reborn in the land of their fathers and the land of the Biblical promises. It’s an amazing achievement! Just consider the likelihood of the fledging State that declared independence just after the Holocaust, surrounded by enemies on all sides vowing her imminent destruction, still surviving until today. Not only surviving but thriving in her historical homeland, according to the Biblical record.
It’s not due to Jewish ingenuity or ability, nor the benefaction of the USA, nor the amazing ability of the IDF to defend the nation, that Israel is still with us today. All those things have played their part, but primarily it’s the hand of God Himself, sovereignly intervening in history to restore and defend the nation according to all His promises to do so! He is doing this to show the world He is the God of the Bible and that He keeps His promises!
So today I praise God for Israel celebrating her 70th birthday! It is an amazing testimony that, not only do the people of Israel live, ‘Am Yisrael Hai’, but that the God of Israel is alive and well and keeps His promises. And one day the people of Israel will look upon their Messiah and so enjoy the fulness of all He has prepared for them!
Psalm 121 (NKJV)
I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Zechariah 12:10 (NKJV)
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
Romans 11:25 (NKJV)
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
Shared from PocketBible for Windows Store (http://www.laridian.com)
Scartho Celebration Church 