Tag: Christmas
-
Sermon: Two kings and some wise men – Matthew 2:1-11
The wise men come to Herod in seeking the King of the Jews. It’s so much woven into the Christmas story that it can be easy to overlook how bizarre the scene is, but the first people who seek out the newborn Jesus are pagan astrologers. There are different responses to this king. Some will…
-
Joseph, Mary, and a huge test of faith
In the Gospel of Matthew, a young couple named Mary and Joseph receive some truly shocking news. Mary is expecting! Despite the fact that they have never consummate their relationship and that Mary is a virgin. Joseph faced a dilemma.What does he do? They lived in a small village. Inevitably Mary was going to start…
-
People missed the significance of the first Christmas – but how do you respond to Jesus this Christmas?
There are the important days that we know are important at the time. And there are the important days when we only know of their significance with hindsight. A couple weeks ago, we had the anniversary of an important day in American history when we remembered the 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks on…
-
The gospel in Home Alone
Like many Americans, one of the ways I celebrate the Christmas season is watching Christmas movies. Some of my favorites include A Muppett Christmas Carol, The Santa Claus, and Elf. But my all time favorite Christmas movie, by far, is Home Alone. Many classic Christmas movies have wonderful redemption themes (Christmas Carol is a great…
-
The wise men and the mission of God. Studying Matthew 2
In Matthew 2, verse 1 ends by saying that wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. The ESV says wise men. The Greek word that it comes from is magi, if you’ve ever heard that term. They’re basically astrologers and astrology was respected in the ancient Roman world. The text says that they came…
Josh Benner 