We started a series a couple weeks ago called the God of the Christmas story.
And so what we've been doing for the last couple of weeks is trying
to, uh, really extract can we learn something about God as we see and
discover or review the well known tale of the Christmas story of Jesus birth.
And so we've been looking at God through this story.
And so the first week we saw how God is a God of hope.
And then we saw God is a God of mystery.
And the famous line, God works in mysterious ways.
And so today we're gonna be talking about the God of invitation.
The God of invitation.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for allowing us to worship, allowing us to encourage,
allowing us to see, uh, not only the next generation, but the now
generation, God, as they get a chance to, uh, share, uh, with all of us
their heart and their faith in Jesus.
And God, we pray right now as we look into the scriptures that you will speak.
To us father.
I pray and I know I'm excited about this topic I pray God that your word will
resonate with every single one of us whether it's the first time Inside of
a church service or we've been around for 30 40 plus years God, I pray that
your word will minister to us today.
May we walk away encouraged in our faith, strengthened in our
faith, and in high pursuit of you.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Uh, I have a friend, uh, in college.
His name is Charles.
And, uh, he's one of my, my, one of my good friends in college.
And after we, after I became a Christian, we stayed close, but, but
we really kind of went different paths.
And for the last several years, we've been reconnecting, me and two other friends.
But last year, he invited me and my family to a Christmas party.
And so we went to this Christmas party, thinking it was just a little something.
Little, you know, little something, something.
And we go, and they rented out this place, and it was plush.
And it was awesome.
I mean, there was, there was like legit games and contests,
food all over the place.
And my family was like, wow, the Stephensons must be rich.
And I was like, well, I don't know if they're rich, but they
did put a lot of money into this.
And so we had a great time.
And so then this year, we were hopeful to get an invitation again.
And so a couple weeks ago, Karina was like, Hey, uh, has Charles
sent that invitation to you yet?
I was like, you know what?
He hasn't.
Man, did we, did we mess up last year and get, you know, get put off the list?
And then the other day, he sent me that text.
I said, Karina, we got it.
And she was like, yes.
And then the kids were like, yes, we're going again.
And so the whole family is fired up about this invitation.
And we're gonna see how God is a God of invitation.
But his invitation is even better than my boy Charles and his Christmas party.
And so if you can turn with me over to Matthew chapter 2.
And so, to give us some context, Matthew was a, uh, an apostle of Jesus.
He was a follower of Jesus.
And he wrote this letter and his audience is primarily those who had
come from Jewish faith and now to the, the, the, the Christian faith, where
they believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
So he's writing to a Jewish audience.
So that's really important for us to pull out the nuggets that are available
when we read the book of Matthew.
And so in Matthew chapter two, we'll go ahead and read.
It says.
And Jesus was already born.
Again, we studied Matthew chapter 1, uh, in the last two weeks.
So we're gonna do, uh, finish up chapter 2 this week and next week.
And so it says, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, during the time
of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 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.
When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers
of the law, so these are all the religious leaders, He asked them
where the Messiah was to be born.
In Bethlehem, in Judea, they replied.
For this is what the prophet has written.
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.
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from the, found out from them
the exact time the star had appeared.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child.
As soon as you find him, report it to me, so that I, too, may go and worship him.
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.
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
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 with gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned
to their country by another route.
We'll stop right there.
Did you see it?
Did you see the God of Invitation?
And so we'll break this down some real quickly here so that we can see this God
of invitation in the Christmas story.
But first I want us to look at this magi and this will help us out here.
We've all, we're all familiar with the three kings or the three
wise men and this is where that, this is where this comes from.
And it says there were magi from the east who saw a star and came to worship him.
When I had this, uh, uh, uh, discovery, this little nugget, it
just blew my mind and I felt like I have to share this part with you.
And so as you see this, these are magi from the east.
So these were probably Some wise men, some, some priests or astrologers from
East, probably being Babylon or Persia.
So that's a good distance from Jerusalem in the nation of Israel.
And it says that they're probably devoted to interpreting signs,
again, probably practicing astrology.
And it says they saw the star, then they came and they worshipped him.
Now here's what's incredible, and you see the God of hope,
you see the God of mystery, and you see the God of invitation.
Because, see, here, here's the thing here.
About 550 years Prior to Jesus's birth, when God's people had been exiled from
their homeland and were now living amongst the Babylonians and then
the Persians who conquered Babylon.
There was a prophet, a man who spoke the word of God named Daniel.
And many of us are familiar with the story of Daniel and the lion's
den, or his homeboys that go down in the lion's den, the fiery pit.
There you go.
Alright.
So, we're familiar with this, but Daniel had prophesied.
About the coming Messiah in Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 through 26.
Now here's what's incredible, is that again, God's people, many
of them come back to Jerusalem.
And so at least 500 plus years has gone by.
But we know at least some of the Jews must have stayed in the area after
exile or returned throughout the years.
But we also know that Daniel, the prophet, had major influence on
the Babylon, Babylonian and Persian empires and in their government.
And so what we can, and a lot of scholars, what we can deduce from this is so cool
is that what happened is that these guys, because there again, they're not,
they're not part of the nation of Israel.
These aren't Jews who are following Yahweh, the God most high, but yet
they see a star and they say, That must be the sign for the king of the Jews.
How did they come to that?
Again, this influence from Daniel and some of these folks, excuse me,
some of these Jews throughout the year, had it influenced 500 to 600
years prior, so that these magi would then have a divine revelation that
something profound was taking place.
And so you see God planting seeds 500, 600 years later for the revelation
of the gospel message and of Jesus.
You see the God of hope, the God of mystery, and the God who's inviting.
And so, regardless of how it came about, their acknowledgment and worship of the
Messiah was a divine miracle of grace.
And here's the thing, God isn't putting a stamp on astrology, he's
not saying, oh yeah, that's okay.
What he is revealing in this.
Is that God has a method and a desire and a tendency to meet people where they are.
So they're not worshiping God in the correct form, but God met them
where they were to call them to him.
This God of invitation.
And so God revealed the birth of a king and the gospel message to non
Jews, which are called Gentiles.
So most of us probably in this room are Gentiles.
And so that's the main thing we can see here that Matthew wanted to include
in his story to a Jewish audience is that, guess what, the birth of
the Messiah was a worldwide event.
It was going to have an impact that was going to be worldwide because it's
extending beyond the borders of Israel.
Church, do you understand what I'm saying here?
And he's saying something else is that the Messiah was going to come through Israel.
But he was going to be a gift to all nations.
He was going to be a gift to all people.
It wasn't a segment of people that God wanted to redeem.
He wanted to redeem mankind.
And so this reveals that the gospel is a message of hope for people of all nations.
Because God is calling all people to an eternal relationship with Him.
And so God invited these Magi, God had invited the Israelites, and God
still continues to invite people to an eternal relationship with Him.
And so there's God of invitation.
Cares for all souls and invites all human beings to his eternal kingdom.
So what does that mean today, brothers and sisters?
It means that God invites the rich and the poor.
God invites the black, white, red, brown, yellow, and everything in between.
God invites men and God invites women.
God invites the religious and the non religious.
God invites the criminal and the goody two shoe.
God invites the liberal and the conservative.
Ooh, did he say that?
Yes, I did.
You mean he invites the red wing, the right wing and the left wing?
Yes, and everything in between.
God invites the straight person and the homosexual.
God invites the weak and God invites the strong.
God invites the educated and the dropout.
God invites the white collar and the blue collar.
God invites the foreigner and the resident.
God invites the citizen and the immigrant.
God invites the American and the Russian.
God invites that gang member and that CEO.
God invites the doctor and the prostitute.
God of invitation invites all.
God invites you, he invites me, the person sitting next to you.
Yes, me, you, your mama, and your cousin too.
The God of invitation invites all because he's the God of invitation.
The question is, will you accept his invitation?
And that's what I believe our response to this is.
Is to accept.
The invite to accept his invitation by seeking a relationship with him.
Jesus is for all who will receive him.
You know, you can accept, reject, or neglect an invitation.
You can accept an invitation, you can neglect one, or you can reject it.
The Magi, they accepted.
While the religious leaders in Herod, they didn't.
Herod rejected.
We'll find out next week.
Herod is actually trying to kill the baby Jesus.
The religious leaders, they neglected, they hear about this and what they do.
They stayed put while the Magi went to go check in on the baby.
You see, they neglected the invitation.
I know some here and some online, we've rejected God's invitation.
We said no, but here's the thing.
This God of hope, this God of mystery, this God of invitation
is inviting you today.
Some of us in here, we've neglected, we've heard, maybe have some knowledge.
But maybe we haven't really committed to Jesus.
The God of invitation is inviting you today.
I want to encourage you to make a decision to accept today.
By getting help on how to get, how to properly accept God's invitation.
If you're visiting with us either online or in person, and you sense that the Lord,
the Spirit is, He's knocking on your door.
He's, He's been trying to invite you whether it's been
months, years or this moment.
I want to encourage you.
To set up a Bible study, to see how do I accept this invitation?
What does that mean?
Or if your friend or family member asks you and they invite you to a Bible study,
I want to encourage you to say yes.
You know, the other response here is to join in.
You know, join God in inviting people to his eternal kingdom.
Again, for the Jewish audience to see from the book of Matthew, it was that
the gospel is for the whole world and every single type of person in the world.
And so that invitation is still today.
And so the proper response to the God of invitation is to accept his
invitation and then join him in inviting.
Right now we're going to take communion.
I want to read Matthew chapter 2 verse 11 again.
The emblems represent Jesus body and his blood that was sacrificed for us
to have an opportunity at salvation.
And in Matthew chapter 2, well, many of us are familiar with this,
but the Magi, they came gifts.
And these gifts were gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And so I'm sure some maybe caught this at the beginning, but
most of us probably caught this after the resurrection of Jesus.
But these things are symbolisms, and we see the symbolism in their gifts.
One, the gold was for royalty, and that was given for a king.
Frankincense had to deal more with religious rituals, so it
was for the priest, for God.
And then myrrh, the symbolism there was for the sacrifice for our salvation.
Because myrrh was actually used when Jesus was on the cross to offer him relief.
And then it was used And the wrapping of his body as he was put in the tomb.
So we see Myrrh was actually at the tomb and it was at the cross.
And so this symbolism helps us see that Jesus is the King.
He is the highest priest who allows us to have a relationship with the Father as
he mediates and intercedes on our behalf.
And then we see again the Myrrh, which represents the
sacrifice for our salvation.
Hallelujah.
For the God of invitation.
Let's go to God in prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your invitation to a relationship with us.
We thank you that you invite us through Jesus.
We thank you that we can respond to your invitation by turning and
putting our trust in faith in Jesus.
And God, we're so grateful, those of us who have made that decision, to know
that we stand in a right relationship with you and your eternal kingdom.
And we have eternity to look forward to.
And Father, I pray right now that we will, uh, uh, remember Jesus.
We will remember his birth, but we will remember that you are the God
who cares so much to invite us to your eternal treasure in heaven.
We praise you.
We love you.
In Jesus name.
Amen.