The Confrontation and Comfort of the New-Born King

The scripture reading comes from Luke chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Please follow along in your bulletin or on the screen.

In Luke 2 we read,

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.

Because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in Matthew 2 we read,

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 saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him,

In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet,

And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are by no means least among the rulers of Judea.

For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly, and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying,

Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I may too come and worship him.

After listening to the king, they went on their way.

And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them,

until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother,

and they fell down and worshipped him.

Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

they departed to their own country by another way.

This is the word of God.

Great. Thank you, Annabelle.

Okay. Well, once again, on behalf of my family and the leaders,

Merry Christmas.

It's wonderful to be with you all today.

I really trust and pray that each of us get to experience a wonder-filled,

Christ-centered Christmas this year.

And although this year has been a difficult year for many of us in Hong Kong,

we do pray that the beauty and the wonder of Jesus and who He is

will be more deeply felt and more significant this Christmas than any other year.

And we pray that 2020 will be a great year for all of us.

Now, when you think of Christmas, what do you think of?

What things come to mind when we think of Christmas?

I need some help here.

Tree.

Okay, Christmas trees. That's right.

Any other ideas?

Christmas stockings.

Christmas stockings. Okay. Yeah.

Sorry?

Barbecue.

Theo says a barbecue. Okay.

Theo and myself both come from South Africa.

And strangely enough, winter, I mean, Christmas takes place in summer.

And so growing up, all our Christmases were spent on the beach with barbecue.

So when someone says to me, I think of snow and reindeer, I think, not at all.

I've never had a snowy Christmas.

But once in my lifetime, I'm sure I'll experience that.

Okay.

But when we think of Christmas, I think of good food and some good wine to go with that food.

I think of lights and Christmas carols and tinsel and all sorts of these things.

Right?

These are all wonderful things.

And some of the words that we think of when we think of Christmas, what are some of the words that come to mind?

Joy and peace and hope and love.

That's right.

These are the things that we think of when we think of Christmas.

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year.

And just the last two weeks, Claire, my wife and our two daughters were in Cape Town visiting their new nieces and the cousins.

And so I've been home alone for the last two weeks.

And every night, I turn on the lights of our Christmas tree.

And I put the carols on loud.

And don't feel sorry for me because I've loved it.

It's been wonderful.

I've missed my family.

Don't hear the wrong message.

But Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.

The trees and the lights and the carols, it really gets me excited.

But Christmas is meant to be so much more than just filling our stomachs with good food and good wine.

Christmas is meant to be a time when we also fill our hearts.

We don't just celebrate with food on the table.

We're meant to feast on the richness and the significance of this.

And when we ponder the intensity and the complexity, the riches as well as the challenge and the scandal of Christmas,

we see that Christmas is far richer.

It's far deeper.

It's far more significant than just good food and presents and lights and Christmas tree.

We see that the Christmas season tells us something deep and significant.

And because Christmas should help us to see Jesus and captivate our hearts.

And so this morning I want to just talk to us about three very simple things.

I want us to consider the confrontation of Christmas.

Secondly, the paradox of Christmas.

And thirdly, the comfort of Christmas.

Okay, the confrontation, the paradox, and the comfort of Christmas.

And today we will be a little shorter than usual.

So firstly, the confrontation of Christmas.

We read it a little earlier, but in the narrative that the Bible tells about Jesus coming,

Jesus is born in Bethlehem.

And around that time, some wise men come from the east.

Now these wise men, also known as magi,

they were possibly astrologers or philosophers from Babylon or Persia.

They were men that studied the ancient scripts, sacred scripts.

They studied the stars.

And together they would try and work out what is happening in the world

and possibly even predict the future.

And so by observing the stars and studying these ancient scripts,

they would see what is going to happen.

And around this time, they observed possibly a solar eclipse.

We know there were a couple of eclipses around 4 BC when Jesus was born.

Possibly some supernova that happened in the sky.

And they observed some sign that takes place in the sky.

And that, as well as the scripts they've been studying,

they come to the conclusion that somebody somewhere is sending them a message.

And the message is that a new king has been born.

And so they saddle their camels and their entourage

and they make their way across the desert to the city of Jerusalem,

which is where they believe that the sign in the sky is leading them.

And they come to Jerusalem and they start to ask questions.

They go to the temple and the places of cultural significance.

And they say, we believe that the new king has been born.

Does anybody know where is the king of this land?

And nobody can answer their questions at first.

And Herod, who is the king,

hears about these people that are asking conspicuous questions.

And he is very troubled.

In one of the great understatements of the Bible,

it says Herod was troubled.

Well, of course he's troubled, right?

He's the king and he's heard that there's a new king in town.

That's not a good thing for the incumbent who's on the throne.

And so he brings these wise men to his palace

and he says, what's this idea that you're spreading these rumors?

And they tell them the story, the sign in the sky,

and the ancient script.

And they say, we believe that a new king has been born.

Now we know from history that Herod is a very cruel man.

He's a very violent man.

But we see in the scripture that he's also a very cunning man.

He's a crafty man.

Herod puts on his very best poker face.

You know what a poker face is?

When you play poker, you've got to like have a deadpan face.

You can't give away any emotions

because you can't tell people what's in your hand, right?

So you've just got an emotionless face.

Herod puts on his poker face.

He just nods his head and he doesn't give away any emotion.

But inside, his heart is riling.

Inside, his heart is churning.

And the reason is because he's the king.

And he's just been told there's a new king that's rolled into town

and your position on the throne,

your position as king is under threat.

That's why he's so troubled.

That's why he's so agitated.

And so what Herod does is he consults his advisors and his counselors

and he finds out the best Old Testament scholars

and they determine that the Christ is to be born in this town called Bethlehem.

And so he sends these magi to Bethlehem and he says,

go and find out where the king is

and come back and tell me exactly where he is

so that I too can worship this king.

Now Herod is crafty.

He doesn't want to worship the king.

He wants to kill him.

And so the magi go off on their way and they find Bethlehem

and they trick Herod.

They don't come back and tell him where Jesus is.

And Herod finds out he's been tricked and again he's fuming.

And so Herod's true colors soon come out.

And so he issues a decree,

all children born in Bethlehem under two years of age are to be exterminated.

Kill them all.

And so he sends out this decree.

Now friends, unfortunately, this story is all too familiar to us,

even in our own world today.

Stories of deception, of fear, stories of bloodshed and injustice

fill our news feeds.

You go on the news feeds and it's just full of the stories of injustice in our world.

And all this forces us to ask the question,

where does this all come from?

Where does the evil in our world come from?

And what can we do about it?

How can we eradicate it?

How can we do something about the evil in our world?

Where does it come from?

In the country that I originally come from, South Africa,

we have a terrible history of incredible racial injustice

towards people that are different from us.

One group opposing another group.

One group imposing their will on another group.

And in 1994, previously that was enshrined in the legislation,

in the constitution, that one group could oppose another group.

In 1994, the law changed.

And so we all thought racism is gone from our country.

It's done.

It's a thing of the past.

But over the last two decades, South Africa has grappled with the fact

that even though the legislation has changed,

the constitution has changed,

prejudice and animosity still is in our hearts.

And so the question remains,

how do we deal with what's going on in our hearts?

Now one of the questions that people propose is education is the problem.

If we can teach people and educate people,

that will solve the problem.

The reason why there's racism in the world

is because we don't understand one another.

And so if we sort out our education,

that will solve the problem.

Some people say the problem with our world is not education.

It's the poor.

It's the immoral.

It's those that make irresponsible choices for their lives.

If we can just help them make better decisions,

the cycle will break the cycle

and our world will become a better place.

Some people say,

no, no, that's not the problem.

The problem is the rich and the powerful.

They to blame.

They the ones that control the politics.

They control government for their own agenda.

They use their positions of power to oppress the others.

And so it's rampant greed and materialism.

That's the problem with our world.

We need to do a better job of redistributing wealth

and curbing rampant greed.

Step in Bernie Saunders, right?

Different opinions.

What's wrong with our world and how are we going to solve it?

When you read the Christmas story,

we may be tempted to think that the biblical writers agree with that last hypothesis.

That the problem with the world is the rich and the powerful.

Right?

When you read the narrative of Christmas,

Herod is the obvious villain and is humble Joseph and Mary.

It's the shepherds that are esteemed.

But the Christmas narrative is far more complex than that.

It's far deeper and richer than that.

Scripture gives us a far more deeper answer.

Scripture tells us again and again

that the source of the problems of the world

is not the people out there.

It's in here.

It's in my heart.

It's in all of our hearts.

For King Herod's reaction to Christ

is in a sense a picture of all of us.

What agitates King Herod so much?

What troubles him so much?

It's the fact that he's confronted by the claim

that there's another king in town.

There's another person that's claiming

to be on the throne of his life.

There's another king who demands his allegiance

before whom King Herod must bow.

You see friends,

each every one of us in our own way

has a built-in desire to be the Lord

and the king of our lives.

Each one of us in our own way

wants to sit on the throne of our lives.

Each one of us wants to be king.

And when somebody else comes along and says,

no, no, no, I will be king,

we find that the response of our heart

is very similar to Herod.

I was trying to explain to my daughters

sometime this last year,

every one of us likes to sit

on the throne of our lives.

We like to be king.

And I was trying to explain this concept

of being the king of our lives.

And my one daughter turns to me,

Shiloh, she's five years old,

and she says,

Dad, I don't think I want to be king.

And I was getting ready to say,

no, you do,

and explain this to her.

And she says,

I don't think I want to be king,

but I do think that I'm the queen quite often.

And I realized,

okay, you're right.

You win this battle, right?

But friends,

whether we want to be king

or whether we want to be queen,

each one of us has a desire

to occupy the throne of our lives.

We see this in our children, right?

Before we've taught them social etiquette

or good manners,

how to mask this desire,

it comes out very naturally.

Children naturally tell us

that they want to be in charge of their lives.

Friends,

we all want things done our own way.

And when that is threatened,

when our autonomy is challenged,

all of us are capable

of causing great hurt

to those around us.

Maybe we lash out in physical rage.

Maybe we don't do that,

but maybe we use our words.

We use our words to hurt those

and to alienate those that threaten us,

to make sure we stay on the throne of our lives.

Maybe for some of us,

we actually don't use our words.

It's our silence that blocks others out.

We just give people the silent treatment

and we make sure that our position on the throne

is well established

and nobody can challenge us.

We use our silence to build walls around us.

But friends,

when the throne of our life is threatened,

all of us have the ability

to be greatly troubled

and to do troubling things.

I was talking to a friend of mine

about two or three months ago.

He's got children similar age to me.

And he was talking about the fact that

when his children

don't do what he wants,

he has the ability to get very angry

and to say things that he really regrets.

And he was lamenting to me

that he hates the words

that comes out of his mouth

at times, certain times,

in the way that he treats his children.

And while he was talking,

I was being a good pastor

and I was smiling and nodding my head,

saying yes, yes,

and asking good questions.

But actually, what is going on

was while I was pretending to listen,

I was having a deep dialogue in my own heart

and realizing what he was saying

is exactly what goes on

in my own heart,

in my own home,

and in my own life.

Friends, if you see what goes on

in my home,

I'm ashamed to say

that sometimes I hate the words

that come out of my mouth.

Sometimes I find myself

being so incredibly angry

with myself

because of the way I've reacted

when things don't go my way.

When my kids don't listen to me,

yeah, sure, I want my kids to listen,

but there's a disproportionate frustration

that sometimes comes out of me.

Why is that?

It's because I want to be king

and I want my life

to be nicely and neatly ordered

and packaged

and I don't like it

when people,

even five-year-old children,

threaten my right to rule and reign

and to have life the way that I want.

I'm sorry for that public confession.

I didn't mean to be so honest.

I apologize for that.

Friends, we see this confrontation at Christmas.

Jesus comes as a baby in a manger

and yes, it's true

that he comes mild,

he lays his glory by,

but Jesus wasn't just a good moral man,

a good moral teacher

who was later on

to be made out to be some king.

Jesus, from the very first days

that he's born,

while he's lying in a manger,

here are some magi,

some wise men

and they come and they say,

where is the king?

Jesus, from the earliest days

of his existence,

in fact, before he was even born,

it was spoken of

that Jesus would not just be

a good, wise man,

Jesus would be a king.

And that means

that Jesus unashamedly

claims the place

of rule and reign in our lives.

Friends, Jesus unashamedly

comes to us

claiming to be

heaven and earth's true king.

Jesus said some pretty

strong things about it.

At one point he says,

if anyone wants to follow me,

but does not hate

his father and his mother,

his wife and his children,

he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus wasn't commending

that we be hateful

to our family members.

That's not what he's saying.

But what he's saying is

his call for allegiance

is so strong

that it makes

some of our commitments

to other family members

seem weak in comparison.

Jesus' claim

is of absolute authority.

He calls for unconditional loyalty

and that it triggers

an inevitable deep resistance

inside of us.

No, I want to be king.

Christmas tells us

that Jesus has come to be king.

And that means

all other kings,

including ourselves,

need to vacate

the throne of our lives

in order to let him

have his way.

Tim Keller put it like this.

According to the scriptures,

the evil in the world

ultimately stems

from the self-centeredness,

the self-righteousness,

and the self-absorption

of every human heart.

Each of us want the world

to orbit around us

and our needs

and our desires.

In every human heart,

then, there is a little

king, Herod,

who then wants to rule

and is threatened

by anything

that may compromise

its omnipotence

and its sovereignty.

The confrontation

of Christmas.

Christmas tells us

that Jesus comes

to claim and claims

to be king.

Now, that leads us

to the second point,

which is the paradox

of Christmas.

Look at what happens here.

The Magi,

eventually,

they find their way

to Bethlehem.

And they come before him

and they come bowing

down before him.

And they bring their gifts

of gold and frankincense

and myrrh.

And this would have been

highly appropriate

to a newborn king

on the throne,

a king that's just been

coronated as king

with his court officials

and his entourage.

But here,

there's a strange paradox.

The Magi come bowing down,

but they're bowing down

on a muddy floor

with hay and cow manure

and all sorts of other things

around them.

There's something

deeply ironic.

Something doesn't feel right.

And yet the Magi feel

very comfortable.

There's something

deeply paradoxical about it.

And this is something

we see throughout the Scriptures.

God constantly does things

the way that we at least

expect them to.

Remember how God chooses

to bring his message

of salvation

throughout the Scriptures.

Jesus doesn't do it

through the mighty Romans

or the mighty Egyptians

or the mighty Babylonians.

He chooses the small

insignificant nation

of Israel.

Remember how

in the Old Testament,

in ancient times,

the firstborn son

got all the wealth.

And the secondborn son,

well, his social status

wasn't quite the same.

I'm the secondborn son

in my family,

so you can feel sorry for me.

But in ancient times,

the firstborn son,

he gets all the marbles,

right?

And the secondborn son

is left with the scraps.

But who does Jesus choose?

Who does God choose?

God chooses Abel,

secondborn Abel,

not Cain.

God chooses

secondborn Isaac,

not Ishmael.

God chooses

secondborn Jacob,

not Esau.

God chooses

secondborn Ephraim,

not Manasseh.

And think about

how in the Old Testament,

a lady's value

and worth

to the family

was often based

on her ability

to bear children.

How many children

she could bear

and continue

the family line.

Well, who does God choose?

God chooses

Rebecca

who can't

have any children.

God chooses

Hannah

who can't have

any children.

God chooses

Samson's mother

who can't bear

any children.

God chooses

Elizabeth,

John the Baptist's mother

who can't bear

any children.

Friends,

the uniqueness of Christmas

is the continuation

of the divine paradox

throughout the scriptures.

This is the paradox

of Christmas

that the Magi

come bearing

their gifts

but they do so

in the muddy

stable

to a king

who's lying

in a manger.

Now,

what are we to make

of this?

Well,

most people think

that the way

they think about this

is that Jesus

is giving us

an example.

He's showing us

how humility

triumphs over arrogance.

He's showing us

how the weak

overcome the strong.

He's showing us

how the good guys

always win

in the end.

Friends,

you and I know

that's not the case.

The good guys

don't always win

in the end.

The weak

don't always triumph.

Sometimes the evil

triumph.

Sometimes the good guys

don't win in the end.

Sometimes the weak

don't always

have it their way.

So what's going on here?

What's God telling us?

Jesus is telling us

something about salvation

and about the gospel itself.

See friends,

every religion,

every moral philosophy

of the world

tells us that you need

to summon up your strength.

You need to work hard.

You need to do

all the right things.

Obey the rules.

Follow the steps.

Be one of the good guys

and then you'll inherit

the promises.

Then you'll get the blessing.

God blesses those

who look after themselves.

God blesses those

who abide by the rules.

God blesses those

who do all the right things.

Who can earn the credit

and earn God's forgiveness.

Friends,

Jesus Christ

tells us something different.

Jesus says,

I haven't come for those

that have got it all together.

I've got it for those

that haven't.

I haven't come for those

that are in the palace

and their lives look all pretty.

I've come for those

that haven't.

Friends,

Christmas is the greatest example

that Jesus Christ says,

salvation comes not for those

who think they deserve it

or who have all the answers.

Salvation is revealed

for those that have

nothing at all.

And this tells us

it's entirely by grace.

Friends,

those that encounter Jesus

in the end

are not those

who are saved

by what they've done

but saved by what

Jesus has done.

See,

at the end of Jesus' life

he ascends not a throne

but a cross.

Jesus doesn't come

as an example

just how to live our lives.

He comes as our substitute.

Jesus doesn't come

for those

to show us

how to win at life.

He comes and he takes

our losses

and our shame

upon himself.

Friends,

Jesus came and did for us

what we could not do

for ourselves

and what we probably

wouldn't do for ourselves

if we could.

Jesus comes and he takes

our sin upon himself

so that we don't have

to bear the consequences

for our sin ourselves.

Friends,

Jesus comes and he announces

that he's king

but he hasn't come

as a king

to brush us aside

as Herod feared.

He's come as a king

to include us

in his family,

to include us

in his kingdom.

He's come to bring us

healing and wholeness.

And that brings us

to the third

and the final point

which is the comfort

of Christmas.

Friends,

because of who Jesus is

and because of the nature

of his kingdom,

because he's come

not to ascend a throne

at first

but he came to ascend

a cross,

that means that

when he comes knocking

on the door of our hearts

and the door of our lives,

we can trust him.

You can trust him.

See friends,

Jesus comes

and he makes

an outrageous claim.

He makes a radical claim.

He says,

either I have all of you

or I take none of you.

I've come to be king

or I've come to be nothing.

Jesus doesn't come

just to help us.

Jesus doesn't come

just to make our lives

more comfortable

or convenient.

Jesus doesn't come

and say,

I will help you

get your life back on track.

Jesus says,

I've come to be Lord.

I've come to be king.

But he doesn't come

to brush us aside.

He doesn't come

to destroy our lives.

Jesus comes

to heal our lives.

And that means,

friends,

that we can trust him

with the most precious

and the vulnerable things

in our lives.

Friends,

you can trust him

with the things

that worry you most.

You can trust him

to open yourself up to him

with your identity

and your self-worth.

Friends,

Jesus came

not to shame us

but to rescue us.

Jesus comes as king

and he makes no apologies

about his claim to be king.

He comes to call

all people everywhere,

including you and I,

to follow him.

Friends,

we can trust him

with our surrender

because Jesus tells us

he didn't come

to use us

and abuse us.

He came to allow himself

to be used and abused

on the cross

so that you and I

could be saved.

Friends,

you know what this means?

It means that no one

is disqualified.

Whoever you are,

whatever your background is,

whatever you've done

or you haven't done,

whatever dark secrets

you carry about yourself,

whatever shame

you hold on to,

whatever you think

about yourself,

Jesus comes to each one of us

and he comes knocking

on the door of our hearts

and he says,

will you let me in?

Will you allow me

to be king?

And that's a difficult thing

and it's a vulnerable thing

to trust our lives to him.

But why can we trust him?

Because at the greatest moment

of Jesus' life,

he didn't come

to destroy his enemies.

He came to die for them.

He came to die on the cross.

Friends,

this is the comfort

of Christmas.

This is the wonder

of Jesus born in Bethlehem.

This is the good news

of great joy.

Let's pray together.

Well, Jesus,

thank you so much

for Christmas,

the Christmas story.

Thank you, Jesus,

for coming and dying,

coming and being born

in a manger

all those years ago.

Christ,

we pray that

your humble birth

won't distract us

from the radical claim

that you make.

That you weren't just

a good man

or a good moral teacher.

You weren't just somebody

who came to

show us the way

towards heaven.

You came to die

on the cross.

You came to open up

the way for us.

Father,

we pray that this Christmas,

Christmas will be

so much more

than just good food

and presents

and lights

and tinsel

and Christmas trees.

We pray, God,

that this Christmas,

the good news

of great joy,

the richness

and the complexity

and the challenge

and the comfort

and the paradox

of Christmas

will be real

to each one of us.

Jesus, we pray,

come and have your way

in our lives.

Father,

where it's difficult

to trust you,

where it's difficult

to be vulnerable

and to open up our lives,

we pray, Lord Jesus,

come and help us.

Jesus,

give us faith

to trust you.

Jesus,

won't you open up

the eyes of our hearts

to see you

for who you really are?

Father,

I pray that in the next

few days

that we really

will come to see

you in all your glory.

We'll see, Jesus,

that you're not just

a baby in a manger

2,000 years ago,

but that even still today

you are the king,

that you rule and reign,

you're heaven and earth's

true king,

and that we'll bring

our lives and surrender

to you.

Christ,

come and have your way

in our lives.

Father,

pray that this next year

in 2020,

you'll have your way

in our life.

We'll let you be king.

God,

with our finances,

with our careers,

with our family

and our children,

with our relationships

and our sexuality,

God,

with our hopes

and our dreams,

Jesus,

come and be king.

Come and have your way,

we pray.

Start with us today,

Lord.

Come and have your way

today.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.