Advent 4 year A Sermon Astronomy 2
The virgin will be with child... and will give birth to a son, and they will call him... Immanuel"— which means, "God with us."
700 years before the birth of Jesus... the prophet Isaiah made just such a prediction...again during Mary’s pregnancy...
an angel... repeats Isaiah’s prophesy... to her fiancé Joseph.
Would you be amazed to learn... that such a prediction... such a prophesy... could actually find its counterpart
in modern science... a discovery... that helps us confirm ... the actual date of Jesus birth?
And would you be even more amazed... if I told you... that we can now demonstrate... with mathematical accuracy...just what star the wise men saw...
as they approached Bethlehem... two years later... when Jesus was a toddler?
I was amazed. I already knew… that archaeological records… and the modern science of astronomy…
quite independently of the Gospel accounts…
could predict with certainty … that Jesus would have been born… sometime between 3 and 2 BC. That can easily be calculated backwards… from the eclipse that occurred at the time of Jesus crucifixion.
But then I learned that with modern science…
we can also pin point the exact date of Jesus’ birth. And the star the wise men saw.
And would you believe…
the first bit of evidence in all this…
is provided by Jesus cousin… John the Baptist…
in fact the clue is the moment of John’s conception…
Now you’re probably thinking…you’ve got to be kidding Diane…but my authority for this… is actually a Professor of Physics at Victoria University… award winning New Zealand scientist Jeffrey Tallon.
Here’s how Tallon says all the mystery unravels.
The Gospel of Luke… tells us Jesus’ cousin…
was six months older…so John would’ve been conceived…between 3 and four BC. And guess what… just by using the information in the first chapter of Luke… we can verify… the probable date… of John’s conception…independently of the Gospel account.
How can we do this? Because Luke 1:5 tells us…
‘in the time of Herod... king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah...who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah…and Luke 1:8 says...Once when Zechariah's division was on duty... and he was serving as priest before God in the Temple…an angel of the Lord appeared to him.
When Zechariah saw the angel, he was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Don’t be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son...and you’re to name him John…And he’ll go on before the Lord...in the spirit and power of Elijah...to turn father’s hearts to their children and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous...to make ready a people.... who are prepared for the Lord."[pause]
Today we know… from Jewish records kept at the time… that the Division of Abijah was the eighth Division… and it served in the Temple…
in the year 4 BC…from the 19th to the 26th of May to be exact.
Luke says Zechariah went straight home and Elizabeth conceived. [pause]
Ok… allowing for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy…John would’ve been born around the 7th of March… three BC. Six months later…Jesus would have been born …around the 7th of September
Now remember that date… the 7th of Sept 3 BC.
Next we come back to the intriguing question…
just what exactly … was the star of Bethlehem?
Remember the Babylonian Magi…the wise men…
Well they were astronomers and astrologers.
The behaviour of the stars and the planets…
had enormous significance for them. And if we look at the evidence… through their eyes…through the eyes of astrologers…then this is what we see. [pause]
Jupiter slide
Babylonian astrologists recorded in the year
three BC…that Jupiter appeared to ‘dance’…to jump… back and forth.
Today through the science of modern astronomy…
we can electronically reproduce…
the actual skies at that time.
Computerised images…of the skies in that year…
show us Jupiter and Venus – the two brightest planets…actually went into conjunction twice…once in August 3 BC and again in June 2 BC (if you look at the slide… you can see Venus is the crescent).
This event alone would have been incredibly interesting to ancient astrologers… who were looking for signs and portents… in the night sky… but the amazing thing from an ancient astrologer’s point of view…
is that between these conjunctions of Jupiter and Venus
11 Sept slide 1
precisely on the eleventh of September …three BC…
two quick clicks
Jupiter…known as the King planet…moved into conjunction with
one click
Regulus…the King star…
and this occurred in the constellation of
one click
Leo the Lion…the constellation signifying the nation of Judah!!!
With all this going on…
you can see how wise men from the East… might easily believe…the stars predicted the birth… of a king… in Judah.
11 Sept slide 2
On that same night …
eight clicks
the planet Venus… moved into the constellation of Virgo…along with the sun. To the Magi…the sun in the womb of Virgo (the virgin) may have presented a powerful image… of a virgin birth.
And from this computer generated image of the night sky…as we know it actually was… on that date…
you can just see… the faint outline… of the crescent moon… under the feet of the constellation Virgo…
the virgin.
Now… just listen to this report from the book of Revelation chapter twelve.
Slide words and three clicks
‘A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:
a woman... clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.
Slide words and one click
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth… She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations.” [pause]
Blank slide
Given what we can see in the actual skies of the time…
if the writer of Revelation were describing an astrological event…it wouldn’t be surprising…
now would it?
We know astrology was practised by the Jews and Babylonians alike. We know just how important astrology was to the Jews…from the scrolls found at Qumran…as well the 12 signs of the zodiac…
on the floor of the Temple in Jerusalem…one for each tribe of Israel…
What an amazing image…the constellation of Virgo with the sun in her belly and the moon at her feet.
Mary images slide
And did you know… that some of the earliest drawings of Jesus’ mother Mary…show the crescent moon… below her feet and the sun in her tummy. [pause]
Blank title slide
Ok, back to Jesus birthday… Now cynics who want to discredit the story of Jesus birth... love to claim that Christians just co-opted the 25th of December...from the existing celebrations of the birth of the Roman deity... Sol Invictus,
But remember our earlier calculations… based on Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s birth… and independent Jewish records …remember our calculations… allowed us to place Jesus’ birth… sometime around the 7th of September 3 BC.
And if what we read in the book of Revelation…
is describing an astrological event…
and Jesus was born four days later…
on the 11th of September… [pause]
according to the modern science of astronomy…
Matthew’s story of the Bethlehem Star…
makes complete sense. Listen
Word slide
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...during the time of King Herod...Magi from the east...came to Jerusalem and asked “where is he who is born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east...
and we’ve come to worship him.”
Word Slide
After they heard what Herod had to say...they went on their way...and the star they’d seen in the east...
went ahead of them until it stopped...
over the place... where the child was.
Word slide
On coming to the house, they saw the child [not the baby] with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him…and presented him with gifts. [pause]
Bethlehem slide
As they left Jerusalem…the star came to rest…
over Bethlehem. Today from the modern science of astronomy… we know that on the 25th of December in 2BC… the planet Jupiter reached the full extent…
of its retrograde motion… where it appears to stop in the sky… [pause]
Visit of the Magi slide
Here you can see a faint image… of where Jupiter actually was… the very night of December twenty five in the year two BC.
And this isn’t just… any view of the night sky. It’s the view looking due south… from Jerusalem…where the Magi met with King Herod…and from Jerusalem… Jupiter… is right over Bethlehem.
And what’s even more amazing…If you look below Jupiter…you can actually see… our Southern Cross… which had popped over the horizon for just a few days.
And the profoundly moving thing for us… sitting here in the Southern Hemisphere… is that today… you can no longer see the Southern Cross… from Jerusalem… because of the movement of our solar system…in our galaxy… the Milky Way. [pause]
But 2000 years ago… you could see the Southern Cross from Jerusalem.
When Professor Tallon first saw it on his computer screen…he was powerfully affected by the image.
Not only because the Southern Cross points to the town of Bethlehem…but because above Bethlehem…
is the figure of a cross…
After I heard him speak on this…Professor Tallon wrote to me… that through his eyes of faith looking back across time…
‘The cross and the cradle appear to be inseparable.
He wrote with enthusiasm… ‘And for all these things to be true…the guiding signs… for the wise men to the Christ… would have been laid down in the motion of the planets and the stars… from the very beginning of creation!!’ [pause]
And you know something else…it’s easily verified in Jewish records…that particular 25th of December… also happened… to be the Hebrew date of 25 Kislev… and the Jewish festival of Hanukkah when gifts are exchanged. And Hanukkah rarely ever falls…
on 25 Kislev… [pause] but it did that year….
Jeff Tallon asked me in his email…doesn't all this strengthen your faith in Jesus… as the long awaited Christ?
I had to tell him it did.
I repeat for you today Professor Tallon’s conviction... that the Gospels, the book of Acts and the Letters of Paul... all possess an astounding chronological consistency... and such impeccable harmony... that they can give us great confidence...in the stories of our faith. Somehow, awesome conclusions seem unavoidable and we’re left in awe... at the events surrounding the birth of this man...so compelling in his authority and his humanity …that in him...faith and physics converge. The one we follow...the Word made flesh...Lord of the cosmos...the hope of all humankind, God become human in time and space.
The virgin will be with child... and will give birth to a son, and they will call him... Immanuel"— which means, "God with us."
700 years before the birth of Jesus... the prophet Isaiah made just such a prediction...again during Mary’s pregnancy...
an angel... repeats Isaiah’s prophesy... to her fiancé Joseph.
Would you be amazed to learn... that such a prediction... such a prophesy... could actually find its counterpart
in modern science... a discovery... that helps us confirm ... the actual date of Jesus birth?
And would you be even more amazed... if I told you... that we can now demonstrate... with mathematical accuracy...just what star the wise men saw...
as they approached Bethlehem... two years later... when Jesus was a toddler?
I was amazed. I already knew… that archaeological records… and the modern science of astronomy…
quite independently of the Gospel accounts…
could predict with certainty … that Jesus would have been born… sometime between 3 and 2 BC. That can easily be calculated backwards… from the eclipse that occurred at the time of Jesus crucifixion.
But then I learned that with modern science…
we can also pin point the exact date of Jesus’ birth. And the star the wise men saw.
And would you believe…
the first bit of evidence in all this…
is provided by Jesus cousin… John the Baptist…
in fact the clue is the moment of John’s conception…
Now you’re probably thinking…you’ve got to be kidding Diane…but my authority for this… is actually a Professor of Physics at Victoria University… award winning New Zealand scientist Jeffrey Tallon.
Here’s how Tallon says all the mystery unravels.
The Gospel of Luke… tells us Jesus’ cousin…
was six months older…so John would’ve been conceived…between 3 and four BC. And guess what… just by using the information in the first chapter of Luke… we can verify… the probable date… of John’s conception…independently of the Gospel account.
How can we do this? Because Luke 1:5 tells us…
‘in the time of Herod... king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah...who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah…and Luke 1:8 says...Once when Zechariah's division was on duty... and he was serving as priest before God in the Temple…an angel of the Lord appeared to him.
When Zechariah saw the angel, he was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Don’t be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.
Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son...and you’re to name him John…And he’ll go on before the Lord...in the spirit and power of Elijah...to turn father’s hearts to their children and turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous...to make ready a people.... who are prepared for the Lord."[pause]
Today we know… from Jewish records kept at the time… that the Division of Abijah was the eighth Division… and it served in the Temple…
in the year 4 BC…from the 19th to the 26th of May to be exact.
Luke says Zechariah went straight home and Elizabeth conceived. [pause]
Ok… allowing for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy…John would’ve been born around the 7th of March… three BC. Six months later…Jesus would have been born …around the 7th of September
Now remember that date… the 7th of Sept 3 BC.
Next we come back to the intriguing question…
just what exactly … was the star of Bethlehem?
Remember the Babylonian Magi…the wise men…
Well they were astronomers and astrologers.
The behaviour of the stars and the planets…
had enormous significance for them. And if we look at the evidence… through their eyes…through the eyes of astrologers…then this is what we see. [pause]
Jupiter slide
Babylonian astrologists recorded in the year
three BC…that Jupiter appeared to ‘dance’…to jump… back and forth.
Today through the science of modern astronomy…
we can electronically reproduce…
the actual skies at that time.
Computerised images…of the skies in that year…
show us Jupiter and Venus – the two brightest planets…actually went into conjunction twice…once in August 3 BC and again in June 2 BC (if you look at the slide… you can see Venus is the crescent).
This event alone would have been incredibly interesting to ancient astrologers… who were looking for signs and portents… in the night sky… but the amazing thing from an ancient astrologer’s point of view…
is that between these conjunctions of Jupiter and Venus
11 Sept slide 1
precisely on the eleventh of September …three BC…
two quick clicks
Jupiter…known as the King planet…moved into conjunction with
one click
Regulus…the King star…
and this occurred in the constellation of
one click
Leo the Lion…the constellation signifying the nation of Judah!!!
With all this going on…
you can see how wise men from the East… might easily believe…the stars predicted the birth… of a king… in Judah.
11 Sept slide 2
On that same night …
eight clicks
the planet Venus… moved into the constellation of Virgo…along with the sun. To the Magi…the sun in the womb of Virgo (the virgin) may have presented a powerful image… of a virgin birth.
And from this computer generated image of the night sky…as we know it actually was… on that date…
you can just see… the faint outline… of the crescent moon… under the feet of the constellation Virgo…
the virgin.
Now… just listen to this report from the book of Revelation chapter twelve.
Slide words and three clicks
‘A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:
a woman... clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head.
Slide words and one click
She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth… She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations.” [pause]
Blank slide
Given what we can see in the actual skies of the time…
if the writer of Revelation were describing an astrological event…it wouldn’t be surprising…
now would it?
We know astrology was practised by the Jews and Babylonians alike. We know just how important astrology was to the Jews…from the scrolls found at Qumran…as well the 12 signs of the zodiac…
on the floor of the Temple in Jerusalem…one for each tribe of Israel…
What an amazing image…the constellation of Virgo with the sun in her belly and the moon at her feet.
Mary images slide
And did you know… that some of the earliest drawings of Jesus’ mother Mary…show the crescent moon… below her feet and the sun in her tummy. [pause]
Blank title slide
Ok, back to Jesus birthday… Now cynics who want to discredit the story of Jesus birth... love to claim that Christians just co-opted the 25th of December...from the existing celebrations of the birth of the Roman deity... Sol Invictus,
But remember our earlier calculations… based on Luke’s account of John the Baptist’s birth… and independent Jewish records …remember our calculations… allowed us to place Jesus’ birth… sometime around the 7th of September 3 BC.
And if what we read in the book of Revelation…
is describing an astrological event…
and Jesus was born four days later…
on the 11th of September… [pause]
according to the modern science of astronomy…
Matthew’s story of the Bethlehem Star…
makes complete sense. Listen
Word slide
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea...during the time of King Herod...Magi from the east...came to Jerusalem and asked “where is he who is born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east...
and we’ve come to worship him.”
Word Slide
After they heard what Herod had to say...they went on their way...and the star they’d seen in the east...
went ahead of them until it stopped...
over the place... where the child was.
Word slide
On coming to the house, they saw the child [not the baby] with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him…and presented him with gifts. [pause]
Bethlehem slide
As they left Jerusalem…the star came to rest…
over Bethlehem. Today from the modern science of astronomy… we know that on the 25th of December in 2BC… the planet Jupiter reached the full extent…
of its retrograde motion… where it appears to stop in the sky… [pause]
Visit of the Magi slide
Here you can see a faint image… of where Jupiter actually was… the very night of December twenty five in the year two BC.
And this isn’t just… any view of the night sky. It’s the view looking due south… from Jerusalem…where the Magi met with King Herod…and from Jerusalem… Jupiter… is right over Bethlehem.
And what’s even more amazing…If you look below Jupiter…you can actually see… our Southern Cross… which had popped over the horizon for just a few days.
And the profoundly moving thing for us… sitting here in the Southern Hemisphere… is that today… you can no longer see the Southern Cross… from Jerusalem… because of the movement of our solar system…in our galaxy… the Milky Way. [pause]
But 2000 years ago… you could see the Southern Cross from Jerusalem.
When Professor Tallon first saw it on his computer screen…he was powerfully affected by the image.
Not only because the Southern Cross points to the town of Bethlehem…but because above Bethlehem…
is the figure of a cross…
After I heard him speak on this…Professor Tallon wrote to me… that through his eyes of faith looking back across time…
‘The cross and the cradle appear to be inseparable.
He wrote with enthusiasm… ‘And for all these things to be true…the guiding signs… for the wise men to the Christ… would have been laid down in the motion of the planets and the stars… from the very beginning of creation!!’ [pause]
And you know something else…it’s easily verified in Jewish records…that particular 25th of December… also happened… to be the Hebrew date of 25 Kislev… and the Jewish festival of Hanukkah when gifts are exchanged. And Hanukkah rarely ever falls…
on 25 Kislev… [pause] but it did that year….
Jeff Tallon asked me in his email…doesn't all this strengthen your faith in Jesus… as the long awaited Christ?
I had to tell him it did.
I repeat for you today Professor Tallon’s conviction... that the Gospels, the book of Acts and the Letters of Paul... all possess an astounding chronological consistency... and such impeccable harmony... that they can give us great confidence...in the stories of our faith. Somehow, awesome conclusions seem unavoidable and we’re left in awe... at the events surrounding the birth of this man...so compelling in his authority and his humanity …that in him...faith and physics converge. The one we follow...the Word made flesh...Lord of the cosmos...the hope of all humankind, God become human in time and space.
