SPEAKER_00: There was a time a few years back that there was a prayer circle at our church.
SPEAKER_00: Not unlike prayer circles everywhere, it wasn't very large.
SPEAKER_00: I've discovered that when you want to decrease the congregation, you call for a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: And these people were praying for each other and for the needs of the church.
SPEAKER_00: One of the couples happened to be a missionary couple who was home, like Matt and Laura have been home with us.
SPEAKER_00: And this one man said, Do you have any needs that we could help you with?
SPEAKER_00: And the missionary said, Well, actually I do.
SPEAKER_00: We have an old car and it needs new tires.
SPEAKER_00: How would you respond to something like that?
SPEAKER_00: Tires.
SPEAKER_00: Have you bought any new tires lately?
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago I bought some and I couldn't believe how much tires have gone up in price.
SPEAKER_00: How would you respond to a need like that from a missionary in your church home?
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to talk about responding to the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Because last week we looked at Mary and Joseph, and we saw that their over-romanticized story that we often think about at Christmas time was really a difficult time for them.
SPEAKER_00: Unexpected pregnancies, talk of divorce, families that probably didn't understand taxes that were being raised, threats upon the child Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we read these stories and we forget that these emotions were there as well.
SPEAKER_00: But in every case, Mary and Joseph responded to God and what he asked them to do with faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Now there are other characters in the Bible story that we don't know as much about, and that's why I've titled this sermon Christmas Characters I Wish I Knew Better, because there are some of them who also had revelation from God at Christmas who responded differently.
SPEAKER_00: For example, we looked last week at the relatives of Jesus or the innkeeper, and maybe you are wrestling with this for the first time because a more accurate translation of Luke 2.7 says, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
SPEAKER_00: She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.
SPEAKER_00: Now we usually read that, there was no room for them in the inn.
SPEAKER_00: So we picture Mary and Joseph being moved to a stable because there was a manger there, and that's where Mary gave birth.
SPEAKER_00: But this word guestroom is more accurate in translation than in is.
SPEAKER_00: And guestroom is used by the same author in the same book in Luke chapter 22 when Jesus sent his disciples to find a guestroom where they could have the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: The word in was a word that Luke would have been familiar with because he used it also in Luke chapter 10, the story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: But here he uses guest room.
SPEAKER_00: The manger we can explain, because in those days the guest room was often the upper level, the main room of the house was where the family lived, and down below a little bit, so there was an elevation in the family area, is where they kept some of the animals.
SPEAKER_00: So they would bring them in at night, make sure nobody stole them, and take them out in the morning, and so a manger would have been readily available for Jesus to be placed in.
SPEAKER_00: So that helps understand other portions of this word, where we read in Luke 6, while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth.
SPEAKER_00: That seems to indicate that Jesus didn't just, or Mary didn't just come at the last minute, but while they were there in the guest room or in the room where their family relatives were, that's when she gave birth to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it would make sense because we read later that when the Magi came, they came not to a stable, but they came to a home.
SPEAKER_00: And coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.
SPEAKER_00: So while I can't be dogmatic about this, it seems to make sense to me that Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem intending to stay with relatives, but because there was no room in the guest room, other relatives had already come, they stayed with the family on the first floor, which was attached to a place where animals are kept and gave birth there.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to have Jesus born in a stable, go ahead.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's just more comfortable to have him born in the relative's home, but it's up to you.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be dogmatic about this.
SPEAKER_00: But if if Jesus were born in the home of a relative, I wish I knew something more about it.
SPEAKER_00: I I, for example, did the women in the family assist Mary in the birth of Jesus, which would have been customary in those days, or did they have a midwife?
SPEAKER_00: I thought about this and I decided it was probably not because it would be difficult to find a midwife available on Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got that joke much better than the first hour.
SPEAKER_00: But what I really wish I knew was their reaction.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus were born in a stable and had an innkeeper involved, or if he were born in a house and had the family involved, certainly they would have heard the stories about Mary and Joseph and the stories that the shepherds shared, and the stories that the magis shared.
SPEAKER_00: How did they respond?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture doesn't say.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I titled the sermon, I Wish I Knew More.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's another group of people that we know something about who responded to the revelation that they received, and that's the chief priests and teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: They were the religious leaders, they were the pastors, the theologians, they studied the scriptures, they knew that the Messiah was coming, they even know where he was coming.
SPEAKER_00: He was going to be born in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: So when the Magi came to Jerusalem, they were asking these questions, and they came to the teachers of the law, and the teachers of the law said, He's going to be born in Bethlehem, just down the road.
SPEAKER_00: And we're told that it created quite a stir for Herod and all of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So how did they respond?
SPEAKER_00: You'd think that they would say, at last the Messiah is here.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go see if this is true.
SPEAKER_00: But again, that's an argument from silence because we have no record of them doing anything with what the message that they shared with the Magi.
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't they go see this thing through?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was pride.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they thought, you know, if the Messiah is really coming, he would, the message would come to us first.
SPEAKER_00: We're the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: We know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't come from these Gentiles from Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe they just brushed it off as suckers for believing such false things.
SPEAKER_00: We know better.
SPEAKER_00: The message didn't come to us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But then there are the shepherds and the wise men, and you talk about two very different people.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds were very humble and common.
SPEAKER_00: The magi were connected to royalty.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherds were probably poor Jewish men, and all they had to offer was worship.
SPEAKER_00: Where the magi were well-traveled Gentiles who brought expensive gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds were locals from the surrounding hills.
SPEAKER_00: The magi from the courts of a distant empire.
SPEAKER_00: But wouldn't you have thought that the message of the Messiah would have come to the high priest in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: But instead the message came to shepherds and to Gentiles, just as the Lord overlooked apparently the chief priests and teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some have conjectured that the shepherds were caring for sheep that were going to be offered as sacrifices, and that's why the angel came to the shepherds and told them about the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the people.
SPEAKER_00: But why?
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: Why would men from a pagan land inquire about the king of the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: Why would they care?
SPEAKER_00: And why would they ask at this particular time?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might remember Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Arnold Fruchtenbaum, who used to come and hold Bible lessons here with us at church, and he has posited, I think, a very possible explanation.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he says we're not dealing with a star as we see at night shining up in the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Because this star travels from east to west and it travels from north to south, and it actually hovers over a single house in Bethlehem, pointing out the exact location of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
SPEAKER_00: If there were a star that hovered over a particular house, it would literally destroy not only the house, but probably the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: This star is better translated as radiance or brilliance.
SPEAKER_00: And this radiance or brilliance is also seen in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It's often the visible manifestation of God at a particular place.
SPEAKER_00: The burning bush, like fire, the pillar of fire at night that led the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So he speculates that this star was some sort of brilliance that these men saw while they were in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: But how did they know it was the right time for this child to be born?
SPEAKER_00: How would they know it was now and not another time?
SPEAKER_00: And he answers by looking back to the book of Daniel, which is the only book in the Old Testament that lays out a specific timetable for when Messiah was to be born.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27 lays out a specific timetable for when the Messiah was to come.
SPEAKER_00: And it was written by Daniel, who was living in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: It was written in Aramaic, which was the language of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember, Daniel was the predecessor of these magi who served under Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: And he was the head of all the astrologers.
SPEAKER_00: So we conclude then from the book of Daniel that the Babylonian astrologers did know the time when the Messiah was to be born from what Daniel had written.
SPEAKER_00: But how did they know that the star was pointing the way to the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: And they even call it his star in Matthew 2.2.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel makes no mention of a star, so how did they connect Messiah's coming with a star?
SPEAKER_00: From another well-known Babylonian astrologer named Balaam.
SPEAKER_00: He was from a city on the banks of the Euphrates in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember that he was hired by the king of Moab and the king of Midian to curse the Jews as they moved from Egypt to the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: But instead of cursing them, he blessed the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And in his fourth blessing he says this, I see him, but not now.
SPEAKER_00: I behold him, but not near.
SPEAKER_00: A star will come out of Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: A scepter, which is a kingship symbol, will come out of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So centuries later, when the star appeared, or that brilliance appeared, they put it together.
SPEAKER_00: It was the right time, because that's what Daniel said in chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the star because that's what Balaam said in Numbers 24, 7.
SPEAKER_00: So how did the wise men know?
SPEAKER_00: If you look it up, there's a lot of speculation.
SPEAKER_00: There's a confluence of planets that somehow led them.
SPEAKER_00: There was the pseudoscience of astrology that led them.
SPEAKER_00: But I prefer to take their understanding of the star and where Jesus was to be born because they had the scriptures from Daniel and also from Balaam, both who had been astrologers in the kingdom of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to know a lot more about these men, wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_00: There may have been a lot more than three, but we know that they brought three gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And they responded to God's revelation in Scripture and in nature.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's one other group I want us to look at and think about their response.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the families of the slain children.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when the Magi saw the baby Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: They were supposed to come back to Herod and tell him where to find Jesus, but instead the angel warned them, so they went home a different way.
SPEAKER_00: Herod found out this and he was angry.
SPEAKER_00: Herod was a man of rage.
SPEAKER_00: He killed several of his wives and children because he thought they were plotting against him.
SPEAKER_00: Emperor Augustus reportedly said, it's better to be Herod's sow than his son.
SPEAKER_00: And so he said, I'm going to have all the babies in Bethlehem and environs killed so that we might cover this Messiah that's got to be living somewhere in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: How many was that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we speculate that Bethlehem was about a city of a thousand people.
SPEAKER_00: So how many two-year-olds and younger?
SPEAKER_00: And in the surrounding area?
SPEAKER_00: How do you suppose the parents dealt with that?
SPEAKER_00: When a Roman soldier comes to the door and says, Do you have a toddler in your house?
SPEAKER_00: A toddler boy?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Slain right before their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Could you accept that?
SPEAKER_00: Especially if you learned that the reason for that was because they were trying to kill the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Now don't forget, as we apply this briefly, that these were similar people to us.
SPEAKER_00: They had the same emotions, the same intellect, the same will, and they had one other thing in common.
SPEAKER_00: God had revealed himself to them, revealed to them about the Son, not in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how these people responded to God's revelation.
SPEAKER_00: The extended family, I'm assuming that Jesus was born in a family home, or even if he was born in a stable of the innkeeper's possession.
SPEAKER_00: These family members must have heard about the miracle of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: Mary certainly would have shared with them how this all took place and Joseph about the dreams he had.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't have any record of any response.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's an argument from silence, and we can't put much on to that, but I wonder why they didn't respond or didn't have something there about their response.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've known over the years that sometimes relatives are slow to acknowledge God working in their own families' lives.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen that as young people have come to know the Lord through crew and their families at home think, well, what is this that they got themselves into?
SPEAKER_00: What is this religious stuff that they're doing?
SPEAKER_00: And some families are very slow to embrace that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the case with Mary and Joseph's family.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe they were Scandinavian Jews who kept their faith to themselves, didn't talk about their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe they weren't convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: There's a startling little verse in John's Gospel where it says Jesus was afraid to go to Jerusalem because they were trying to kill him, and his brothers said, Go down there.
SPEAKER_00: Go down to Jerusalem because even his brothers did not believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting response from the extended family.
SPEAKER_00: What about the chief priests and scribes?
SPEAKER_00: How had God revealed his incarnation to them?
SPEAKER_00: They had the written word of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They knew it, they'd studied it, it pointed to Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They could quote chapter and verse, they could point out not only Messiah was coming, but this is where he's going to be born.
SPEAKER_00: You know, their revelation about God's son is a lot like our own.
SPEAKER_00: It's from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we go to church all our lives, we memorize the scriptures, we know the stories, but their knowledge of God never moves from their heads to their hearts, to their wills, to their behavior.
SPEAKER_00: You say, you're kind of being judgmental of these guys, aren't you, Pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Or well, think about it.
SPEAKER_00: These chief priests and scribes apparently weren't willing to go five miles to check out the story of the Magi.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know anyone like that?
SPEAKER_00: You know all the stories of the Bible, all the scriptures, you've memorized it.
SPEAKER_00: But when is the last time you've acted on something that the Lord is telling you to do from his word?
SPEAKER_00: And then there are the shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: I love the shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: Simple folk.
SPEAKER_00: God brought this amazing message from an angel, and they wanted to check it out, and they went and saw for themselves, and they believed.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not unlike some of you who heard the word of God, you understood the message about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't hear it from an angel, but you might have heard it from a pastor, a Sunday school teacher, or even a parent as I did, or a camp evangelist, and you heard the message and you believed.
SPEAKER_00: And like the shepherds, you can't stop talking about this Christ child.
SPEAKER_00: A few of you might be like the magi who had not only the spoken word, as we saw from Daniel and Balaam, but you had some miraculous thing like the star in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can't explain other than God worked in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't have gotten well, but you did.
SPEAKER_00: Your children shouldn't have escaped that accident, but they did.
SPEAKER_00: Your marriage wasn't salvageable, but it was.
SPEAKER_00: And these things that happened can only be explained because God was in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Like the magi on your journey, you've had help from others along the way, as they did, but you were not the same because God met with you in a very special way.
SPEAKER_00: You have no trouble worshiping him or serving him.
SPEAKER_00: Wonder how anybody could do otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you're like the parents of these slain children.
SPEAKER_00: Life for you has been tough and unfair.
SPEAKER_00: God hasn't communicated with you, you say, and if there is a God you'd like to give him a peace of your mind, because you're angry.
SPEAKER_00: You recall your life as being one of pain, the pain of a broken home, the parents who are less than exemplary, the pain of disappointing people, of broken relationships, of loss and grief.
SPEAKER_00: And your pain has caused you to question the very goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's either too weak to fix the problem or he's too distant to care about you.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I want you to say is you're not alone because the Lord has experienced similar things.
SPEAKER_00: You've been rejected, so was he.
SPEAKER_00: You've been despised, so was he.
SPEAKER_00: You had pain, so did he.
SPEAKER_00: You felt alone, so did he, and all of that pain and rejection and sorrow was experienced on your account for you and me, so that you could one day become right with God through his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Now these different people all had opportunities to respond to God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: They differed in the way that they responded.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures tell us that some of the response was miraculous and some of them we just don't know.
SPEAKER_00: One thing is sure, though, as we see not only in the Christmas story but elsewhere, is that when God gives us revelation, when God speaks to us, when God provides us with light, he expects that we would respond.
SPEAKER_00: I can hear somebody saying, who wouldn't respond to a supernatural star or to angel visitations?
SPEAKER_00: I haven't had any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Never have.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But I've thought, you know, if somebody at Amundsen's funeral home could get up out of that casket and say, let me tell you what I've just experienced on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody could just come back and tell us what to avoid or what to embrace in this life, then certainly people would believe.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody suggested that to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he said.
SPEAKER_00: If you do not listen to Moses and the prophets, you will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe Moses and the prophets, you won't believe even if somebody rises from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know where you are this morning in your response to the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, but perhaps there's someone here who hasn't.
SPEAKER_00: And what's going to make Christmas exceptional this year is for you to embrace Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now for those of us who have responded to the light of the gospel, let me ask you one more question.
SPEAKER_00: When is the last time that you took specific action to obey God's revelation, his light, other than the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Can you think of a specific thing that the Lord has spoken to you about that you have said, with God's strength, the Holy Spirit enabling me, I'm going to be baptized?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to join a church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to write a letter and ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to share my faith with someone.
SPEAKER_00: When is the last time you specifically did something in response to what the Lord has said to you in his word?
SPEAKER_00: Can't think of anything.
SPEAKER_00: Then I have a suggestion.
SPEAKER_00: Get into this thing called the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Look for commands.
SPEAKER_00: Look for examples, positive and negative, look for principles, and begin to pray, Lord, is this what you want me to do?
SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you the Lord is going to show you something this Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: One passage Matt already mentioned from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be a good place to go.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: It's in that passage that we read, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is the meat and potatoes passage about giving.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we started this sermon by telling you about this prayer circle.
SPEAKER_00: And this man asked the missionary, what is it that you need?
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, We need four new tires for our car.
SPEAKER_00: And the man and his wife thought it over and said, I'll give you those four tires.
SPEAKER_00: But they're attached to almost a brand new car.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do something like that?
SPEAKER_00: Be careful what the Lord might ask you to do.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, I couldn't afford a new car.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
SPEAKER_00: And you just got your taxes from the city, right?
SPEAKER_00: I told you you would last week.
SPEAKER_00: They came this week and they went up.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice?
SPEAKER_00: And Christmas is coming.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have any money, right?
SPEAKER_00: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: The same man who gave this missionary couple a car wrote a pamphlet on New Testament giving for a seminary, and the president of the seminary read it, and he doubled his giving to the Lord, the president of the seminary.
SPEAKER_00: He also one day realized that the seminary where he worked needed extra funds, and he had some, and he went to his bank and he withdrew all his life saving and gave it to the seminary.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, is there one thing that you can think of this Christmas season that the Holy Spirit of God is saying, I want you to do this?
SPEAKER_00: And you have said, No, some other time.
SPEAKER_00: Will you with his strength respond to the light of his word and obey?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.