In response to Jesus, the Wise Men gave him generous gifts while holding nothing back. Join us this week as we discover who these wise men really were!
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I think there are 2 kinds of ppl who come to church around Christmas
- Ppl who are very familiar w/all Christmas stories in Bible
- Ppl whose experience of Christmas has been a lot more secular
- The kind of thing you get in stores / at school
- In the popular Christmas movies that we rewatch every year
- This series is for everyone, but especially for those who feel far from God
- Because the people who were actually there on the first Christmas
- Were not the people anyone would have expected
- Last week we saw the surprising inclusion of the shepherds in the Christmas story
- They were loners and losers, on the outside of society
- Yet God broke his 400-year silence and declared the Good New first to them!
- Today: another shocker
- The story of the “wise men” or “magi”
- Maybe you thought it was normal, natural
- They’ve always been a part of the Christmas story
- But actually, it makes no sense in its worldly context
- Today we’ll answer two questions:
- Who were the magi, and why are they in the Christmas story? What were their three famous gifts all about?
Matthew 2:1-2 (NLT) 1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
- First of all, a few trivial facts:
- Only mentioned in Matthew
- Never says there were three of them (We three Kings…)
- Most likely not kings (astrologers is a better translation, as we’ll see)
- In Jerusalem because that’s where they would have expected to find a king
- (IVP Bible Background Commentary: NT, Second Edition) The Magi had come to Jerusalem because that was where they expected to find any Judean king—but Herod had apparently not had any new sons lately.
- Probably alludes to Nu 24:17: "A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel."
- Bigger question: who were the Magi?
- Likely pagan Zoroastrian priests or scholars from Persia, skilled in astrology and prophecy.
- Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest continuously practiced religions, originating in ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) around 1200–1000 BCE.
- One of the world's first monotheistic or dualistic religions.
- Dualism: A cosmic battle between good and evil, with human beings playing a central role.
- Moral principles: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds as the path to righteousness.
- Today primarily found in Iran, India (Parsis), and the global diaspora.
- Estimated at 100,000–200,000 adherents worldwide.
- (Here’s where it...
