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Today’s Scripture Reading [December 12, 2010]
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. [Isaiah 9:6-7]
While the whole world is preparing to celebrate a misplaced and misguided festive of the birth of Jesus on December 25 – erroneously thought to be the birth date of Jesus – many of us Christians knew that around the time of the birth of Jesus, it was marked by a celestial appearance of an extremely bright star. This star, better known in the Christianity community as the Star of Bethlehem was an important celestial sign to several wise men. This Star of Bethlehem guided them to the destination they were seeking. It guided them to the house of Mary and Joseph where the new born Jesus was there. Though Jesus was still at a very infant stage, most probably few days or few months old, the wise men worship Jesus. They brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We can read this famous story of the wise men and the birth of Jesus in chapter two of the Book of Matthew.
From several ancient records, notably those from the Chinese imperial astrology records that were famous of their meticulous recording account of celestial events, there was indeed a very bright star appeared around the time Jesus was born. There may be differences in the dates of the appearance of this very bright star among the ancient records of the Chinese, Egyptians, etc. and this was due largely to the different calendar systems used by different nations. In fact the calendar notation of A.D. and B.C. was not in used at that time. Today, with the advancement of science of astronomy, mathematics, computers, etc, there are computer programmes that allow us to go back in time to know exactly what the sky was like at any point of time. You can even go back to several thousand years and simulate what the sky was like. Using these programmes and modern astronomers have confirmed that a very bright star indeed appeared at the sky around the time of Jesus birth, thanks to the modern science of computer programming, cosmology, ultra-sensitive electronic telescopes, etc. The question left for the scientists to answer is: What was that star? Was it a comet, a meteorite, or sometime else. After much research, most scientists seem to come to the conclusion that the very bright light appeared in the sky was due to strange positioning and convergent of planet Jupiter and planet Venus that miraculously caused this huge brightest that looked like a giant star in the sky. You can google this topic and see or read about this for yourself some of the interesting astronomy facts of this event two thousand years ago. Many of these articles were written by secular science establishments.
Sadly, even though modern has confirmed that the Star of Bethlehem did not appear in December, the lie that the birth of Christ was on December 25 is so rampantly told that young children who just started schooling are being taught that December 25 was the birthday of Jesus. Besides, it was erroneously taught, even in some churches that the wise men who came from the east, came to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. They erroneously told the congregation (quite innocently I must admit) that that was the first Christmas. We have to be very careful and we must go to the Bible and check for ourselves because Prophet Hosea has cautioned us that we can be destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). We must therefore search the truth and hold onto the truth failing which our seemingly glorious event or celebration can turn into shame (Hosea 4:7) because we can be led to wrong practices which end up glorifying God’s enemies rather than God Himself.
Let us examine the context of the visit by the wise men as recorded in the Book of Matthew more carefully to draw to a firm conclusion that there was indeed no such thing as the ‘first Christmas celebration of the birth of Christ.’ The word 'celebration' in its simpliest form is taken to mean: "Eat, Drink and Be Merry." That has never been the case. Rather the visit by the wise men was purely to worship God in the most simple yet most profound manner offering substances fit purely for worship purpose. There was no eating, drinking nor merrying! The story of the visit by the wise men can be found in Matthew 2:1-11:
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea 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? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all 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 Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 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 great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:1-11. KJV)".
From these few verses we can easily identify several distortions that the world has taught us about Christmas or rather the birth of Christ.
First, nowhere in these verses had mentioned about celebration. Rather, it was a time of worship. Even King Herod has lied that he too would like to worship Jesus, and we all know that was a big lie. Quite to the contrary, Herod planned to kill Jesus but because he could not locate where Jesus was, he ordered that all those who were two years and below would be killed. Of course he didn’t succeed in killing Jesus but we could really lament with those parents whose young children were brutally murdered by this evil King.
The second lesson we could learn from this is, from the very start, the so-called Christmas celebration is huge big lie – King Herod lied that he too wanted to worship Jesus. We know very well that to many people Christmas today meant ‘It’s Party Time!” There are Christians – good one with good intent – tried to sugar-coat and say, let’s not called it ‘celebration’, let’s call it Christmas evangelistic outreach, let’s call it “Love the sinner event’ and so on. Call whatever you want, it simply party time for many people.
This brings me to the third point of the materials and the provisions of the wise men who brought the gifts. Unlike the Christmas celebration or event that we see today, the wise men brought with them gold, frankincense and myrrh. These items were used strictly for worshiping God. None of these are eligible nor fit for human consumption. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh - these were the gifts. They all had important symbolic meaning that attested to the kingship, priesthood and the ultimate sacrifice of Lamb of God. The specific mentioning of what these three gifts were implies that their substance is important; much more important than the number or names of the ones presenting them. Gold is a gift for a King, symbolising Jesus' kingship. Frankincense is an incense used by priests, thus symbolising Jesus' priesthood. Myrrh is used in embalming the dead, which prophetically signifies that Jesus was born to die, to be our substitute, the only acceptable sacrifice that God can accept to atone the human sin. But at the Christmas event or celebration that most churches organized comes with food, food and more food, and exchanges of gifts from children toys to adult electronic gizmos are very common. What all these have to do with the birth of Christ? All the items and gifts that we find them in the Christmas celebration are strictly for human consumption and have nothing to do with worshipping God.
The fourth point we could learn is that all the wise men came to worship our Saviour. They all came because it was their heartfelt need to seek His presence in a very personal way. In fact, one could correctly called them the ‘first Christian converts’. They all truly believed that Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour of the world as prophesized many hundred years earlier. They were the only ‘visitors’ who were present, besides Mary and Joseph. They took no effort to invite non-believers to the meet with Jesus. But today, churches send out invitations and members are urged to invite friends to attend, regardless of their religious faith and they sugar-coated it with label such as “Christmas Evangelistic Outreach” which we know there is no such practices during Jesus’ time, neither did His apostles practiced it. How could our holy God can accept the worship of “His people” when we are told not to be unequally yoke and to come out from among unbelievers, to be set apart from them event in our daily walk (2 Corinthians 6:16-17). Yes, we can and we must evangelize to the world as this is the final command that God instructed us to obey before He ascended to heaven but inviting people to come and sit around, and eat and partying at His sanctuary, at His temple, this is truly an abomination to God. The cleansing of the temple by Jesus is a perfect account to remind and to instruct us that the temple of God cannot be used for any other purpose other than worshipping our Him. The anger that Jesus displayed at the temple when He overturned tables and chairs is a stern warning to us that we must not use the house of the Lord – the church – for any other purpose other than as the house of prayer. God is so serious on this that the account of Jesus’ temple cleansing is recorded in all the four gospels! (Matthew 21:12-17; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-22). Sadly, right infront of me now is a church invitation to a Christmas celebration which I have just received with the following message:
Christmas Celebration of an Extraordinary Love
24th December 2010, Friday
6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Join us for a time of live music, food, games and more!
All are welcome!
Besides the attractive wordly messages, images, etc that are shown in the Christmas invitation cards, or just plain Christmas cards that we all receive each year, the nativity pictures that we see in the shopping mall billboards, TV, newspapers, internet, and on the busy commercial streets, and even in some church compounds during this period are another big lie in depicting the scene that actually took place when the wise men came to worship Jesus. A typically nativity picture shows us that baby Jesus was in a manger , surrounded by angels, and were presented with all kinds of gifts wrapped in attractive gift wrappers; there were three wise men present and in additional the pictures would feature some sheep and other domestic animals next to baby Jesus; we also see Christmas trees and Santa Claus. Perhaps the only truth is the presence of Joseph and Mary. This is one of the tricks of Satan in his lie-telling tactic – just camouflaging lies with some truth and people will just believe the whole thing is true! In the Book of Matthew 2:11, it tells us very clearly the following actual scene when the wise men came to worship Jesus and this is very different from the nativity pictures we see them today:
• The wise men visited Jesus at the house of Mary and Joseph, and not at a manger.
• There was no animal in the house of Mary and Joseph. Joseph was a carpenter and not a farmer nor a shepherd, hence it was so very unlikely he kept any sheep. Even he kept some animals, he could not have them brought into the house.
• There was no angel. The angels did however appear to Joseph and told Joseph of the conception of Mary was by the Holy Spirit.
• The number of wise men was not recorded – it could be three, it could be five, we don’t know but in the pictures, often three wise men are presented in most of these nativity pictures.
• The only things that the wise men brought were gold, frankincense, and myrrh but in the nativity pictures we see many types of gifts are presented to Jesus and they are gifts that are for human use or consumption rather than for worshipping Him.
• There was no food nor drink consumed at, during or after the worship, unlike what we see at Christmas event today when food and drink are lavishly and wastefully served.
• There was no Christmas tree in Joseph and Mary’s house neither was there any Santa Claus but these two items seem to be the ‘must-have’ items in the pictures that we see them today.
• There was no record or account that the wise men came every year to worship (or celebrate) the birth of Christ unlike today that the celebration of Christmas is like a ‘must-event’ for many people during December.
The story of the birth of Jesus as told in the Bible is indeed very short one. It was recorded in less than one chapter, and it is only recorded in two of the four gospels – the Book of Matthew and the Book of Luke. Yet, the world is making this so-called the ‘birth of Christ – Christmas’ as the biggest event around the world. Yes, we must remember that glorious day of the birth of Christ, the day He came to earth and became man but we must also remind ourselves that the birth of Christ was later marked by one of the worst mass murders in the history of mankind when thousands of new born babies were brutally killed by King Herod. How can we rejoice with food, drinks and games when parents whose young children were killed by King Herod during that time and while these parents were weeping and mourning deeply (Matthew 2:18). We can dedicate a day or even every day to remember His birth but we must not celebrate His birth the way the world is doing and the worst day for us is to settle the date of celebration on December 25 when people across the globe is, knowing or unknowing, willingly or unwillingly, celebrating sun-god. It Interesting to note that even the most populous Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, has December 25 as a holiday for people to celebrate Christmas!
Our spiritual diet must not be a mixture of true and false practices. In this area of life, a mixture produces nothing good (James 3:11-12). We must make every effort to separate the true food from the false if we are to grow and qualify for the Kingdom of God. This is a responsibility that falls on each of us—we cannot leave it to others! We must acknowledge the source of the false teaching and false practices —Satan, his demons and his false ministers - to truly appreciate the seriousness of heresy. Peter and Paul have warned about heresies within the church: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1). This verse conveys to us the idea of wandering. To the astronomers of ancient Greece, the planets appeared to wander in a heaven populated by other, relatively fixed lights. Thus, evil spirits induce people to wander from the true path of God's Word. These are the principalities and powers against which we wrestle (Ephesians 6:10-12). Heresy is not always easily detected because Satan usually camouflages the lie with some measure of truth, like the nativity scene we see on the Christmas billboards during this time – the only iota of truth is the presence of baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary but all those other things that you see are just blatant lie. Satan is a master of deceit. Because the world is so ignorant of God, Satan can tell them virtually anything, and they will believe it. But with us he generally does not directly challenge or obviously and blatantly misquote Scripture. His confrontation with Jesus in Matthew 4 is a classic example. He subtly twists the intent of a scripture to bend it into a wrong application or understanding. At other times, he will appeal to our vanity to get us to react to his suggestions without thinking. You may feel very unpleasant with this message because you may have already bought a lot of gifts or presents for your friends, or you have promised to help out in your church’s Christmas celebration but take heed that your unpleasantness is no excuse to obey the truth as revealed in the Scripture. It’s never too late to say “Now I understand, now I should not be involved in Christmas celebration in the church and I should help to tell the people the same”. Yes, we can certainly do as an individual to invite friends and relatives for a meal because we just want to close the year-end with some get together celebration but we must not vainly invoke the name of Jesus in the celebration. Certainly we can or rather we must share about Jesus with other and there are plenty of opportunities for you to share the gospel; there are plenty of works needed to be done because the field is plentiful and ready for harvest but the labourers are few (Luke 10:2), and what better way to tell people that Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus than for us to refrain participating in the Christmas celebration because action speaks louder than voice.
IF that's what you mean by healing. Some friends of mine think that the church a person goes to makes a big difference in our relationship with God. And I'm not into the whole "sexual healing" thing either.
