15 Dec
2019

Mentored by the Magi

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Passage: Matthew 2:1-12

Speaker: Patrick King

Advent is four weeks set aside for reflecting on the first coming of Jesus, as a baby born into the reality of the human condition. It is also a season of anticipation as we celebrate Jesus’s arrival as the newborn King and are filled with hope for the second advent, when the wrongs of this world will be made right. In Advent we remember the deep and costly peace God has come near to give to us as a gift. Join us this season for our Advent sermon series Wonder Full.

Community Group Discussion:

Opening Question

What is your favorite Christmas tradition?

Read Matthew 2:1-12

  1. From the Scripture passage share something that surprises, encourages, or confuses you.
  2. In what ways do the Magi respond to the news of the birth of Jesus?
  3. How does the Magi’s response compare with Herod, the Jewish chief priests and teachers of the law?
  4. God shows up to the Magi in a spectacular way and they didn’t miss it. In what ways has God shown up in your life?
  5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an Advent poem shortly before his execution in a Nazi prison. It is a powerful reminder of the wonder and truth of Advent in all situations (see below). The Magi saw the star and took action to worship the newborn King. How can you cultivate a posture of expectation for God revealing himself to you and a readiness to respond?
    Where God Wants to Be
    Where the understanding is outraged,
    where human nature rebels,
    where our piety keeps a nervous distance:
    there, precisely there, God loves to be;
    there he baffles the wisdom of the wise;
    there he vexes our nature, our religious instincts.
    There he wants to be, and no one can prevent him.
    Only the humble believe him and rejoice
    that God is free and grand,
    that he works wonders where man loses heart,
    that he makes splendid what is slight and lowly.
    Indeed, this is the wonder of wonders,
    that God loves the lowly.
    ‘God has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.’
    God in lowliness –
    that is the revolutionary, the passionate word of Advent.