Good evening. We welcome you all for our evening service. Before we sing two songs back to back, I'm going to read a passage in Psalm, which is a call to worship. Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all gods. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. So we're gonna sing a Christmas carol, O Come, All Ye Faithful, followed by Bless the Lord, O My Soul. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh. in pride. Okay. it's only right. All due to this faculty. My strength is failing, the angels near, and my time has come. Please take your seats. Our next song is in Christ alone. We've been thinking about the advent of Advent and it's all about the birth of Christ, that advent, his coming, but also as we think about the second coming, but it's also about in Christ. Salvation is found in no other name. There's no other name given to man under heaven by which we must be saved. So it's in Christ alone my hope is found. And during the singing of this, we'll take up the offering. Let us pray. Lord, we want to thank you that we have the joy of giving back to you something of what you first gave to us. Lord, your mercy and your grace are new every single day. And we thank you that we have that privilege, that opportunity to give back to you what is rightfully yours. And so we ask that you would take it, that you would be honoured by it, that you would break it. that you would multiply this offering and that you would extend your kingdom and your kingdom only, both here and in other places. Would you extend and build your kingdom, we pray. Amen. Before Rodney comes to bring us the message, we'll sing King of Kings, Majesty. We are reminded again every Christmas that when we celebrate this baby, he's not just a baby, he's a savior of the world. But more than that, he is the king of kings, and he is majestic king, and he's the God of heaven. And he's a gentle savior, our closest friend, and he's our strong deliverer. So when we sing this song, really sing this song worshipfully and just giving God the honor and the praise because of who he is. King of kings, majesty. I'm a man of love, I gave you my all, before you now, before you'll go. I don't deserve, I didn't deserve. Eternal, faithful, and true, good Lord, creation, Christ the soul of this sinner. Wonderful. Let me just get a drink here. Excellent. Right. We're going to, in one sense, carry on a little bit from this morning. as it were, we will be looking at the same passage, we'll be adding a few more verses to it, but the real reason I'm doing this is that most Christians, or most people will say that Christians sort of disconnect their brain, they don't think about stuff, it's blind faith, we just accept things, our faith isn't rooted in history, all that sort of stuff. They're very quick to bring out accusations against us as Christians. So as I was thinking about this, I thought we'd go for a little bit of a trip tonight, not physically, because the minibus couldn't hold us all, but we would go for a little trip, and I've entitled tonight, When We See History as His Story. When We See History as His Story. as his story and I will challenge you to go home, when you go home tonight, to write down history and write his story and see how similar they actually are. So when we see history as history, and we're going to see how these things are important. Our faith isn't just hearsay. It isn't just myth. It isn't just random stories or copycat stories. Our faith is rooted in an actual event that happened in history. We can point to a time in history. but we can also point to the reason behind why it happened. So we're gonna see when we see history as his story. Let us just pray together, shall we? Lord, we wanna thank you that, Lord, as we just sang, we don't deserve royal robes. Lord, at one point, we were all prodigals. running away, doing the stuff we wanted to do. But as we came to our senses and came back to you, our Father, we were welcomed in. You put that royal robe on us. You put the ring on our fingers and shoes on our feet, and you give us that spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father. And Lord, we wanna thank you for that. We don't deserve it. There's no merit in us that should deserve anything like that. Lord, it is just an outpouring of your grace, that free grace. As we come to your word, Lord, help us see, help us again get overwhelmed by that exceedingly great joy of who you are. Lord, that we do not believe stuff blindly, but we can point to you a person who walked in history, but a person who walks with us today, and someone who will be coming back for his bride. So Lord, just come and open up your word again to us, we pray. Amen. As I said this morning, we're gonna build on a bit that we looked at this morning. Don't worry, I'm not gonna repeat the morning service. Don't worry about it, you can relax. It's gonna be something completely different. But we will read the same passage, but rather than stopping at verse 11, we will go right through until verse 16, okay? Very important we look at this. So Matthew chapter two, starting at verse one, and this evening we'll go right through until verse 16. Again, I'm sure you'll remember all the stuff that we read this morning, but I do want to read it again and bring it through right to verse 16, a very disturbing point in the narrative. It says this, 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 have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judea, are not the least among the rulers of Judea. For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the young child, and when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also. When Herod the king, sorry, when they heard Herod, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 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 up their treasures, they presented gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, He took the young child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt. and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the Lord through the prophet saying, out of Egypt I call my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men." We'll stop there at a very sad point, and I do that for a purpose. There's just two main points that we're gonna look at this evening. One is history speaks. History speaks. I think it's very important we understand and we hear from history. We're able to look at it, and as I say, root our faith in history in an event that happens. So the first point will be history speaks, and the second point will be his story speaks. His story speaks and we have to see why Christ came. So we're gonna look at history and we're gonna look at his story and what they have to say to us. So the first point is history speaks, verses one and two and verse 16 of Matthew chapter two. Skeptics of Christ and all things concerning the nativity would like us to believe that the events recorded in Matthew and Luke are fictional or myth. If you can discount, and I think this is very important we understand this, if you can discredit the birth of Christ, what else can you discredit? The cross of Christ. If you can prove that Christ was never born, then what's the use of the gospel story, the cross and the resurrection? Because it never happened if Christ never came. So they attack, they want us to believe that the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, those records that are given to us are just myths, they're stories, they're made up to try and craft some sort of rebellion or some sort of feel-good factor or give us some sort of hope in dark times. It's very sad that they're wrong. Because I believe wholeheartedly that Christ came and was born physically. And I will point this in history. I will point and I will show very clearly that he came. There are a number of historical persons and events that confirm Matthew and Luke. and their gospel accounts. If we're going to really look at the history, we're going to have to say what accounts is there within Matthew, within his recorded gospel, what accounts is it that we can point and go, look, there's this guy who lived, there's this that actually happened. We can actually root the birth of Christ in history. And I wish there was more and more skeptics here so that they could hear that we have a faith that's rooted in, it's grounded on facts, not just blind faith. The first thing I want us to think about, the first fact I want us to think about, historical fact, is Herod. Now there's lots of debate around him, but history will tell us that there have been a number of characters with the name Herod. The Herod mentioned here is also known as Herod the Great. Now, I bring him up first because he plays a central role, and especially when we get to the sad bit. And I don't know about you, but to read about the male children getting killed by a king who's jealous and just is paranoid really grieves me. But it's very important that we look at him as a person and really see, can we corroborate, can we prove this? Well, history will tell us. that Herod was a puppet king. He was put in place by the Roman Senate in around 40 BC. Yes, I said B.C., not B.C.E. I believe in the old way, before Christ and the year of our Lord on A.D. So in B.C., around 40 B.C., he was put in place as a puppet king by the Roman Senate to try and rule Jerusalem, to try and keep peace, to try and keep order. Remember, Jerusalem is not a place where Romans ever wanted to be. It was a, It was just a hotbed of trouble and rebellion. And so they placed Herod in place to try and keep peace and order. So Herod is a puppet king. He's not a true king, which could really get us to understand why, when the wise men, when the Magi come and go, where is he who is born king of the Jews? He gets a bit paranoid, because his throne's under threat. But this is a historical guy, it's a historical character. It is well documented, and that he gained control of the country around 37 BC. So again, for quite a run up to Christ's birth, and just for a short time around Christ's birth, Herod, or Herod the Great as he was also known, was a historical figure. He existed, he is there. So when Matthew records this bit, he is actually talking about a historical figure who did not like the thought that Christ was born. And I think that's very important because many people would like to gloss over the fact of Herod the Great. Herod the Great's historical actions, we must understand, he was characterised by a role of successful Roman Clarence King, he was a massive builder of infrastructure. He did a lot, he built a lot, he invested a lot in Jerusalem. This is what history says, and I think many times we rush past these facts because we want to get to Christ. And that's not a bad thing per se, but our faith is rooted in facts. And so I can point back to Herod the Great, and I can go, This guy, this paranoid king, this puppet king, around 37 BC, he did not like the fact that Christ was born. I can point to it quite easily. So we're looking back into history. We're also told about Herod that he was very good at purging. By that I mean, because he was paranoid, If he didn't like you, he killed you. Generally, that's the way it worked. In fact, history will tell us, history is very clear here, that he killed his brother-in-law, he killed the high priest, he killed his favorite wife, he killed his three sons, and there is, again, it's unfairified, but there is a rumor that, or there's records that he killed up to 300 rabbis because he was paranoid. Okay, so this guy is not a good guy. He's not a stable guy. He's not a happy guy that you would come and go, there's a King born in Bethlehem. So when we're talking about Herod and we're gonna look at this sad time, it wouldn't surprise us that this paranoid guy would go about killing people. If he can kill his favorite wife and his three sons, Some child that's of no relative to him is nothing to him. And we must understand this. History speaks of the cruelty of Herod, but the paranoia of Herod, and we can look back and go, the person who came and was born for us on that first Christmas was born in such a perilous time. And I love the way history declares the reality of this story. We're told that Herod killed the children in Bethlehem, or anywhere between 4 to 6 BC, which you may say, but Rodney, wasn't Christ born at? You know, in a time split in half, BC and AD, zero. Well, unfortunately, as I'll point in a minute, some monk got his dates wrong. He tried to add up all the ages and he sort of got his dates wrong and our calendars aren't completely accurate as they are, but history will tell us that anywhere between four to six BC, Herod killed all these children. Okay, that's the record, but we'll get that in a minute. We have, as I touched on this morning, we have the Magi who sought this newborn Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. And it's through this event, and though this event is only mentioned in Matthew, and not in secular history. Now, I point that out, not because I wanna cast aspersions on Matthew, but to show I have no issues with this record in verses 16 of a children getting killed as being historical. Why? Because Herod is paranoid. As I said, if he thinks nothing of killing his favorite wife, he thinks nothing of killing a child that is of no value to him. is a threat to his throne. So while Matthew seems to be the only one that records this, it is still a point we can point to in history as an action of King Herod. And we're told that he dies in around 1 BC. We can look at the Jewish historian Josephus, and he would tell about the brutality of Herod, but he doesn't record the killing Children, and in fact we're told that Caesar, just to show how brutal Herod could be in this then's weight, Caesar, Caesar Augustus said it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son. Think about that. If that's the record of Herod, the guy that the wise men went to see, the guy who is paranoid, Caesar Augustus says it's safer to be his pig than his son because he killed his three sons. So when we look at this and you're thinking, did it happen, didn't it happen? I have no problem thinking this record recorded in Matthew is accurate because history will declare that Herod was not a nice man. He was a brutal man, a cruel man, a man of history, a man of paranoia, a man who killed his family members and priests and rabbis because of paranoia, because he felt threatened, his throne was threatened. So if that's how he operated then, when the magi come and goes, we've seen a star, the star that says this king of kings is born, and we've come to worship him, he's gonna feel threatened again. Now, that's Herod. What about the, what about the, what about the, Well, I'm not going to spend a lot of time here because I've touched on this this morning. I touched on this when we've been going through Daniel. While many people will say that they're fictitious again, there's a couple of points I do want to point out here. One is, they didn't come to the stable. Okay, so when you see the three wise men, you own your Christmas card, did you get? Three wise men, all coming in nicely pressed outfits, and they come to the stable, that didn't happen. It is believed if what we're, and I believe it is true, if you notice when we read, it kept saying we've come to see the child, not the baby, the child. It is believed that Christ is around one and a half to two years old at this time. Around one and a half to two. And so they have come to worship an infant king, a child king. He's in a house, as Matthew says, when they came to the house, not to the stable. And so there's lots of points here that will show that, again, these wise men who were who were from Babylon, who within Daniel we find, they studied all manner of Babylonian literature and language. They studied mathematics. If you like mathematics, you can be a wise man. Mathematics, astronomy, astrology, all manner of religion, occultism, and occult practices. And so these were the watchmen. And they looked up, and as I said this morning, they seen the star. Now the interesting thing about the star, and I've touched on this before, but I think it's very important that we understand this, that even as we look at the star, we can point and go, it happened. It happened. One of the greatest joys I have had, not me personally, but I just loved watching it, was when an ardent atheist finds out that the star actually existed and he can't disprove it. It's fact. In astronomical terms, it is a fact. It's a historical fact. In fact, Jeremy Bowen from the BBC, he went to an astronomer and this guy took him back in time through the skies and he actually showed what the Magi would have seen. and the star is proof. Now, we have touched on this before, and I think it's very important that we understand that we cannot look to the sky and go, oh look, the star of Bethlehem. It's not necessarily there. What they did see was an eclipse of planets. It is believed that in, according to this astronomer, okay, this is all what they would say, in April 17th, 6 BC, There was an alignment of planets. Although there's a bit of debate here in the star sign of Aries, you have Jupiter, who is the king of planets, Saturn, the moon, and the sun, and they all eclipsed, and Jupiter, the king of planets, shone as a star. And in essence what this astronomer says that the alignment of all these planets and how Jupiter lights up like a star was a declaration that a super king was going to be born in Judah. A super king, not just a king. It's not just a run-of-the-mill king. It's not just your average king. I mean, this is the king of kings, the super king. This king is coming and he's gonna be born. Not a bit of wonder, because of what they've seen, because of what God has put in the sky, because of the declaration of what God is doing in a historical time and event, and I've pointed to a date in history that these guys, non-Christians, can point to and go, it actually happened. Because of what God writes in the sky, we can have faith that our Christ was born and we can point to history and go, it happened. Our faith is not myth or hearsay, it is based on fact. When God stepped into time and space, So we've had Herod, we've had the wise men, we've had the star, and even the killing of the children, while it's not recorded in history, we can near enough say, and I haven't heard anybody say, well, I doubt it. Most people have said it's within reason that he would have done it. So everybody will hold fast to the Matthew account as being historical. So the next time you're out and you're singing, oh, come all ye faithful, and someone goes, you don't believe that, do you? You go, why not? Because history says. History points to. My faith is rooted in a fact in history, and I can point to it. It's a wonderful thing. History speaks, and we do not have to hide or be embarrassed that our Christ came and was born, broke into time and space, and was born, history speaks. And Matthew declares what history says. And if you think about it, if I was to try and link up both messages from this morning and this evening, with such a great historical event, not a bit of wonder the Magi had exceedingly great joy. Don't we get it? Isn't this a wonderful event that we think about? It's not just a nice story for this time of year, but it's a declaration of fact that God broke into time and space, that Christ was born, and the accounts are accurate in all ways, even to the detail of how paranoid Herod is. Then we have to think about his story. We have to think about his story. History is one thing, and I love talking about facts, especially in this day and age. Everybody wants facts until you give them facts, and then they don't want facts anymore. They'll go, but that's what you think. No, facts are facts, and you can't dispute them. They're just there. But facts are one thing. But we have to interpret facts, and therefore we have to see his story. Not just history, but his story. We have to see why he came. We have to let his story speak to us. When we look at the child, we can't think of a child just in a manger with all the animals around him. We can't just think of that, and then when it comes to January, we put him away until next year. We have to think of why did he come. We have to see his story and see its implications for us. Well, again, from verses three through to eight will give us his story. And I just love the way it works out in all of this. In fact, we could have read most of it. I think it's very important. The first thing we wanna see is his story is rooted in the plan of God. rooted in the plan of God the Father. This isn't something that happened off cuff, this isn't a plan B, this is God's plan. You remember I've always said that Ephesians says right from before time was, before the foundation of the earth, Christ was crucified. Revelations will tell us that as well. The cross and the resurrection was God's redemptive plan right before creation ever happened, should man sin and man did sin. And therefore, when Christ came, it wasn't a plan B and it wasn't an accident. And we have to understand this, that this is rooted in God's plan, God's heart, God's desire for salvation, this part of salvation. We see this because when Herod says to the priests, is this true? Are these guys true? Is what they're saying true? Where do they go? The Scriptures, they go to the Old Testament, and they go, well, yes, because the prophet said. And they quote the prophet. Now, if you're anything like me, you'll go, what prophet? What prophet are you talking about? Well, I'm glad you asked, because it's in Micah chapter 5, verse 2. Micah chapter five, verse two, they jump straight to Micah and they see that Micah declares that there's gonna be a child born, a child born who will shepherd his people Israel. So Micah is very clear, and so the priests know. Herod knows who to go to, the priests. The priests know where to go to, the Scriptures, but they don't believe what they hear or what they read. But it doesn't change the fact that this event in history is part of God's plan. God's salvation plan. And so they go to the scriptures, and they read the scriptures, and I love the fact that what it says about, in verses 14 through to verse 16, it talks about how Christ, and I love this one, I've seen it, would be the new Moses. He would be the new Moses. He would shepherd his people, take them out of slavery into the promised land. He was there to be their deliverer. He was there to bring in, to be the fulfillment of the law, and therefore many people view what happens in his life, the fleeing to Egypt, the death of the children, as being a reworking of what happened in Moses' life. You do remember that Pharaoh killed all the children. And the nurse saved, the sister saved, she saved Moses. So here you get this wonderful picture, like just in the Old Testament, and everything points to God fulfilling His plan, God fulfilling His redemptive plan, that this is not just a reworking, but this is a fulfillment. This is God working out everything that He's foreshadowed in the old is coming true in the new. Everything that He has shown in the old is beginning to become fulfilled in the new. And so you have Christ coming up out of Egypt to shepherd his people, to bring them out of captivity, to bring them into the promised land if only they would believe in who he is. So many see him as the new Moses. In fact, it says that this is a fulfillment of Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1. It says, They see this as a fulfillment of that Old Testament prophecy, that as God took Israel up out of Egypt, so he took his God, the Son, up out of Egypt. And so when the priests and the scribes are pointing to the Old Testament, they're not just pointing to Micah, but they're pointing to Hosea and all these other great prophecies that are declaring this is his story. It's not just a nice time to party. It's not just a good excuse for time off work. This is his story, that this is God's redemptive plan. God the Father's redemptive plan worked out by God the Son. in time and space that we can point back to in history and go, it happened. I do hope you're seeing this, because it thrills my heart when you look at this, because we have a faith that's rooted, not just in a historical fact, but in a person. It's rooted in the truth, and that is God. And the reason Christ was born, again, I touched on this this morning, the goal, frankincense, and myrrh, his kingship. Christ has come to be king. Christ has come to be king. Not that we make him king in one sense, but he wants to be king. He has come to fulfill the prophecies of taking on the throne of his father, David, that the throne would last for eternity, he would be king. And you see these whole ideas as he comes in to Jerusalem on a donkey, that triumphal entry. When you see all the imagery, he's coming in as a king in many ways, and yet they rejected him. And the same thing is today. He wants to be king of our lives. It's very simple, it's very clear that this child who was born in history that we've seen, it's a fact, this child who was delivered up out of Egypt so that he wouldn't be killed, God protected his son and brought him up. His story is all about he came that he would be our Lord and Savior. Lord and Savior. Number one. King, I'm trying to find different ways to put this. He didn't want to be part of our life. He wants to rule our life. He doesn't ask us for suggestions about our life. He asks us for obedience as he leads us in this life. He wants to be king. Another great picture here is this frankincense. His divinity and his priesthood, and I think this is an important picture that is often missed. You know, we've looked at this, we've looked at this time and time again, that Christ is God. He's not a God, as Jehovah Witnesses would say. He is God, full stop. He is the one and only God. God the Son with the same attributes and characteristics as God the Father. They are identical in attributes and characteristics. And so here we see the frankincense will point to his God, his divinity, his Godhood, but also the fact of priestly, the priestly aspect. He is our high priest and he entered the Holy of Holies. Picture this, it gets my mind going. Hebrews paints the picture of the high priest would go in once a year with the blood into the Holy of Holies, only once a year to make atonement for sin. And he says, and Christ has entered the Holy of Holies. Christ entered God's presence with his own shed blood for our sin. And he made atonement for us. He is our high priest and our sacrifice. It's a wonderful thing. And when I say sacrifice, it's because Meir points to the future suffering and death. the future suffering and death. You see, when we think of the birth of Christ, we think of two things. History, it happened, it can be proved. And his story, why did he come? Why did he come? He came so that he, God in flesh, I love the way John says that he tabernacled amongst us. Again, that Old Testament imagery, he tabernacled. You know, I've almost touched the holy of holies. We've touched them, we've handled them, we've seen them. That aspect of God walking among us. And he came so that he could forgive us. Mark 10, 45 says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. God, the reason he came, the reason he was born is so that he could die, another historical event. Again, our faith is not built on hearsay, myth, or rumor. Our faith is built on history and his story. Our faith is built on Christ and Christ alone. So as we finish, His story and history are linked, and we cannot talk about Christ's birth without talking about the time when God in flesh stepped into time in order to be Savior and to save people from their sins, to be King, to be Lord, to be Shepherd. I haven't even touched on that one yet, but time is gone. So as we've thought about this today, as we've thought about the wise men with exceedingly great joy, so we can look back in history and see an event that actually happened, we can see Christ, and if you have a personal relationship with him, you can have exceedingly great joy, because he's here with us today. So that we have history and we have his story and they both declare the greatness of our God. Is he your king? Is he your Lord? Is he number one in your life? If he's not, I pray that you will not leave this place without finding him. as your Lord and Savior. Amen. We're gonna finish with our final song, final hymn, which is, I'll just get it right now, is O Holy Night. Please stand to sing. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the year We have made it, and it's so, and it's right. Peace. Let us pray. Lord, we want to thank you that we can rejoice. We look at history and we see that you were born. We look at your word and we see why you were born. And we have exceedingly great joy that our faith is built on the rock. Lord, it's rock solid because it's built on you. Why you came, the reason you came, the purpose you came. We thank you that you poured out your Father's mercy and grace upon us. Lord, as we go through this evening, as we go through this week, as, Lord, the day that we celebrate your birth quickly approaches, Lord, help us keep in mind your story. Why you came. Lord again, if anything is not from you, take it away. Leave only your truth and thrill our hearts with your story of mercy and grace revealed in Christ. We ask this in your name, amen.