SEARCHING FOR JESUS (Matthew 2:1-12)

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1 SEARCHING FOR JESUS (Matthew 2:1-12) INTRODUCTION: A humorous sign in front of a Methodist Church one time was a listing of the sermon titles for the next Sunday. It read: 11:00 a.m. "Jesus Walking on the Water" - 7:00 p.m. "Searching for Jesus." Today I want us to think about searching for Jesus. Not because He walked on the water and needs to be found, but because we need to search for Him to find the One who will give us a meaning and a hope. There is a verse that I found in the Bible that speaks of searching for God with all our hearts. It is Jer. 29:11-13 Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (12) Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I want to tie searching for Jesus in with the Epiphany season. Today is the first Sunday in the Epiphany season. The Epiphany season goes from January 6 until the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. The Epiphany has to do with the star appearing to the wise men and Jesus being revealed to them as King. The meaning of Epiphany, the appearance of the star to the wise men, is symbolic of the revelation of Jesus to the GENTILES. Jesus came to be the Savior of All mankind. The wise men came searching for Jesus and they found Him. The wise men came seeking the new born King of the Jews. We still hear the saying today, "Wise men still seek him"? Are you searching for Jesus, the One who will bring you hope? NICODEMUS SEARCHED FOR JESUS There are others in the Bible who went searching for Jesus. We know of NICODEMUS came searching for Jesus. He sought out Jesus by night to discover if Jesus was the Christ or not. Nicodemus was a Jewish religious leader who knew that it was important to find the Messiah. When he met Jesus January 7, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 1

2 he found the Messiah and more, he found a new birth. He found that what was missing in his life was the knowledge of the true Messiah. We usually will only search for Jesus when we realize something is missing in our life. In one of Tennessee Williams' plays a mentally ill woman is in her garden. She is sitting at a card table working a jig-saw puzzle. She is tense and her hands are shaking. She tries to force pieces of the puzzle together that do not fit. Some of the pieces fall off the table. The pain and the frustration are evident in the woman's face. She cries to her daughter, "The pieces don't fit together! The pieces don't fit together!" We are living in an age when people are desperately seeking meaning and fulfillment. Things don t fit together in life. People are turning to activism, spiritualism, drugs, sex, and materialism. But these will never satisfy. People are searching, but only when they find Jesus will the pieces fit in their lives. THE WOMAN AT THE WELL SEARCHED FOR JESUS Another person who was searching for meaning and hope but didn t know where to look until Jesus came to her was the woman at the WELL in John 4. This woman had had five husbands. She was certainly seeking something meaningful in life. She was seeking a meaningful and lasting relationship, but she did not find it. She had given up on marriage and was just living with a man. Her life didn t have much hope for fulfillment. Jesus gently brought her to the place to acknowledge her need and showed her that He could meet her need. Remember what Jesus said to her by the well? John 4:13-14: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." It is only Jesus who gives the water that shall become in the person a "fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." January 7, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 2

3 The woman at the well was looking for something in life that brought fulfillment and satisfaction. Only when she found Jesus did the pieces of her life fit together. JESUS OWN FAMILY SEARCH FOR HIM Another situation in the Bible where someone went searching for Jesus is when Jesus own FAMILY searched for him. Mary and Joseph had been at the Passover celebration in Jerusalem. Their 12-year-old son, Jesus, was with them. They were part of a large company of pilgrims traveling together. They went a full day's journey away from Jerusalem before they realized that Jesus was not with them. They turned back to find their boy. They went searching for Jesus as a family. What about your family? Is Jesus missing in your family? I recall a news story about a 5 year-old Texas boy who was accidentally left behind at a service station in Nashville. Tyler Payne got out of the family station wagon to use the rest room, then couldn't get out of the building because the door had become stuck. Meanwhile, his family headed on home to Texas, not realizing the boy was missing. About two hours later, at a Wendy's restaurant in Jackson, his parent, five brothers and a sister noticed he was missing. Back in Nashville, a woman had heard Tyler screaming and opened the bathroom door for him. As employees at the service station tried to help him, all he would say is, "I want my mommy." After a two more hours the family drove back to the station. "This is embarrassing, but I'm glad he's safe," say the Dad. "We've all had a scare this evening." Sobs turned to smiles when Tyler saw his family. Someone heard the boy tell his mother, "I'm never going to the bathroom again." It's embarrassing to a family to misplace a child. Is Christ missing from your family? The upheaval in our families and woes in our society seem to say that Christ is missing from many families. Is something missing in your family? Is something missing in your life? Maybe Jesus is missing? You may need to search for Jesus. January 7, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 3

4 WHERE TO FIND JESUS This brings us to the question, "Where can we find Jesus?" The answer, of course, is wherever you are when you realize that something is missing in your life you can find Jesus there waiting to be found. The wise men found Jesus in a house in Bethlehem. Nicodemus found Jesus at night in Jerusalem. The woman at the well found Jesus at the side of a well in Samaria. The parents of Jesus found Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. They all were in different physical locations but they all found Jesus waiting for them when they realized something was missing in their. When they began their search for Jesus, Jesus was found. When I was pastoring in Nashville, one of the pastors, who also was an army reserve chaplain who served in Desert Storm, spoke about how he had many, many opportunities to help men and women come to trust in Jesus Christ while they were in that war. On Christmas Eve, 1990, 28 soldiers shed their guns and world burdens ad dipped into the warm Saudi waters. This was no swim under the stars. Rather, it was a baptism service. A ceremony celebrating 28 people's trust in Jesus Christ. Many people do find God when their lives are in upheaval. I was very interested in a report in the latest issue of Christianity today (Jan 4, 2018). It reported that in the nation of Iran many are finding Christ. Despite Muslims numeric dominance in Iran, some researchers say there s no country in the world where Christianity is growing faster than in Iran today Iranians have become the most open people to the gospel, according to David Yeghnazar, the executive director of Elam Ministries, a nonprofit that serves Iranian Christians. In an interview with David he explained that in 1979, when the Islamic revolution overthrew the monarchy and installed a religious Islamic regime there were only about 500 Christians from Muslim background. There were some Armenian and Syrian Christians in the country but only about 500 Christians who were born Muslim had been converted. Today there are over 500,000 to a million believers which have come out of their Muslim background to Christ.. January 7, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 4

5 He said, Iranians have become the most open people to the gospel. Unlike in other parts of the Middle East, the country s historic churches have increasingly taken on an evangelistic role and committed themselves to praying for nonbelievers in their country. Another interesting fact about Iran is that it is the area of the world where the wise men of Jesus day come from. Jesus can be found anywhere where people are searching for him and anywhere where the Gospel can be found. Where, then shall we find him? Most of us in this country find him just where Mary and Joseph found him long ago--in his Father's house. Most people find Jesus in a church service. This is not unusual because this is where Jesus has promised to be. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. This means that Jesus can be found each week in a special way as we come together to worship Him. It is in the church is where he Word of God is preached. Jesus is found in the preaching of the Word of God. The church is where the sacrament of the Lord s Supper is celebrated. Jesus is given to us spiritually in the Communion Service. CONCLUSION: This brings us to the point in our service where we will partake of the Lord s Supper. The Communion Service is sometimes called the visible Word. The Gospel is seen in the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup. What lies behind the Bread and the Cup that is the promise of salvation or forgiveness of sins through the death of Jesus. This is the Good News. The broken body of Jesus and His shed blood for the remission of our sins is the Gospel. God offers His Son to us each time we partake of the communion service. We receive His Son through faith in God s promise of forgiveness of our sin because of the Cross of Christ. We find Jesus each time we partake of the Communion Service through faith in Him. Amen? Amen! January 7, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 5