So we are talking about Christmas apologetics, talking about big questions about the Christian faith that arise from the Christmas story in the gospel. So we started this in Sunday Evening Bible Study talking about the genealogies of Jesus, how they don't match up between Matthew and Luke. They don't match up perfectly and why that is. So you can ask someone who is there how we reconcile those two because they know. But today we're talking about the Star of Bethlehem, which is important for the Christmas narrative in Matthew. So let me read Matthew 2, this is verse 1 through 16, and just pay attention. I mean, this is like what we talked about in the sermon. This is a story that you likely know, but just pay specific attention to what it says about the star, okay? And as I go through, let those points stand out. So Matthew 2, 1 through 16. Now, after 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 saw his star when it rose, 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. 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 shepherd my people Israel. That, by the way, is Micah 5, which we already referenced this morning. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had 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. After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose, went before them, until 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, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. All right, so that's Matthew 2, 1 through 16. And as we, so, let me ask you, what did you hear about the star that you can pick out? Did you have a question, Terri? I have a question. Yeah. How old at that point in time was Jesus? When they landed there and then? Yeah, I will answer that question, but in a little bit. That's a good question. What did you hear about the star? And if it's super obvious, good. Guide of the Magi? It was there? It appeared. Right, so you get that from verse 2. He said, we saw his star when it rose, and then later on it appears in verse 9. It went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. So those are two important things. Anything else? I guess you can't tell how long it was around, how long it was there. Yeah, we don't know from Matthew, at least, how long it was there. But that's a good question to wonder about. It's a very unsatisfying answer, but that's a good thing to call out. Anything else? I think it was talking about when the star rose, and I was trying to think if I ever think of stars as rising. Like, you know, I think of the sun. Right. Rising in the horizon and stuff, but. Yeah. As a star, I mean, we think of stars as, we know that stars are, other heavenly beings like other planets and other suns and things. So what this is, we really don't know what it is. We don't know what it is. We don't know. But maybe they just noticed it for the first time. These are good questions. And to be extraordinarily, something extraordinary, like brightness. Yeah, definitely. And so it has to be something that is noteworthy, maybe very noteworthy, because what does it do? It inspires the Magi to leave wherever they were, and we have some ideas, and to come to Jerusalem looking for a king to worship. So that's a big deal. Are we suspecting that the Magi are like Zoroastrians or something like that? I don't know if we know that for sure. It's a possibility, but there's another, maybe more likely possibility. Yeah. So that would be, I think if they were from Persia, that might be, I don't know. That's one option. Well, they had to be interested in the Jewish Messiah for some reason. Right. You're asking really good questions. Let me just point out one thing. Benjamin, you can say something. It is moving, right? It's moving. So it's moving and leading them from the east to the west. And then when they get to Jerusalem, it leads them from Jerusalem to about five miles south, south, east to Bethlehem. So that's what Matthew says, right? So we should account for that. But Benjamin, did you have something? Yeah, no, that's good. So you have the picture in your mind of, in fact, we have our little tykes nativity thing. at home, which has the star right on top under the stable, which wasn't stable. There wasn't a star there either, at least that star. So as far as we know, it's not mentioned in Luke. So OK, those are good things to notice. What's the main thing? As we think about the Star of Bethlehem, the main thing that we're dealing with as it goes as an apologetics question is the historical reliability of Matthew. Is Matthew historically reliable? Is he telling the truth? Is he making stuff up? Or is he trying to be precise and convey to us important details about the life of Jesus? That's the big question. That's why this is a Christmas apologetics thing that we're dealing with. So, we have some assumptions that we're making, and we need to see if there's anything that fits in with those assumptions. So we believe that there is a human author, Matthew. The apostle is the human author of the Gospel of Matthew. But we believe that there is behind Matthew ultimately a divine author. God is the author of scripture. The Holy Spirit inspired these words. And because God is infallible, his word is infallible. And so if it says, and this is something we believe as Christians who have a high view of scripture, if it says that the star of Bethlehem happened, then we need to take that at face value and say, it happened, it's historical, it was something that was seen by the magi. And so whatever we say the star was, whatever options are out there, they have to account for all the details that we just named, account for all the things that we said must have taken place for it to be, there has to be something that fits that perfectly. So it has to have been noticed, been noteworthy enough to inspire the Magi to come from the East, seeking the kingdom of the Jews. It has to be something that they came in response to when the star rose. So in verse two, when it rose, that's important. That's an important detail. He's already said it has to be significant enough for them to make a long journey. The star needs to be able to lead them from the east to the west in Jerusalem and then go before them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and come to rest over the place where the child was. So, those are a lot of things that we have to figure out how to fit within whatever happened. And it is always a possibility that you just can't figure out how this all came to be. And you just accept that God's word is true, you just don't have all of the outside details that you want to have. So that's possible. I don't think we have to just leave it there and be kind of disappointed. So, first we need to talk about who the Magi were. or maybe three of them, or three gifts, but there may not have been three of them. There may have been more. And even if there were three, they may have come with a whole entourage, right? That's pretty common. There are actually stories from later on, from about 70 years after the birth of Jesus, of Magi from the East coming to worship Nero the Emperor in Rome. So that is this is not unheard of for them to do this and it's not unheard of that for people in the ancient Eastern world to Kind of upend their lives in response to something that they saw in the sky. So Here are some things about the the Magi they are definitely astronomers, almost definitely astrologers. So now we don't believe in astrology. We don't think that's a valid way to ascertain God's will or anything like that. But the Magi were probably astrologers. If they were just astronomers, then they were astronomers, people who study the night sky in the service of astrology. Because in order to do astrology, you just have to know what's going on up there, right? And so they We're definitely involved in astrology, but even if it's just like the scientific recording of things that are going on in the night sky, it's in the service of astrology. We think that they were probably from Babylon. So one option is Persia, which would have been maybe Zoroastrianism or however you say that. That's possible. We think it was probably Babylon, which was also kind of to the east of Israel because of some of the details. Babylon was known in that time for its astronomers. They were very sophisticated and precise in the records that they kept of stars and planets and had really advanced calculations they could do to predict when things were going to happen. Babylon had a large Jewish population. Does anyone, can anyone think of why that might have been? What happened in biblical history that might explain why Babylon had a large Jewish population? Yeah. Yeah, there is the exile. And so some came back to the promised land, but it's not surprising that many stayed. And so there's a pretty large Jewish population in Babylon. Babylon, you know, they have astronomers, they have astrologers. They are known, Babylon as a city and a region, is known in the ancient world as, this is the place you go in order to study these things. So it's kind of like, if you think about, well, if you want to study physics, where should you go to study? MIT or, I don't know, Carnegie Mellon or Stanford or? These days, Fiji. These days, Beijing, yeah. If you think about American institutions, then those are probably some that stand out. But it's the place that you go in the ancient world to look into these things. And there are actually many record books, ancient record books, that we have from Babylon of astronomical things happening. good, thorough, detailed records. We don't have everything. And that, we'll see, comes back to not give us a completely satisfying answer. But we have enough to know these people knew what was going on in the night sky. So that's likely who the Magi were. Also, Terry, you brought up the time frame, Babylon is 550 miles from Jerusalem. So that, I looked it up last night, that's about the distance from Corona to Salt Lake City. It's right on the edge of that radius. That means if, and we're making some assumptions here, but if it was Babylon, which I think is pretty likely, that means that they could have made that journey from the time of seeing the star rise to getting to Jerusalem in about a month and a half. So we're not talking about, I know you may have heard the common assumption, well, Jesus might have been about two at that point when the Magi finally arrived. It was actually probably much sooner than that. And we know that because of the amount of time it takes to get places, how much time they could travel, how many miles they could make every day, but also about what this astronomical happening was gives us some insight into how long it may have taken. So some of this is assumption, but I think it's a pretty good assumption that you can have it be the birth of Jesus to the arrival of the Magi being about a month and a half, maybe even a month. So it's not that long. Yeah. So why did he have all the children built from birth? Yeah, that's a good question. And it is because of the astronomical thing that happened because there was potentially more than a year from when it first appeared in the sky to that point. When they say the star when it rose, that's talking about something else. Not the first time it ever showed up, but the time it appeared in a noteworthy way to them, so they set off on their journey. So Herod, if you look into the life of Herod the Great, he had, I believe he had 10 wives. He had multiple sons. He was getting near the end of his reign and kind of paranoid about people taking over authority from him. So he had some of his own sons killed. He had hundreds of army officers killed because he worried that they were plotting with some of his sons to take over the kingdom. So it is not unusual for Herod to do something that's a little bit overboard. So for him to say, let's just kill everybody Two and under. That fits, unfortunately, with Herod. It's also probably not that many people. I mean, one child killed is too many. But we sometimes think of these massive numbers. It's probably not even in the hundreds. It's probably under 100 children. So it's not like this widespread thing. It's pretty targeted. They know Bethlehem. And they know that surrounding region is where they should focus. So does that make, does that answer your question? So you're saying that the star appeared and it was just there for a long, for quite some time before the magi or whatever you want to call them decided that, oh, this is important, we've got to go. Yeah. So the star appears. And then, I'll tell you what I think it was in a minute, but it also disappears. There's a point where every constellation or planet for a time disappears from the night sky because of the positioning of where the sun is. And then when it appears again, that's what the word that's described as the star having risen. That's what it's talking about. So it's been in the sky before, it's disappeared, and then it appears again. And when it appears again, that's a significant point if you are an astronomer or definitely if you are an astrologer to say, wow, this is something unique going on. But we'll get to that. So any other questions about the magi? All right. I'm going to go into the options. There are different options for what this could be. Yes, Benjamin. I mean, I don't know. There's traditions that rise up. What is it, like Dol Shazar, Melchior, and somebody else? I forget the name of the other one. I think it's probably someone who's building up a tradition around. There actually is mention in some commentators who say it would not be completely out of the question for early Christians to have gone and found the Magi as the Gospels come together for them to go interview them. They may have become Christians themselves. So that would not be out of the question. Yeah, right. So there are lots of, lots of things that we don't know for sure, but we can say that sounds reasonable at least. So yeah, but yeah, I don't think you should say, no, definitely their names were these three names, but it's not impossible. So what was the star? What have you heard? Have you heard anything about what the star may have been? Okay. That's okay. I'll tell you some options, but. All right, so option one that's pretty popular is that it is some lining up of planets, specifically Jupiter and Saturn. When that happens, that's noteworthy. You know, you even hear about that today on the news. They'll say, hey, you should go out and look tonight. Look to the east and you'll see these planets align. It'll be really bright. So that's something that does happen. Some lining up, some conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn happened around 7 BC. I hate to burst your bubble, but Jesus was probably born in five or six B.C. because whoever came up with the A.D. I think that's great. I think we should use A.D. and B.C. but it's off because whoever came up with that jump forgot to include a year zero. So it's already off a little bit. But the birth probably happened because of when we know Herod the Great died. Herod the Great died in 7 BC or so. So it would have had to have been around then that this happened in the very early BCs. So it's a little bit off, but scripture doesn't say this is how you should do your calendar. So there's no authoritative word on that. So an alignment of the two planets happened around that time. But the problem with that is it's not really that unusual. It's not unheard of. It wouldn't be something that would inspire astronomers to say, we've got to go and check out what has happened because of this. It would be something that's like, well, something similar happened five weeks ago. This is not an unusual occurrence. It happens fairly often. So I don't think it was that. I don't think it's the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn or other planets aligning. Other people say, well, maybe it wasn't that, but it's maybe some planetary movement, like Jupiter. Jupiter is known as the royal planet, so it's a kingly planet. I mean, this is getting into medieval tradition and the ancient world, but it's known for that, and so people say, well, Jesus is the king, and so it's... It's not a surprise that Jupiter would do something. God's in control of these orbits and movements of the planets. It's not a surprise that Jupiter would do something around his birth. The problem with this is it's also really fairly common, and it also would not have been a surprise to the Magi. They are astronomers. Their whole job is to predict when these things are going to happen, to calculate it out. And so it wouldn't have been something that they look up one night and say, oh my goodness, what is going on? It would have been, there it is, just as we thought, if it was, in fact, Jupiter. So I don't think that's a good option either. The star seems like something that took them by surprise and wasn't predictable in the way that they wanted to predict things. So I don't think it was a planet at all or an alignment of planets at all. Option three is a nova or a supernova. Do you know what this is? Does anyone remember their astronomy courses? I took planetary astronomy and I remember zero things. But also, I basically knew zero things when I was taking the final exam. So, I was just guessing and you can tell that by my score. But a nova or a supernova, that's a massive nuclear explosion. in a star, in one of the life phases of a star that changes it from one phase to another. So it's a big event that makes things noticeable to the naked eye. The problem with this one is that there's no evidence of this having happened. And there are things about a nova or a supernova that just don't fit with Matthew's account. It doesn't move. It's not the kind of thing that moves in one direction, then another direction. And so that is not very satisfying. Option four is meteors. Have you ever seen a meteor? I've seen meteors here. They last for like five seconds. So I don't think it was a meteor. That's just not... great possibility. It would have had to have been a very, very unique meteor. That's right. That's where we're headed. You're there already, but option five is some supernatural occurrence. This is totally feasible. God, of course, can do something outside of the normal natural processes of astronomy and have something that is noticeable by the magi, brings them in the right direction, takes them and rests over where Jesus is. That is totally possible. But the way it's talked about makes it seem like something that's not necessarily supernatural, although it's used for supernatural ends. Option six is to say, well, nothing happened, at least nothing historical. Matthew's just making this up to make a good story. That's not a good option for Believers and the authority of scripture, but there are commentators who say yeah, we can't figure this out. It just means Matthew's wrong And they leave it at that. So that's not where we're going But you are right One final option is that it is a comet Has anyone ever seen a comet? I think the last one, the last notable one was 1996. Remember the Hail Bop? There's some weird cult stuff around there. You've got a comment. Did anyone see it? I saw it on television. Okay. I saw a photo of it just in a book I'll show you in a minute, taken from San Diego. So it was visible from this area. That was the most recent comment that I know of. There may have been others more recently. A comet fits all the characteristics of Matthew 2. It fits everything that Matthew says happened with this star. And comets also have the benefit of being something that in the ancient world, when a comet appeared, people knew whether they were believers in the true God or not, they said, when a comet happens, that's important. That's something worth taking note of. And so that's why the Magi see a comet, it rises, they see it, they make note of it, and then it rises again after it gets a little bit further distance from the sun, it rises again in the night sky and they say, we've got to go because something is happening. And they're able to, because if we assume they're from Babylon, they're able to match up what's happening with the prophecies that they may have records of from the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures to say, well, this seems like the king who was promised. And so we've got to go and find out what's going on, and the comet literally does lead them. So there are two major, for people who say, yeah, it was a comet, there are two common possibilities people will offer as what comet it could have been. Some people say it could have been a Halley's Comet, which you see a Halley's Comet, I think, every 85 or so years. It's on a pretty regular schedule. It was back then as well. The problem with that is it was way too early. It would throw off our whole chronology, including Herod's life, to say it must have been Halley's Comet, because it was in about 12 BC. And remember, it counts down. So that's the problem. There was another comet that's recorded not in, we don't have all the Babylonian records, but we have Chinese records of astronomical occurrences. There was one that was recorded at the right time in the right year range by the Chinese and they say this comet happened, we saw it, we have a note of it. But neither Halley's comet nor this one are a perfect match for what we find in Matthew 2. So the unsatisfying thing that we have to say is we don't have all the comet records because Astronomers have estimated that in every hundred year period there are about 87 comets and we only have records if you look at 50 BC to 50 AD. We only have records of about a third of the comets that happened. So it is highly likely that there could have been a really major comet that was recorded, was notable, was noted by people, but we just don't have the records because we don't have a complete comprehensive set of astronomical records. And that is what I think we're talking about when it comes to the star of Bethlehem. So I will pass this around. I have a few other things to say, but this is the book I used for this. It's from Crossway. It's called The Great Christ Comet. It's by a guy who is a New Testament scholar and he spent years getting up to speed on astronomy so that he could write basically a textbook about what his case is for the star of Bethlehem being a comet. So I'll pass this around. You can take a look at it. It's pretty heavy, pretty hefty, not the kind of thing you want to read just for fun, but I have gone through it for you. So you don't got a summary right now. So this leaves the question, How did those Babylonian magi come to the conclusion that this comet, if we believe it was a comet, was signifying the birth of the King of the Jews? So if you have your Bible, turn to Numbers 24. So does anyone know the story of Balaam? Balaam is a prophet. Not a particularly scrupulous prophet. He is kind of a prophet for hire. And so when Israel is in battle, or in at least tension between Israel and Moab, Balak is the king of Moab, Balak, the king of Moab, hires Balaam and says, I need you to pronounce a curse upon Israel. So you probably know Balaam's ass is the donkey who speaks, right? That's the common one that you know, that's part of the story. So basically, the king of Moab hires Balaam and says, I need you to curse Israel. And what ends up happening is Balaam says, sure. And then his donkey prophesies against that, but allows Balaam to go forward and make the prophecy. And then Balaam's prophecy is the exact opposite of that. It is a blessing upon Israel. The Lord takes over Balaam and his intent to pronounce a curse and actually Balaam is just overcome and actually speaks the truth and blesses Israel. And that's where this comes from. So Numbers 24, you should read the story of Balaam if you haven't before. It's pretty good. It's a good reminder to us of the power of God. But Numbers 24, 17. This is talking about the coming of the Lord. And verse 17 says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. So that is just one verse from Numbers. But do you see the prophecy of a star arising out of Jacob, a star coming out of Jacob, a scepter rising out of Israel? So a sign in the heavens, if you take this literally, of a coming king, the promised king. So that's one. And if you think I'm just making this up, many ancient commentators, so Origen, Augustine, people who know what they're talking about, people who we respect, even though they're not infallible, we respect them. They said, yeah, this is the comet, the star in Matthew two is a comet, it's a fulfillment of Numbers 24, 17, this is the star of Bethlehem that was promised. So another passage to turn to is a familiar Christmas one, Isaiah nine, if you turn there, You remember Isaiah nine verse two, it says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. So you have there another promise. And obviously we look at the ultimate fulfillment and the coming of Jesus as the light of the world. But there are many who say that makes sense if you view Matthew two as a fulfillment of the promise of light coming Of course, in its fullness, we're talking about Jesus, but it's not. unsound to say, well, there may have been literal life, a literal comet that was promised in the Old Testament. And so you can see how Babylonian magi, astrologers or astronomers looking at the night sky, looking at what they had of the Hebrew scriptures could have said, well, this seems to match up and they just go and see what happens. So Sinclair Ferguson, I was reading, there's a really good Advent devotional from Sinclair Ferguson. It's a little late to start now, but you can go get it. It's all Matthew 1 and 2. He's just looking basically verse by verse through Matthew 1 and 2. And when he comes to the Magi, he says that the Magi, they were not necessarily seeking the Lord. They weren't looking for religious truth or theological truth. But he says, Sinclair Ferguson says, and the way John Calvin put it, is that they had a secret instinct of the spirit. So this means they were not intending anything, but the Holy Spirit was at work to bring them where he wanted them to be. Even using the thing that they were expert in, that they had used for sinful ends, the Holy Spirit was able to use that expertise in the night sky to bring them to the true king. And I think that's a good reminder as we close. I'm happy to answer questions which I might not know the answer to. But as we close, just to think about your own life. Think about the Magi, how Through lots of twists and turns, they came to Jesus unexpectedly, and they found him or were brought to him. But to think about your own life, how you have been brought to Jesus as well, how the Spirit has used surprising things in your life or is using surprising things in your life to bring you to him. And that's a good note to close on. So you consider these things this week. But any questions or comments? In the book, did he rule out the captivity in Persia? I think he didn't rule it out. So he didn't say it's definitely not Persia, because it could still fit. But he said the more likely one is Babylon, just because of what we know about their astronomical expertise, and also about the fact that there was a sizable, even at that time, a sizable Jewish population there. Yeah Yeah, it's kind of and that's definitely true and it's certainly possible and it's kind of like you can say I'm sure there were Jewish communities in Persia. It's just a matter of saying what makes the most sense, and you could go either way. Either way, it still all fits. I think it might even still be the same, similar distance, too. Any other questions or comments? I mean, I know we're talking about stuff I don't really know a lot about. I'm not an astronomy expert or a comet expert. I don't think anybody knows a lot about this. Well, this guy does. The book has endorsements from astronomers, guys who run observatories, who say this is really good. They're not even necessarily Christians. I think it has to be a comet. Yeah. And it is literally a textbook. The first eight chapters make the case for that, but then the rest of the book is, here's what comics are all about, here's how they operate, and here's why it all fits. Yeah, because it moved in exactly the right way, but unpredictably. Not like a planet, but like a comet. And there actually, you might see some paintings of comets. We're used to seeing them on the news, or Instagram, or Facebook. But to see oil paintings of, this is what it looked like to see a comet off the coast of the Cape of Good Hope. in Africa. And you can see, wow, I can see how that in an ancient night sky would lead in such a way that he eventually comes to rest on exactly the right place. If you know it's already Bethlehem, then the comet could move in such a way that it does come specifically over the right house. It's not unheard of. So if you really want to get into it, you can get the book. It would take a lot to have those three guys fall there. It would, but they did. So, yeah. They were motivated. Right. Yeah, they knew the right one. Yeah. So when you sing We Three Kings, it's probably not Three Kings, or there are lots of other Christmas songs reference the star. And you can now sing those knowing this is not just some made up story. It was actually true. It's actually accurate. Yeah. Any final thoughts? Thanks for coming. Have a good day. I'm going to pray, and I hope you all can come tonight, but let's pray to close. Father, thank you for this Lord's Day. Thank you for a day for worship and for looking at your word. We do thank you for the ways that you work in our lives. We thank you for using things as unusual, as a comet, And as mundane as all the things that have lined up in our lives to bring us to this point, to bring us to put our faith in Jesus Christ, we pray that you would help us to be your witnesses as we think about our own stories, as we think about the story of the Magi, but as we think about those in our lives who are far from you, we pray that you would use unusual or even just ordinary things to bring them to faith in Christ as well. We ask for you to be at work, maybe even this week, maybe even this coming Christmas day. To that end, we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.