When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
6 sermons cite this verse
I'd like you to have a seat. So I grew up, this is the, here we are, the last Sunday in Christmas season. It reminds me of this, this is the whole thing. I grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota, which is the vacation area of, one of the vacation areas of Minnesota. and one of the things we have, our claim to fame is that Brainerd is the quote-unquote birthplace or the home of Paul Bunyan. So if you know the tall tale of Paul Bunyan, tall tale, we recognized that we had a thing called Paul Bunyan Amusement Park and it was in my hometown, in town basically, kind of right on the outskirts of town, Paul Bunyan Amusement Park and we begged our parents to be able to, that we could go to Paul Bunyan. They never took us, never, the only time we ever got to go to Paul Bunyan amusement park was when the cousins came to visit, which was relatively rare. And they would say, okay, now we can go to the amusement park. It was one of those situations where I'm like, but we live here. We should be able to go here all the time. Now, obviously, if you've ever been to Paul Bunyan amusement park, you know that it's not, as an adult, it's not that big. It's kind of a small thing. But as a kid, it was the place I wanted to go more than anything. But it seemed like one of those situations where it was so, so close to home that it was too close to home, …
… and the scribes of the people, and he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said, well, dummy in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it's written by the Old Testament prophet Micah, the Christ child will be born in Bethlehem. Now, there's a profound symbolism at work in this also. Stars and signs and spiritual questions are never in themselves enough to bring you fully to God. They can get you looking the right direction, but only the scriptures can complete your journey. This book, friend, this, this is the gateway to God. And that is why at this church every single week, somebody like me stands up here, opens this book, reads from it and teaches straight out of it. I am not up here telling you about my relationship with God or giving you my insights into spiritual life. I am attempting to open up to you the scriptures week by week, which are God's guide to salvation, regardless of who you are or where you're coming from. …
Till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Notice this. That was outside. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a dream, they would not return to Herod. They departed to their own country another way. So I want to talk to you about this star. The star of the story is Jesus. It's not the star, but the star plays an important part in your life, whether you recognize it or not. I was thinking about it this week, this star, this miraculous star that began to shine at the perfect time of God on these men who were far from Jerusalem, far from God, far from any prophecies, knowing anything about who Messiah was, who was prophesied to come. …
… 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 worshiped. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warmed in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. Let's talk about a few good men as we look at the wise men. I think I can say without fear of debate or denial that the wise men are critical to the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. You've never been to a Christmas play and there were no wise men. You've never seen a manger setting outside of a church or on your neighbor's lawn, and there'd be no wise men. The wise men are responsible for our tradition of sharing gifts at Christmas. The same way they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh to Jesus, we share gifts with one another as family and friends in the tradition of the wise men. …
… 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 worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they were turned to their country by another route. You may be seated in God's presence. I want to put a tag on this text and for a few moments with your prayers, I want to raise the question, do you need directions? Do you need directions? Erykah Badu in Didn't You Know has a luminous line about direction. Ooh, hey, I got to decide which way to go. I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. It's a luminous line about direction. I made a wrong turn back there somewhere. …
… a star went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. The verse I want is verse 10. When they saw him, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. You know, I love the language of scripture. I love how the Bible describes things. have you ever noticed the Bible can especially the old English can make horrible things just sound wonderful behold he stinketh things of that it just almost sounds proper and here it has exceedingly great joy it just sounds like a proper joy exceedingly great this word exceedingly actually is a word that means violent the word means violent Thank you. that's joy that is scary. It's so extreme. That's joy at another level. I've been in the service where everybody around me got that kind of joy. It's quite annoying, actually. I remember back when we were getting hit with that so often, I looked at the Random House Dictionary at a word that's in some translations called mirth, M-I-R-T-H, mirth, which is, doesn't even sound like a word, but it is, mirth. …