Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
Humble Hero (Desire of Ages)
Chapter 6 - We Have Seen His Star
When the Magi went in search of the Messiah whom they had been studying about, God’s natural Global Positioning System placed them exactly where they needed to be.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
OVERVIEW
It is the stuff legends are made from. Wise men from the east find a baby wrapped in rags lying in a manger. A jealous king kills all the babies because he did not get his way. Dreams in the night. Moonlight donkey rides with a new baby. Well, this is not a legend—it is the truth.
OPENING ACTIVITY: Items for Baby Jesus
Many people across the division are still having to quarantine, so this activity works best with a virtual Sabbath School.
Give your students two minutes to collect three items that they could give to Baby Jesus if they were one of the wise men.
QUESTIONS
TRANSITION
Jesus, the Son of God, has always been someone who was sought after, even as a baby. Our story this week is no different. Some in our story want to worship the new King and some want to kill Him. However, God has a plan to save His son. Our lesson today is about gifts and deceit.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Read Matthew 2:1-8.
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
QUESTIONS
Read Matthew 2:9-12.
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
QUESTIONS
Read Matthew 2:13.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
QUESTIONS
Read Matthew 2:19-23.
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
QUESTIONS
APPLICATION
This is a very unusual story. Kings bearing gifts, and a king bearing a sword. It must have been incredibly stressful for Mary and Joseph, but we hear very little about that part of the story. Being afraid is mentioned in verse 22, but it is a very short comment.
QUESTIONS
FOLLOW UP
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
The last Sabbath of January brings us to the close of the month and the familiar Christmas stories that have recounted the birth of the Messiah—Jesus. This week’s lesson focuses on the Magi—the wise men from the east. While this story is familiar, challenge your youth with a few pieces of trivia to possibly expose some holes in their understanding regarding this often-heard story, such as:
The answers are:
Invite the youth to take a fresh look at this story and to be sensitive for the Holy Spirit’s impressions for them to live as the wise men in contrast to the religious leaders at that time, and especially in contrast to Herod.
Star Chasers
What has caught your attention in the night sky?
Read Matthew 2:1-23.
1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
1. Where did the star lead the wise men?
2. Why was Herod upset?
3. Why didn’t the religious leaders go to Bethlehem themselves?
4. What happened when the wise men left Jerusalem?
5. Why did Herod massacre all the little Bethlehem boys?
6. What role did angels play in the story of the wise men and Baby Jesus?
7. Where do you go to worship Jesus?
8. The wise men gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What do you give Jesus?
SUMMARY
The statement, “Those who are wise still seek Him,” remains true. Are you wise? To what extent do you seek Jesus? The wise men studied and then acted on what they observed, traveling by night to follow the star. The star first took them to Jerusalem, where their interest piqued the interest of Herod, but not the religious leaders. The book Desire of Ages has a fascinating chapter about this (chapter 6 “We Have Seen His Star”) that is definitely worth reading!
It’s easy to treat this as a children’s play, dressed in bathrobes and messing up partly memorized lines while child-size “wise men” appear by the manger, right after the shepherds. But the reality was much more intense.
They “fell down and worshiped.” That’s something we rarely do! They gave him expensive gifts. What have you given to Jesus lately? The religious leaders chose to ignore the whole thing, while Herod went to the other extreme and massacred all the little boys in the small village of Bethlehem. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled to a foreign country immediately after Joseph’s dream. That doesn’t sound much like a children’s Christmas play.
How will you respond to this familiar story in 2021? You’re not a little child—you haven’t been for quite a while. Will you respond like the religious leaders, like Herod, or like those who were wise? Those who are wise still seek him!
APPLICATION
Here are a few application ideas for you to move from Sabbath School into action this coming week. Here are some ways for you to be like the wise men.
Worship can take many different forms. The song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me asks the question, if you were unmistakably in the presence of Jesus, would you:
Play the song “I Can Only Imagine” and then try the various responses, including actions and sounds. Do this at least once a week for the four weeks of February.
Gift-giving might not be fresh in your mind any longer since Christmas was more than a month ago. However . . .
The most religious people in this story, the Jewish religious leaders, are the only ones in the story who didn’t actually go to Bethlehem—less than five miles from Jerusalem. Most of the lambs sacrificed in Jerusalem were born and bred in Bethlehem (clue!), so they were quite familiar with Bethlehem. But they couldn’t imagine that God would reveal the Messiah to lowly shepherds instead of the spiritually elite priests. They were further offended that non-Jews claimed to know about this as well. So, they refused to go. Even Herod went, although not to worship or even be a curious observer.
