Christmas 2012
Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking
www.joshhunt.com

Email your people and ask them to Google the answer to this question: if you were to go to Bethlehem today, what would you see? You might suggest the swap pics back and forth.

You might ask everyone who has a smart phone to check in on Facebook.

Matthew 2.1 - 15

ACCOUNTABILITY

What three fellowships do we have scheduled for the next three months? Who will invite every member? Who will help invite every prospect? Who will help plan the party?

OPEN

Let’s each share your name and, how does your family normally celebrate Christmas?

DIG

1.       We all like to say we love Christmas. Is there anything you don’t like about Christmas?

The angel said that Christmas would bring “great joy…for all the people.” Really? For many people, getting ready for Christmas seems more of a hassle than a source of happiness. It is a source of stress. They feel pressure, not pleasure, when it comes to Christmas. It’s a duty, not a delight. They endure Christmas rather than enjoy it. There are many possible reasons you might feel uneasy or lonely or even depressed during the Christmas season. You may dread spending time with oddball relatives. Maybe relationships are strained and uncomfortable in your family. Maybe you don’t have anyone to be with this Christmas. Christmas may remind you of losses or hurts or how things have changed. You may have a religious background that doesn’t include Christmas, or you may have no faith at all; watching others celebrate may make you feel uneasy. Maybe you’re just exhausted and worn out from all that’s happened in your life this past year. This Christmas, God cares deeply about how you feel, and so do I. — The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren

2.       Christmas trivia time: where did the Christmas tree come from?

Christmas trees seem to have their origins in the ancient celebrations of Saturnalia. The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles. Roman soldiers conquering the British Isles found Druids who worshiped mistletoe and Saxons who used holly and ivy in religious ceremonies. All those things found their way into Christmas customs.

Interestingly, however, the first person to have lighted a Christmas tree may have been Martin Luther, father of the Reformation. He introduced the practice of putting candles on trees to celebrate Christmas, citing Isaiah 60:13 as biblical authority for the practice: “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the box tree, and the cypress together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I shall make the place of My feet glorious.” — MacArthur, J. (2001). Truth for today : A daily touch of God’s grace (381). Nashville, Tenn.: J. Countryman.

3.       What would say is the central message of Christmas?

If God had wanted to communicate to birds, he would have become a bird. If God had wanted to communicate to cows, he would have become a cow. But God wanted to communicate to us, so he became one of us. He didn’t send an angel or a prophet or a politician or an ambassador. He came himself. If you really want people to know how much you love them, you can’t send a representative to communicate it. You have to say it personally. That’s what God did at Christmas. — The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren

4.       Matthew 2. Locate Bethlehem on a map.

http://bibleatlas.org/full/bethlehem.htm

5.       Matthew 2.1 Who exactly are these wise men? You may have a Study Bible with a note.

The visit of the wise men from the east has always been an intriguing part of the Jesus story. In popular culture we have developed the idea of ‘three kings from the Orient’, but there is no indication that they held such high office. The significance of their appearance is twofold: they follow a strange star all the way to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and they come from far away to worship him.

The first of these facts has led to a great deal of speculation. Were they astronomers? Or astrologers? What led them to recognize the significance of this star so as to follow it all this way? Phil Ryken surmises that the wise men ‘witnessed several conjunctions of Jupiter, the planet they considered to represent kingship’. But more important, he argues, is the theological meaning of this: ‘From the very creation of the world, God organized the solar system—and indeed the entire universe—in a way that would signify the birth of his Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.’

The second fact is equally significant: these wise men come from afar to worship Jesus. That itself is remarkable, but in the context of Matthew’s Gospel it is supremely important, because the church is commissioned to go into all the world with the gospel (28:19). The fact that the world comes to Jesus in the first place is a wonderful indication of the universal significance that his birth is to have. — Campbell, I. D. (2008). Opening up Matthew. Opening Up Commentary (26–27). Leominster: Day One Publications.

6.       The text doesn’t say how many wise men there were. Where did we get the idea of three wise men?

Who are these men? There are a number of myths that have grown around this story. They were not kings, and there is no indication of how many of them there were (their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh has given rise to the idea of their being three), and they were not following a star that moved ahead of them like a UFO (as Christmas cards often portray). — Price, C. (1998). Matthew: Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth?. Focus on the Bible Commentary (29). Fearn, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.

7.       If we were to take a trip to Bethlehem today, what would we see as far as the birthplace of Jesus?

http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/2649120

8.       How accurate is the typical manger scene?

The picture of the stable and the manger as the birthplace of Jesus is a picture indelibly etched in our minds; but it may well be that that picture is not altogether correct. Justin Martyr, one of the greatest of the early fathers, who lived about A.D. 150, and who came from the district near Bethlehem, tells us that Jesus was born in a cave near the village of Bethlehem (Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho, 78, 304); and it may well be that Justin’s information is correct. The houses in Bethlehem are built on the slope of the limestone ridge; and it is very common for them to have a cave-like stable hollowed out in the limestone rock below the house itself, and very likely it was in such a cave-stable that Jesus was born.

To this day such a cave is shown in Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus and above it the Church of the Nativity has been built. For very long that cave has been shown as the birthplace of Jesus. It was so in the days of the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, for Hadrian, in a deliberate attempt to desecrate the place, erected a shrine to the heathen god Adonis above it. When the Roman Empire became Christian, early in the fourth century, the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, built a great church there, and that church, much altered and often restored, still stands. H. V. Morton tells how he visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He came to a great wall, and in the wall there was a door so low that he had to stoop to enter it; and through the door, and on the other side of the wall, there was the church. Beneath the high altar of the church is the eave, and when the pilgrim descends into it he finds a little cavern about fourteen yards tong and four yards wide, lit by silver lamps. In the floor there is a star, and round it a Latin inscription: “Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.” — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).

9.       How was Jesus’ birth place different from your kids’ birth place?

Phillip Keller, in his fine work entitled Rabboni, offers this imaginative depiction of that night:

The sheep corral, filthy as only an Eastern animal enclosure can be, reeked pungently with manure and urine accumulated across the seasons. Joseph cleared a corner just large enough for Mary to lie down. Birth pains had started. She writhed in agony on the ground. Joseph, in his inexperience and unknowing manly manner, did his best to reassure her. His own outer tunic would be her bed, his rough saddlebag her pillow. Hay, straw, or other animal fodder was non-existent. This was not hay- or grain-growing country. Stock barely survived by grazing on the sparse vegetation that sprang from that semidesert terrain.

Mary moaned and groaned in the darkness of the sheep shelter. Joseph swept away the dust and dirt from a small space in one of the hand-hewn mangers carved from soft limestone rock. He arranged a place where Mary could lay the newborn babe all bundled up in the clothes she had brought along.

And there, alone, unaided, without strangers or friends to witness her ordeal, in the darkness, she delivered her son. It was the unpretentious entrance, the stage entrance of the Son of man—the Son of God, very God in human form—on earth’s stage. — Swindoll, C. R. (2011). Jesus: The greatest life of all. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

10.   How old was Jesus at this time?

Jesus was born before the death of Herod the Great, which is probably to be dated in 4 BC; the exact date of Jesus’ birth is unknown. Various indications in this chapter suggest that the visit of the Magi took place sometime after the birth of Jesus: he is now a ‘child’ (vv. 9, 11), not a ‘babe’ (Luke 2:12, 16, though ‘child’ is used in Luke 2:27 of Jesus forty days after his birth); v. 7 suggests that the appearance of the star, and therefore the birth, was some time ago; and Herod’s murder of all children under two (v. 16) would hardly be necessary if the birth was known to be very recent. — France, R. T. (1985). Vol. 1: Matthew: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (86). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

11.   What might this star have been?

Was it a comet? Asteroid? Conjunction of planets? All have been suggested to explain the Christmas star that led the wise men from the east to visit the Christ child. For astronomer Hugh Ross, one possibility is a “recurring nova.” “An easily visible nova (a star that suddenly increases in brightness and then within a few months or years grows dim) occurs about once every decade,” he said. “Novae are sufficiently uncommon to catch the attention of observers as alert and well-trained as the magi must have been. However, many novae are also sufficiently unspectacular as to escape the attention of others.” Most novae explode once, but a few undergo multiple explosions separated by months or years. This, he said, could account for how Matthew says the star appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared and disappeared later. — The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger by Lee Strobel

12.   Note the phrase “all Jerusalem with him” in verse 3. Why was all of Jerusalem worried?

It came to the ears of Herod that tile wise men had come from the East, and that they were searching for the little child who had been born to be King of the Jews. Any king would have been worried at the report that a child had been born who was to occupy his throne. But Herod was doubly disturbed. Herod was half Jew and half Idumaean. There was Edomite blood in his veins. He had made himself useful to the Romans in the wars and civil wars of Palestine, and they trusted him. He had been appointed governor in 47 B.C.; in 40 B.C. he had received the title of king; and he was to reign until 4 B.C. He had wielded power for long. He was called Herod the Great, and in many ways he deserved the title. He was the only ruler of Palestine who ever succeeded in keeping the peace and in bringing order into disorder. He was a great builder; he was indeed the builder of the Temple in Jerusalem. He could be generous. In times of difficulty he remitted the taxes to make things easier for the people; and in the famine of 25 B.C. he had actually melted down his own gold plate to buy corn for the starving people. But Herod had one terrible flaw in his character. He was almost insanely suspicious. He had always been suspicious, and the older he became the more suspicious he grew, until, in his old age, he was, as someone said, “a murderous old man.” If he suspected anyone as a rival to his power, that person was promptly eliminated. He murdered his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra. His eldest son, Antipater, and two other sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, were all assassinated by him. Augustus, the Roman Emperor, had said, bitterly, that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son. (The saying is even more epigrammatic in Greek, for in Greek hus (<G5300>) is the word for a pig, and huios (<G5207>) is the word for a son). Something of Herod’s savage, bitter, warped nature can be seen from the provisions he made when death came near. When lie was seventy he knew that he must die. He retired to Jericho, the loveliest of all his cities. He gave orders that a collection of the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem should be arrested on trumped-up charges and imprisoned. And he ordered that the moment he died, they should all be killed. He said grimly that he was well aware that no one would mourn for his death, and that he was determined that some tears should be shed when he died.

It is clear how such a man would feel when news reached him that a child was born who was destined to be king. Herod was troubled, and Jerusalem was troubled, too, for Jerusalem well knew the steps that Herod would take to pin down this story and to eliminate this child. Jerusalem knew Herod, and Jerusalem shivered as it waited for his inevitable reaction. — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).

13.   Verse 16. This event is not recorded in any other historical source. Does this seem strange to you? Why or why not?

“Certainly an event of this magnitude would have been noticed by someone other than Matthew,” I insisted. “With the complete absence of any historical or archaeological corroboration, isn’t it logical to conclude that this slaughter never occurred?”

“I can see why you’d say that,” McRay replied, “since today an event like that would probably be splashed all over CNN and the rest of the news media. But, you have to put yourself back in the first century and keep a few things in mind. First, Bethlehem was probably no bigger than Nazareth, so how many babies of that age would there be in a village of five hundred or six hundred people? Not thousands, not hundreds, although certainly a few.

“Second, Herod the Great was a bloodthirsty king; he killed members of his own family; he executed lots of people who he thought might challenge him. So the fact that he killed some babies in Bethlehem is not going to captivate the attention of people in the Roman world.

“And third, there was no television, no radio, no newspapers. It would have taken a long time for word of this to get out, especially from such a minor village way in the back hills of nowhere, and historians had much bigger stories to write about.”

As a journalist, this was still hard to fathom. “This just wasn’t much of a story?” I asked, a bit incredulous.

“I don’t think it was, at least not in those days,” he said. “A madman killing everybody who seems to be a potential threat to him—that was business as usual for Herod. Later, of course, as Christianity developed, this incident became more important, but I would have been surprised if this had made a big splash back then.” — The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger by Lee Strobel

14.   Think of these three groups of people as representatives of groups of people today: Herod, the Scribes, and the wise men. How did each react to Jesus?

No sooner was Jesus born than we see men grouping themselves into the three groups in which men are always to be found in regard to Jesus Christ. Let us look at the three reactions.

(i) There was the reaction of Herod, the reaction of hatred and hostility. Herod was afraid that this little child was going to interfere with his life, his place, his power, his influence, and therefore his first instinct was to destroy him. There are still those who would gladly destroy Jesus Christ, because they see in him the one who interferes with their lives. They wish to do what they like, and Christ will not let them do what they like; and so they would kill him. The man whose one desire is to do what he likes has never any use for Jesus Christ. The Christian is the man who has ceased to do what he likes, and has dedicated his life to do as Christ likes.

(ii) There was the reaction of the chief priests and scribes, the reaction of complete indifference. It did not make the slightest difference to them. They were so engrossed in their Temple ritual and their legal discussions that they completely disregarded Jesus. He meant nothing to them. There are still those who are so interested in their own affairs that Jesus Christ means nothing to them. The prophet’s poignant question can still be asked: “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lam 1:12).

(iii) There was the reaction of the wise men, the reaction of adoring worship, the desire to lay at the feet of Jesus Christ the noblest gifts which they could bring. Surely, when any man realizes the love of God in Jesus Christ, he, too, should be lost in wonder, love and praise. — Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT).

15.   Do you know people who are hostile to Jesus? Why would anyone be hostile to Jesus?

One of the strange facts of history is the consistently good reputation Jesus of Nazareth enjoys even with unbelievers. It is rare for an unbeliever to speak unkindly of Jesus. People who are openly hostile to the church and who hold Christians in contempt are often unsparing in their praise for Jesus. Even Friedrich Nietzsche, who announced the death of God and lamented the decadence of the church, spoke of Jesus as a model of the heroic. In the final years of his life, which were spent in a lunatic asylum, Nietzsche expressed his own insanity by signing his letters, “The Crucified One.”

The overwhelming testimony of the world is to the incomparable perfection of Jesus. Even George Bernard Shaw, when critical of Jesus, could think of no higher standard than Christ Himself. He said of Jesus, “There were times when he did not behave as a Christian.” We cannot miss the irony of Shaw’s criticism. — Sproul, R. C. (1993). The holiness of God. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

16.   Try to think of the impact Jesus has had on the world. Why does it not make any sense to be indifferent about Him?

Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan wrote, “Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western Culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of the history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left? We live in a world where Jesus’ impact is immense even if his name goes unmentioned. In some ways, our biggest challenge in gauging his influence is that we take for granted the ways in which our world has been shaped by him. G. K. Chesterton said that if you want to gauge the impact of his life, “The next best thing to being really inside Christendom is to be really outside it. — Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus by John Ortberg

17.   How has Jesus changed our world?

It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment that was like none other. For through that segment of time a spectacular thing occurred. God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother. God had come near. No silk. No ivory. No hype. To think of Jesus in such a light is— well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it? It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. But don’t do it. For heaven’s sake, don’t. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in can he pull us out. — Celebrating Christmas with Jesus: An Advent Devotional by Max Lucado

18.   How are the wise men an example for us to follow?

There is an important principle stated by Jesus in Matthew 7:7–8 when he said, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened’. Jesus is affirming that the people who do not receive are the people who do not ask; the ones who do not find are the ones who do not seek; and those to whom the doors stay closed are those who never knock. But what happens if someone genuinely asking is asking for the wrong thing? God will give them the right thing. What happens if the person genuinely seeking is seeking in the wrong direction? God will take them in the right direction. What happens if a person is genuinely knocking but knocking on the wrong door? God will open the right door. This is not to say sincerity is enough, but to say that no one can claim they genuinely want to find God but can’t! Jesus affirmed ‘… everyone who asks receives’. Here, a search in the wrong direction and a knocking on the wrong door brought them in the right direction and opened the right door—and the Magi came to Christ! — Price, C. (1998). Matthew: Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth?. Focus on the Bible Commentary (30–31). Fearn, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.

19.   Practically speaking, how can we seek Jesus?

Nothing predicts closeness to God like time in His Word. As we approach the new year we do well to renew our commitment to read the Word on a daily basis.

20.   Many of us have made New Year’s resolutions to read through the Bible and the like. How can we keep them this year?

Above all, don’t make a list of New Year’s resolutions. Each January 1, millions of people drag themselves out of bed, full of hope or hangover, resolved to eat less, exercise more, spend less money, work harder at the office, keep the home cleaner, and still miraculously have more time for romantic dinners and long walks on the beach. By February 1, they’re embarrassed to even look at the list. But instead of lamenting their lack of willpower, they should put the blame where it belongs: on the list. No one has enough willpower for that list. If you’re going to start a new physical exercise program, don’t try to overhaul your finances at the same time. If you’re going to need your energy for a new job—like, say, the presidency of the United States—then this probably isn’t the ideal time to go cold turkey on cigarettes. Because you have only one supply of willpower, the different New Year’s resolutions all compete with one another. Each time you try to follow one, you reduce your capacity for all the others. A better plan is to make one resolution and stick to it. — Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney

21.   What is the most meaningful Christmas you have experienced?

The small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.

It all began because my husband, Mike, hated Christmas—oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute, the gifts given in desperation. Knowing he felt that way, I decided to do something different.

Our son Kevin was wrestling at the junior high school. Shortly before Christmas his team played a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, were a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team’s boys were wrestling without headgear.

It was a luxury they obviously could not afford. We ended up walloping them. As each boy got up from the mat, he swaggered in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat. Mike shook his head sadly. “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”

That afternoon I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed an envelope on the tree with a note telling Mike what I had done as my gift to him. His smile was the brightest thing that Christmas.

Each Christmas after that, I sent Mike’s gift money to a different group—one year sending a group of youngsters with mental disabilities to a hockey game, another year giving a check to elderly brothers whose home had burned down the week before Christmas.

We lost Mike to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was so wrapped up in grief that I barely got the tree up. But on Christmas Eve I placed an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. —Anonymous / Larson, C. B., & Ten Elshof, P. (2008). 1001 illustrations that connect (102–103). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

22.   What do you want to recall from today’s lesson?

23.   How can we support one another in prayer this week?