Greatest Story Never Told

Well, brethren, we're in that time of the year, again, with the lights. It seems like they're going up all over the neighborhood, and the only dark black hole on the in the block is our home. And you can always sell one of the brethren's homes, you know. You drive along, lights, lights, lights, lights, no lights. You know, the same is true with other holidays as well. Usually, this time of year, also, movies are shown about Jesus Christ, like the Ten Commandments. You know, always, of course, you know, remember the Ten Commandments and old Charles and Heston, you know, with his beard, and, you know, he just looked, the part of Moses, raising his staff, and the water just splitting right into another movie that comes out about this time of year, as well as, you know, in the spring.

The robe, you know, all of us probably have seen the robe a hundred times. One movie, by the way, I remember seeing when I was a teenager. It was called The Greatest Story Ever Told. And I remember as a teenager, I thought that was the most boring movie I had ever seen.

It had a lot of stars in it, by the way. It wasn't very successful. It came out in the 60s, I think about 65 or so. It starred Charles and Heston, not nearly as popular as the Ten Commandments. It also starred Telly Savalas. I don't know how many of you remember Telly Savalas? Remember the sucker, sucker detective? He popped that round sucker out of his mouth, and he says, here's looking at your baby. There were others, big stars, actually, in that movie. But today, in fact, probably no one would even recognize them.

You know, if I named them to you, I won't even do that. But it was called The Greatest Story Ever Told. Well, today, I want to talk about The Greatest Story Never Told. But the world has never seen, you know, and I remember when I was, in fact, you know, watched the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, you know, I was reading the Bible, and I saw there were a lot of discrepancies about what was in the movie and what was in the Bible.

It is certainly true that people have not come to know the true Jesus, the real Jesus, the real Jesus of the Bible. They've never heard the greatest story that has ever been told, the greatest story never told. Now, all of us, I'm sure, are quite educated about the Bible. We all, of course, you know, know this book backwards and forwards. You know, if I had you get up here right now, in fact, I don't even need to give the sermon.

I could just have you get up here and give the sermon. I could probably just close my eyes and, you know, point to somebody, and you could come up and you could do it. And I thought to myself, well, you know, wouldn't it be good to just do a, give you a quiz?

You know, a short quiz, just to demonstrate that you do know these things, and I believe you really do, you know, know the things I'm going to ask you today. It's a very simple quiz I'm going to give you. It's a true and false. I love those kind of quizzes. There are no trick questions whatsoever in this quiz, by the way. I want you to maybe write these down, if you would. Number one, true or false, brethren? The Jews had no idea when the Messiah was going to appear to come on the scene. True or false? You know, the Jewish scholars of that day didn't have any idea when Jesus Christ was going to be born, or when he was going to come on the scene.

So again, just true or false? Very simple answer to that. Number two, by the way, I'm only going to have five questions. And you can ace this one easily, because each one's valued at 20 points. And if you get 100%, you get an A. If you miss one, I'll even give you an A. But if you miss two, you'll have to be degraded a little bit. But maybe that's not the best word, isn't it? Degraded? Number two, Jesus grew up in Bethlehem.

You know, all the world sings the little the song, the little town of Bethlehem. So, true or false, brethren? Jesus grew up in Bethlehem. Number three, there are three wise men in the biblical account who came at the birth of Christ. Three wise men who came in the biblical account to visit with Christ at the birth of Christ.

I told you they were very easy questions. Number four, the Magi were Gentiles from India. We three kings of orient are bearing gifts. The Magi were Gentiles from India. Number five, the Christ child was born on December 25th. Now, everybody knows that, don't they? Everybody knows that.

Well, the fact of the matter is, brethren, most have a lack of knowledge of the truth. Either that, or they're indifferent to the truth, and they don't really care when Christ was born. They don't care, you know, about the custom of Christmas and how it's associated with Christ. You know, either people lack knowledge of, or they are indifferent to the life of Christ, the true life of Christ, so that they cannot see the real Jesus, the real Jesus Christ.

Now, there are articles and newspapers which openly tell us, in fact, that Christmas has pagan origins. In fact, yesterday on the news, I was, you know, driving back home, and there was a gentleman on radio that said, we all know that Christmas is from paganism. And then he went on to actually talk about how. But, you know, we don't do it for that anymore.

You know, they claim that they do it for Jesus. They do it for Jesus Christ.

And some would even say, we cleaned up Christmas. I don't know. You know, sounds like this time of year is really one of those things that is amazing. Now, think about Christmas. Christmas is probably the most materialistic time of the entire year. For the time people put down their turkey stick. And so, December 25th, all people think about is what? Getting gifts. Getting gifts. Of course, who thinks about giving gifts to Jesus Christ? Who really thinks about that? Let's go to Deuteronomy 12. So, what if the churches of the world have cleaned up Christmas? Is that all right? Does God want maybe a sanitized version of a pagan holiday? Is that how God works? Deuteronomy 12, verse 29, over here. Let's notice this. And when the Lord your God cuts off from before you, your God talking to ancient Israel, the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them. And after they are destroyed from before you, that you do not inquire after their God, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? And also will do likewise. I also will do likewise. In other words, we're going to do the same thing. And of course, the world knows, by the way, that Christianity, in fact, modern-day Christianity is a secretitation, or whatever the word is, a synchronized version. I should have just stuck with synchronized. But it is a synchronized version because it tends to be synchronized with the world, with paganism. Some will even tell you that it has a connection to Mithraism.

Oh, can they say that? In fact, the fellow on the radio talked about that yesterday.

But God says, You should not look at what the world does and say, I'm going to do likewise. I'm going to... In other words, I'm going to sanitize this pagan custom of satanalia and bromalia, and I'm going to make it Christian. I'm going to put Christ in it.

I'm going to make the Madonna child, you know, Mary and the little Lord Jesus.

You know, I'm going to make the Son, which is, was of course, the Son God.

You know, I'm going to make that into the Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And that's what they did. They sacredized those things. Synchronized them as the word I was trying to think of. But going on here, let's set us here. And you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, they have done to their gods, for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

He said, Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it. So here, you know, people were told not to add to what God had given or take away from it.

And so, Israel was told not even to inquire about the pagan ways.

All of us are familiar with Jeremiah 10 over there.

If you haven't read Jeremiah 10, go read it a bit. And it's kind of hard not to come away thinking it's describing what has become the modern-day Christmas tree.

Now, some will make an argument that that's talking about, you know, an idol that is carved out of wood, but, you know, what is the difference? You know, whether you have a fruit tree that you set up that is a religious emblem. You know, what is the difference? There is no difference, actually. And in Jeremiah 10, verse 2, it says, learn not the way of the heathen.

It's like Mr. Morigian talking about, you know, horoscopes and, you know, all of those kinds of things. You know, in his first message, you know, they get caught up in the signs of the heavens and so forth. And God says, you don't get involved in that kind of thing. You know, get caught up in that kind of thing. Don't learn the way of the pagans, the heathen. You know, if we really do value the Bible, brethren, the Bible should be the Christian guide to us. But frankly, most people, again, are indifferent to what the Bible says because they are so steeped in tradition that the truth is obscured. When they read the Bible, they read it with eyes that are full of lies.

In other words, their eyes are, you know, obscure the truth. They're blinded to see so that they cannot see what the truth of the Bible is. You know, Jesus' birth and the circumstances of His birth, to most people today, are like a dark mystery that they do not understand. But it should not be, brethren, a mystery to us when we look at the Bible. It should not be a mystery to us. It should not cause us to look at the Bible through eyes that are steeped in tradition of this world and of this society. But it should cause us to look at it with a clear mind. I want to talk about the things that are dark to the world. The world does not understand, and consequently, they don't see the true Jesus Christ.

Let's talk about the first mystery that the world does not understand.

You know, the Jews, one of the questions was, the Jews had no idea when the Messiah was to be born. Oh, is that right? They had no idea.

Well, could, brethren, the Jews have known about the time, the approximate time of the birth and the appearance of the Messiah? Could they have known that? Would they have been aware of that?

Do you know, brethren, that in fact they were looking for a Messiah to come on the scene?

And they actually, there were a number of them that, you know, rose up and they led people to rebel against the Romans, and of course, eventually they came to nothing.

In fact, remember that Gamaliels made that very statement, you know, about Christ.

You know, leave them alone. He talked about an occasion of somebody that rose up and, you know, pretty soon they faded from the sea. And he was giving the council, you know, then the Sanhedrin advice. Leave them alone. You know, if it's not of God, it will come to nothing. But if it is God, Gamaliels had the wisdom to say, you know what? You're fighting against God.

So they were expecting a Messiah to come on the scene.

So how would the scholars of the time have known the approximate time when Christ was going to come on the scene? Let's talk about some other things, by the way.

The word Messiah, by the way, is not one that is very familiar to most people.

You know, I don't think they understand, you know, when you talk about Messiah, as much as they understand, if you say Christ. And I think, for the most part, many people think that Christ is just simply the last name of Jesus. It's like your name is Smith.

You know, Christ's last name was Christ. Actually, it's not Jesus Christ, but it is Jesus the Christ.

The word Messiah, by the way, is an Old Testament type word. And the word Christ is a New Testament word, you know, from the Greek. And you know, both of them mean this. They both mean anointed one. Anointed one. And you may remember that the Israel's kings were anointed with oil.

Remember when Samuel went to anoint David as king? And they knew, the scholars of Jesus's day knew, that the Messiah was to be of the line of David, of David's line. And that the Messiah was going to come and be king.

That's why the disciples were saying, are you going to restore your kingdom, Lord, at this time? Because they thought the kingdom was going to come in and going to be set up. And of course, they would be on easy street. After all, Christ had told them you're going to make kings ruling over the twelve tribes of Israel. But they were to find out they would have to enter into the kingdom with much persecution and much suffering. So, Messiah and Christ are mean to say, the anointed one. And again, the disciples, again, were aware of these things. And certainly, the sages, the doctors of the law, all of them knew that Jesus would have been of the line of David. And of course, we have Matthew that tells us that Jesus was of the line of David.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2, here. Matthew 2, in verses 1 through 4, here. We'll go through this rapidly. We're all familiar with many of these passages.

If we are not, we really need to be familiar with them and be studying more. But in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judean, the days of hair the king beheld wise men for the east came to Jerusalem. And it says, So where is he who was born king of the ewes? For we have seen a star in the east have come to worship him. And when hair the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests, the scribes, or the people together, he inquired them where the Christ was to be born. So, see, they knew. They knew the prophecies about the Messiah. And by the way, today, even today, brethren, Jews are looking still for the Messiah. They missed him by 2,000 years. But they're going to see him come back. As part of who envisioned he would come back, or he would come, because he's going to come back as a conquering king. Maybe then they will believe. We hope they will at that time. Most of them will. Luke 2. Luke 2.

In Luke 2 and verse 25 down here. So, you know, the scholars were looking for Christ to come on the scene. They were aware of it. They knew where he was going to be born. And, you know, there were others that knew as well. Let's go to Luke 2 and verse 25. There was knowledge that was quite common. But in verse 25, just read a couple of verses here. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and he was devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. So this was just a righteous man of Israel. And he, it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Before he saw the unoited one. So here it was. He was looking for the Christ to come along. Apparently, God was revealing it to people that the time of the Messiah was about to occur. He was going to come on the scene. But how could they have known the time to watch? I mean, thousands of years, of course, go by. And one year blends to another. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, wouldn't it?

Where is the Messiah? It's like today, a lot of us wonder who are going to be the two witnesses. Where are they? You would think they would be alive today, wouldn't they? Where are they?

Well, no one knows right now. Let's go to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. How would they know the time to look? Well, of course, the prophecies of the Bible. Like I mentioned earlier in the announcements, you know, prophecy is history in advance. And, you know, they believe prophecy. Do you believe prophecy, brethren? There are many people that, quite frankly, get skeptical about prophecy when it doesn't happen the way they want it to happen. There are many people that I'm sure that used to be affiliated with God's church. It once knew, or once aware of prophecies, you know, that they had the same attitude that many people have. This is true. This doctrine, the Bible refers to, is all things continue as they were. You know, I don't know if you've studied about uniformitarianism. The idea that all things continue, the same as they've always continued for the last 6,000 years. But, then, prophecy is going to come to pass. And you are living, I believe, on the cusp of a new world. How long away it is going to be. Again, we can't know that. But prophecy tells us it's going to happen. And if you really believe the Bible, you're going to endure it in the end until it does.

I do. I believe the Bible. I believe what God says.

And, you know, I may not be able to do a lot of things. But with God's help, I can endure. I can endure. Verse 23, though, of Daniel 9.

You know, here God was saying to Daniel, At the beginning of your supplications, the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you have greatly beloved, and therefore, consider the matter and understand the vision. 70 weeks are determined. 70 weeks are determined.

For your people, it says, and for your holy city to finish the transgression, remember, Judah went into captivity for 70 years.

For 70 years, they went into captivity, and then they were able to come back at the decree of Cyrus. But here, he doesn't say 70 years. He says 70 weeks are determined. Now, maybe after the fashion that they had been in captivity, you know, for the 70 years in Babylon.

And it says to finish the transgression, remember, they went into captivity because of what?

Because of sin. To make an end of sins, not just to finish, you know, the transgression, but to make an end of sins. To make reconciliation. There will be a reconciliation. It says for iniquity. To bring in everlasting righteousness.

Now, we're thinking of the words of our art. We're thinking of the kingdom of God here, a time of everlasting righteousness. To seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. And that, of course, would be Jesus Christ, who would be anointed king of kings and lords of lords. And it says, no, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command, this would have been the command of, you know, in the case of restoring the wall around Jerusalem and rebuilding the wall. And it says there shall be seven weeks, so seven weeks, and 62 weeks. And of course, you add those together at 69 weeks here. And it says, the streets will be built again in the wall, even in troubleless times. And of course, you read the book of Ezra, and you read about the story of how difficult it was to rebuild Jerusalem. And after 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, not because of his sins. And it says, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end shall be with a flood. And till the end of the war and desolations are determined. Until we come to a conclusion, and of course, we find the return of Christ that comes about. Then he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. Remember, up to a particular time, sacrifices were necessary.

Were used not only, you know, they were used in the temple. They're Jerusalem, and continue to be used that way, in fact. But the need for them ceased. The time of the need for the sacrifices, you know, of animals and the blood goats came to an end. And why was that, brethren? Why did that come to an end? Well, because Jesus Christ was crucified. And so that through his being cut off, as it were, as he was, remember, cut down after three and a half years of his earthly ministry, he was, you know, crucified, as we know. And he died, you know, having shed his blood, you know, on the stake. You know, after Roman soldier pitched his side, we know he bled to death. He was beaten, scourged. And that was so that the need for sacrifices, the physical sacrifices of animals and goats and Washing and Blations and those ritualistic things were no longer needed. So it says that 69 weeks would take place. Now, all you need to know is a little rudimentary arithmetic, brethren, to do a little, you know, subtraction. Now, write, if you want to write this on your paper, just, we will start with 69 weeks, by the way, because remember, it was divided into seven weeks, and that was 62 weeks. So those two together, 69 weeks. You multiply 69 times seven, and you get 483 years, or 483.

And the Jews, at the time, by the way, brethren, would have been aware, very quite aware, of a day for a year in prophecy. You know, numbers 1434 and Ezekiel 4, 6, they would have been very aware of those prophecies. But, and they knew that what was said, by the way, in Daniel, was a prophecy. It was symbolic, in other words. By the way, a week is seven days. This is why, why we're using, asking you to multiply 69 times seven. So 483 days, and then subtract from that, brethren, 408 BC. 408 BC. And what do you come up with?

Well, you come up with 26, don't you?

Now, now when you go from BC to AD, by the way, there's a rule you have to add one, because there's no year zero. So you come up with 27. And so they knew that around 27 AD, that the Messiah was going to come on the scene. Now, they didn't know in what way He would come on the scene, obviously. But remember, He was the Messiah. He was going to come, and He was going to restore a kingdom. So chances are, He would not be a baby in 27 AD. We know that Christ was born about 4 BC, or 3 BC, I should say. 3 or 4 BC. Yeah, no, no, not correct about that.

But I have to think about that a little bit. But that's not of critical importance anyway right now. But the fact that He was going to appear on the scene at around 27 AD, and that was the time when Christ began His earthly ministry, 27 AD. Remember, He would continue for 3 and a half years.

But remember, in that ministry, He was going to have a full week, prophetic week, which would be seven years, but He was cut off in the middle of the week. Remember that Christ was crucified on Wednesday.

And He was cut off, in other words, in the midst of a physical week.

But also His earthly ministry was only 3 and a half years. And we, of course, have said that, in fact, that Christ will finish that prophetic week with us, God's people. That 3 and a half years, He will complete it and confirm many. You know, He worked with, remember, the disciples and the apostles during the 3 and a half year ministry and trained them, and not only the apostles, but many other disciples, by the way, men and women, by the way, prior to His crucifixion.

So again, they would have known that around 27 AD, you ought to be looking around, and this is, of course, what, in fact, they could have been watching for. Even they didn't know in what way it was going to come on the scene.

So could the Jews have known about the time of the birth of the Messiah? What's the answer to that? True. They could have known. Apparently, many were looking. Some men were looking, was they?

Let's talk about another mystery here, brethren. How was Christ to be born in Bethlehem?

Let's go to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Luke 4 verse 16.

Over here in Luke, the book of Luke, we find that the good physician Luke, in his account, says about the custom of Christ in Luke 4 verse 16.

It says, so came the Nazareth, notice it says where he had been brought up.

So it says that Jesus was brought up. He was reared in Nazareth, the city of Nazareth. I've been to Nazareth, by the way. My wife and I both have been there. So I'm the shores of the Sea of Galilee. So that's where Jesus was brought up. 150 miles north, by the way, of Bethlehem. He was a long way from Bethlehem. And he was a country boy living right there by the Sea of Galilee and the mountains right behind him. There are pretty high mountains real close to the town of Nazareth there. Remember, he was a young man, fished. He probably climbed those rugged mountains. He was a pretty tough fellow. You think about it, later we find him fasting for 40 days and 40 nights at considerable strength. He was not a pushover. Remember, he was strong enough to drive all those money shames out of the temple as well. Not at all the Jesus that you see people depict in art. You know, this long hair kind of an effeminate looking, you know, pale looking person was not Christ.

But the scribes knew Jesus also, though they knew he was going to be born in Bethlehem in Judea, of Judea, which was only five miles away from Jerusalem. So how was Christ to be born in Bethlehem? How was that going to occur? Let's go to Matthew 2. Matthew 2 over here and down in verse 4.

Matthew 2 and verse 4.

This is, and when he had gathered all the chief priests, this is, of course, Herod, and scribes of the people together, he inquired them where the Christ was going to be born.

And so they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, that you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler, who shall shepherd my people Israel. And so they knew enough to again to say that Jesus was going to be born there, that Christ was going to be born there, the Messiah, because they would not have known Him as Jesus, as He was called.

But how was that going to happen? He grew up in Nazareth. We just read that in Luke 4.16.

Well, this had to be orchestrated from heaven. Let's go back over to Luke 2, Luke 2.

Read what the good doctor over here says. But in Luke 2 and verse 1, it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus.

In those days, by the way, you were obeyed decrees at loss of life.

But it says that all the world should be registered. So this was a time where people had to come down to Jerusalem to be registered.

And it says, and this census first took place while Cornelius was governing Syria. Now, by the way, you can actually take this information. You can actually pinpoint the approximate time when this happened, when this occurs. This is why you can actually come up with the approximate birth of Christ, the timing of that.

But let's see. We're on here. Now, so this was a time of registration. It was a time of census. All of us, of course, today, we get census basically through the Internet, don't we?

You know, but it used to be they used to come around and they would ask you to come in your house and say, do you have... how many dogs and cats do you have? And, you know, how many people are here that are legal? How many are here that are illegal? You know, of course, now, I guess they don't care, you know, one way or another. But taxation, census taking was done at a convenient time for people as well. And when was the most convenient time to do that, brethren? Well, every year people came down for the Passover, and they came down also for the Feast of Tabernacles. Remember, they were to bind the money in their hands when they had their tithe and they had prepared for the feast. They were to bind in their hands and they were to go to the place that God would choose, and they would go down to Jerusalem to observe the feast at this particular time. And usually there were around two million people gathered in Jerusalem around this time. Can you imagine what it would be like, by the way, if we had two million people coming into Oakland? You know, it'd be pretty hard to get a room somewhere. Probably couldn't get a room, as a matter of fact. Well, that was the same thing that happened, you know, to Joseph and Mary. They came down, you know, for tabernacles and they couldn't find a place.

And they had to, you might say, they had to camp all the way out in Bethlehem to observe, you know, the feast. And so this is what happened, because the place was overflowing with campers during this time of year and some had to camp way out. And interestingly, by the way, the word Bethlehem, you know what it means, brethren? It means a house of bread.

House of bread. Interestingly, Christ, the Messiah, was going to be the true bread, the true manna from heaven. What a perfect place to be born in the place that is called a house of bread if you are the bread that is descended from heaven. Then if a man eats, he will live forever. Chapter 3, or chapter 2 going on, verse 3, on down through here. It says, So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth and into Judea and to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David. So again, they could have known that Jesus was of David's line here.

It says to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. And so she was about ready to pop, as they say. And so it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in a swaddling clothes and made him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Again, there was not not the available accommodations. And so here, this is what they had to use as a makeshift.

And so it was on this occasion they had gone down to register, they'd gone down to observe the feast, that Mary was great with child and she gave birth. And they happened to be where? But no other than Bethlehem. They were in Bethlehem.

Now, all of us know that this was December 25th. No, we don't, do we? We all don't know that. We don't believe that for one moment, as a matter of fact. Frankly, no one thinks who's among the more scholarly, who's aware of the Bible, who's aware of the climate of Jerusalem, that this was anywhere near December. You know, brethren, it gets cold in Israel. I know a lot of people don't know but think that, but it does get cold in Jerusalem. It actually can snow there sometimes. It's rare, but it can happen. It does happen. But let's notice, going on here in verse 8. Verse 8, it says, Now there was in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. So they were out in the field. So they were living out in the field here. You know, so again, this was not during December because the shepherds would simply not have been out there in December living in the field. Adam Clarke's commentary says this about this, by the way, in volume 5. If you go look it up, page 370, it says, As the first rain began earlier in the month of March, which answers to part of our October, in November begins sometime in October, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of summer, and as these shepherds had not brought home their flocks, it's presumptive, a presumptive argument, that October had not yet commenced, and that consequently our Lord was not born on December 25th. When no flocks were out in the fields, nor could He had been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the field by night. On this very good, very ground, the nativity in December should be given up, and Clarke says. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, undeniable fact. We all, and actually we understand that December 25th was a date that was synchronized or syncretized, you know, in the Catholic Church, and basically, December 25th is the birth date of Nimrod in the Bible. It goes right back to that, by the way, Nimrod. A member of Semiramis and being able to, you know, basically sell her son Nimrod as the sun god, you know, the Osiris and the Isis, you know, of Egypt later on.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia on the subject of Christmas, it says this. December 25th observance predates the coming of Christ. This is what the Catholics say. It predates the coming of Christ. The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25th is a holiday throughout the Greek and Roman world was Mithraeism, who were sun worshippers. The chief deity of this religion was the sun goddess called the Queen of Heaven. This was, of course, Semiramis. Mithrae, of course, Nimrod. The season of the year when this goddess received her greatest adoration from the pagan world was at the time of the winter solstice in December. This festival was called the Nativity, for it had to do with the Nativity of the Sun. The Sun, of course, Semiramis, foisted off as being Nimrod, and she was the Queen of Heaven, basically. And it was secretized into the Catholic Church to where the sun became Jesus Christ. And, you know, Madonna was Mary. Madonna and child was the Christ child born from the golden bow by Sir James Fraser on page 359. So is this, an instructed relic of the long struggle between Christianity and Mithraeism is preserved in our festival of Christmas, which the church scenes were borrowed directly from its heathen rival.

In the Julian calendar, the December 25th, was regarded as the Nativity of the Sun.

When doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a lean toward this festival, because you could, you know, you could go get drunk, you could do all the things that they did, he took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity of Christ should be solemnized on that day. So they put Christ into this pagan custom, which Deuteronomy 12 tells us not to do. So was it December 25th? No. Was it? Was it pagan? Yes, absolutely.

Was it something that the Church should have done? Absolutely not. It was forbidden by Scripture, if we're guided by the Bible. Mystery number three.

So mystery number two, how was Christ to be born in Bethlehem?

I think the question was, here Jesus grew up in Bethlehem. So what was the answer to that?

False. He did not. He was born in Bethlehem, but he did not grow up, you know, in Bethlehem. There wasn't a trick question, by the way. We should know that, shouldn't we? All of us should know that.

Mystery number three, why did God choose the way in which He announced the birth of Christ? Why did He choose this way? You know, the announcement of the birth of Christ was very humble. He could have, by the way, put it in the minds of all of the religious leaders. He could have put it in the mind of the emperor of Rome if he had wanted to. He could have put it in the mind of Herod and in all of the leaders of that day. All the kings of that day, but He did not choose to do that.

But He chose to announce the arrival of the Messiah through shepherds. Through shepherds. And it, of course, you know, would have been a natural time, by the way, to make this announcement, as it did happen when thousands upon thousands of people gathered in Jerusalem.

Let's go to Luke again if you're still there in verse 9 now. It says, And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.

So we talk about these shepherds again that were in the field by night.

The angel said, Don't be afraid, but behold, I bring you good titles of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. He is the anointed one. He's the one that has been prophesied to come.

And it says, And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swallowy clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was an angel at a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And so here, these shepherds, unbeknownst to them, were presented the grandest opportunity anybody on earth could ever have. Can you imagine, brethren, hearing a host of angels, you know, glorifying, praising God at the birth of Jesus the Christ? And He's appearing upon the scene. And God chooses to announce it through shepherds, lonely shepherds.

Verse 15, let's go on down through here. And so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. So God announced it through these shepherds. And again, there were two million people down there. And guess where they go after they leave from the Feast of Tabernacles? Where do these two million people go? And believe me, you know, during this time, people listened in those days. Today, you know, you could walk down the middle of New York, you know, Avenue, Broad Street, Broadway. Nobody knows you, you know. But this kind of momentous news probably spread like wildfire at the Feast. Messiah's here.

And it was probably encouraging to the people in general, but of course the priests probably, and you know, the high priests and scribes disbelieved. They did not believe. Chapter 2 of Matthew, going back to Matthew chapter 2 over here. Matthew 2, in verse 12, verse 13, we hear talking again about the wise men. It says, you know, it says, in during being done, the volume warning in the rain, that they should not return to Herod these wise men. They departed, it says, for their own country another way.

So they left another way. They went back another way.

No, the account speaks of wise men coming from afar to see the Christ. And they were called Magi, by the way, even in our culture and the U.S. Very often you hear this term Magi, but they went home another way. You know, they didn't go back the way that they had come.

Mystery number four, brethren. Who were these Magi? Who were they? I asked the question, the Magi were Gentiles from India. Is that who they were?

And we've heard that, in fact, that's Catholic tradition, by the way.

But we've all heard the story of the three wise guys, or the three wise men, connected with a story of a bail mass, I mean Christmas. But who are these Magi?

Let's go back to Matthew 2 and verse 1.

Go back to Matthew 2 and verse 1. Over here we see, in chapter 2 and verse 1, it says that, After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and the days have heard the king, behold, wise men from the east. So these wise men were from the east.

Now, what do you have that is west of Israel? You have water, don't you? So you really could only go east, essentially. But these were wise men from the east. The Greek is the pronounced Magoi, M-A-G-O-I.

Of course, it doesn't say that they're Gentiles, does it? Here? It doesn't say they're kings, by the way. We three kings, as the song goes of Orient, are, again, is a tradition. Doesn't say anything that they were even priests, for that matter.

Actually, by the way, anciently, Magi were a class of priests among the Medes and the Persians. Forming the kings' private counselors. And they usually dealt, by the way, in astrology, medicine, and the occult of the natural sciences. I won't go back, but you want to go back and read in Daniel, chapter one. Remember when Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were taken into captivity during the times of Judah's captivity, that they were brought in, and they were trained in the customs of the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, and so forth. They were educated in that, and so they were educated to be Magi. They were educated to be wise men or elders among the people. The term, Magi, by the way, used to mean magician. It used to mean astrologer, but it came to be, by the way, to mean wise men, where it came to mean elder.

So, again, the word changed over a period of time to where it meant wise men or elder. For instance, Daniel, Daniel the prophet, was a Magi, became a Magi in Babylon. It's a good thing, in fact, he did become a Magi or, you know, one of the wise men, because he saved the other Magi. Good thing. In fact, he was called the Rag Mag. And he was the chief of the Magi. He became the chief. He was in charge of everybody. Remember, he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream and all, you know, to give you some background on that. But in Daniel 2.48, it says he was the chief of the wise men. In Matthew 2, verse 11, it says, "...And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh." And they presumed that because there were three gifts here that were presented, that must be three wise men.

Of course, not necessarily... that's a false assumption. The number of Magi that came possibly could have been up to 12, although we don't know how many, frankly, there were. And the reason there could be possibly up to 12 is there were 12 tribes of Israel.

Remember, Israel itself went into captivity to the Assyrians. And then Babylon, of course, took Judah into captivity. So you have had the descendants of Israel, you have the descendants of Judah, actually, that were in the Babylonian Empire. Remember, again, that when Jesus himself was about 12 years of age, remember, it says he was submissive to his parents? And then we don't know anything about what Christ did until he becomes 30, 30 years old. Because it says he began to be about 30 years of age when he began his ministry. And as I mentioned earlier, brethren, remember Jesus was of the seed of David, and as the Messiah, he's going to be king over the earth. All you've got to do is, again, read Zechariah, read, of course, Malachi, even for those kinds of things. And these magi, by the way, were not Gentiles in all likelihood from India. So the answer to that is false.

But, in fact, brethren, these magi would have, in all likelihood, been of Israelite descent.

But the idea, the war of the idea that these were Gentiles come from, you know where it comes from, brethren?

From the Catholic Church. Because the Catholic Church has a day called the Epiphany, in which they say, basically, that these kings, you know, from the Gentile kings were the first converts among the Gentiles. So that's where a lot of that war comes from.

But, of course, they were not. In all likelihood, they were not from India.

But remember, they saw this star, and it took two years to get there. And, of course, when they came, it doesn't appear that Jesus was in a manger, even, when they got there. Let's go down to verse 9.

It says, "...if the remnant heard, the king they departed, and behold the star," Matthew 2, verse 9, "...which they had seen in the east went before them, till the king had stood over where the young child was." It says, "...when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding a great joy, and when they came into the house," not in a manger anymore, "...and fell down to worship them, and when they had opened their treasures," this is when they gave the treasures that are mentioned here.

Remember, he was going to be a king as a messiah, and it was fitting that you present him the treasures of the king. Do you think that they gave him a little big box of gold?

No, he probably gave him quite a bit. Befitting of the future king, over all of Israel, in fact. And so they would have given him quite a bit. There was enough, in fact, that Joseph and Mary were able to go down into Egypt and spend a goodly amount of time down there, by the way, according to the history that would unfold later.

You know, so some of them say that, in fact, the Magi saw Christ up to two years after he was born. The reason is because they inquired, you know, and remember, Herod ended up killing all children two years and under. So anyway, some of those things, again, we need to be aware of, and we need to know. You know, another thing I would add to show that there were Israelites that were scattered abroad. When James wrote his letter in James 1, verse 1, it says he wrote to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. That would have included Jews and every other tribe, you know, Reuben and all of those tribes, Manasseh, Ephraim.

And so it says these Magi were from the east, and 700 miles to the east, by the way, of Jerusalem was an empire called the Parthian Empire, which had its ancient roots in Persia, by the way. And this empire, by the way, was never defeated by the Roman Empire.

And Parthia was, in fact, a powerful empire that existed the same time the Roman Empire took place. And these Magi came from that area. In fact, even under some of the traditions, we know some talk about Parthia. And we know also, brethren, in Acts 2, we see people coming together for Pentecost there, where the giving of the Holy Spirit, you can go down through the list, and Parthia is mentioned there. There are people from Parthia.

Let's go to Luke 2. Luke 2. Luke 2, over here.

And so, much of what people believe, brethren, is false about the life of Jesus Christ. There's a lot more we could say.

In a short time, we haven't been able to, of course, cover everything. But I think it's particularly for young people. It gives you a grasp of something, if you listen carefully to what was being said of what the truth of the Bible is. But here, when Simeon was told that he should wait until the Messiah came, and after that, he would be able to basically go on to the grave, verse 28 of Luke 2, it says, And we took him up in his arms and blessed God, and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. According to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples alike to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken about Jesus, and then Simeon blessed him and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fallen and rising of many in Israel, and for the sign which will be spoken against.

Yes, the sword will pierce through your own soul also, and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. And indeed, that was going to be true of what the Messiah would bring and what would happen in his life and what will happen, brethren, to the entire world. The problem with Christianity today is, unfortunately, people again are steeped in tradition, so they do not see the truth. They don't see the truth of the Bible. Also, most people, you know, have kept Jesus Christ in the swaddling clothes. Then they're baby in the manger, and they believe myths. But remember, though Christ is ascended into the heavens, and he is our high priest, as God's people, as the church.

And never have people, frankly, generally in this world, heard the true story about the life of Christ, but they're duped by the myths of tradition and men. And the account of the birth of Christ is a story that has never been told. Well, brethren, how well do you know this story?

And I won't ask you, but, you know, if you made a perfect score on that, wonderful, I applaud you. But realize that most people in this world took that quiz. They would fail miserably.

They have no idea, again, about the circumstances of our Savior and His birth and His life. And so, this is the greatest story that has ever been told, that has never been told in the world.