Episode 49 - The Christmas Story

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hi, and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, and along with Andrey and Mark. We are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in. Hello and welcome to the unveiling. This is episode 49. It's actually being released on December 25th, 2022. So this is our Christmas episode. Personally, I'd like to extend my seasonal greetings to everybody and mush you all. Merry Christmas guys. Speaker 2 00:00:46 Merry Christmas <laugh>. Yeah, Speaker 1 00:00:48 Merry Christmas everybody. So, yeah, we're happy to be together. Obviously we're not recording on Christmas Day, but, uh, I'm already feeling the spirit, guys. I already feeling it. There you go. Now. So, we're gonna do something a little different today than our usual. Usually we focus on Jesus Christ and him crucified, but it is gonna be Christmas day. And I thought maybe just as a little something different, as kind of a break from the routine, I'd love to read the Christmas story. And I've, uh, I'm taking two specific passages when I say that Luke two verse one through 20, and Matthew two, verse one through 14. This is the story of the, of Jesus' birth and the Matthew story covers the, uh, the magi. So, um, I'm, I'm not gonna do this, just read right through that. Nobody wants to hear me drone on for that long, but I'll read a couple verses. We can have some discussion about anything you might wanna bring up, uh, in it. And we'll just keep going like that. Is that okay with you guys? Speaker 2 00:01:51 Sure. Speaker 1 00:01:52 All right. So starting in Luke two verse one, and I just for the record, am using the King James version. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the worlds should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Seus was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea onto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. Now, I wanna stop right there real quick, cause I wanna mention that Mary was also from the house of David, and we know that, uh, in Jewish tradition, the the Jewish lineage comes maternity, if I'm, if I'm right. Yeah, guys. Yep. Speaker 2 00:02:42 One thing that jumps right out at you as the narrative starts there is that Luke, the writer, who was a doctor, a very intellectual man, he goes into great detail in this account. And I just wanna remark that even many secular historians consider Luke a historian of the highest ranking. And I just love the way he sets this up with the detail. This is not some fable or fairy tale, this is a historical account by a, for that time, a very, very learned man who to this day, most historians consider the Bible to be, uh, just at the highest ranking of his, of history and historical documents. Speaker 1 00:03:29 Yep. Good point. Mark. Luke. Luke was, uh, an amazing, amazingly intelligent person, and his, uh, his accounts were taken quite seriously. Uh, so we'll continue. Um, so they're going to the city of David to be taxed. Joseph is taking Mary up to the city of David to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. Quick aside, being great with child is an old English way of saying very pregnant, very far along in your pregnancy, not that you'd make a great babysitter or or wife. So something to note here, he, they, they're leaving the town that they were living in of Nazareth and going to Bethlehem. And that's about, as the crow flies, they're about 70 miles apart. But to, to go by foot or by donkey, it's gonna take you a little bit, uh, further around passes, you know, ways that are impassable. So it ends up being about 90 miles. And a good day of walking with a, with or without an animal is maybe 20 miles. So this was about a four day trip for them on foot Speaker 2 00:04:40 With a pregnant wife, Speaker 1 00:04:42 <laugh>. Well, right. I can't, I can't imagine I've, I've heard, uh, complaints from pregnant women nowadays about things. I can't imagine what she must have been saying about having to move during her, you know, ninth month of pregnancy, <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:04:57 Yeah. You know, we, uh, there was a prophecy that, uh, Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, right? Uh, I do not remember the verse. You know, there's a prophecy in the Old Testament, uh, oh, Bethlehem. You are not smaller, something like that. Right? You are not the least of the cities because the Savior will come out of Bethlehem. But interestingly, um, if you look at, uh, uh, the ordinary way of life, Jesus was not from Bethlehem. People, you know, who were expecting the fulfillment of God's prophecy. They might be thinking, or they might be expecting Jesus to be, um, Jesus' parents were in Bethlehem, and he would be born in Bethlehem, and he would live in Bethlehem, but he's actually from Nazareth. And in fact, Jesus was only born in Bethlehem, but I think, you know, he was called the Jesus of Nazareth. So they then go to Egypt and come back. They live in Nazareth. So if someone would've looked at Jesus, and if he's known as a Jesus from Nazareth, it could have been easy for them to assume that he is, um, he is, uh, not the one that was prophesied about, because he lives in Nazareth and he's not from Bethlehem. Speaker 1 00:06:11 So AJ, the, the Old Testament prophets didn't say that, uh, Jesus was gonna be the bethlem aite. I have no idea if that's the right word or not. They, they, uh, they just said he would be born in Bethlehem. Yeah. And this birth, you know, this traveling to Bethlehem at this time where he, you know, Mary was about to fulfill her pregnancy that fulfilled the prophecy. Yeah. And you mentioned they moved back to Nazareth, but as, uh, as we'll talk about, uh, in, in the Magi story, uh, they go to Egypt first for three years and then finally Speaker 3 00:06:44 Come, right? Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 00:06:45 They had to Speaker 3 00:06:46 Wait God's prophecies, they came true at the exact time because the prophecy had to be fulfilled. They had to go to Bethlehem, not necessarily they were from Bethlehem. They had to go there because it's of this requirement. And I was saying, if someone saw Jesus when he grew up, they wouldn't necessarily have known he was born in Bethlehem because he was known as someone as a Nazareth. And then they would've doubted that he's, uh, Messiah, because most people might have thought that he was from Nazareth and not from Bethlehem. Speaker 1 00:07:18 Yep. Good point. Good point. Yeah. We always refer to Jesus of Nazareth. I, I believe in the New Testament. And, uh, I know that I've seen many historical documents that refer to him as the Nazarene. So gonna move on. And we're picking up at verse six. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Interesting choice of words, since it was Jesus who was actually delivered. No, that's the old English for you. Speaker 2 00:07:48 But when you think about it, there's a, there's a great song called Mary Did You Know, where, where it says, did you know that the baby you delivered would one day deliver you? And that's almost a little bit of a, of a foreshadowing of that. Speaker 1 00:08:05 Oh, I very much love that song. It's very, very wonderful. It's a great tune too. Picking back up at, uh, verse seven. And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them. In the end, just, uh, side note, we have all these lovely images of, you know, Mary Joseph, the baby and animals in this, uh, stable setting. But in 2000 years ago in Israel, uh, the stables were just as likely to be caves in the rock face so that they only had to build one kind of wall across it to pen the animals in, or one, one big fence. So, you know, we're, we don't know exactly the circumstances, but we know that, that the area they were in was used normally to pen animals. And at the manger, which is just a feeding trough, was where they laid him because of the lack of the scarcity of, of housing for the census. I'm sorry for the taxes, Speaker 3 00:09:13 If I can jump in here real quick. Uh, I know you mentioned we're going to take a break, uh, from Christ and I crucified, but, uh, there's no getting away from it. Uh, in fact, you know, the manger, when I was growing up in India, they had this, uh, mangers, actually, they were ma made of stone. Literally, they were carved out of stone. Uh, it seems, you know, the, this manger was also typical in those days made out of stone. And again, you know, the baby was born and put in his swaddling clothes and then put it in a manger, you know, that is a picture of his grave, his death. And the manger was a picture of his grave, you know, the tomb that was car out and in which no man was laid before. And then he was wrapped in clothes, and he was placed in the tomb. So even from the beginning, the sign was he was, he came to die to deliver us. In fact, you know, he was the only human being who was born to die, so that, you know, everyone else can be delivered from death. Good Speaker 2 00:10:14 Point. Speaker 1 00:10:14 Good, good analogy there. You know, it is funny how the more you read and more you learn and understand just how many different things you can see and find that, uh, fit those types of foreshadowings. Yep. Alright. And verse eight. And there were in the same countries, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. There's a good place to quickly interject something. I know that a lot of people out there say, you know, December 25th isn't early Jesus' birthday. Well, yeah, I think we all, there's a one in 365 chance that it was the actual date of his birth. And since no one actually recorded a date, I believe that along line we picked the date to celebrate the birth of Christ. And this line kind of points to shepherd's, mostly kept watch over their flocks at night, during lambing season, because that's when a you is at its most vulnerable when she's giving birth. She can't, she can't fend for herself. She, she's really helpless. And of course, the newborn lamb is also helpless. So, you know, it points to more of a spring birth. So let's not get hung up on the day or the date we just, the date was picked. Speaker 2 00:11:29 Well, I think it's a good point. We don't have to have the exact date. In fact, we celebrate his coming every day. So, Speaker 1 00:11:37 Amen. Amen. And low, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them, and they were sore, afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men. Well, that, that's the official birth announcement. Yeah, Speaker 3 00:12:25 Yeah, yeah. It's interesting to me that, uh, the gospel was first preached to the shepherds who are nobody, just, you know, taking care of their sheep. Um, instead of, uh, you know, uh, preaching to the, um, more, you know, the kings and who are wellknown people. Speaker 1 00:12:45 Let me add to that, Ajay, that Christ has been pictured in the Old Testament as a king, the king of Israel, the king of the Jews. And yet he came into the world in the humblest of places. He didn't get born into palace. He wasn't attended by, uh, physicians and nurses and wet nurses and maids and all this. He was born to two people in a, in a main, you know, in a stable setting. And no, no fanfare there or around it when it happened. Then when there is fanfare, it's out in the hills to a bunch of the, the shepherds just normal, common, everyday people, not to other kings. No one, you know, no messages were dispatched to faraway lands, nothing. This is, this is the humble beginning of the co-creator of the world as, as God, and the salvation of, of all mankind. Speaker 2 00:13:46 And, and he could have also came with signs in the sky, you know, because that's what the Jews were looking for, was some kind of heavenly sign. He coulda came just, you know, floating down <laugh> with great fanfare and trumpet blast. Like the Bible describes Dr describes his second company coming. But, uh, I think that's a good point that you po when you pointed out, he came as the most humble among us. And those are the same people he went to, not just at his birth, but throughout his life. He went to the lepers, to the prostitutes, to the, to the outcasts of society. Um, it just makes such a powerful statement considering that he himself was the exact representation of the glory of God, the radiance of God himself. Speaker 3 00:14:38 You know, if he were to strategize as humans, right? Hey, I'm going to send my son and I want everyone to know him and believe him, and I want to spread the gospel as humans, you know, we'll probably go and find out, okay, who is the most influential rabbi to whom many, many people come and listen, right? Let me appear to him, and then I'll preach the gospel. I'll tell about Jesus. But they did not do that. See angel, these, these shepherds literally, right? I think looks like, um, these people, they just care for the sheep and they're aloof. They get up in the morning and then take the sheep, go out, come back. Not necessarily very social or influential people who mix with people a lot. They're mostly concerned about the sheep, but he started there. So there is something to it. You know, God's ways are so much different than human base. Speaker 2 00:15:26 I'd like to kind of go down that line a little further and try to get us, like, get us into what they were seeing and feeling and what they mu must have felt. We live in a day now when birth announcements, gender reveal parties, things have just gone crazy. You know, people, big theme parties, and, you know, and, but these all compare nothing. Can you imagine standing in the dead of night watching your sheep, all of a sudden a heavenly light surrounds you, and the voice of an angel is giving you this message. And then it says, a great company of the heavenly host that means all created beings and heaven, angels, human beings, all the, the great saints of the past, throughout the Old Testament, all together in one voice, they're praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. If you just imagine what an unbelievable impact that must have had, and if that was you, I just love to think about that stuff. That was that me out there with that sheep, and that happened to me. Oh man, the power of that is unbelievable. Speaker 3 00:16:45 Hey, one more thing. I don't mean to camp here, sorry, but, uh, other thing I noticed is the first word of the gospel, again, of course, this is a gospel, right? So of course it was not the gospel in the sense of death, burial, and resurrection, but it is still the good news of the Savior being born into the world. And the first word of the gospel is fear, not. See as human beings, the very first emotion to anything is fear. We are always living in fear. We are always, you know, worried about stuff always right. You know, that's the first human. And, uh, I believe that is the most prominent human emotion that we experience all the time, because we are always about doing stuff and doing stuff on time. This, that, and, uh, you know, uh, finding food, food, clothing, shelter, basic needs and, or health problems and lot of things. Speaker 3 00:17:36 So the core emotion that we always experience is fear. And the first word of the gospel is fear not. And the remedy to that fear is the peace right for you. I bring you good news. This good news of the gospel is a gospel of great joy. And then he goes on to say in verse 14, glory to God, in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill towards man. So the antidote to our fear is the peace that the goodness of the gospel gives us. And the other thing we see here is, you know, God's will is good towards men. The gospel says God's will is good. I think we don't believe that. We always think, you know, God is angry at us. You know, God is after us. God is trying to hurt us. If God is good, why are so many things happening? But, but godsfield is good and towards all men. Speaker 2 00:18:32 Amen. One thing I wanna point out here is you guys both read the King James version of, uh, Luke 14, which is great. And I love King James, cuz it tends to be much more poetic. And I'm a songwriter. I love that poetic sense. Um, but in this case, I really like the N I V, which says, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. Now, quite a long ti, and I've always loved this scripture quite a long time ago, I wanted to see like, what does highest heaven mean? Are there different floors in heaven? Is there a lower heaven, a middle heaven, a fourth floor heaven, and then highest heaven? But as I did study and read some of the Bible commentaries, and the one that really I thought explained it best was Matthew Henry's commentary, where he said the term, it's a Hebrew term, and what it means is glory to God in the highest degree to the nth power. Speaker 2 00:19:36 There has never been anything else in all of creation. I mean, the Psalms tell us, the heavens declare the glory of God. We see his glory, uh, in his creation of humans that are fearfully in wonderfully made. And he is the author and creator of faith and love and all the good things in this world, but nothing, nothing brought him glory like the birth, life, death, resurrection of, of Jesus Christ. And so for, for the angels and the heavenly laws, ju just to know that and exclaim it together in one voice, glory to God in the highest degree, and then it says, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. And the reason I like that, uh, that, um, translation is the word favor. It's a word we use a lot with the term grace. That grace is God's unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor. Speaker 2 00:20:38 And what kind of favor is it? It's a favor that rests and that means it's come to you and it's stayed there and nothing's taken it off. And that I love. And then I also love, uh, the peace. What kind of peace does that bring us? Well, we know, first of all, Christ came to bring us peace with God. And then the fruit of that peace with God is peace with each other. And then also peace in our, in internal, peace in our mind, body, heart, and soul. So it's such a short thing, but I gotta say it's probably one of my, oh, most profound scriptures that I love. Um, you know, and, and it's, you know, encapsulated in the story of Christ's birth. Just a simple one that songs have been written using that line, you know, and lot of Christmas cards, you know, goodwill, what is it? Peace and goodwill toward men. You know, how many Christmas cards? And yet it's, when you think about the setting and the context of those words and the deep meaning, it's just mind blowing. Thank you, Lord. Speaker 3 00:21:38 Again, you know, these words were just told to the shepherds. It's, uh, interesting, you know, how it was even recorded, how it, uh, who told who, but it is recorded. So Speaker 2 00:21:50 I don't think the shepherds would've forgot that <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:21:53 Yeah, yeah. Right. You forgot one. You forgot one way of saying it, mark. And that is peace that passes understanding. Speaker 2 00:22:01 Yep, it sure does. Speaker 1 00:22:02 Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's that good. Thank you, mark. Let's pick up in verse 15. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord Heth made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Maryn Joseph in the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And that's the first 20 verses of Luke. And it covers the, the birth and the shepherds. You guys wanna pipe in here? Speaker 2 00:23:02 Yeah, I'd like to pipe in at something AJ said. He said, we don't know like how it was recorded and who recorded it, but what I love is it says here, and, and this is just actual makes complete sense, the things that the heavenly host and the angels said to them, they immediately went out. And everybody they met, they told exactly what they heard unto us today, a savior is born in the town of David. And man, you should have heard 'em, they said, glory to God and the heaven, you know, these things were immediately started orally to every single person they met. And then they, you know, before you know it, it's in the whole countryside. I'm sure these are, it's just, is just like, reminds me of the Samaritan woman at the, well, when she met Jesus, the first thing she did is ran into town and told every about everybody about this man who ne knew everything about her. Could this be the Messiah? They all went flying out and said, well, at first we believe because you said it, but now we've seen them and we believe, Speaker 3 00:24:05 Yeah, that's exactly right, mark, even I was, uh, thinking the same. In fact, in verse 19, it says, you know, Mary kept all these things and pondered them in our heart, so Speaker 1 00:24:15 Amen. So should we move over to Matthew and go through Sure. His, for his part of the story? Speaker 2 00:24:21 I don't see why not Speaker 1 00:24:23 This include, this is the part where the wise men come into the picture. And I guess I'd like to bounce a couple things off you before we go. We, we see a lot of depictions, whether it's the song, you know, we three kings or, uh, the three wise men that appear in the crushes and stuff like that. But we don't know really a ton about who these guys actually were. But there's, uh, some educated conjecture in, in the Greek, they, they're referred to as magi, which means magicians. So Ros, they were astronomers, astrologers, they were Sears, they were prophets. Um, they, they searched for signs and wonders to lead them to from place to place as far as their understanding of the world, how it worked, and even the spirit realm. Now we say three kings, you know, we three kings of orient are, if I'm in, if I'm in Israel, the east is not over near, uh, the Orient <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:25:22 It's actually more towards Babylon. Um, and we don't know how many of 'em there were. We, uh, three is a number I believe was used for so long because of the three gifts. All we know for sure is that there were more than one of 'em because all the words used to describe them are plural. So there could have been a group of 'em, there could have been two of 'em. But, uh, you know, and, and they're not, they weren't, uh, they weren't Jewish. They were out, they were from outside of the Jewish world. Let me go ahead and start in Matthew two verse one work again, we're going through verse 14. Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? Speaker 1 00:26:12 For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. So they, they had enough understanding of portends and, and the skies to know something was going on, something of significance. And their writings indicated to them that this particular event was heralding the birth of the king of the Jews. Now, if they're not Jewish, how would they know something like this? And there, there are some conjecture. Like I said, some of it is educated conjecture, some of it not so much. But, uh, it is possible. These guys came from Babylon, which is where David was in his captivity in Egypt. And there may have been writings that, and, and prophecies from David that they had that never made it into biblical canon or never made it into, uh, widespread use. So that's just a possible conjecture there. But these guys are coming from somewhere else with just enough knowledge to know what they were looking for, to know that it was time and what to do with that information when they got it. Speaker 3 00:27:20 Yeah. So, um, first of all, I think one of the Wisemen was a tele guy, uh, <laugh>. Yeah. That Speaker 2 00:27:28 Mindy, I believe, wasn't it <laugh>, one of your distant relatives? Probably. Speaker 3 00:27:32 I think it's probably my great-great-grandfather. So, <laugh>, kidding aside, uh, what's interesting to me is, you know, they came to look for the King of the Jews, but what is really interesting is they said we came to worship him. So, you know, typically, unless, you know, some being is divine, at least in the other cultures where they have pantheistic, uh, belief, they think, um, they don't believe in one God, but still, they at least thought, you know, he's a divine being. And it's very interesting to me, you know, why would they from somewhere come, they said, you know, who is born the king of the Jews? They did not say who is born some divine being or, or Son of God, nothing like that. King of Jews. And, uh, it's interesting to me, why would someone who is a non-Jew would come and want to worship the king of the Jews? So it's again, just an observation. I don't have any answers, but Speaker 2 00:28:28 Yeah, we're, we're just speculating here. But that's fun to do too. Sometimes I would say this, that by this time, the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible had been around for thousands of years. These were wise men, spiritual men, you know, magi, astronomers, astrologers. I'm sure they would've read all these things. And I think it's interesting to say that, and it could have been some type of revelation. I mean, God was, his hand had to be in this, for them to go that far and actually be right. They didn't just follow some star because they were following their astrology. They actually were right and got led to the Savior by it. So I think there probably was some divine revelation there. But I think that is a great point in that they came to worship him because just from reading the Old Testament, the Jews had done that for thousands of years. Speaker 2 00:29:26 And the Messiah they were looking for was not the son of God. He was a great military savior that was gonna deliver their nation back to its once glorious military power. No longer, longer under slavery to the Roman Empire. That's what they were looking, I don't believe the Jews, I mean, I don't know this definitively, but everything I've heard and read in the Old Testament, I don't believe they were looking to worship their Messiah as God himself. Yet these magi came to worship him. So to me, that means some divine rev revelation from the spirit of God, just, just a speculation fund to think about. So, yep. Speaker 1 00:30:09 No, and that's g kind of why we're having discussion about it, rather than just reading it as a text. We would, it's good to hear other ideas and thoughts and, uh, on this. So, so picking up where I left off, when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus, as it written by the prophet here, their, their quote unquote, your verse here in verse six, and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah. For out of the shall governor that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had ply called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young child. Speaker 1 00:31:07 And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. I'm gonna stop there for several reasons. The first is that, uh, the magi were summoned by a king. And I think that since they were looking for a king, this didn't come as a great shock to them. What may have been more surprising to them was the fact that he had no idea who, where, what, when, where, how, or why <laugh>, you know? So he's asking them and they're like, well, you know, it's, uh, yeah, they gave him whatever fra information they had, I guess. And he said, all right, go find him and then let me know where he Speaker 2 00:31:42 Is at. You know, and I think, uh, this little couple paragraphs here really backs up the fact that the Jews were looking for a military king for a great ruler, cuz herd immediately starts to worry because he was put in power by the Roman Empire, and he doesn't wanna see his power be usurped by some other military king that's coming. And he wanted to put a stop to that. So I, I feel like that's really very in line with that, uh, that theory. Speaker 3 00:32:17 Yeah, it's interesting to me that, uh, he took this wiseman, uh, seriously, he did not say, yeah, some crazy people looking for a star, but he did take it very seriously. And he called them and he inquired them diligently. There's something about, it looks like, you know, they, at that time these matches had something about them that, uh, they proved the credibility of their claims. They just saw a star, and they came to look for the King of Jews. And the, and hero also took very seriously. And then he wanted to inquire and, uh, basically go kill him. But I think what's interesting for me is they, they did not dismiss it as something, okay, some crazy stuff these three guys are making up. Speaker 1 00:33:02 Good point, aj, you know, uh, this was serious business to the king, and he took it seriously. He didn't dismiss it. And Mark, I, I have to have imagined that, uh, some of that actually comes from what you were talking about. And that's his fear of losing, his power, being usurped. Yeah. Picking up at verse nine, when they had heard the king, they departed and lo the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding joy. And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with marry his mother and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and mer and being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to herd, they departed into their own country Another way, we'll stop there for a minute, and I don't wanna point out that these were the first Gentiles to worship Jesus. Speaker 2 00:34:03 Good point. One of the things that jumps out at me in what we've read so far is just the diversity of the people. And whether they hated him or worshiped him, they were not apathetic about him at all. This was someone special when you see, I'm sure they were in their fine garments with their gold and frankincense and merr kneeling and worshiping a little baby. And this baby had so much, just so much, I don't know what the word would be. <unk> Isn't that a, a Jewish word for <laugh>, that the angels proclaimed, the heavenly host broke forth. Herod wanted to kill him, the mag eyes came and kneeled and worship and gave gifts. This was such a, I mean, it evoked so much emotion and effect on all the humans he ever came into contact with. And still to this day, the three of us, and all believers in the world, and even people that aren't believers yet. Speaker 1 00:35:06 Yeah, it is amazing the diversity of individuals that the message is affected from his very birth rich and poor male, female, slave free, Jew, gentile, foreigner, Israelite. It seems that from these stories, at least a portion of pretty much every population had some sense of what was going on. And like you said, mark had a reaction to it one way or the other. Speaker 2 00:35:29 You know? Yeah. When you think about it, even through all the different gospels, people's reaction to him, like you said, said one way or the other, but they were very severe reactions, either a woman falling to her feet, cr you know, so overcome by his love that she's crying, tears wiping his feet with her hair, and then you've got the, the, uh, pharisees and rulers and high priests hating him without reason wanting to kill him. You know, it's just always just great effect on human beings, even to this day, you know, that's probably why they always say, oh, when you're in company, you should never talk about, what is it? It's sex politics or religion <laugh>. Because if you bring up Jesus' name, it's going to evoke some type of emotional response from human beings because it is the name that's above all names and people are gonna worship him, or they're gonna hate him. Yep. Tough to be just apathetic and Oh, yeah, yeah. I think I heard about him. You, Speaker 3 00:36:31 Yeah. One observation, uh, again, I think going back to my point that delights my heart is here, these mags are three wise men. They just came to worship him. It's then when they found him, they were exceedingly joyful, and they came, they gave the gifts, they fell down and worshiped him. So this, this tells me somehow they had the revelation that Jesus is God. They somehow had the revelation, you know, they did not come to take something or they did not come for anything else. They came just for one reason. That is to worship. The only person you go to worship is God. Nobody worships human beings. So I think they had some kind of revelation that this child is God. Yeah. If, if he is not God, you know, you would not go and worship a human being, especially a baby. So they had some revelation that, you know, Jesus is God, and that's amazing to me. And the only reason they came is to worship when they found him. They rejoiced him with exceeding great joy. You know, that is a result of finding Jesus. We rejoiced an exceeding great joy. Speaker 2 00:37:39 And I would say you used the term a couple times, they had some kind of reason for their revelation that there is only one. I mean, he's called the spirit of wisdom and revelation. I believe it was the spirit of God that revealed them. Two of these men who even though they were not Jews, and they were, they were seekers, they were looking everywhere to find divine revelation through Stan astronomy, uh, astrology through education, through they were searchers. And God rewarded, uh, a heart that sought after him by revealing to them that this was the Messiah, the Son of God. Speaker 1 00:38:21 So a si another side bunny trail, maybe, uh, the wise men showed up and noticed they didn't come to the stable or the manger, they came to a house. So we don't know exactly how old Jesus was at this point. He could have been, he could have been as much as three years old, although we're not told. Speaker 2 00:38:41 That's what I heard Speaker 1 00:38:42 Too. Uh, but they came to him. Um, he was, you know, I he was, he was described as a young child, not as an infant, or, well, I guess toddlers, uh, a modern word. So they wouldn't use that. But, uh, Speaker 3 00:38:56 But it has to be under two years because hero tells to kill every baby under two years. So he still had to be under two years. Speaker 1 00:39:05 That's a good point, ij. Speaker 2 00:39:06 Yeah. But he could have, he could have been, uh, erroring, uh, f fudging on the side of <laugh>, you know, letting his air being, let's, let's just kill a little longer just to be safe, you know? Who knows, you know? Well, Speaker 1 00:39:19 That would make Jesus even younger. Speaker 2 00:39:20 Yeah. Yeah. It, it's not really important to the story. Speaker 1 00:39:23 No, but it's just, it's just a note because of all the popular imagery of the man Gene with the shepherds on one side, the Wiseman and the other, and the animals all gather around it. It didn't happen that way. Speaker 2 00:39:35 I think Hallmark has done a disservice to the actual account because a lot of these things are on Christmas cards and, you know, and some, some songs too. You know, one of the things that I, that I, I just hit me is they traveled great distances and brought gifts of great value and, you know, spent a lot of money to do this. And yet they didn't want anything. They came to worship. They wanted nothing in return. They had no agenda other to, than to see the glory of God born into this world, you know? And then after this, they go on their way. You know, they, they didn't, they weren't looking to be, I don't know what, get blessings and get things for their worship. Really, it's the opposite of what the old, old covenant law was, where you did, to get where you did to be blessed. Even nowadays, that mixture gospel, you do things, you worship, you give gifts to the church and to God to be blessed, to be, to get more. They wanted nothing other than to have see their have, lay their eyes on this, on this miracle. Speaker 1 00:40:46 We will finish up with the last two verses of this account, uh, still in Matthew two verses 13 and 14. And when they were departed, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, arise and take this young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt and be thou there until I bring the word for hero will seek the young child to destroy him. When he rose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. So those two passages make up pretty much the, um, traditional Christmas story and, uh, scenes that are set around the, the Christ's birth guys. Anything you wanna add? Speaker 2 00:41:30 Yeah. And, and, and I know, know, this is some, uh, it's just a terminology. It's one that I've never liked because I believe it's the secular world saying the story. I prefer biblical account, historical account, because, you know, nowadays, you know, touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy Christmas story, you know, it's, you know, even people that don't know Christ and believe it, that's the term they use, the, it's a story. It's a nice story. So I know you didn't mean it that way, Tim, and technically you'd say this is the story of the coming of Christ, but it's just, to me, it's a, it's not solid enough of a word. And I know you're a word guy, Tim. Um, I like a count. This is the biblical account of God breaking into our world. Speaker 1 00:42:19 That's why I threw in the word traditional instead of biblical. I said, there you go. This is more or less covers the traditional Christmas story. So, guys, Merry Christmas. It's, uh, it's been a great year for us. I wanna always end with giving you guys a chance to get anything in that you want to get in before we close. So, Ajay, anything you would wish to add before we close out this Christmas edition? Speaker 3 00:42:43 Yeah, I would like to add, uh, one verse from a chapter we did not read today. Matthew chapter one, verse 21. And she shall bring, for the son, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus means savior <unk> salvation, Jehovah is salvation. And the reason he came, he to save us from our sins. So I would be remiss if we talk about Christmas and Jesus, and we didn't talk about the gospel. So the gospel is his name is Jesus, and he came to die for our sins. And anyone and everyone can take this opportunity today to simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And believe why he came into this world as a baby. He came to die for our sins, and he rose again on the third day. And anyone who believes in him can become the child of God and, uh, and have all the benefits of what he came to give us right away. Speaker 1 00:43:43 Amen. Thank you very much. Uh, Jay Mark, Speaker 2 00:43:46 That's along the lines of what I was gonna add, because as I read, I'm gonna read 14 again in Luke too. Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. When you read that line, there's an elephant in the room. There's a question that just screams out. Well, wait a minute. How do I get his favor to rest on me? And AJ just gave us that story, just the same thing. The Magi did really believe in him live a life loving him, being more importantly, that receiving his love and just, you know, the, the gospel, uh, we believe by grace alone through faith alone in Christ Speaker 1 00:44:30 Alone. Amen. And I will only add one, uh, one verse from Isaiah nine, six, which is part of the prophecies of Christ's return. And it says, for unto us, a child is born unto us, a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting. Father, prince of Peace. We'd like to thank you all for joining us for this special Christmas edition of our podcast. We hope that you've been blessed by it, and we encourage you to share our podcast with your friends and family, and we wanna wish you all of the best joy and blessings for your holidays this year. Until the next time, Speaker 1 00:45:23 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website@www.unveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question or comment on our listener line at 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.