Thread: Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
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Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 6 Dec, 2010 02:32 PM
We have heard this story all our lives, but what do we get out of this story for living then or living today?
First, let's look at the verses in question. Since it's the most familiar, we'll use the King James version as our jumping off point. Here's Matthew 2:1-12:
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.'" Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
The Jews knew that the promised Messiah was coming in Prophecy in this time. The Three Wise Men Traveled a far distance and wanted to see this promised Messiah. They wanted to worship him and bring gifts to him in Praise.
Why did Herod and most of the Jews choose not to seek him out? The Jews and Herod had fear and felt like they would be threatened because the Messiah was sent to be the King of the Jews. Herod wanted to kim him.
Today, we see the same thing going on. Everyone in our country knows the name of Jesus but they get scared and uncomfortable when you mention his name.
Most people wants to be good, but not interested in changing their lifestyle and worldly things. Be Ready at all times, if the Spirit calls you to talk to someone, don't let it pass, this person die and you had the chance to share the gospel with this person. What better way to share the Good News that they are promised a enternal life in him.
When the Holy Spirit calls me to talk with someone, first he will give you the words you should say, I start out the conversation with the words Why, What, When, Where to break the ice and let them talk to you instead of you doing all the talking. Jesus then shows up and gets in the heart of the people that really needs him. We must be Christ Like in love in reaching the unsaved. People today are having a hard time without Christ in their lives and as Christians, Jesus left this task for us to build up the Kingdom.
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 7 Dec, 2010 12:14 PM
ncwestie, you stated: "The Jews knew that the promised Messiah was coming in Prophecy in this time. The Three Wise Men Traveled a far distance and wanted to see this promised Messiah. They wanted to worship him and bring gifts to him in Praise."
Ncwestie, perhaps you have been deceived in believing in man's traditional religion about 3 wise men when the scriptures doesn't reveal how many went to The Lord at his house. Why add a falsehood to God's word, unless you want to continue in man's traditions because Christmas is not found in Scripture, however the following verses are in reference to man made holy days and traditions.
Colossians 2:8 �Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Galatians 4:9 �But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 �Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 �I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
2 Corinthians 6:16 �And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 �Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 �And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Luke 16:15 �And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
If God wanted believers to observe pagan holy days he would have given us instructions to do so, however we find just the opposite to be true.
Romans 14:23 �And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Romans 10:17 �So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Its plain to see from the two verses from Romans faith comes from God's word {instructions in righteousness} and if it is not found and we do it anyway we are ignoring God's word and we are sinning.
God has instructed believers 2 Corinthians 6:16 -18 what agreement have we with idols, man's holy days are idols because believers along with the unsaved observe them. Verse 17, God instructs believers to come out from among them and be separate {being separate unto the Lord from man's religions is true circumcision of the heart in our walk} then the Lord will walk with us and be our God far more so then when we continue to walk as babies in Christ.
The Lord tells us He has given us everything we need to become spiritually mature {perfect} are all furnished for all good works he wants from us is found in his word and if we don't find the instructions in His word we are not to do it. as Romans 14:23 and Romans 10:17 tells us.
2 Timothy 3:16 �All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 �That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Three wise men is fabricated as is the rest of the man's holy day.
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 8 Dec, 2010 05:58 AM
Of course, the number of wise men is a very small thing. But God may be opening up your mind, little by little, pointing out one tiny error in "the Christmas story," and watching to see what your reaction is. If you show God you wish to learn His truth and move away from error, God will probably show you another little truth, then another. What you do with that information will determine what God does next in His growing relationship with you. Will you move closer to the great God of the universe, and learn His truth from His Book?
We must remember that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, really was born in Bethlehem long ago. That part is not custom and tradition. The story is found in the Gospel of Matthew. This is where we find the account of the wise men visiting the Baby who would be King. And, as you rightly pointed out, the Bible does not state there were three of these men.
Gary,
Stories in the Bible should also be applied to our lives. Look at the big picture and apply it to our lives.
The Bilble should be read in depth not distance. If we are to be more Christ Like, we need to study the whole Bible word by word, verse by verse, you found a word and totally missed the message. Why is that?
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 8 Dec, 2010 10:31 AM
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
The Wise men / Magi came to Worship the KING...They traveled far for this very purpose...They Gave unto HIM the very best earthly gifts befitting a KING to Honor Him...its purty simple...xo
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 8 Dec, 2010 01:02 PM
ncwestie, lol, I do believe you are the one is ignoring God's word on the subject of Christmas for it has not been authorized by God. Any encyclopedia tells us Christmas is set in pagan traditions and was originated by many pagan practices from Babylon and the druids to name a few with others and cleverly put together by the Roman Catholic church.
Faith that God honors is found in His word and not in associating Christ with paganism.
We all make a decision to either rightly divide God's word and follow all of his instructions forthe church or we do our own thing. For myself, I prefer serving the Lord by rightly dividing his word and living my life as such. One way we can know we have the truth is the truth is in perfect harmony with all other truths on the same subject. Man's pagan days and lying to children about Santa Clause is not according to God's will.
Proof: Romans 6:15 �What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Shall we do like Israel and observe a pagan activity such as what today is known as a Christmas tree? God told Israel not to do that so why would he be double minded now and allow it?
Jeremiah 10:2 �Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 �For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 �They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 �They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
For me. again I prefer Christ word to paganism.
Galatians 4:9 �But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 �Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 �I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Again you can have your paganism and I'll obey God and not observe any days, or months or times and years.
I can truthfully say I have a very close walk with Christ and he answers all my prayers according to His word and most often in the same day. I could give many instances from the Lord protecting me from robbery and murder to finding my car keys and having Gods Angel's keeping me from harm. My blessings are not in the pagan affairs of man but just in Christ's word as He has instructed.
The Lord has given complete instructions in his word for us to honor and serve Him and Christmas and the rest of man's pagan traditions are not in it. He has given us everything to make us mature in him, even to teaching us His will though the Holy Spirit instead of following after the traditions of man.
2 Timothy 3:16 �All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 �That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 2:15 �Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
1 Corinthians 2:13 �Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
ncwestie, I find it interesting that not once did you give any scripture to back up your tradition for Christmas but rather you gave your own thoughts on it. I do know as believers we are to allow Christ to work through us and not the other way around. I also understand the reason you don't because the Lord has remained silent on Christmas or Easter for that matter, neither are found in scripture or support from God's word for them. That should tell you something.
Doesn't make any difference to me wither you observe Christmas or not but I just wanted to give the Lord's position on it. Thanks for bringing these things here so we could discuss them.
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 8 Dec, 2010 05:32 PM
You are really getting off track from my post about the story of the Wise Men. Since the Bible says 3 gifts, I'm going out on a limb with 3 wise men. You can pick if you like. The importance of the post was not about the number, it was about all the other verses that you missed. You read the scripture and you must not understand the message that it told for us living in our lives today. I explained it and you still don't get it. You were more interest in the little and of no importance issue you found. If you can't see the context in any passage, you are missing out the real reason or purpose.
Since you are have switched gears on me and stuck in neutral, we can start a discussion on the word Christmas and the Tree if you like. A Christian elder in the church told me once, only be concern with what is the Bible not what is not in the Bible!
Talking about the season we are in, I want say Christmas for you, maybe we should be more secular and say Holiday Season. How about Christ Mass and put it on the Catholics! No we shall call it the Nativity season.
I believe with Scripture and confirmation from NASA luner calculations Christ was born September 11th, 3 BC. Does the 9/11 tragedy somehow tie into this date? We do know that Christ's second coming prophesied will be Feast of Trumpets Tishrei 1 or (Sept/Oct). Maybe We Christians should call this date the Day of the Lord for 2 reasons and cover up Islam�s Statement! Would that be sinful too? Oh, I forgot their will never be unity until the prophesied Elijah comes soon, real soon.
I will make the first post on this important date to celebrate the Day of the Lord.
You can talk about the season stuff that we shouldn�t be doing. You want find much scripture on it, so just go with your beliefs.
Three Wise Men (What is thier mission and the story behind it)
Posted : 10 Dec, 2010 08:27 PM
ncwestie,
I think first you're going to have to show where in the Bible it says there were 3 wise men (Mt 2:1-2 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.) and where it says they visited Jesus on His birthday (Mt 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother.) Was Jesus born in a manger or a house? Did the wise men find a baby or a toddler? I could be wrong.
