A Tale of Two Kingdoms - Part 2

This morning.

Well, amen.

Man, Merry Christmas.

It is so good to see everybody here, and I want I want you to join me as uh as we uh welcome in our social circle campus uh this morning.

Let's let's give our social circle big time.

You gotta be loud.

We welcome them.

Listen, we're we're so thankful for you.

Um Pastor Nathan uh is under the weather.

Um and he he thought over the weekend that uh he might kind of uh get through it and be able to preach this morning in social circle, and so let's be praying for Nathan um as he's recovering.

Um thank goodness for technology, and so we can um move forward this morning.

So glad to see all of you here.

And listen, if it's your first or second time, I want to give you a special welcome at Church at the Grove, whether you're here in Walnut Grove or down in uh social circle.

We're excited that you were here uh during this Christmas season.

Back in 1999, um there there's a story in Chicago about um uh the the baby Jesus figure um that was um at the manger scene in what's called Daly Plaza there in Chicago.

The police were um uh baby Jesus was stolen.

Baby Jesus was stolen out of that, out of that manger scene, and eventually police recovered the baby of Jesus.

Um he was somehow found strangely at a bus station and he was bought brought back and he was put in his rightful place in the manger.

And so uh they they they put a cord or a cord and and a padlock around baby Jesus so baby Jesus could never be stolen again.

But in 2004, a college student found a way to get baby Jesus out of the manger seat, uh manger scene again, out of the out of the manger, and and so uh again they were able to recover baby Jesus.

That 19-year-old college student was arrested and given a misdemeanor charge, and they rightfully returned baby Jesus to um his manger, his, his uh uh little um little manger scene there.

And so um um and so they they they actually put together what they called a security team that was given a name called the God Squad, and and and they they didn't let people know what what they were doing to make sure that maybe Jesus was kept in his rightful place, but they made sure he was going to be kept there in that manger scene.

Now, how now is that not just hilarious?

No, let me just say this.

The goal of the gospel, the gospel of Jesus, the gospel uh of the good news of Jesus is not that we would keep him in a manger.

The good news of Jesus is that we would is that we would receive and then we would release him.

We would release him.

Let's let him go.

Let's let him get.

Let people have Jesus.

But here's here's what's interesting is our culture and our world doesn't just seek to remove Jesus from the manure scene.

The world, there is a kingdom of this world that seeks to remove Jesus from everything, from any influence.

There's this great battle, and some would say uh it's all about um ideology, it's progressives, or it's liberals, or it's um uh we we also know it's complacent Christianity, but I believe there's a deeper spirit at work.

We talked about this last week.

There's a spirit of darkness, there's a spirit that opposes the work of the kingdom of God.

And so the kingdom of the world is always going to seek to remove or diminish or destroy the influence of Jesus in our lives, in the world, in the lives of any person.

And so as we enter into this Christmas season, it's not just about Christmas, but it's all through the year, we need to try to seek to release Jesus, receive him into our lives, make him king of our lives, and release them.

We talked, um, we we've used this phrase several times.

We're we're we're we're tired of managing the decline of the American church.

We're tired of managing, watching the decline of Christian influence in our culture.

And we're praying for revival.

We see God working all over the world and other places in the world.

God is working.

The church is alive, the church is triumphant.

We know how the story ends.

And we live in a culture where the church seems to be in decline.

And so, so so as Christmas season comes and we see trees and we and we see um retail numbers go up, there is a, listen, there is a concerted effort, there is a a goal of the kingdom of this world to make Christmas about everything else it can be besides the person of Jesus.

And so, how during Christmas do we, as the citizens of the kingdom of God, live while we reside inside the kingdom of this world?

And can I tell you that Jesus is worth following?

Jesus is worth following with our lives.

The Christmas story sets Jesus apart as a joyful, victorious king worth following.

He is a joyful, victorious king worth following.

And so the Christmas story, one of the Christmas stories in the Bible that we're gonna look at this morning, um, it identifies these two vividly different, opposing kingdoms.

Two kingdoms at war with one another.

And it takes place probably uh a year, two years or so after the birth of Jesus.

When this group of men called the wise men, some translations refer to them as the magi, they travel thousands of miles to come see this new king.

Let me tell you a little bit about the wise men or the magi.

They were magicians.

That's where that word magi comes from.

They were magicians.

Many Bible translations use magi or wise men interchangeably, but most likely they were experts in astrology, sorcery, um, interpreting dreams.

Um, and the word that is used to describe them is also used as sorcerer in other places in the New Testament.

They came from the east.

They came from the east.

Many believe they came from what is modern-day Iraq or what would have been in the Old Testament days, the nation of Babylon.

Many scholars, and this is just an interesting thought, many scholars believe that while Daniel was exiled in Babylon, that he had some kind of influence with these magi that gave them a thought.

There will be, have you heard of the prophecy that there will be a new king, there will be a Messiah, there will be one who will rule the world.

And they kept in their mind, they kept this in their studies over the years.

And so there were at least two, probably more than three.

We always think there are three because there were three gifts, but in all likelihood it could have been more than three.

Certainly a large, large group that traveled those thousands of miles, an entourage of people that traveled.

Let's look.

Matthew chapter two, let's dive into the text here.

Matthew chapter two, verse one.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod.

You circle, underline, star King Herod.

We talked about King Herod last week.

Um you could you can go listen to that, watch it, catch up on his character, who he is, what he's about.

About that time, some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, Where is the newborn king of the Jews?

We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this.

When he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem.

He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of the religious law and asked, Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?

Now I just there's just a little, I want to insert just a thought there.

A note that I had made years ago in my studies that Herod knew where to go to find the answers.

And it was to the scribes and the teachers of the scriptures.

He knew the answers were found in the word of God.

And so, in verse 5, in Bethlehem and Judea, so he they give the answer.

In Bethlehem and Judea, they said, For this is what the prophet wrote, and this is out of Micah 5, 2, and you, O Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people, Israel.

Now, I love this.

I love this.

I love I love this part of the Christmas story.

I love uh Matthew's version because this first part, we look at the magi.

They have come from a far land.

And we would look at them and call them pagans.

They worship false gods, but somehow God has pulled them into the Christmas story, which tells me the magi reflect God's plan to reach all nations.

It reflects God's plan to reach all nations.

Lloyd Ogilvy says in his commentary, the magi represent Gentiles coming from distant areas of the world to worship Christ.

In view of our thesis, that Matthew presents the gospel of salvation history, introducing the Son of God as King of kings, as a ruler of a new kingdom which extends far beyond the borders of national Israel.

We note that at the very beginning of the gospel, there is a relationship to the Gentiles.

And Gentiles, it's just anybody that's not a Jewish person outside the faith.

Going back to the text, verse 7.

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them from them the time when the star first appeared.

Then he told them, Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child.

When you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too.

And I want you to just see the darkness and the deception.

King Herod embodies the kingdom of the world.

He is the personification of darkness and evil and deception.

And so the kingdom of this world always fights for power.

Protect the power.

That's the kingdom of the world.

And so this verse says that Herod wants to meet the Christ child so he could worship him as well.

And we know, because if we're familiar with this Christmas story, we know Herod does not have good intentions, pure intentions.

He's lying in order to find the child to have him murdered and killed.

This was Herod's MO.

This was his mode of operation.

This was his way of doing things in all of his reign.

He is a murderer and a killer.

When Herod came into power, the first thing he did was to have everyone in the previous dynasty killed.

It was known the previous dynasty was called the Hasmonean dynasty.

He murders everyone that's in control there to make sure they don't come back and take over.

At one point in his life, he had half of the Sanhedrin murdered.

The Sanhedrin were 70 religious priests and elders that were, in a sense, the religious Supreme Court of Israel.

And so they made him mad one time, so he killed half of them.

In a fit of rage, he ordered at one time 300 of his court nobles killed.

Now, he for some reason he felt threatened by his own wife.

And he had her murdered.

And then he murdered his mother-in-law.

A lot of you men just had a thought that went through your minds, and you need to repent.

Herod was evil and dark.

He felt threatened by his three own sons and had each one of them killed.

And so the kingdom of this world will always listen always diminish human life and value.

The kingdom of this world will always diminish.

There's always deception, death in the kingdom of this world.

And so the kingdom of this world will always go to great lengths to hold on to power.

But let's talk about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God, in opposition to the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of God surrenders power.

Look at verse 9 in the story.

Let's go back to the story.

After this interview, the wise men went their way, and the star that they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem.

It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.

And when they saw the star, they were filled with joy.

They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.

They opened their treasure chest and they gave him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And so these Magi would have been most likely well respected in places of authority in their own land.

Some even believe that they were kings.

They were considered kings from another land.

They come upon seeing Jesus immediately, they fall down and they worship.

It might be normal to bow to a king before his throne in a palace, but to in a in a in a cave or a stable to bow before a baby and a little trough.

So immediately we see that the divinity of Jesus recognized by people that are even outside of what is considered God's own people.

The wise men are taking whatever power and authority they have, and they're pouring it out to Jesus.

So people in the kingdom of God do not grasp and hold on to power and authority.

Those of us that follow Jesus because he is a king worth following, we surrender power and authority to Jesus.

Look at verse 12.

When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

Get up, flee to Egypt with the child and his mother.

The angel said, Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.

That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary and his mother, and they stayed there until Herod's death, thus fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet.

I called my son out of Egypt.

So the kingdom of the world, again, is marked by death and suffering.

The kingdom of the world is always marked by death and suffering.

Verse 16.

Herod was furious.

And when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him, he sent his soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men's report of the star's first appearance.

Herod's brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah.

A cry was heard in Rama.

Weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.

Now we don't know the exact number of children who were murdered in that village.

I will tell you that the village, the place of Bethlehem at that point in history is quite different than the place it is now.

That's a bustling city.

It's just a few miles, five or six miles outside of Jerusalem.

And it's filled with people.

But probably at this time it was a small village.

And so we don't know.

But scholars and theologians believe that probably 20 to 40 or 30 to 60 little boys were murdered in this massacre by King Harry.

We're not sure.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

This is the Christmas story.

There's a conflict.

There's a war.

This isn't the first time we see mass genocide in the Bible.

If you look back at the book of Exodus and the early beginnings of Moses, you see Pharaoh killing the Hebrew children because the population of the Hebrews was growing too fast.

He had children thrown into the river and killed.

One of the themes in the Old Testament among pagan nations is human sacrifice, specifically children who were offered at the altar of false gods.

Let's move out of biblical history into more modern history.

The theme of making sure that one generation doesn't make it to the next is a theme we see.

We see it in the Holocaust.

We see it in Rwanda.

We see it in communist China where baby girls have been killed because in their culture, uh, women or females do not have the same value as men do.

So the kingdom of this world will always promote death and suffering.

And it's true of all ages in history, but I believe it's especially true of the next generation.

Children, the false gods of this world, are always demanding that we sacrifice our children on their altars.

And we didn't, we think this is not, this isn't happening.

We think this is something that's happening in other parts of the world, or this is happening in other times in history.

But think again.

One of the great travesties of our society is abortion.

Since 1973, when Roe v.

Wade was became the law of the land, it's estimated that the people in our country, in the United States of America, have aborted 63.5 million babies.

Let's attack and kill the next generation.

The kingdom of this world is always marked by death.

Control, power, my life, my convenience.

It's not just babies, but the next generation is struggling today.

Young people that are children, young people that are in middle school and high school, you look at the statistics of anxiety and depression and suicide, they're all on the rise.

There's a number of things that contribute to all of these things, but many have linked social media and technology to some of these problems.

It's easier as a parent to let a screen babysit your child.

Ouch.

And we're all guilty.

I put down the words death, deception, and depression.

The enemy, the kingdom of this world, wants to enslave the next generation.

Remove it through death.

Enslave it with deception and depression.

And so the kingdom of the world is marked by death and suffering.

But the kingdom of God is marked by surrender, worship, wonder of God.

Verse 19.

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, get up, the angel said.

Take the child as the mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.

So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother.

But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod's son Archelos, he was afraid to go there.

Then after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee.

So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth, thus fulfilled what the prophets had said.

He will be called a Nazarene.

So I want to shift a little bit, just shift a little bit to this idea of this conflict.

The kingdom of God versus the kingdom of this world, the outside portion of the conflict.

I want to look and turn and look inwardly a little bit.

Look at this, this is out of Luke.

This is Luke chapter 2, verses, verses just a couple verses there, 34 and 35.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It says, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

Now, why does Luke find it necessary for this to be recorded in the story, in the Bible?

Here's why I believe.

We're talking about two kingdoms in conflict, right?

The kingdom of God includes peace.

Jesus brings peace, but Jesus also brings conflict.

Now here's what I mean by that.

Two words.

Spiritual warfare.

Following Jesus doesn't just bring pre just bring peace, it also brings strife, conflict.

Herod depicts this principle.

The coming of Christ not only solves a lot of problems, it sometimes can create a lot of problems.

He doesn't just bring peace, but he brings strife.

Let me tell you though, Jesus is worth following.

He is a king worth following.

Matthew says in chapter 10, he says, don't imagine, verses 34 through 39, don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth.

I came not to bring peace but a sword.

I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Your enemies will be right in your own household.

If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine.

Or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you're not worthy of being mine.

If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.

If you cling to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

You see it?

J.C.

Ryle, this is hundreds of years ago, in a book he wrote titled Holiness, he says there is a vast quantity of religion current in the world.

And which is not true.

Genuine Christianity.

It passes muster, it satisfies sleepy consciences, but it is not good money.

It's old language he's using here.

There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians.

They are married in a Christian marriage service.

They are to be buried in a Christian as Christians when they die, but you never see any fight about their religion of spiritual strife and exertion and conflict and self-denial and watching and warring.

They know literally nothing at all.

It certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible.

True Christianity is a fight.

I say again, let us take comfort.

The child of God has two great marks about him, and of these two we have one.

He may be known by his inward warfare as well as it is his inward peace.

C.S.

Lewis says it this way.

C.S.

Lewis says, if you want to keep your heart from being broken, be selfish.

Just lock your heart in a little casket of selfishness.

Don't hope in anything.

Don't give yourself to any cause.

Don't give yourself to anybody.

Don't really care enough about anybody.

In other words, don't love.

Don't hope.

Don't work.

Don't sacrifice.

Stay selfish.

To some degree, you can actually have a pretty calm life.

In fact, you can have a very calm life.

Jesus, listen to this, listen.

Jesus sets up a kingdom that demands allegiance.

It demands allegiance over anything else in this world, over any earthly kingdom.

The reason Christianity stirs up fighting actually between people, sometimes, even within your own heart, it's called the battle of the flesh versus the spirit.

That's what Paul talks about a lot in the New Testament.

If you look carefully, that's what really is evoked and this and it evokes this violent reaction against Jesus.

We see it in our world.

You ever notice people aren't really, they don't the word God, when people talk about God, it doesn't really evoke any any any challenge.

Oh, you mention the name of Jesus.

You pray in the name of Jesus.

And for those of us in church, here's the challenge.

The challenge, this story.

These magi that are coming, they are not coming to find a personal savior.

Listen, listen very closely what I'm saying.

They are not coming to find a personal savior.

They don't say we're looking for a personal savior who, if we come to him with our needs, he'll just meet all of our needs.

If we come to him with our problems, he'll help us with our problems.

If we come to him with our guilt, he'll forgive our guilt.

If he'd come like that, everybody would say, Great, let's go.

That's not what they say.

What does the scripture say?

What do the Magi say?

It says, the wise men came from the east.

They came to Jerusalem and they said, Where is the one who has been born king?

That's what stirred us up.

That's what made Herod so defensive.

That's why he was disturbed and troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him.

Herod was obviously a murderous, genocidal, paranoid, schizophrenic, probably.

He was troubled.

But what he was troubled about is somebody has come to challenge his kingship.

Somebody has come to take his throne, and there's a fight, and this worldly story is reflected in our inward hearts, where there is conflict and battle over who will reign over us.

Matthew 16, 24 through 26.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way.

Take up your cross and follow me.

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Is anything worth more than your soul?

And so the story doesn't say that they traveled for a personal savior.

It says they traveled looking for a king.

John Stott says in his famous book called Basic Christianity, he said, He said, there's no one who ever met Jesus Christ genuinely that responded moderately.

He said there's only three things you see people do when they meet the real Jesus.

They either run away from him in terror, they assault him with fury, or they prostrate themselves in utter surrender.

And that's why we can say Jesus is our living hope.

Because he is the one that provides us hope.

But it's when he becomes our king, he becomes our king.

We live in a world full of deceit, death, and darkness.

How do we in this Christmas season reflect the true Christmas story that Jesus has come as king?

The Christ child is a king that is worth giving our lives to.

The Christ child is a king that is worth following.

And so, what is your response?

What is our response in social circle?

What is our response right here today?

What's our decision?

Have you never responded to Jesus to make him king and lord of your life?

Maybe your first step is to admit I need Jesus and to say yes to Jesus.

Maybe you find yourself at a place in life where you've responded to Jesus, but but there is an inward conflict, and right now the conflict is being won by the kingdom of the world, and you need to keep fighting, and part of your fighting is making a decision.

Making a decision.

What is your decision today?

Where will you find yourself?

Where will you direct yourself?

Pastor Crawford Lawitz.

He said this.

He said, When we are born, we look like our parents.

When we are older, we look like our decisions.

And somebody, I heard, I heard, I heard, I didn't I heard an amen.

And then I heard I heard a couple of mm.

Cause because that's Crawford Lauritz, but that that is that's that that that that quote has been stirring my heart.

When we're born, we look like our parents.

When we are older, we look like our decisions.

So what do you look like?

Jesus says, I want you to look like me.

To a broken world.

And so we're gonna take a moment and just reflect.

I'm gonna turn it over to Dylan down in social circle for him to kind of close the service this morning.

This morning, um, I want to use this these final few moments for us to reflect on the living hope that Jesus provides us.

And I want you to think, what is your decision?

Because every person has a decision to make today.

It's a daily decision.

What's your decision?

Father, would you work in our life in such a way to draw us to a place where Jesus becomes much more than just a personal savior.

Yes, he came to save us from our sins, but he also came to be our king.

And there's always warring and strife when a king enters the picture.

And Father, may we be found warring and striving toward making you king of our heart.

And so, Father, I pray that you would work.

Would you draw us into this battle?

Would you draw us?

We know that that that you can't earn your way into the kingdom, but the kingdom of God is not opposed to effort.

It's opposed to earning, but it's not opposed to effort.

We're called, we're called to work, we're called to fight, we're called to join in this journey.

It is about following Jesus.

And he is a king worth following.

And in this Christmas season, may we be found as a people, as a church, as a community that put Jesus in his rightful place.

We're not protecting a nativity scene.

We are releasing the gospel of Jesus to a world that is in desperate need.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for being our living hope.

Would you stand with me?