5 Reactions To The First Christmas

5 Reactions to the First Christmas

Ephesians Series

CCCAG December 4th, 2022

Scripture- Matthew 2, Luke 1-2

It’s great to see you all again, and I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving weekend, and a prosperous season if you were able to go.

I twisted my already gimpy knee the Thursday before season opener, so I couldn’t go hunting the first few days, and then I worked 4, 12 hour shifts in the ER over Thanksgiving weekend so this hunting season was pretty much a bust for me. Maybe I’ll get some time during the antlerless or holiday hunt to get out and go hunting.

On Thanksgiving, during the few times we were not running around controlling the chaos of flu/RSV/COVID patient’s, most people were talking about the Black Friday sales going on and getting some Christmas shopping done. They were talking about plans for family gatherings, meal planning, traveling, looking for trades to make the most of the time we have off since we don’t work Christmas Eve or Day.

As I was catching up on charts, and listening to the conversations, it occurred to me that there was one thing missing in many of the plans being discussed.

Jesus- the reason for the season.

How many of us fall into that same trap of what we call the Christmas season today?

It then occurred to me that this isn’t just a 21st century American problem. The people of 1st Century Israel reacted in various ways to the announcement of Christmas, and their reactions mirror many of the reactions we still see today.

We are going to look at 5 different reactions the birth of Jesus this morning, and see if we can find ourselves and our response to this holiday in any of these historic people

Prayer

So, let’s launch into our 5 reactions this morning, and we will start with the Magi

1st Reaction- The Magi (Curiosity)

Matt 2:1-2

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Matt 2:9-12

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 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 and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

NIV

In all of the accounts of the 1st Christmas, there are few people less mysterious than the Magi.

What we know about them-

They were men of science, which in that time included some mysticism.

They came from the area that is today known as Iraq, but in their day was part of Persia, or Iran. They were most likely descendants of men who were trained by the Prophet Daniel, so they would have been well versed in Hebrew writings and prophecy as well as knowing the approximate time that the Hebrew messiah would appear given the hints in Daniel and other prophetic writings in the Torah. They would have been looking for some sign that the King of Kings would be born, so the appearance of this huge star in the night must have been intriguing enough for them to set off on a very dangerous, hard, and long 600-to-1000-mile journey from Iraq to Jerusalem.

It would have been at least 4-6 months to get there with a notable detour into Herod’s courts to ask directions.

Ladies- that’s how we know they were wise men- they actually stopped to ask directions.

I bring up the curiosity of the Magi because many people refuse to believe the bible or Christianity because they claim to be people of science, and that science and faith are mutually exclusive. I heard a person say recently that science has enabled us to toss aside the myths that our parents grew up with, like Christianity.

These same people forget that many of the early scientists were Christians who were curious about how God designed the universe, so they did experiments to figure it out.

Here are just five out of the over 50 I found-

Robert Boyle- defined much of modern Chemistry. Said that the understanding of science was the glorification of God.

Gregor Mendel- discovered the rules of heredity

Sir Isaac Newton- wrote the laws of gravity, motion,, invented the reflecting telescope, invented calculus