This study was taught by Pastor BarryForder.

Jesus said that tradition undermines God’s Word. That has never been truer than in regard to the Christmas narrative that almost all of us have grown up with.

As we study God’s Word, we discover that the traditional timing of Christ’s birth is wrong; the traditional setting is wrong, and the traditional attendees at the birth of Christ are at best, confused.

In this two-part study we ask the questions:

• Why was Bethlehem chosen as the birthplace for Jesus? (Why not Jerusalem?)
• Do we know anything about the shepherds to whom the angels appeared the night of Jesus’ birth? Why were they chosen of all people?
• Who really were the Magi? What do we know about them and why did they travel to see Jesus?

We pray that the stunning answers to these questions will fill you with a greater love for God’s Word and a desire to faithfully serve Him!

The slides accompanying these studies are available for free download.

The post The Hidden Treasures of Christmas Pt2 (2024) first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Last week we looked at why God would send seemingly obscure shepherds to see Jesus at the time of His birth.

Far from being a random choice, we noted that the shepherds on this hills around Bethlehem had a very specific job – namely to inspect lambs that would be later offered in sacrifice 8 miles away in Jerusalem. They came to confirm that Jesus was indeed the perfect Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.

With that in mind, we now ask the question: Why Magi?

Why would God choose to send a group of people hundreds of miles, from another county? More to the point, why would a group of people from another country agree to travel hundreds of miles, bringing gifts, to see a small child?

In this study we look at the truth behind the tradition.

• Who were the Magi?
• What significance did they have?
• How many of them were there really?
• Why does the world believe there were only 3?
• What evidence do we have that they actually visited Bethlehem?
• When did they arrive in Jerusalem?
• Why was Herod and all Jerusalem shaken at their arrival?

What few people seem to have realised was that some 600 years before, Daniel, whilst in Babylon, had been made the head of this Persian priestly group known as ‘Magi’. Seemingly, Daniel revealed some secrets to them that had been handed down for generations – secrets concerning a king who was to be born ‘king of the Jews’.

All the more poignant is the fact that, because of their supposed ability to see the future, one of the Magi’s principle responsibilities was to appoint kings.

Just as the shepherds arrived to confirm that Jesus was the perfect Lamb, the Magi arrived to appoint Jesus as the King of the Jews.

Around 600 before they arrived, the ‘crown’ of Israel had literally been taken to Babylon as the final king of Israel – Zedekiah – was taken away captive by Nebuchadnezzar. Now, the Magi bring the crown back and appoint the one whom their chief (Daniel) had declared would have an everlasting dominion!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are  available for free download.

The post Why Magi? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Why shepherds?

Have you ever wondered? Of all those who could have been invited to see Jesus as He lay in the manger, why did God chose shepherds?

As we study the Bible we begin to realise there are no meaningless details. 

Far from being a random choice, we discover there is much more hidden in the Christmas story that centuries of tradition as sadly obfuscated.

Shepherds were considered outcasts in 1st century Israel, so some say God chose them because He loves to choose the week things of the world to shame the wise.

Others say it was so news of Jesus’ birth could spread far and wide by people who had nothing to lose. But, if that were so, the Shepherds failed in their mission as the news of a ‘new born king’ didn’t even make it 8 miles up the road to Jerusalem, where Herod,  a particularly nervous and uneasy Idumean, appointed by Rome, sat on the throne of Israel as if it were his. When Herod did find out, as Magi from Babylonia arrived en masse in Jerusalem looking for this rightful King of Israel Herod proverbially lost it!

Did you know that the prophet Micah foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem? Quite probably, as it’s a scripture read each year at Christmastime:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

But did you know that Micah, just 7 verse before, foretold the exact location, and it was to be a shepherds lookout tower on outskirts of Bethlehem?

“And thou, O tower of the flock,
the strong hold of the daughter of Zion,
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion;
the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem”. (Micah 4:8)

This tower at Migdal Edar (which is the words translated as ‘tower of the flock”) was not only used by shepherds as a lookout to keep an eye on their sheep to protect them from thieves and predators, it was also used as a lambing room, where new-born lambs could be born away from the ravages of the cold night air. At the base of this tower was an natural depression in the rock the shepherds call the ‘manger’. It would be in there they would lay the new-born lambs.

But, significantly, these were not ordinary shepherds, and their sheep no ordinary sheep. All the sheep on the hills around Bethlehem were for one purpose; to be offered as sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem.

• “Every day, according to the Torah, two lambs were required for a daily sacrifice in the Temple, meaning that 730 were needed each year plus the tens of thousands more lambs needed for Pesach (Passover) as well as for the other religious rituals”. – Harold Smith

For a lamb to be used as an offering it had to be without blemish. To protect it, the shepherds would wrap it in old priestly garments cut into strips, known as swaddling bands, to stop it kicking and thrashing about and damaging itself.

• According to the Talmud, all sheep found in the area “from Jerusalem as far as Migdal Eder” [Bethlehem] were deemed to be holy and consecrated
• They could only be used for sacrifices in the temple… in particular, for the Peace offerings and Passover sacrifices.

These shepherd’s primary duty was to inspect these lamb’s and confirm they were without blemish and able to be used as sacrificial lambs. It was their job to approve the lambs to be offered in Jerusalem to atone for sin!

• “Luke’s original audience would have immediately picked up on the religious significance of the Bethlehem shepherds watching their flocks by night”
• “Aware of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the Jewish Temple worship of the day, they would have known that when you said Bethlehem, you said “sacrificial lambs”. The hills around Bethlehem were home to the thousands of lambs used in ritual worship in the Temple”. – Harold Smith

• For 1st Century Christians: Hearing that Yeshua was born in Bethlehem would have automatically triggered an image of the Lamb of YHVH who takes away the sin [of the World].
• With that in mind, it’s easy for us to imagine one of Luke’s listeners saying, ‘Of course the Lamb of YHVH would originate in Bethlehem – all the lambs for sacrifice came from there.  –Harold Smith

This is why, of all people, God sent these shepherds (without any directions), not to a stable, but to see a baby lying in a manger – their manger!

Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Why Shepherds? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Do the details really matter?

Consider the following from the business world:

• What is your tolerance for being off course?  Are you ok with a one degree mistake?  At first glance, it may seem like “no big deal,” but once you start to see the full possible impact of such an error, you’ll probably agree with me that even a one degree mistake is unacceptable.
• For every degree you fly off course, you will miss your target by 92 feet for every mile that you fly.
• For every 60 miles you fly, you will miss your target by one mile.
• Flying around the equator will land you almost 500 miles off target.

What about a surgeon? Do (or should) the details matter to them? Would you want to be operated on by someone who didn’t think the details mattered? Would you be comfortable, just before the anesthetic kicked in, if you heard the surgeon say “I’m not going to follow the procedure to the letter, I think other medical professionals who insist on attention to detail are just too dogmatic!”

Or consider an airplane pilot; would you want to fly on a plane with a pilot that didn’t want to follow the flight plan to the letter? “One way’s as good as another – right?”

Of course, you all recognise the absurdity of the above. In every walk of life we know the importance of sticking to the rules, following the instructions (have you ever tried to build flat-packed furniture and thought you knew better than the instructions??!!).

Details do matter, and it is no different when we turn our thoughts to the Bible. It is not multiple choice! It is not ‘open to interpretation’, you cannot just make it say what you want to say to fit your particular view point.

It is amazing, therefore, when we come to the ‘Christmas story’, that we find the Bible has been largely put to one side and Tradition has now become our teacher! We are told of 3 kings (we are even given their names!), a star over a stable, a donkey, ‘oxen gathered around’, an inn-keeper and more – none of which are found in the Bible!

The Devil tried so very hard to prevent the 1st Christmas. He failed. But he has gone to extraordinary lengths ever since to obfuscate what really happened.

Spurgeon once said: discernment is not telling right from wrong. It’s telling right from almost right!

Hopefully, our Christmas nativity play in 2017 (and this teaching) go some way to addressing the problem that tradition has caused and unveil the real truth of the Lamb that was born that night in Bethlehem.

Why did the angels appear to shepherds? …and why those shepherds in particular? What was so important about them? Why didn’t the shepherds need directions – they were only given two signs, from which they knew exactly where to find Jesus!

And why Bethlehem?

You can listen to the audio on this web page, or save it for listening to later.  We have also made available the Powerpoint slides (in PDF format) that outline the key points of this study.

We hope and pray this teaching will bless you and encourage you to undertake your own personal study and adventure in God’s Word!

The post Does It Really Matter? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We all like to be prepared for Christmas, to make sure everything is just right. Well, God spent 4000 years getting ready for the first Christmas. There was much to arrange, but everything had to be right!

Did you know that there weren’t 3 kings with 3 gifts? There were actually a multitude of Persian king-makers who descended on Jerusalem at one of the most politically volatile times in Roman history. Matthew tells us that the whole city was shaken and troubled!

Also, you know that star you see above a stable on those Christmas cards? It was never there! There was a star, it was a supernatural sign, but it led the Magi to Nazareth – that is in the completely opposite direction!

There things tradition as blinded us to!

May you be blessed, challenged and encouraged by this study.

Happy Christmas from Calvary Chapel Portsmouth!

The post Christmas Future – the truth behind the tradition Pt3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We all like to be prepared for Christmas, to make sure everything is just right. Well, God spent 4000 years getting ready for the first Christmas. There was much to arrange, but everything had to be right! In this study, we look at some of the key things God had to put in place before His Gift was given, and then conclude by asking who were the shepherds? Why did they play such a prominent role, and what actually was their role? How did they know where to find Jesus without directions? (All they were told is that He was wrapped in swaddling bands and laid in a manger, yet somehow this ‘clue’ told them exactly where to go!)

Are there things that tradition as blinded us to?

May you be challenged and encouraged by this study.

The post Christmas Present – the truth behind the tradition Pt2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

May you be challenged and encouraged by this study.

The post Christmas Past – the truth behind the tradition Pt1 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.