The Birth of Jesus
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[00:00:00] Good morning. Morning. I missed you all last week. Um, I missed you. Thank you. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter one, Matthew chapter one. We're gonna start reading in verse 18, and we will read through the 28th verse and then I'll, um, yes. Is it 28 or 25? 25th verse. I'm not gonna make up any. And, uh, then I'll kinda explain why we're doing what we're doing.
So if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's word,
and please hear this for what it is, the living words of the true God. Now, the birth of Jesus, the Messiah was as follows when his married mother had been betrothed, engaged. To Joseph [00:01:00] before they came together, she was found to be with Child by the Holy Spirit and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who has been conceived in her. Is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. You'll call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Nu L, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, took Mary as his wife, [00:02:00] but he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name.
Jesus. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and most importantly, obedience to his word. Please be seated.
So we're gonna have a bit of Christmas in March. And part of the reason for that is the last Christmas sermon I preached was back in 2024 because I got sick this last Christmas and I wasn't able to preach. I got back late this week, so it seemed fitting, but there's another reason we're gonna look at Christmas this morning.
And this is the same way I started that last sermon in the, in the date of the last sermon was December 22nd, 2024. And I only share that with you because for some of you, you might wanna go back and either listen for the first time or re-listen because, uh, I did my best to dismantle most of the popular Christmas story and present it in a more biblical [00:03:00] light.
But I began that sermon by saying this, and I'm gonna say the same thing today. Truth matters. This story matters. Back in the late 11th, early 12th century, a man by the name of Anselm, he was Archbishop of Canterbury, and he wrote a very famous book. It's a classic book in Western Christianity, and the name of that book is Cords Homo.
And it can actually be translated two different ways. It can be translated as a statement why God became man, or it can be translated as a question, why did God become man? You see, we're getting ready to look, to take a deep dive, quite frankly, at the Atonement. We've been in the book of Hebrews. We're gonna look at the atonement through the eyes of the author of Hebrews.
But as Matt said earlier, you cannot have the atonement. Without the incarnation, you cannot have the atonement without Jesus becoming a man. And so this story matters. There's a few things in your bulletin. There's a, [00:04:00] uh, fill in the blank for the sermon. There's another full page with some Bible verses on it, a map on it.
And if you open it up, there's an overview of the Christmas story, and we'll get to that in just a minute. But number one on your fill in the blank outline is the birth of Jesus. An overview, the birth of Jesus. An overview and kids, there's a question. I think it's the first one on your handout, and the question is, which two gospels tell us the Christmas story?
Where do we find the Christmas story? And we find it in the gospel of Luke and Matthew. And hopefully you'll recall if you were here, but my last Christmas sermon I focused in on Luke's account. Today I'm gonna focus in on Matthew's account. And on that handout that we're gonna look at in a minute, I've harmonized them and, and we'll go over it in just a minute, uh, real quickly so that we can see, uh, what the story looks like.
But I do wanna remind you of a few things that we learned last year, and this is why some of you may wanna go back and listen to the sermon number one. [00:05:00] When Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, she was probably only three or four months pregnant. Bethlehem is a 90 mile walk from Nazareth. Nazareth was probably Mary's hometown.
Bethlehem was definitely David's home, I'm sorry, Joseph's hometown. And they would've walked, that would've been the normal way of traveling back then. Uh, and I brought this up last year, and I'll just say it this year and we'll move on. Nobody's riding a donkey for 90 miles. Nobody. Okay, so Mary and Joseph would've walked the 90 miles to Bethlehem, to Bethlehem from Nazareth.
Um, it was probably right after she returned from visiting Elizabeth. Hopefully you remember the story. Gabriel shows up, announces Mary gonna be pregnant immediately. She goes and visits her relative Elizabeth, and she stays with Elizabeth. Three months she comes back. It's been about three or four months now.
Uh, apparently Nazarus finds out Mary's pregnant. She's only engaged. Joseph [00:06:00] finds out, and I believe Joseph was probably in Bethlehem preparing the home. Joseph comes back. He wants to find out what's going on. He finds out what's going on. There needs to be some divine intervention. He ends up taking Mary to be his wife, and they travel to Bethlehem.
Now Luke makes it very clear when they travel to Bethlehem, they're still only engaged, which means they would not have been alone. There would've been other relatives with them traveling to Bethlehem, and they probably returned to Joseph's ancestral home. As I said last week, there is no way, it is absolutely incredulous to believe that Jesus was born in a stable or a cave.
Not in this culture, not in this society. Jesus was born in a house and all the houses, almost all the houses in Bethlehem, ancient houses, all would've had mangers in the living room. Because it would've been common custom that you would bring the animals in at night and you needed a feeding trough, and that's all a manger is.
It's a feeding trth. So when [00:07:00] Jesus was born, they laid him in the manger as far as there being no room in the end. We saw last year that it, it's really a poor translation and it really should be translated guest room. In fact, it's the same word used of where Jesus celebrated the last supper in the spare room, the guest room, the guest quarters.
And it would've been a very small room. It would've been too small to have a baby if you had a midwife and some other people helping. So they would've come down to the main living quarters and Mary would've delivered Jesus. Now, normally Stacey warns me do not give any TV or movie recommendations, uh, 'cause I tend to forget what was in the movie or the television show, but I'm safe here and so I can recommend this one.
I don't know if any of you are watching it or not, but. It's on, uh, PBS, but you can get it like on Amazon or whatever. But all creatures great and small. It is a terrific family show. We love it. And one of the things I love about it is every year, even though it [00:08:00] doesn't come out during Christmas, every year they have a Christmas episode and we just watched the last episode.
It was a Christmas episode and they were doing a, uh, nativity scene with the kids and everything, and they nailed it. Jesus was born in a house. I mean, they nailed it. There weren't a bunch of animals around, but there would would've been a manger and Jesus would've been laid in a manger. And that's what scripture teaches.
So those are some things by reminder. Now take that handout that's in your bulletin. It kinda looks like this. And let me run through the story really fast and then we'll focus in on Matthew's account. Matthew begins with a genealogy. Luke doesn't get to the genealogy until chapter three. But Luke begins his story with Gabriel visiting Mary Mary's living in Galilee.
And if you look at the map, there's a map on the backside. You'll see that Galilee is in the north, Nazarus is in the north, and likely that was Mary's hometown. She finds out she's pregnant. She humbly submits to God, [00:09:00] and then she, she travels south to visit her relative Elizabeth. She visits Elizabeth.
She's there in the south for three months. She returns home. Two Nazarus of Galilee. Joseph is somehow made aware. He comes home. The Bible doesn't give us a lot of detail. We can only imagine. He confronts Mary What's going on? She tells him this incredible story. He probably wants to believe her 'cause she's the love of his life, but this just doesn't happen all the time.
But he has a dream and God confirms in the dream. Joseph, take Mary to be your wife. Jesus is born. We read about it in Luke chapter two, verse seven. Matthew two verse one. And then we read to the Angels and the shepherds. They visit Mary and Joseph Eight days after Jesus' birth, he's circumcised. That would've taken place in Bethlehem.
And then 32 days later, or a total of 40 days, they go to Jerusalem because it was customary to present your child, your firstborn son at the temple and to pay a temple tax. And there they, they encounter [00:10:00] Simeon and Anna, and hopefully you remember those stories. And then it is likely, you'll see a little interruption there, but it is likely that they return to Bethlehem.
And if any of you want to talk about it later, we can. There's a chance that they went to Nazareth after that because both Luke and Matthew are only telling portions of the story and we need to bring it together here. But I tend to lean that they return to Bethlehem of Judea, and that's where we encounter the Magi.
And it's possibly, uh, when you read the account, Jesus could be anywhere from a couple of months old to almost two years old when the Magi appear and they're clearly living in a house. After the Magi leave, they flee to Egypt. Sadly, Herod slaughters the innocent boys around the city of Bethlehem and surrounding.
And then when they return, again, I would argue based on Matthew's account that Joseph wanted to come back to Bethlehem. That was his hometown. But he's again warned by God in the dream, and instead of going to Bethlehem, [00:11:00] they go to Nazarus, which fulfills prophecy. Jesus is known as the Nazarene. So that's a, a quick look at the story number two on your outline.
The nativity, according to Matthew, the nativity, according to Matthew. As I said earlier, Matthew's account starts with a genealogy. That's the first 17 verses. If you're not there, turn to Matthew chapter one and look at verses 18 and 19,
verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph and this next line is very important before they came together. Yes, she was found to be with Child by the Holy Spirit and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
So there's a couple of things, and some of you probably know this, but there's a couple of things that we need to kind of get on the table and make sure we understand. First of [00:12:00] all, marriage in ancient Israel was a two part year long process. Okay? Not. A little like the engagement. Most people get engaged six months later before they get married.
But it was, it was much more of a legal process. And what would happen is the couple would get engaged or betrothed, and that's the word that both Luke and Matthew use. Okay. And there's actually a legal ceremony. They would've stood up before witnesses. It would've looked very much like a modern wedding, wedding ceremony.
They would've taken vows and they would've entered into covenant with one another. The dowry would've been paid. And they would've been considered legally married. And that's why when Joseph finds out and the scriptures say that he was gonna divorce her quietly, and it can be translated that way, he would've had to take legal action.
He couldn't just call it off, so to speak. A year later, the man would come. And Where's the man been this whole time? Well, typically. [00:13:00] Customarily, he'd be off building their house or making repairs to a family home. He'd be preparing the home for his bride. And we read about this throughout the scriptures, several different places.
The Song of Songs, we read about it. But oftentimes the, the bride goon would come and he'd have his bridesman with him, and they'd make a big show of it. It would almost be a parade. And they'd come to the, the bride's house and the father would give the, the groom, the bride, and they'd celebrate. And unlike us, and I love weddings.
But unlike us, sometimes they'd celebrate for a week, it'd be a week of celebration. Jesus's first miracle was at one of those celebrations where he turned water into wine, and then Joseph would've taken Mary or the, the, the groom would've taken his bride and they would've gone back to the house, and then they would have consummated.
Their wedding, but they would've been legally married. But it's important in verse 18 because it says that Mary and Joseph were only be betrothed and Matthew, and Luke does a few of these things very specifically. And I just want this in [00:14:00] your head 'cause we're gonna come back to it. But Matthew makes a point before they came together, and I want you to understand those words because they're not talking about before they moved in with each other, the words point to intimacy.
It's important to understand that if we're going to understand the character of Mary, if we are going to avoid some false maryology before they came together, the text is pointing towards future intimacy. She was found to be with Child How? By the Holy Spirit and throughout the scriptures the holy, the Holy Spirit is connected with life in the Creation account.
He's hovering over the unformed world and he's about to form it.
She was found to be with child. Think about Joseph. That must have freaked him out. We will come back to that in a minute. But what the text says [00:15:00] is he was a righteous man and he didn't wanna disgrace her, so he plans to divorce her secretly. Now it's interesting because this phraseology, in fact, the exact same phraseology is used of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.
And if you look, you don't have to turn there. But if you look at Luke chapter one, verse six, scripture says they were both righteous in the side of God, and some people stop reading there. It, and I have encountered Christians that have argued that you can be 100% righteous and sinless in this life.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that. In fact, first John chapter one, flatly contradicts that idea, yes, we can grow in righteousness. Yes we can sin less, but we are never sinless until glory. But some people stop there. They were both righteous in the side of God. But Luke goes on to explain what he means by their righteousness walking blamelessly in the commandments.
And here's the important [00:16:00] part, the requirements of Yahweh. So what does that mean? It means to the best of their ability, they obeyed the law of God. But when they sinned, when they failed obedience, then they obeyed the requirements in the engaged in the ceremonial system and had their sins atoned for.
They knew what it meant to confess and repent and go to the temple and offer sacrifice. Go to the the great feasts three times a year, attend the Day of Atonement once a year, and that's gonna factor in very importantly, next week. They were righteous because of the grace of God. And Joseph is described as a righteous man and he didn't wanna disgrace Mary.
And literally what this word means is he didn't want to expose her any more than necessary. He didn't wanna literally make an example of her. So literally he plans to send her away. And this is a, a word that can be translated, divorced 'cause it would've been a legal thing. He plans to send her away secretly.
Now, sadly, there's a lot of stories that have been [00:17:00] built up around Mary and Joseph. One story. This is probably one of the most common stories, is it's argued, and this is based on books that are not in the New Testament. Were never considered to be in the New Testament written centuries later, but it's argued that Joseph is an old man.
He's a widower. He's already got sons. He's got sons and daughters. James and Jude were from another wife and he. Mary's Mary, he engages to Mary, but they make some agreement that they're not gonna go any further. It's not gonna be anything intimate in their marriage again, would not have happened in this culture.
In fact, I'm gonna argue in a few minutes, it would have been a sin for that kind of a relationship. There's another story about Mary. This comes from the Jewish side, but it's argued, uh, that Mary was attacked by some Roman soldiers and that's how she ended up pregnant. There's a lot of stories that have built up around here, but just [00:18:00] understand Joseph was a righteous man.
He wanted to send Mary away and he wanted to do it in secret, and the Old Testament allows for that. A lot of people will come here and they'll argue, no, she should have been stoned. And yes, that would be the full extent of the law. But in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse one, we read when a man takes a wife and marries her.
And it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house. And that's what Joseph was planning on doing. He was planning to send Mary away. He was heartbroken. Verse 20.
But when he had considered this behold. An angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph, son of David. That's emphasized. Joseph is the son of David Bethlehem was the hometown of David. And just so you know, Bethlehem comes from two Hebrew words, Beth Laham, and it literally means house of bread.
So you have the bread of [00:19:00] life born in the house of bread, and yes, there's no mistake, there was no coincidence that was meant to be. He considers this, but an angel appears to him a dream saying Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who's been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
And I just want to take a minute, and I want you to consider Joseph's faith. I have no idea what it's like to encounter God in a dream. I know I dream because scientists say, if you don't dream, you'll die. Okay. But I never remember my dreams. I'm, I'm one of those people that never remember my dreams, which is a blessing and a curse.
It's a blessing because rumor has it. It's not good to remember your dreams. I've actually studied dreams in the past, but it's a curse because I find dreams entertaining and for some reason the dreams that I can remember, I can actually interact with my own dreams. [00:20:00] Okay? I can't do anything 'cause I'm a weakling in my dreams.
Okay. It's, it's weird. But what would it be like to encounter God in your dream? Would you wake up knowing that was God? Because I tend to think I would wake up and I'd be questioning the dream. Was that really you? God, did you really tell me that? Did I really encounter you? But whatever happened with Joseph, he woke up and he exercised faith.
And I'm just talking from a guy, ladies, and you can talk to your husbands when you get home. There would've been a little doubt in the back of Joseph's mind, I think. But Joseph decided, I'm gonna obey God. I'm gonna bow the knee to God and I'm gonna take this woman and I'm gonna love this woman, and I'm gonna raise this child to the glory of God.
And that's what Joseph does. He gets up, he takes the woman and kids in verse 21. This is on your handout. This is a fill in the blank. And God [00:21:00] tells Joseph, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. A couple of things here. His name is Jesus. And I said that once and somebody corrected me afterwards and says, you gave the Spanish translation.
No, that's Greek. In the Greek. That's exactly what it sounds like. Jesus. Okay. And literally it comes from the Hebrew. It means Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves and Matthew makes it clear. You'll call him Jesus. You'll call him Yahweh saves because he will save. Now what's Matthew doing? He's identifying Jesus with Yahweh.
This is a divine son of God. This is Yahweh, and this is how Yahweh is gonna save his people. And what's he gonna save them from? This is so important from their sins. And you see that points to the atonement. I will share some different views and theories that the church has held about the atonement. And sadly, [00:22:00] today it's becoming very popular to say that Jesus did not in fact die for our sins.
That would be cosmic child abuse for God the Father descend his son into the world and die for our sins, and yet that is exactly what the Bible speaks of, and that is exactly what the Bible presents. His name is Jesus Yahweh saves for, he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken of by the Lord through the prophet.
And now he cites. He cites Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, and he cites Isaiah chapter eight, verse 10. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emanu L Emanu God with us. L actually emanu with us, L God, God with us, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which translates God with us.
Now, here's your chance to make my day. They just, Matthew just cited two old Testament passages. What have I been [00:23:00] calling them? Hyperlinks. Yes, they're hyperlinks. This was the biblical author's way of bringing in a ton of information into a story. So how does Isaiah work here as a hyperlink? I think this is important and when we go back and we read the context and the full context of this passage would be reading at least Isaiah chapter one through 11 so that we see how it all fits together and we, we find out when we go back there that the original promise was a promise of salvation.
The original promise that led to the sign of the virgin giving birth to a child was a promise of salvation and safety. It was given to King Ahaz, and we need to remember, because Matthew's trying to communicate something here. Ahaz was a wicked king. And not only did he reject it, he didn't want it. He was trying to act humble.
But when you read the story, it, he wasn't, he had his own idea. He had his own plan. He has his own, his own way of wanting to move [00:24:00] forward, and he didn't want God to give him a sign. And yet God was promising that I will keep you safe and I will save you and you will owe me. And what about the rest of the surrounding context?
Keep this in mind because this is what Matthew is trying to communicate. In Isaiah chapter two, we read that famous passage beginning in verse two. The mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the chief mountain. Nations will stream to Jerusalem. Israel will be lifted up. God will be shown in all his glory.
And when we keep reading, swords pounded into plow shears, spears turned into pruning hooks, it will come with peace. This Messiah will bring the kingdom of God and with the kingdom of God, there will be peace. Isaiah chapter nine, beginning in verse two, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light and that famous passage in chapter nine, and a child will be born to us.
And the child is once again described as divine. The father of eternity, the government will be upon his [00:25:00] shoulder. He's the fulfillment of all the promises to David. He is the seed of David. He is the promise Messiah. And in Isaiah chapter 11, beginning in verse one, then a shoot will spring up from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
And all the information spoken of by all the prophets about this branch, this coming Messiah would've filled the pages of Matthew and his original readers would've understood all of this. This is a Divine Son, which explains why the Greek translation as well as the New Testament translate this word virgin with a word that only means virgin.
This is a woman who knew not man, this was a miraculous birth. Verse 24, and Joseph awoke of him asleep and did as the angel of Yahweh commanded him and took Mary as his wife. So Joseph made things official, and as I understand the [00:26:00] story, they would've immediately, or at least within the next few days, left for Bethlehem.
Why? Because he wanted to protect Mary. Because he wanted to get her out of there. He wanted to take her back to his home, his hometown, his relatives. So they would've left very shortly. Mary would've been, again, three to four months pregnant, and they would've immediately gotten married when they arrived at Bethlehem.
How do I know that? Because in Luke, chapter two, verse seven, when Jesus is born, they're already living together and the only way you could live together in that culture would've been as a man and a wife as fulfilling the second half of that ceremony. But here's another very important verse, and we tend to read over it and, and we don't pay much attention.
Verse 25, but Joseph kept her a virgin and she'll until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. So again, Joseph obeys God. She has a son. He calls him Jesus Yahweh save. But the part that we might skip over [00:27:00] is he kept her a virgin until, and this is so important, and the reason it's important is because of the false doctrines concerning Mary that has grown up in the Catholic church.
And not only is it in the Catholic church, but there are those in the Protestant church that would hold to some of these things. Mary is not a perpetual virgin.
Nowhere in the Bible is this t. Yeah, we, we hear that Joseph keeps her a virgin until she has a son until means. There was a time that he stopped keeping her as a virgin in Matthew one 18 we read before they came together. You see Matthew and Luke are trying to let us know Mary's a righteous woman and this was a real marriage.
It was a miraculous verse, uh, birth. Second reason I don't believe that Mary was perpetually a virgin is Luke chapter two, verse seven. And when we read Luke chapter two, verse seven, we read that she gave birth to her firstborn son. [00:28:00] Now, there's no reason to describe Jesus as her firstborn if he was her only son.
You see the word firstborn, and Luke is a great historian. The word firstborn implies she had other children. In addition to that, in Matthew chapter 13, beginning in verse 55, we find the same story in Mark chapter six. If they encounter Jesus. Is this not the carpenter's son? Is this not the son of Joseph?
Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers plural, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas. James wrote a book of scripture. So did Judas. We know him as Jude and his sisters plural. Are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? Where did this man get all this wisdom? You see, and some go to this verse and some wanna argue, well, you shouldn't translate it brothers and sisters.
You should translate it. Cousins or something like that. It's just [00:29:00] not in the text. It says brothers and it says, sisters. Last but not least the reason, I don't believe that Mary is a perpetual virgin, and this has led to other heresy. The reason I don't believe it is because of her own righteousness. Mary is described as a righteous woman and listen to the requirements of marriage.
My wife hates it. When I talk that way, but in the Bible, marriage is a covenant in the Bible. Like it or not, it can be romantic. The Song of Solomon's is a book of romance. There's other romantic things in the Bible, but it's a covenant, it's a contract, and it comes with responsibility, and that responsibility is laid out in Genesis chapter two, beginning in verse 24.
For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall. Become one flesh, there will be intimacy. And elsewhere in the law of God, there's actually a law that if you withhold that intimacy from your wife, you're, you're breaking [00:30:00] the mosaic law.
He kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and they named him Jesus. Look at chapter two. We're gonna look at chapter two, verse one. Now the wise men in chapter two, verse one. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem with Judea. In the days of King Herod, magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born King of the Jews, for we saw 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. Now, a couple of things in kids. This is on your handout. What are magi? What are magi? And the first thing I want to tell you, they're not kings. We three kings th wrong historically inaccurate. The Magi are not kings. Now, the magi are part of the king's court.
They are royal officials, but they're not kings. Magi have also been called king makers, but they're not [00:31:00] kings. Okay? Literally the word means magicians, maybe astrologers. Daniel was a magi in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, okay? These were royal official. They would've been found in in the court, but they were not kings.
They were magicians. And you see this was to fulfill so much of what the Old Testament said in Isaiah 60 verse three Nations will come to your light in kings to the brightness of your rising. And I think that's why some people think they're kings. They're not. They're from a king's court. They represent the king and they come to Jesus and what do they do?
They literally, we don't know if they knelt or literally fell on their faces. The text says they fell to the ground. Now my next question, kids, how many magi were there? Here's the correct answer 'cause this is on your handout. We don't know. The traditional story says three. The Bible never says three. The Bible speaks of three [00:32:00] gifts, but it doesn't tell us how many magi and most scholars that understand these magi, this group of people would believe that it was probably a whole group of them, probably 12 or more, maybe.
That travel together and they come and they ask, where's the king of the Jews for? We saw his star in the east and we have come to worship him. And it seems when you read the entire account that they truly did wanna worship Jesus. How they learned about it. We don't know. Maybe it was something Daniel left in Babylon.
We just don't know. But they saw this prophecy from somewhere that there was gonna be the star coming, and we don't even know what the star is. The, the word translated star. It literally just means a heavenly body. It could be a comet, it could be a supernova, it could be a number of things. We also know it moved.
God was in control of it and God was moving it, and God was guiding it. But the interesting thing is Jesus is often associated with a star. In the [00:33:00] Old Testament, just one example in numbers 24 17 Balam, hopefully you remember the story. Balam was hired to curse Israel, but he couldn't. He could only bless them and listen to one of the things that Balam says in numbers 24 17.
I see him. I wonder who he's talking about. I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near a star. Shall come forth from Jacob A scepter. Shall arise from Israel and shall crush through the forehead of Moab and tear down all the sons of Seth Bal Him is prophesying about Christ and he ties Christ to a star.
And when Christ is born, God puts a star to lead these wise men, these magi to him kids. There's another question on your handout. Who was king at the time? Well, the king was Herod. And Herod is known as Herod the Great and Herod. Was a wicked, scared, [00:34:00] paranoid, depressed man. And we know actually quite a bit about Herod.
Herod was born around 70 bc. He died in March or April of four bc. You see, we got the calendar wrong. Jesus was born most likely in late 80, I'm sorry, BC five. We'll come back to that in a minute. But Herod was king. From about 37 BC until his death. So he reigned about 33 years. He was appointed by the Romans.
And here's the fascinating thing, and it's important to know this about Herod. He wasn't a Jew, he was an Ed mite. He was the descendant of Esau and he didn't have the right to be king of the Jews. Uh, but he sweet talked the Romans and they put him in authority. And as I said, he was wicked. He was scared, he was paranoid.
He executed one of his wives, three of his sons. I don't know how a father does that and multiple other plots. It is reported that he died in four BC after a very [00:35:00] painful illness, and then the kingdom was divided amongst his sons. And we read in verse three that when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled.
And this Greek word is interesting because it can mean troubled in a good way, or troubled in a bad way. So Herod was troubled in all Jerusalem with him, and it is likely that Herod was troubled because he didn't want another king. He didn't want his kingdom challenged. And the rest of Jerusalem, they may have been troubled for one of two reasons.
Either Herod got 'em all worked up, or probably more likely, and we read this in Luke, there was an expectation. You see, Daniel had prophesied, and it's Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks, and we're not gonna get into the detail of it this morning, but Daniel had prophesied and the Jewish people were expecting their Messiah to come.
They could add, they could count years and days, and they knew that they were right around the time of the Messiah. That's why Simeon at the temple and Anna at the temple, were not surprised when they met [00:36:00] this Messiah. That's why Simeon says, I've seen the Messiah. You can take me home now. He knew he was gonna live long enough to see this.
Messiah and Herod. Verse four, gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people inquired of them where this Messiah was to be born. And they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this has been written by the prophet. Another hyperlink, and I don't have time to get into the detail here, but go back and read Micah chapter five.
A lot of the same things. Judgment, salvation, a child. Will come from Bethlehem, verse six. And you, Bethlehem, house of Bread, land of Judah are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And then in secret, Herod calls the Magi to himself and he wants to know the exact time that the star appeared.
And it's about a two year period, and that's why. In terms of how old Jesus was, he could have been a couple of months. He could have been almost two [00:37:00] years old, and Herod sends them to Bethlehem and said, go search carefully for the child and when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him.
But we know Herod didn't wanna worship. In fact, we read later in Matthew chapter two that Herod executes the male children in Bethlehem and surrounding area. And so in verse nine, after hearing the king, they went their way. And the star, which they had seen from the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was.
Now, the fascinating thing here is this Greek word translated until is the same word used of Mary. He kept her a virgin until Jesus was born. There's a stopping point, and when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And coming into the house, Mary and Joseph were in a house and. What do our nativity scenes usually show?
A stable. You've got shepherds and wise men. Okay. Not true. [00:38:00] Shepherds would've been almost two years ago, and the wise men come into a house. Of course, I think the shepherds came into a house as well, but, and after coming to the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshiped him.
They fell to the ground. We fall to our knees when we confess our sins because we know we're not worthy. You see there's this, this two-sided coin in the life of a Christian. We know we're not worthy. And yet the other side of that coin is Jesus has made me worthy. And yet I still show humility. I sh still show reverence.
So when I go to God to confess, we make it a habit to kneel. These men fell prostrate and I set it right this time, so not getting myself in trouble, they fell to the ground to worship him. This was true worship. And they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and my, and this is where we get the idea that there were three of them, okay?
But we have no idea how many, and there's stories that have built up again about these [00:39:00] gifts. So all the way back to the early second century, we read that the gold represented the royalty of Christ that frankincense his divinity, and myrrh predicted his death in burial. That's not in the scriptures. We don't know that we know this.
We know what gold is, and we know that frankincense and murr were spices and perfumes. We know that these gifts were luxury gifts, and these gifts were gifts that you would bring to a king. But you see there's another connection in scripture that tells us something about these gifts, and though Matthew doesn't cite it, hopefully it would be in the back of the minds of the readers.
You see back in one Kings chapter 10, there was another king. A king who was the wisest man to have lived up until that time. A king who at the time of the writing of One Kings 10, was a very godly king, a very wise king. And there was another gentile queen that came and visited him, the Queen of Sheba, [00:40:00] and listen to the account in One Kings chapter 10, beginning in verse one.
Now, when the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh. His fame was tied to his God because Solomon was a picture of Christ. He was a type and a shadow. She came to test him with difficult questions and listened to what she brought. So she came to Jerusalem with a very large rein retinue with camel's, carrying spices, frankincense, and murr, and very much gold and precious stones.
You see, this is tying the story together. Solomon was the seed of David. Solomon was promised in the Davidic Covenant, but that promise pointed to something greater and Matthew is trying to bring it together here, and he's trying to show us this is the something greater. This is the true Messiah. This is the true seed.
And having [00:41:00] been warned by God, verse 10, in a dream they did not return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. But when they had gone, behold an angel of Yahweh appeared to Joseph in a dream, said, get up, take the child and his mother and flee. Flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.
There's a couple of things that should jump off the page at you. Herod is the serpent. Remember the promise all the way back in Genesis three 15. I will put hatred, I will put hostility between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He, some future male child will crush the head of the serpent, but the serpent's gonna bruise him on the heel.
And there's an exodus motive here. And when you go and you read the book of, of Matthew, and if you, you read it, maybe you'll, you'll go read it this week. But when you read it, Matthew is putting the story [00:42:00] of Jesus and it's mirroring the exodus. It's mirroring the story of Israel. And that's why Jesus goes to Egypt.
So that later in the verse, verse 14. So, Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod, until the death of the serpent. This was to fulfill what was spoken of by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt. I called my son.
If you wanna know how to read the Old Testament, if you wanna know how to read the prophecies of the Old Testament and how to interpret them. Matthew and the book of Hebrews are the two best books to see how the New Testament uses the old and how every scripture speaks of Jesus. Scriptures that spoke of Israel in the Old Testament are actually speaking of Jesus.
They're fulfilled by the true seed, by the true Messiah.
Number three, on your outline, and we'll, we'll wrap this up pretty quickly. And this is bad English, I know, and we're not [00:43:00] gonna spend a whole lot of time here. But number three is reasons to not, not celebrate Christmas. Reasons, to not not celebrate Christmas. Or another way of saying it in better English, in good or English is reasons to celebrate Christmas.
And I just wanna share four really quick ones and we're gonna move on. But one of the biggest reasons I've heard from other Christians is it's not a biblical doctrine. We're not commanded in the scriptures to celebrate Christmas. So let me start with this. If you and your family have decided we're not gonna celebrate Christmas, that's your choice to make.
That's fine. That's a choice you can make. But do it for good reasons. Do it for right reasons. The fact that Christmas is not a biblical doctrine, the fact that it's not commanded in the Bible just really doesn't hold a whole lot of weight. Think of per. In Esther chapter nine, God never commanded it, and yet the Jews celebrated it and they were never condemned for celebrating it.
Think of Hanukkah, [00:44:00] the celebration of lights that's found in a non-biblical book, first and second Maccabees, and yet the Jews celebrated it and they were never condemned for celebrating it. In fact, Jesus took place, uh, took part in Hanukkah, John chapter eight and John chapter 10, but they weren't commanded, but they were days of worship.
Think of synagogue worship. Nowhere in the Bible is synagogue worship commanded, and yet Jesus participated in synagogue worship. Think of ministers at weddings. Nowhere in scripture are ministers commanded to officiate weddings, and yet typically that's how we do it. Another argument that people use for not celebrating Christmas is Jesus wasn't born on December 25th.
So a couple of things here. Number one, I cannot prove to you. Beyond any shadow of the doubt that Jesus was born on December 25th. Okay? But we have really, really strong evidence pointing to the fact that Jesus [00:45:00] was most likely born in December or January. In fact, one of the strongest pieces of evidence pointing to the fact that Jesus was born in the winter is one of the verses that most people appeal to, to say that he wasn't born in the winter.
In Luke, chapter two, verse nine. Speaking of the shepherds, and remember, the angels appear to the shepherds in the same region. We need to understand this term region. It's the surrounding area of Bethlehem because the story was Joseph and Mary and Bethlehem having Jesus in the same region, in the same area.
There were some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Now, what a lot of people would say is, uh. They're close by it. It can't be winter because they're in the fields. And if they were in the fields, it wouldn't be winter because they'd bring them in. But the problem is if you understand the, the history and the culture, if it was winter, they would've been in [00:46:00] the mountains.
And the fact that they were in the fields, the fact that they were nearby proves that it was winter because they weren't in the mountains. In addition to that, we have really good evidence from the Mishna that, especially in Bethlehem Lamb's sheep were left out all year. And the reason they were left out all year is you needed sacrifices for the temple.
The fact that they're in the fields and not in the mountains, it's likely winter and there are some other reasons, but I, I'm not gonna bother with it. Here's, here's my point, truth matters. Truth matters. This story matters how we understand this story, how we apply this story matters. And I want you to think of it this way.
We celebrate Christmas and Easter. We celebrate the incarnation and the atto atonement every Sunday, every Sunday. We [00:47:00] celebrate the advent of Christ. Every Sunday we celebrate the atonement of Christ. We're gonna go to the table here shortly to celebrate the atonement of Christ because he died for our sins.
Celebrating Easter and Christmas is unavoidable. And you see we need to answer Anals question. Why did Jesus become a man? Why did God become a man? And let me give you three quick answers and then we'll wrap it up. Covenant faithfulness. Because God is covenantal, faithful, and as we've looked at the covenants in these last several weeks, we've seen in Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, that God promises to take on all the responsibilities, all the requirement and all the curses of the covenant, and he does it in Jesus Christ.
God had to become a man because God is covenantal, faithful. God had to become a man because of love, because God loved us. And most people would expect me to read John three 16. I wanna read from Ephesians one, [00:48:00] listen to the words of Ephesians one, just as God, speaking of the Father chose us in Him Christ before the foundation of the world, before creation.
And why did he choose us? That we would be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, to himself according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which he freely bestowed upon us. In the beloved in Christ. In Him, we have redemption.
We have been bought out of the slave market of sin. In him. We have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses, the atonement is tied to our sin. According to the riches, the overwhelming riches of God's grace. You are here today. If you know Jesus today, it's because [00:49:00] he loved you and he sent his son to die on the tree, to bear the curse in our name and to rise from the dead demonstrating he didn't deserve to die.
To pay the price, to take your sin upon himself and to give you his very righteousness, God became a man because. Of the atonement in him. We have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness, our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. And the last reason why did God become a man?
First one, covenantal, faithful. And the second one, love. Third reason to die. God became a man to die. And so we celebrate. We celebrate that death every Sunday. We celebrate that birth every Sunday. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for the incarnation of Jesus. Thank you that [00:50:00] Jesus became a man. Thank you that Jesus went to the cross.
Thank you that Jesus bore my sin. Thank you that Jesus and his father sent forth the Holy Spirit to change hearts, to change lives, to apply Jesus' gift. Of salvation. Thank you. That he came as a baby. Thank you that he fulfilled so many prophecies in his birth, but, but father, he came as a baby. He can relate to everything that we've gone through.
He was around sin. He was around sickness though he never sinned, though he was never sick. He saw people that he loved, struggle with it. And you teach us in the book of Hebrews that he too was tested in all things. And yet he didn't cave. He didn't sin. He knows what it means to be tested. He knows what trials are.
He learned obedience from suffering. Father, thank you for the perfect high priest. Thank [00:51:00] you for our savior. And may we take this information of the incarnation and roll it into next week and better understand the atonement for we ask all of this in the name of Christ Jesus. And all of God's people said.
Amen. If you take your bulletins, there's a handout in the.
