A Christmas Story (His Star)

A Christmas Story

His Star

Today we’re going to look at another "part" of the Christmas story. A part that

is mentioned in passing and grossly misunderstood. The story of the

Christmas Star. It may seem like I’m totally lost in the scripture that we look at

today, but if you’ll bear with me I think that when we’re finished you’ll understand

this great story better than you ever have before.

Let’s start with two verses that I think we need to understand before we get

into the meat of this message. You remember that I’ve talked in the past about

how we have to look at the context of a word in order to truly understand the meaning attached to it? Well, this is a good example of that.

Jn 4:24 God is a spirit: and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The word "truth" as used in this verse relates to accuracy. We must accurately

(free from mistakes or errors, precisely) understand what God’s word actually

says before it can be properly applied in our lives.

We can’t let ourselves to be tricked into believing a lie, or an inaccuracy.

Even if it’s an honest mistake. The best way to insure that this doesn’t happen

is to compare what we’re being told, with the word of God. This should be

done by each one of us, in our private study time.

Jn 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.

I want to touch on three words here. "truth", "know", and "free".

Truth, here means "the Son of God, Jesus", the source of all truth.

The word "know" doesn’t mean to just know about Him, it means that He’s had

a major impact on your life.

And the word "free" doesn’t mean that we’re free to do whatever we want to do.

It means that we’re free to follow God and to serve Him.

As most of you know, I was in law enforcement for many years.

Most of that time was spent in the detective section, investigating various

crimes, from Auto Theft to Robbery and Homicide.

There were six questions that always had to be answered to solve a crime.

These same six questions can and should be asked during any serious Bible study.

They are:

Who: Who’s speaking, Who are they speaking to, who’s this apply to, etc.

What: What’s the topic, context, principle being shown, etc.

When: When was this, when does it apply to a specific situation, etc.

Where: Where did it take place, or where will it take place. (physically or

spiritually)

Why: Why did this happen, why was it said, etc.

How: How did this come to pass, how does it apply to me, etc.

When we find the answers to these questions, we’ll not only understand what

God’s word is saying to us, but we’ll know much better how it applies to our lives.

I’ve probably gotten you real confused about now. I’d imagine you’re asking

yourself what this has to do with the Christmas story. Well, stay with me, I’m

not through confusing you yet.

I believe that in order to truly understand the birth of Jesus, we need to look at a few of the things said and done at the death of Jesus. Then we can tie every-

thing together and have a better understanding of both the birth and death of

our Savior.

I’m not going to read all of these passages, but you should during your study

time. I’ll just kind of highlight each of them.

Sacrifice: Mt 26:26-28 Jesus prophesied that He would be sacrificed.

Mt 27:50-54 Jesus was sacrificed.

Buried: Mt 27:57-61 Jesus was buried

Risen: Mt 28:1-7 He is risen

King: Mt 27:37 He is King.

Jn 12:27 ....But for this cause came I unto this hour.

Jesus knew that His crucifixion was just ahead. Because He was human as

well as God, He dreaded it.

He knew that He had to become sin for all of us and that this would separate

Him from His Father. He didn’t want to die on the cross, but He knew that for

our sake He had to. Jesus said no to His human wants and desires in order

to obey His Father and to save us from our sin.

Jn 18:37 Pilate asks Jesus if He’s a King. Jesus answers "You say I am.

That’s important, but, what I’m looking for is found in the middle of this verse: To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.....

A. What cause?

1. To save mankind from their sin.

1Jo 4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent

the Son [to be] the savior of the whole world.