Gentiles too!

January 3, 2022 Monday Message

Matthew 2:2 NLT: “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose in the east, and we have come to worship him.”

Epiphany means gaining a full and complete understanding of something that is really important to you. Epiphany means your eyes have been opened, and you can now see the truth! On the church calendar, we celebrate Epiphany on January 6^th, 12-days after Christmas. We celebrate the revelation of the Christ child to the Magi, Wise Men from the east. Up to this point, Jesus was known only in the Hebrew world, known only to his fellow Jews. But the Magi are Gentiles, and as we now know, Jesus came to the world through the Jews with a mission of redeeming ALL of mankind! And this would be the first inclusion of Gentiles, which is Good News for most of you reading this!

We Three Kings details: Tradition shows us a picture of three kings on camels riding across the desert to visit Jesus, but there were probably more. The Bible speaks of three gifts, but never mentions the number in the entourage. It’s unlikely they would have traveled alone. Once in Bethlehem, “They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary.” Apparently the Holy Family had abandoned the stable in favor of a more traditional dwelling. Consequently, these Wise Men never met the Shepherds from the manger scene! Their gifts gave the Holy Family the resources to travel to Egypt when Herod was killing all the male Hebrew babies. God made a way for them to stay safe!

Rejoice that Gentiles are included in God’s redemption plan. Jesus is the hope of the entire world!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship, 3249 30th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406

Happy Epiphany!

January 03, 2011 Monday Message:

Happy New Year, and Happy Epiphany!

What’s Epiphany? The word means a revelation or new insight. That revelation is often a divine being, and for us it’s Jesus. In the Christian church-year calendar, Epiphany is January 6th, celebrating when the Magi from the east came to worship baby Jesus, the one born King of the Jews.

Only the Gospel of Matthew speaks of this. We sing, “We Three Kings of Orient Are…” but we don’t really know that there were three of them. The Bible doesn’t say how many men, but it does say that three gifts were presented. We don’t know that they were Kings. In fact, the visitors are often referred to as Magi, sorcerers, magicians, astronomers or astrologers. But while they probably practiced some of these things, we also know that these were educated men. They had studied enough astronomy to recognize a new star in the heavens. And they had studied enough world religion to know that a King would be born, that the star was a sign, and that they should follow. They were seekers. Our visitors are probably from Babylon, not the Orient. And they weren’t at the manger with the shepherds. Magi visited as much as two years later.

The real Kings in our story are Herod and Jesus. The visitors from the East first approached Herod, asking, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?” Of course Herod didn’t have a clue, so they all visited the Pharisees and Scribes, who quoted from Micah 5, directing the Magi to Bethlehem.

What’s curious to me is that no Pharisees accompanied the entourage to Bethlehem. They were told that the holy King had been born, but chose not to go. But the Magi, not from Israel and probably Gentiles, showed up to worship the King sent from heaven. You see, everyone created in the image of God needs a redeemer. So God sent His Son for us all.

Norton Lawellin