Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Series

Scripture: Matthew 2:1-10

The S’s of Christmas – Sermon Series

+The Star of Bethlehem

+The Shepherds

+The Stable

+The Savior

The Star – What can we learn about Our Savior through the Sign, the Symbol and the Siren of the Star of Bethlehem.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Most of us grew up learning a portion of an English lullaby that was written by the 19th century poet Jane Taylor. That lullaby was part of a poem called “The Star”. It was included in a collection entitled Rhymes for the Nursery that was written by Jane and her sister Ann Taylor and was published in London in 1806.

The part of the lullaby or poem that became famous are these words:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

That little lullaby is still popular today.

This morning, I would like for us to focus on another star – or perhaps we should say another light. A light that has over the years been labeled as the Star of Bethlehem or the Christmas Star.

I. That Light was God’s Sign in the Sky

If you have ever done a deep dive on the star or light of Bethlehem, you find very little written about the meaning of the star and a plethora of material written about what exactly was the star or light and when did it first appear.

+Was it a planet or a group of planets that came into a cosmic alignment?

This was the thought of the 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler believed that three planets came in an alignment to form the Christmas Star. He dated the time of that alignment to around 7 B.C.

Since then, quite a number of scholars and astronomers have attempted to discover when the Christmas light appeared and its origin. Some have theorized that the light came from a distant sun that went supernova or that it was a comet streaking across the sky.

Others have taken Kepler’s theory and have agreed that the Christmas Star was a conflagration or the coming together of several planets. However, they have not agreed on which planets they were or when the event happened.

Some have said it was Jupitar, Saturn and Mars that were in perfect alignment while others have opted for the idea that it was Venus and Jupitar. Some have stated that all of this happened in 7 BC but others say it was 6 BC or even 5 BC. And quite recently a new group has decided that the Christmas Star was the star Regulus and the planets Jupiter and Venus which came into alignment around 2 BC.

Now, all these theories have long-drawn-out reasons why their theory is the right one. And as we see, they date the Bethlehem star as early as 7 BC or as late as 2 BC. They all do their best to prove that their theory is the right one while dismissing all the others.

I think all of them miss the main point. They don’t see the trees for the forest so to speak.

They focus on calendar watching. They attempt to look at the night sky and count backwards to where this star or that celestial body or even that zodiac symbol lines up in just the right fashion so that they can discover when the star appeared and therefore when Jesus was born.

And of course, there are those that say the whole thing was a hoax. That there never was a star and it is a waste of time and resources to even spend time researching the idea. That we need to remember that God doesn’t exist and so there is nothing to study.

Well, I don’t agree with that last group.

And I don’t want to dismiss whole cloth those who have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to find the Bethlehem star.

However, I do believe what they should have focused on was the fact that the Light was to be a Sign.

It was God’s Sign that He put into the sky to speak to the Magi.

It was God’s Sign that He put into the sky to display His Power and Majesty.

Recently there are growing number of people who have quit looking at the star charts to try to explain what happened and have instead:

+Focused on the fact that it was a miraculous sign from God. It was not a natural phenomenon, but it was a supernatural manifestation of God’s glory and power in the skies to announce the coming birth of His Son Jesus.

+Or they have settled on the possibility that the light could have been an angel; since the star is said to have moved and focused itself over the house where Jesus was staying as a child. The light was one of God’s Angels showing the way for the Wise Men to find Jesus.