The Nativity Star

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The Nativity Star

Matthew 2:2, Pastor Eric Chang, December 23, 1979

Let us turn to Mt. 2:2. That is right at the beginning of the NT. That is on the very first page of the NT. The passage in Mt. 2:1f reads like this:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

The scribes, i.e., the theologians, of course, knowing their Bibles, were able to give him an answer:

They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.'

A ruler was to come from Judea. V7 reads:

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared;...

Notice carefully, he did not know about the star at all and he ascertained secretly. He did not want his ignorance to be known as to when this star appeared.

...and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him."

Well, here he speaks a lie without so much as blushing. There are those who are quite capable of lying without the color of their skin being affected. V9 continues:

When they (i.e., what is translated as 'the wise men') had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them,

Notice very carefully: the star which they had seen in the East went before them.

till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house...

Notice that the star pointed precisely to which house Jesus was.

...they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

All of these are very expensive gifts; all fit for the king.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

To Be Spiritual-Minded Is A Matter Of Life And Death
Now, you are very familiar with this story and you say, "Aha! So, we are going to hear another one of these Christmas messages about this manger, and all these sheep, and all these oxen, and then we are going to find all these little things. After this, we are going to go for our refreshments and that was Christmas." Well, it is not going to be quite like that. You see, what I want to drive to your mind, to bring before your mind very powerfully today, can be summed up in the words of Rom. 8:6: "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." Listen carefully to these words of Scripture: "To set the mind on the flesh is death." "...to set the mind on the Spirit" - on spiritual things, on God Himself - "is life and peace." You say, "Well, what has this got to do with Matthew Chapter 2?" It has got everything to do with this passage, and in fact, to the whole of Scripture and to the whole of the Christian life. We are talking about life and death. And Paul, here in Romans Chapter 8, warns or exhorts the Roman Christians in this way: "Remember, as I tell you this point very clearly." He is not talking to non-Christians at this point; he is talking to Christians. "If you, as Christians, set your mind upon the flesh, that is, if you are carnally-minded, you will die. But if you set your mind upon the things of God, the spiritual things, the things of the Spirit, that is life and that is peace." And we have just been singing about peace. Sister Betty was singing to us and the training team was talking about peace. That it is not just life, but abundant life that Paul is talking about. And that was the theme of my messages in Hong Kong lately: the abundant life, whether we, as Christians, experience the spiritual fullness and abundance, or whether we are just struggling on our last legs, hoping to survive. Do you experience the fullness of the Christian life? Or do you struggle from day to day, wondering whether you will make it till tomorrow, or the next week. To be spiritual-minded, that is the problem. If you are not spiritually-minded, you will not only not be able to make it, you will die! To be carnally-minded is death! But to be spiritually-minded is "life and peace." 'Peace' is representing the whole fullness of the whole Christian life here.

When you look at Mt. 2:2 and you look at this whole passage, I want to put it to you that there is nothing in this passage that is intelligible to the natural man. You gulp and say, "Well, we've been listening to this for years." Let me repeat. There is nothing in this passage that is properly intelligible to the natural man. There is, in fact, a whole Scripture that cannot be understood by you if you are carnally-minded. To become a Christian means a basic transformation. It does not mean accepting certain Christian doctrines. It does not just mean that. Of course, it means that too, but it does not just mean that. If you only accepted certain Christian doctrines, you have not become a Christian yet. You become a Christian when your life is changed from being carnally-minded to being spiritually-minded. In Romans Chapter 12, Paul emphasizes this thing: "Keep on being changed by the transformation of your mind, because only so, through being spiritually-minded do you know life - spiritual life, eternal life - and peace."

You say, "Well, Mt. 2:2 - the whole section onwards - is about certain wise men who came from the East and they came and worshipped Jesus. What is there hard to understand about this?" That part is not the problem. The problem begins when you begin to ask: What is the meaning of these things? To become a Christian is not just to understand certain facts: that there was a Person called Jesus, that certain wise men came to worship Him, that they fell on their faces before Him, that they brought certain gifts called frankincense and gold and myrrh. All these are simply facts; you do not need to be spiritually-minded to understand these. But where does the problem begin? The problem begins when you ask questions like this: Why did these wise men who are not Jews come to worship a Jewish king, which is a traitorous act, in fact, to their own country. You worship, you adore your own king; you do not go and worship a foreign king. What would happen to you if you went and worshipped a foreign king? That would be regarded as a traitorous act. Your allegiance is to your own king. These were foreigners. That is a problem, isn't it?

Again, how did they know that they were to worship Him? He was only a baby lying in a manger; He was not in a palace. How did they know that He was a king? What kind of message came to them? How was this all revealed to them? And we can press on with many questions. What did the star signify? What is the meaning of this star? Is there some astronomical evidence for this star? If so, what is it? When you begin to look at all this, you begin to run into problems. I wonder if you could answer any one of those questions. You will not be able to answer those questions, unless you begin to think 'spiritually-minded', unless your whole thinking begins to change. In fact, this is the first point I want to bring to you, that it is a matter of life and death that our thinking begins to change. It is not just so we can understand the Bible, which is very convenient, very good to understand, but so that the words of life may enter into our heart, that God's life may become ours. Now, what is the use of worship, coming to worship Christ at Christmas time, or for that matter, at any other time? What is the use, unless we have life! Otherwise, it degenerates into some traditional sentimentality. It is vital that we understand that this is a matter of life and death.

The Bible, Being Spiritual, Frustrates Academic Scholars
Well, then, let us begin to examine this matter. And then, when you read the Bible, you will discover a remarkable thing: the Bible is an entirely spiritual book. It is God, who is Spirit, speaking to us! It is so spiritual that, let me tell you frankly, it is utterly frustrating to the academic scholar. It is frustrating to the scholar. It is so spiritual that it simply does not tell the scholar and does not tell us in our human curiosity the things - the human things - we want to know. For example, the only thing we know about these so-called wise men is that they came from the east. Well, east is a very big place; where is east? Does it mean the Japanese, or the Chinese, or the Russians, from Siberia maybe? Does it mean the Persians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Arabs? It does not tell us. It is frustrating, isn't it? And so, we go on through the whole Scripture like this because, unless you are spiritually-inclined you will not understand. You see, the Bible is not even interested in these human factors which interest us. Because we are so human, so carnal, we are interested in the things that the Bible is not interested in, and we are not interested in the things that the Bible is interested in. Thus, we end up in a desperate confusion. The scholars are so frustrated. If you know anything about modern theology, you will have heard of the endless talk about the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith, and this endless search for the historical Jesus. I tell you that the scholars are so utterly frustrated in their search.

Let me put it to you like this. We, as Christians, are in the remarkable position that when a non-Christian asks us, "In which year was Jesus born?" can you give him a reply? I mean an exact, a specific reply. You know which day you were born. OK, that was December 22^nd or November 23^rd or whatever it was. And Jesus was born when? Hmm. Well, never mind the day and the month; let us just talk about the year. Which year? Well, maybe it was the 7^th BC. Or maybe it was the 9^th BC. Perhaps it was the 4^th BC. Embarrassing, isn't it? You look at a Bible dictionary and what do you find? It cannot tell you. "OK," you say, "at least I know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That is some consolation if I do not know which year it was." Of course, the church, being so frustrated, being unable to say which year it was, decided that at least you must be able to tell people which day it was. Aha! The 25^th of December - that is it! Well, do not look at any scholarly books. Do not go and look at the Encyclopedia Britannica. It is because, then, you suddenly discover that Jesus might not have been born on the 25^th of December. "Oh dear!" you say. "Well, OK, so what can we say specifically?" Nothing! "But, He was born in Bethlehem!" So, where in Bethlehem? "Ah, where? Well, never mind where. I mean Bethlehem is OK." But, of course, if you go with the tourist guides, they might even be able to alleviate your frustration by saying, "Here! This place! X! That is where Jesus was born." "Ah!" you say. "Good! Good! I'm feeling better now. Jesus was born right here." Huh! When I went to Nazareth, these marvelous people were able to tell me exactly which room Jesus lived in. This is marvelous! They even, by some marvelous detective work, were able to discover that Jesus was born in this room. Now, how? Don't ask them too carefully [or you might offend them], but at least, they would say, "Well, take it or leave it. Jesus was born here, OK?"

Thus, when I went to Jerusalem, they said, "You see, here was where the Last Supper was held." Wah! They even knew which room the Last Supper was held in. Why? It is because we cannot stand it that we cannot be precise. The natural man wants to know the historical Jesus. That Jesus is King and Lord, that He is spiritual, is not enough. It does not satisfy us. We want to know material details. Now, what about when we talk about how Jesus looked like? What did He look like? Was He maybe 5'2"? You say, "Too short! Too short!" OK, raise it up! He was 6'2". You say, "Too tall!" OK, let us come down to 5'8". Do you know how tall He was? No. "OK, maybe we know what He looks like." No, we do not know that. "Maybe He had long hair?" No, because the Jews did not wear their hair long. "So, it is short hair? OK, we are getting somewhere. Maybe short." How short? "Well, let us settle for medium." So, what was the color of His hair? And the color of His eyes? The color of His skin? You say, "Why did not Luke or Matthew or somebody, instead of writing all this, just draw us a picture?" You know in Chinese that, "千聞不如一見 qian wen bu ru yi jian", if you have listened to it a thousand times, it is not as good as seeing once. "Huh! Matthew, why do you write us all these stuff here? Just draw us a picture of Jesus! Ah, so, now we could see. Well, yes! His hair was combed like this." Did He have a sharp face, square face, round face? If only Matthew drew this picture for us and put beside the picture, "Now, Jesus was 5'9" tall and I do not have colors, but His eyes were dark brown; His hair...hmm... chestnut color; His skin...sort of brownish, maybe, sort of olive-colored?" Matthew does not tell us anything, Mark does not tell us anything, Luke does not tell us anything, and John does not tell us anything. It is so frustrating! The natural man craves for these materials details.

But do not get too worried. All you have to do is go down to the Christian bookshop ,and lo and behold! What do you have there? A picture of Jesus! Beautiful! And what does He look like? Of course, He looks like a European! That is no problem with the sight; do not worry about it! I mean, that is fine. That is not only so; He looks like a 17^th century European: long hair and sharp beard. That was the style in those days. But if that bothers you, just cover the beard a little bit and trim the hair a bit off the picture and do not look carefully. Is it not our frustration? It is because the carnal man wants to know the things that God does not want to tell us!

Yet, I want you, through all this, to examine yourself whether you are spiritual or whether you are carnal. Does this disturb or does it not disturb you? The spiritual man does not even want to know about this. Isn't it remarkable? Paul does not want to know about this. You say, "Is Jesus 5'8"?" He did not want to know. "What color is His hair?" He would have said, "I do not even want to know." Why? You say, "Paul, I'm sure you want to know." "I don't want to know!" Paul says that in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5, "Even if we knew Jesus after the flesh, we do not know Him like that anymore." [v16] I do not want to know about Jesus after the flesh. I want to know Him in the inner depths of His being. It is because all this is external; it is the shell. When you get a present, what do you want to do? You say, "Ohh, what a wonderful wrapping paper you gave me! Beautiful ribbon! I am so happy!" So, you just say, "Thank you. Thank you. Such a beautiful box!" And they say, "Aren't you going to look inside?" You say, "Oh, no, no, I'm satisfied with the box. The box is beautiful. It's so lovely! I'm so happy to know the box." Or are you like most people, you quickly tear open the whole wrapping paper just to see inside? You know how to do this physically! How is it that we do not know how to do this spiritually? Isn't it interesting? We want to know what was the wrapping in which God came into the world: "Was it with a ribbon on top? Was the paper nice outside?" Paul says, "I don't want to know about this! I don't care what He looked like outside. What is important is in the inside - the spiritual!"

But, you see, it is so curious when we come to study the Bible, and this is precisely the point, the whole Bible is spiritual! If you are seeking to understand it on the carnal, on the human level, you will be absolutely frustrated. I can give you example after example how the scholars engage themselves in long discussions and never come to a conclusion. Our scholars are so human, aren't they? Like ourselves, they are so carnally-minded. You know, when I studied theology, one of the things I had to spend so much time in was something called "Introduction to the New Testament." You go to the Christian bookshop and you will find many big volumes on that: "Introduction to the New Testament." What does it study? Well, it goes into long discussions about when Romans might have been written, or 1^st Corinthians was written, or 2^nd Corinthians, or Matthew, and it goes on and on. Was Romans written in the year 52? And then it is a long discussion on 52. Maybe it was 53. Or maybe it was 64. Or maybe it was 78. By this time, you got so fed up with the discussion, you say, "Who cares in which year it was written anyway?" I have known scholars who spent their whole life just studying this question, and of course, never coming to any conclusion. They are forever seeking the truth and never coming to its right conclusion. What difference does it make? If it was important for us to know whether Romans was written in 62 or 58, do you not think Paul would just have written, "In this year of the Emperor such and such." It is very simple! But he does not tell us. And all our scholars spend years studying, analyzing and never coming to a conclusion. Isn't it most remarkable? I spent so much time in theology studying this kind of questions that I asked myself afterwards, "Why am I doing this? I am just wasting my time!" It is because we are carnally-minded. We are sidetracked from the real issues. So, it is the same thing.

If We Are Not Spiritual-Minded, We May Even Take Offense At The Gospel
There is something much worse than that. Not only can we not understand the Word of God as it was meant to be understood, more seriously than that, in due time, if you are not spiritually-minded, you are going to take offense at the Gospel. Now, that is the part that really worries me. If you are carnally-minded, you will perish. You will die! It is because sooner or later, you are going to take offense at the Gospel. Believe me! I speak from long years of experience in serving the Lord. That is the part that worries me most. Some people, I have noticed, have already taken offense at the Gospel. It frightens me.

You see, we talk about gentle Jesus, meek and mild, lying in a manger. We picture the spiritual man in a carnal fashion. Even when we think of spiritual things, we degrade it down to the human level. It is desperate. We degrade it down to the human level. We picture a Jesus who, presumably, was always walking around with a smile on His face, or at least, He was always gentle and meek and mild. Is that not what Jesus says, "Learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest unto your souls"? [Mt. 11:29] But then, we do not understand the spiritual significance of meek and gentle. And so, when we read in the Gospels that Jesus went into the temple and made a whip out of cords and lashed at the people, driving them out of the temple, we are offended. We may say, "Hey! Jesus should not behave like this! The hymn says: 'Gentle Jesus, meek and mild'." Here He comes with a whip in His hands, and drives the merchants out of the temple. We are offended. We do not like that! You say, "Hey! I don't like this!" And I tell you how many people have come to me, for they were greatly offended at this Scripture, who said that Jesus drove the merchants out of the temple, overturned their tables, and drove them from the temple courtyard. Does that look gentle and meek and mild to you? That looks rather fierce and frightening. Thus, we are offended. Why? It is because He does not conform to our picture of the spiritual man.

Let me tell you something. The spiritual man is humble and meek, but that does not mean that the zeal of God, the fire of God, the fury and anger of God cannot kindle in his soul, and there is nothing so frightening as the anger of a holy man. We think of Christians - ideal Christians - as meek and gentle, but Jesus behaved in such a dogmatic, such an authoritarian, such a decisive manner at the temple that it frightens us, doesn't it? I thank God that Jesus was not a weakling, you know. He stood for the truth when it was necessary to stand for the truth. God - remember this - is a God of love, but He is capable of wrath - anger! The Bible tell us: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." [Heb. 10:31] You see, we find ourselves now in problems. We thought of God as a God of love and we sing sweet hymns to Him, but suddenly we see Him as God of wrath and that it is fearful, and then our minds are confused. The carnal man cannot take all this in. We do not like a God who is so frightening in His holiness. That is what I mean. But unless you are spiritually-minded, sooner or later you will take offense at the Gospel. You will say, "I don't like this." Or you will see men of God and you will be offended with the men of God in the way they behave because you cannot understand a spiritual man.

I have many times led studies in the book of Acts and I have many times noticed how people took offense at Paul, that he behaved with a certain stubbornness, a certain dogmaticness, that even over-awed the multitude. As for example, when he determined to go to Jerusalem against the pleas of his fellow workers and fellow Christians, he seemed to be unreasonable, determined, dogmatic. That is only because, of course, we are not as spiritual as Paul, and spiritual men are not always easy to understand. But we decide that we know what is a spiritual man. I always remember vividly in a Bible study when somebody criticized Paul about his behavior of being unreasonable and stubborn. I said, "Slowly, my friend. Slowly! When you become as spiritual as Paul, then take it upon yourself to judge him. Until then, don't say a word. Don't say a word!"

Or consider Paul, this wonderful servant of God full of love and joy, the way he dealt with the sinner at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 5 - how dogmatic, how determined was Paul! Frightening! He said to the Corinthian church, without bothering to ask whether the Corinthians agreed or did not agree, "Though I am absent in the body and present with you in the spirit, I deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." [vv3-5] How many Christians have come to me offended by Paul's behavior! How can a servant of God behave like this? Deliver a man to Satan? For the destruction of the flesh? This is what I mean. You see, sooner or later, you will be offended with the Gospel. You will be offended with men of God because you cannot comprehend their conduct, because you want to bring them and judge them by a human level. So, Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5 to say, "Not only we do not know Jesus anymore according to the flesh, but we look at no man - no man - according to the flesh." [v16] When Paul looks at you, he is not interested in your hairstyle. He is not interested in what kind of glasses you wear, whether your necktie is nice or not. He looks right into your being. He wants to know, "Is your thinking spiritual? Does the Holy Spirit of God live in you?"

He said, "When I come to Corinth..." - there were troublemakers in Corinth - "I will not come to listen to their words, but I will come to determine what is their power." [1 Cor. 4:19] "What is their power!" Whoa! A spiritual man is a man of power! That makes us uncomfortable again. We do not know much about spiritual power. I can see Paul as he comes to Corinth. This gentle Paul, this humble Paul, as he walks into the church in Corinth and looks his enemies in the eye, and says, "Now, what is your power?" Do you know that language? Can you even understand what Paul is talking about, or is this just Hebrew and Greek to you? You do not even know what is he talking about! What power?

Thus, you can see that to be spiritually-minded, that is the most essential thing, if you are going to understand the Lord Jesus and what He did and what He said. Notice that Jesus' disciples took offense at Him in John Chapter 6. When Jesus said to His disciples and to the multitudes, "If you want life, you have got to eat My flesh and drink My blood." Euuh! Yuch! I knew a person who, whenever you talk about blood and operations, he would run for the door, tearing off his collar, his tie and everything in the process. "Drink My blood." The disciples said, "Now, that is too much! We cannot stand this kind of talk anymore. No! Even if you are Jesus, even though you are a King, the Messiah, we cannot stand this talk. We have had enough." And so, His disciples left Him. You read that at the end of John Chapter 6. We cannot understand Jesus. He is too spiritual for us. We cannot understand His words. Of course, He did not mean, "Take a bite out of my arm," but they could not understand because their minds were carnal. And so, they were thinking, "He must mean that He wants us to take Him to the kitchen and put Him on the chopping board." Disgusting! They cannot stand this. Carnally-minded! They cannot understand the Word of God.

'The Star' Confuses Theologians
But can we understand Matthew Chapter 2? [Would you say,] "Oh, Matthew Chapter 2 is easy! Let us get on to more difficult things!" Easy? Let us start by looking at a few points here. First, let us look at this star. It says here in v2 "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East," the star of the King. Now, when you look to the learned commentaries, our friends are on the go again! What are they doing? Well, they are looking for a human explanation, of course, for the star. You see, the natural man takes offense at what is spiritual, at what he cannot understand. So, what does he do? He tries to find a human explanation for the star. I just invite you to turn to the commentaries. There are so many commentaries on Matthew. Just go and look at them. But to save you the trouble right now, let me give you some examples from my own notes on this very matter. And I invite you afterwards to examine the commentaries. It becomes very interesting how this constant struggle to bring down to our level, within our intellectual grasp, the things of God, forgetting the words of Isaiah Chapter 55, where the prophet says in God's name, "The Lord says this, 'My ways are not your ways'!" "My ways," God says, "are not your ways, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so are My ways above your ways." [vv8-9] "You cannot understand My ways - unless - unless you become spiritually-minded." But, no, we prefer to press on carnally-minded, if possible, that is. So, the star!

Well, you have seen the star in a thousand posters and pictures at Christmastime. I am sure this Christmas, you will probably receive a Christmas card and there you will see it, there are the three wise men on their camels and their gifts and their crowns. The latter was also added onto them, of course, and we will come back to this in a moment. And then, of course, there is a star with a line coming down, right? So, how to deal with this?

Now, this is what J.C. Fenton says in the Matthew commentary in the Pelican series, "There may be some reference to this in Matthew, namely, the reference to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter." Now, you know, in 7 BC two big stars, Saturn and Jupiter came together. They passed - crossed - each other. "So, looking from the earth, the two stars looked like one star, which means that their light might have been doubled." It is a bit doubtful, though - "might have been" doubled because if one is behind the other, you do not have double light. But if they are side by side - and you know that everything is moving - so, for a very brief instance the star looks brighter, twice as bright as it was before. So, J.C. Fenton in the Pelican series says this: "There may be some reference" - notice his hesitation - "...to this conjunction."

So, we turn to the Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Now, there is a very authoritative work to turn to. And of course, there you see the same uncertainty. Though they are uncertain whether this star was miraculous or natural, finally, the writer opts for the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Why does he choose the natural rather than the miraculous? You answer the question. He opts, finally, for the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Then we turn to, a Matthew commentary by J.V. Filson, who completely evades the question. And then we turn, for example, to Edersheim, the notable and respectable scholar, a learned man, and one whom I greatly respect. What do I find? I find that even Edersheim is carried away by the idea of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. But, being a learned man that he is, like all the other scholars, he is uncertain and he is aware of serious problems about this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC.

By the way, of course, this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was discovered by the famous German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the 17th century because he lived to see that conjunction himself with his own eyes. You see, this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces, the constellation of the fish occurs once every 800 years. (I do not know how much astronomy you know. Once, I used to dabble around with astronomy and astrology, so I know a little bit; not too much, but a little bit about these things.) So, of course, in the time of Johannes Kepler in the early 1600s, he was able to observe with his own eyes such a conjunction. But, of course, if it was significant when it had the conjunction in the days of Jesus' birth, why was it not significant in the days of Kepler? There, again, you run straight into a problem.

But there is a further problem, and it is summed up in this hymn, "We Three Kings of Orient Are." It is put like this: "Star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light." [Written by John H. Hopkins, Jr.] Now, you may not be an advanced astronomer, and neither am I, but we all know that all stars move from east to west, just like the sun, just like the moon. To say that a star leads westward says precisely nothing because all stars go westward. You might as well follow the moon; it will take you westward, too. Or follow the sun; it rises in the east and sets in the west. The point simply is this: that you know that the reason why the stars appear to move, or the sun appears to move, is really that the earth is moving. Because it is turning on its axis, when you look into the sky, you see that the whole heavenly body moves. The earth turns at a speed of just over 1000 miles an hour, and so completes one turn in 24 hours, since its circumference is just about 25,000 miles, as you know, from all our school-day geography. So, everything is moving from east to west. To say that it is leading westward is saying precisely nothing.

What is worse, and the problem - in fact, the main point here - is not that this star leads from east to west; it leads from north to south! As you look at it, the only time when this 'star' guides at all is when it was leading the people in v9 to Bethlehem. That was the time - the only time - in the Bible when it says that they saw the star going before them. The star which they had seen in the east, now they saw again! Is this a second conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn? It may be. It could be. But one thing it could not do, it could not lead them southward! Kepler, the great astronomer, was quite aware of this problem, so he claimed to have seen another evanescent star, whatever that is - nobody knows how to account for an evanescent star - that gave the appearance of moving southward. You need only look at a Bible map to see that Jerusalem is north of Bethlehem. You move south to go to Bethlehem. Now, no star in the natural sky leads anybody south. There is where the problem is. That is why you can see why all the learned commentators are a bit hesitant. They are aware of the problems.

Then, what about we turn to the New Bible Dictionary. Well, this dictionary offers you three possibilities. It reminds me somewhat of the English merchant who says, "You pays your money and you takes your choice." Well, this scene gets more and more confusing and frustrating, doesn't it? Well, here are the New Bible Dictionary's suggestions. First, the star is Halley's Comet. You know that a comet is something that trails a long tail behind it. It is a moving star. Halley's Comet appears time and again into view over the earth. The astronomers are able to establish that it was over the skies of the earth in 11 BC. There was also another comet in 4 BC. The only problem is the problem of chronology. Neither of those dates ties in with the NT well.

Let us go to the second one. The second suggestion, of course, is again the Jupiter and Saturn conjunction, but the New Bible Dictionary also points out the problem here. It is that the conjunction would be very, very brief. That is to say, if you see it, it will be passing so quickly that it might be hard for you to notice it, unless you are expecting it. Secondly, as the New Bible Dictionary points out, too, that a conjunction of stars could not be properly called 'a star,' which is what the NT calls it. These wise men were learned in the art of the star. They would not make a mistake by calling a conjunction of stars, which is more than one star, a star, a singular.

And so, thirdly, it is a supernova. Do you know about supernovas? A supernova is a star which suddenly becomes very bright, and for a short time, dominates the whole night sky, and then fades away and becomes dimmer and dimmer. That is [a] very interesting [suggestion] - a supernova! But exactly how a supernova would guide anyone in any direction becomes a problem. What is even worse is that since the invention of the telescope, even since the invention of telescope, nobody has ever seen a supernova. In other words, it is a very interesting theory which remains to be examined empirically or established empirically. But even if you could establish it empirically, how does a supernova guide anybody in a southerly direction?

Now, why am I saying all these? I want to show you that when we try to understand the things of God in a human way, we run into all kinds of problems. Let us concede at once. The facts given to us by the astronomers tell us that there was a lot of unusual astronomical astral activity in the days when Jesus was born. That we can say, immediately, is true. There was a lot of astral activity. In 11 BC, there was Halley's comet. In 7 BC, there was the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter 3 times. Sure, there was a lot of, or some, unusual spiritual activity, but how do we understand the star? The only modern scholar that I know of, Professor Eduard Schweizer of Zurich, simply says in his commentary on Matthew, "This was a miraculous star." A miraculous star! It is no use trying to talk about Jupiter and Saturn, about supernovas and the like. He simply concedes that it is a supernatural star. There is no other way to explain it.

What The Bible Says About The Star
Let us look at the Bible evidence of this star. It is very interesting - this star! This star was first seen in the east, possibly Persia. But, notice again, the Bible does not satisfy us by telling us where. It leads us not to the human information we want because it wants to direct our attention - where to? To the spiritual! But we persist in wanting to know the human! Isn't it remarkable? So humanly inclined are we that we must insist on the human direction. But the Bible wants to direct our attention away from the human to the spiritual. It does not even tell us from where these wise men came from. It could easily have told us, but no! Again, our attention is diverted from the human. It does not matter where they came from.

But notice that this star was seen in the east, possibly two years before these men arrived in Jerusalem. It is possibly two years before because in v16 we are told that Herod killed all the children two years and under. There is no reason to do this, unless he figured from the date that the astronomers had told him about when they saw this star, that that star appeared nearly two years prior. That, of course, gives a lot of problems to the Saturn and Jupiter conjunction. There was a conjunction in the year 7 BC, 3 times, between Saturn and Jupiter, very briefly, of course, but none would cover the span of even a year, not to say two years.

Now, secondly, notice in v9 it says: "The same star that they saw in the east was the star that they now saw again." It is the same star. Very interesting! What is more, this time, that star is not going west; it is going south! What star can do that? Thirdly, if you read carefully the Biblical account, you will notice that this star actually stops over the house where Jesus lay. Have you ever seen a star that could stop in its tracks? They could move and stop, move and stop? What kind of star is this?

Fourthly, this star could pinpoint the house in which Jesus lay. If you would like to establish for yourself whether any star can do this, I invite you to stand outside. Of course, in winter put on a scarf and keep yourself warm. Look up over your head and see whether you could say which place that star was pointing to. You will have an awfully difficult time, because I did it just the other day just to prove it to myself. I stood [there] and I looked into the sky. I think some people might have thought I was quite 'crackers,' [thinking:] "What is he doing?" I looked into the sky to see if I could establish whether I was, in fact, standing directly beneath any star. Now, if you find it is difficult with the star, try it with the moon. You will find that the moon is so big, so many times bigger than the star, it should be easy. You try and see whether you could establish whether the moon was standing over any particular house, maybe even over a particular region, never mind the house. But this star - much smaller than a moon and much higher than a moon - could point to a particular house. Wow! That really is something! I discovered that the only way that I could establish whether that star overhead was really above my head or not was to take a cardboard box, punch a direct hole through it, and put a water level in it. Provided that the water level was absolutely flat and I was able to peer through the hole, I might be able to establish whether that star was over my head or not. But, of course, these men did not have to do that.

Are we offended, then, by the things of God, by the way God does His things? Does it offend us? Must we find it fits into our humans pockets, and when it refuses to fit, we say, "Forget it!" That, in fact, is exactly what G.H. Box does in Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, that authoritative work. I looked it up and this is what G.H. Box says, "There is no need to try and understand this star literally. It was just a poetical way of expressing something." Expressing what, for example? Well, presumably, how God led them. Well, then, how did God lead them? If this was a poetical way of describing it, what was the literal way? No answer to that, of course. He simply gives up.

Do you see how dangerous it is? How dangerous it is to be carnally-minded? Box gives up, but he still does not concede the supernatural character of this star. Why is the human nature so resistant to the things of God, I wonder? At least, the other scholars were uncertain. They said, "Maybe it was...", but were uncertain because they were aware of the problems. But Box simply goes and describes it as poetry and illusion. So, we have several wise men - assuming that they were wise -who were guided by an illusion, an amazing illusion that they could all see at the same time and guide them to the feet of Christ. Now, to my mind, I do not understand why a person like this bothers to be a Christian. If I were in that position, I would say, "Forget it!" I would not bother to be a Christian at all. I say to you again: Either God is the living God or you do not bother to believe in Him. Don't waste your time! I do not understand why they do this.

God's Ways Are Supernatural And Unexplainable, Yet We Can Experience Them
I believe in God because I have experienced Him as real, as living. I have seen the supernatural wonder of His ways that I cannot explain. I became a Christian in a Communist prison camp. And I was released from that prison camp. To this day, I cannot think of a human explanation. I have been trying figure it out. I cannot think of a human explanation why God met with me in this Communist prison camp, and then set me free as I turned my life to Him, responded to His being. And then He brought me out in a miraculous way. If you ask me and press me how to explain it, I cannot find an explanation. I do not know what the explanation is. Somewhere in God's way there is an explanation, but I do not know what it is. Do you believe in a God who does wondrous things or not? Do you believe in miracles or not? "Don't expect a miracle," you are told time and again in the Christian life. Well, I expect miracles. I believe in a God of miracles. I believe in a God who is not bound by natural laws, who does amazing things!

Now, if you do not believe this, do not be a Christian, because there is nothing in the NT that you can find acceptable. It is because there is nothing in it that you will be able to comprehend with your natural mind. Jesus healed the blind. Can you find a natural explanation to this? If you know anything about anatomy, can you think of how a blind eye can see again? Can you think of an explanation? Jesus raised the dead. Can you think of some human means by which the dead can be raised? Can you think of a natural explanation? Jesus was God Who came into the world. It says that this Mary, [who] was a virgin, conceived by the Spirit. Can you understand that? Can you understand how a woman can conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit? Unintelligible! Now, which part of the NT is intelligible to you now? There are the miracles that you cannot understand. There is the Virgin Birth at Christmas you cannot understand. Now, which part you can understand? The part of Jesus walking around in Galilee, maybe? But that has no spiritual significance as far as our salvation is concerned, as far as the actual walking is concerned, I mean. Of course, His coming is full of significance, but the only way to understand is: it is all God's doing!

When you come down to it, how do you become a Christian? Supernatural again! Becoming a Christian is not changing one creed for another, giving up Buddhism to become a Christian, or giving up one kind of philosophy to accept another philosophy. You can do all that without any spiritual power from God at all, but that is not becoming a Christian. If you became a Christian by simply saying, "OK, I give up Buddhism", "OK, I give up agnosticism", "I give up...", whatever it is you gave up before, whatever kind of human reasoning you gave up, you says "OK, I think that Christianity is more reasonable, therefore, I accept Christianity." You have not become a Christian! That is not Christianity!

What is Christianity? Christianity, the Lord Jesus tells us in John Chapter 3, is to be born of the Spirit, that is, God's Spirit comes into your life and transforms you fundamentally. That is being a Christian, that He changes you from being carnal to being spiritual, exactly as Paul says. How are we spiritual-minded? Paul goes on in Romans Chapter 8: "If the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you are spiritually-minded." [v9] It is because you have been changed. Your thinking has been changed. That is what it means. Now, what is 'to be born of the Spirit'? Can you find a human explanation for that? Of course not! It is God's power that comes into your life and changes you. If you have not experienced that power, then you do not know what it is to be a Christian. You do not know what it is. I experienced that power! Many people here, I am sure, have experienced this power. God came into their lives and changed them! That is supernatural; there is no human explanation to that. You see, the whole Bible is supernatural. Why? It is because it is God who is at work. It is not a human enterprise. It is not climbing some supernatural rope up to heaven. It is God coming in when we yield our lives totally to Him. He comes in and changes us! Wonderful Christianity! That is Christianity!

God Reveals Himself To The Magi, Just As He Aims To Communicate To All
But the Gospel is still offensive to many so-called Christians, so they want to change the picture. Let me give you another example. You notice how we have the translation here: "Behold, wise men came from the East." Now, you might not realize it, but that is a very interesting translation. Wise men! And in the hymn, of course, the wise men have been promoted to kings: "We Three Kings of Orient Are." Well, is it disappointing to you that they were not kings? Oh, how nice to think my Jesus, in the cradle there, had three kings coming to worship Him. It does something for us. It is like when we invite speakers to a conference, we have to say that so and so is president of this organization. He is general director, or general manager, whatever. He is doctor so and so. Or, he is a professor, and so, we feel that we have glorified the Lord because the speaker is Professor so and so. And then, we are told, "Oh, no, no. He is no professor." We may say, "Oh, hmm. No professor. Well, at least, can you give him some kind of title? I mean, sort of push him up a little bit. It attracts the people to the conference!"

Thus, you have three kings! Never mind, 'wise men'! They were not wise men; just make them kings! Unfortunately, they were no kings, my friends. No kings! Does it hurt your carnal feelings? No kings! You say, "You spoiled my nice picture now." That's right! "The nice picture I had in my mind is gone." That is right! What is more, where do you see three kings? Does it tell you there were three? How did we figure out that there were three? You say, "I would like to be specific. Don't just say 'kings!' Don't just say 'wise men.' Tell me how many." Aha! So, we figured there were three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Ah! Three kings! Maybe there were 6? Maybe there were 5? Maybe 2 of them brought gold" Oh!" you say, "now you are really getting me down. I was going to enjoy Christmas until I got this message."

These three - were there three? No. We do not know. Maybe 5, maybe 6. Wise men? What is meant by 'wise men'? Let me tell you. The word there is 'Magi.' The Greek is 'ma,goi magoi' here. Magi is the plural form of 'Magus.' Do you know what is 'Magus'? 'Magus' is used in Acts 13:6&8 and is there translated as 'magician', 'magicians'. "Aha," you say, "Now my stomach is really going down. They are not only not kings; they turn out to be magicians! What are we doing here? This is getting desperate. Magi is where the English word 'magician' comes from. That is exactly where the English word comes from: magicians, sorcerers. Now, that is even worse. You say, "Now, this is getting bad!" Well, in this context, you can see that they were astrologers. Astrologers are not even astronomers. Astronomers are people who study the stars as scientists. Astronomy is "天文學 tian wen xue." "天文 tian wen" means study the stars. But astrology is "占星學 zhan xing xue," that is, to find occult or spiritual meaning from the stars. "Ohh," you would say, "sorcerers, astrologers, what have we got here? Let us get back to 'kings,' or at least, let us call them 'wise men'."

Again, our natural man is offended, so immediately we decide that we are going to change the picture, right? Why? Why do we not understand God's ways? God's ways are so offensive to us! You know to whom He gives a message? He gives a message to astrologers! Now, if this word means Persian priests, we are even in bigger trouble, that means they are priests of a foreign religion. Persian priests were called Magi. Yes, indeed! So, whichever way you look at it, you cannot find a good meaning for this word 'Magus.' You cannot find a good meaning for it and we are offended! Why? It is because God extends His salvation to sinners, to tax-collectors, to prostitutes, to magicians, to astrologers. "Oh!" you say, "at least, make these 'wise men', respectable people, OK? We have descended from kings to sinners!" How offended were the Pharisees when Jesus reached out to the sinners, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes on the street. He reached out to them with His salvation. And the religious people were really upset about this. They said, "He associates with sinners!" Jesus simply replied, "Those who are healthy do not need a doctor. It is the sick who need the doctor." [Mt. 9:12, etc.]

Remember, then, well. Does it offend you that these people who came from the east were not kings, not wise men in the ordinary sense that we think of people who are wise, such as philosophers? They were wise men in the sense of being learned in the occult arts - that part, of course, does not come in the translation - in the arts of astrology, especially. God reaches out to the heathen, to the sinners, to bring them to Christ. His ways are not our ways! Do you see the point of what I am saying? Are you spiritually-minded enough to understand God's ways or do you want to change the whole picture and put it nice and pleasantly as three kings? No, no! They were no kings.

Finally, notice this beauty: that Jesus - that God - is willing to speak to you at your level. If astrology is the only language you understand, my God is great enough to speak to you in astrology. You know, God never has a communication problem with man. The communication problem is never on His side; it is always on our side because we are so carnally-minded. Have you noticed that we have Christians from every country in the world who speak every language? Isn't it amazing that God speaks all their languages? They never say, "You know, last time God spoke to me, but He spoke to me in English, so I could not understand it." God speaks to you in any language that you understand. If you are Chinese, He speaks to you in Chinese. If you are Cantonese, He even speaks to you in Cantonese. Isn't it beautiful? God had no communications problem at all! If you are an astrologer, He will even speak to you through His star! Such is God's condescension! God's patience! God's love! He will go and speak to you at your level. Maybe you only understand engineering; He can speak to you in engineering. He can speak to you in physics. He can speak to you in any language you understand. Do you understand any language? He will speak to you in any language. That is my God! But the problem of comprehension is not on God's side. He does not try to make things difficult for you. It is we who make things difficult, because we are carnally-minded, and to be carnally-minded is death.

The Magi Responded By Making The Long Journey And Bringing The Most Costly Gifts
Our time is gone and I want to close now. Notice one last thing: Why it is that God speaks to these people? Notice their response. These astrologers shame us. They shame us with their response. Think carefully. These astrologers could have sat at home and looked in the sky and said, "Hey, look at that star! Amazing star! We will worship! We will worship right here. We don't need to go all the way there to worship. A king has been born, but we will worship right here. It is a long journey, you know, to Israel, so we will worship right here." What do you think about that? I heard Christians even saying to me, "Who needs to go to church? We can worship God at home." They have even a better reason to worship at home. It is a long journey. The nearest place in the east would have been Persia. It is because east of Israel, there is nothing. The first stop is Persia. In between, there is nothing but desert. So, the nearest place would be Persia and that is an awful long journey to make over the Fertile Crescent, as it is called. Many weeks! No wonder the star appeared to them nearly two years beforehand. They had a very long journey to make! Now, isn't that remarkable? But they, having seen the heavenly vision - for that is no less what it was: a heavenly vision like Paul's - they were not disobedient to the heavenly vision. They rose up! Not only did they rise up, what it must have cost them?! It is because if they were kings, gold and frankincense and myrrh would be no problem. Do you see the significance that they were not kings? To an astrologer, gold and frankincense and myrrh is a very expensive thing, like it would be to you and to me. They were ordinary people like us, but they bought the most expensive gifts, which probably drained their entire reserve. All their savings over the years went into buying these to offer to this newborn king. Do you see what I mean?

Now, we can we see how costly it was? For kings to bring gold, that is not costly. But for an astrologer, it is very costly. And then notice well, did they want to go and worship any king of Israel? Notice that they talked to Herod the king. Do you see them showing any sign of reverence to Herod? Not even respect! They were talking to the king of Israel! Herod was the reigning king, but the astrologers completely ignored him. They did not give him any presents. They did not show any sign of respect for him. So, if they wanted to worship any king of Israel, they were standing in front of a king of Israel, a reigning king. They were not interested in him. Instead, they were led by the star, that they had seen in the east, south to an animal stall where there were animals in there, a manger and there was a baby. And they worshipped this baby who was not even a king at the time; He was not reigning. Do you see the spiritual implication? That is an act of faith! If that is not an act of faith, I do not know what is an act of faith, because they did not see Him as king. They worshipped Him before they could see Him as king. That is faith, not sight! They did not see. By the time He became King, most of these astrologers would have died of old age. They would never live, probably, to see Him reign as King. Isn't that interesting?

As Jesus Made A Long Journey To Save Us, Would We Go And Follow Him?
Finally, one last thing: Jesus left His throne and His kingly crown to come to earth. Jesus made a very long journey. He made a very long journey to come to save us. Do you notice what happened? Who were the first disciples? Huh! They were not Jews, but foreigners! They were not respectable men, but sinners, astrologers. And they did the same thing. They made a long journey to come to worship the king. In other words, they did exactly what Jesus did: He made a long journey to come to us; they made a long journey to come to Him. And you and I have to make a long journey to come to Jesus, to leave behind the old ways of life, to leave behind our sins and to totally commit ourselves to Him. Costly discipleship! They did not arrive empty-handed. They came with gold, frankincense and myrrh, having made a long journey, and risked the dangers of the way. Any of you who know the situation in the Middle East in those days know how dangerous it was to make a long journey like this, through bandit country. Even caravans were robbed along the way, coming from Persia and the east. But they came carrying gold, frankincense and myrrh. Many were killed on the way because they were robbed in those days. But these men came bearing precious gifts to the Lord.

What is your response? You see, there is no human explanation why they did this. If they worshipped Jesus as a political king of the Jews, then they were guilty of treason. They were worshipping a foreign king, giving homage to a foreign king. That is to be guilty of treason. That is to be traitors. But, you see, they were not worshipping an earthly king. Otherwise, they could have done that to Herod. But they worshipped Him who would be King, who would reign throughout the universe as King of kings, Lord of lords, as His title is. They knew what total commitment was. Do you? It is because only so will you know spiritually-mindedness!

[Get it!]