Jesus through the Rulers’ Eyes

Listen Online:

Transcript:

Matthew chapter 2. We’re in the third part of this series on looking at Christmas through the eyes of the people who were there, but not really the participants that we always think of in the story, Mary and Joseph. I’ve even heard people talk about Christmas from the angels’ perspective.

But a while back, studying on the Christmas story some, I realized there were people that we don’t always talk about how they felt or how they perceived what was going on around them. And we’ll finish this up next week and move on to something else for the new year. But this morning I want to talk to you about the ruler’s view of Jesus.

Jesus’ birth through the eyes of the rulers. You know, Herod and the chief priests and scribes, they were an important part of the story surrounding his birth. Not so much at the birth.

They weren’t there at the manger outside the inn. But they were involved. Herod was threatened by this.

We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But the rulers definitely had a perspective on what was going on around them, just as the elites often have a perspective on Jesus even today. It’s incredible to me.

I read about some of the countries around the world and their treatment of Christians, and I don’t always understand it. I read about countries like North Korea and Saudi Arabia, where, I mean, even to be a Christian, you’ll lose your life if they find out. It’s amazing to me.

There are a lot of countries around the world where Christians are persecuted, where if they go out and publicly share their faith, they’ll be put in jail, they’ll be harassed. If they meet in public places, they’ll be harassed. But there are countries in the world where even this morning, they don’t have to do anything.

They don’t have to go and stand and preach on the street corner to get in trouble. They don’t have to meet in churches to get in trouble. All they have to do is believe in Jesus Christ. And if the government finds out, they will lose their life.

But it seems like a lot of rulers in a lot of countries even today are threatened by Jesus Christ. And folks, I don’t understand that, honestly, because I believe the Bible teaches we’re supposed to be in submission to those in authority over us. I don’t always like that, I’ve told you. I have a very American streak that says you’re not going to tell me what to do, and I have to keep that in check somewhat, because even if we disagree with the government, and it’s no secret I disagree with most of what the government does, But I still believe we’re supposed to have an attitude of submission toward those in authority over us.

Romans 13 is very clear about that. And even when we don’t agree with what the government tells us, with what the government does, with what they try to put forward, Christians should be the best citizens that there are. Because we’ve already given up, as Christians, we’ve already given up the idea that we can do our own thing, that we can live the way we want to.

As Christians, we’ve already trusted Christ as our Savior, And we should have turned from the sin and wickedness that on our own we want to pursue. And Christians should be the ones who can respectfully disagree with what the government tells them to, but still be loyal citizens. That’s just the way I believe the Bible teaches.

And I think rulers should not have anything to fear from Christians. And yet all too often, all too often, rulers around the world are threatened by Christianity, threatened by Jesus Christ, not because we’re the people that are going to overthrow them. There are a lot of religions that overthrow or seek to overthrow those in power.

There are a lot of religions that try to put themselves equal with the state, but Christianity is not one of those. We’re taught to be in subjection. We’re taught to be good citizens and to be loyal, but they feel threatened.

The rulers of this world feel threatened, not because we’re going to overthrow them, not because we’re going to try to set up our own Christian government, but they’re threatened because they know they are in rebellion against the one who’s truly in authority. There is a court higher than any government body. There is a king who rules over all the nations of the earth whether they recognize it or not, and that king’s name is Jesus.

And it’s been that way since the beginning. And they know, also in Romans chapter 13, it talks not just about us being in subjection to those in authority over us, but it talks about those being in authority over us because God has placed them there and talks about the purposes, why he put them there. And I think within their hearts, deep within themselves, if they’re honest with themselves, the rulers that are threatened by Jesus even today are threatened because they know they’re not where they need to be.

And it’s rebellion on their part. The rulers, even from the earliest days, were threatened by Jesus because they knew they were not in a right position with God. Herod, you know, there are several people named Herod that are mentioned in the New Testament.

And they all, it seems like, come from the same wicked family. And they all seem to act the same way. There’s something about that family.

But this Herod was an exceptionally wicked man, as we’re about to see. And in Matthew chapter 2, it says, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.

And when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. Now there had been godly kings and some not so godly kings, but there had been godly kings in Judah and in Israel hundreds of years before this who knew the prophecies about a coming Messiah.

They knew that he wasn’t just coming, but that he would be the king of kings, that he would be the Lord of lords, that he would the Savior, that He would be all of these things. And these godly kings were not threatened by that. As a matter of fact, the godly kings looked forward to God sending someone who would set His people free once and for all.

But here we have Herod who is not a godly king in any sense of the word. And it says that he was troubled. He was troubled in his heart when he heard these things.

He was threatened by this. And all of Jerusalem with him. And he gathered the chief priests and scribes of the people together.

As soon as he heard that somebody was going to be born king of the Jews, these wise men came from the east. Not from Israel, not from Judah, not from Jerusalem, not from anywhere near there. They came from the east, probably from Persia, somewhere where Daniel had been and taught his prophecies hundreds of years before that. But we don’t know for sure.

We don’t know for sure how many wise men there were. We don’t know for sure where they came from. It’s speculation, but I think they probably came from Persia or Iran.

But they came and these men knew the signs to be looking for and they knew that a king was coming who would be born king of the Jews. And they traveled all this distance from the east and said, where is he? We’ve come to worship him.

And Herod, who was supposed to be king of the Jews, had no idea what was going on. These men from a pagan country knew about the coming of the Messiah and the man who was supposed to be king of the Jews had to gather the priests and scribes together to tell him about the Messiah. Herod was not a good man, was not a godly man.

When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ would be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, for thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah.

For out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. And if you remember that from, my goodness, probably a month ago when we talked about it, two months ago now, there was a prophecy in the book of Micah where several hundred years before this fact, he prophesied that this Messiah that God had been telling about for thousands of years, it wasn’t just going to be an accident of history where he was going to be born. God was giving signs all the way, if you remember the series about the prophecies of his coming, that God was giving signs all throughout history explaining how they were going to tell who was the Messiah.

And Micah had written very specifically that the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. Herod didn’t know this. He had to call the priests and the scribes together and say, What does the Bible say instead of knowing what it said for himself?

And they told him he’s to be born in Bethlehem. Then Herod, when he had privily or secretly called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search diligently for the young child.

And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. So he tells him, Go on to Bethlehem. That’s where he’s going to be born.

And when you find exactly where he is, I want you to come back and tell me so that I can go worship him also. And I’m just going to, if you haven’t heard the story, I’m sure you have, but I’m just going to go ahead and spoil the ending for you and say, Herod had no interest whatsoever in going and worshiping the newborn king. Had no interest in going and worshiping Jesus Christ, as we’ll see here in just a minute.

And when they had heard the king, they departed, and, lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. And I’ve heard debate, we’ll talk more about the wise men next week as we finish up the series. I’ve heard debate over what the star of Bethlehem was.

Some people say it was a comet. That doesn’t seem to account for it stopping in place. People have said different things.

I don’t know what the scientific explanation is. It doesn’t really matter because I know what the biblical explanation is, and I believe that it happened. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

So the wise men were joyous when they found where he was. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. So they went and worshiped Jesus. And somewhere along the way, God came to them in a dream and said, don’t you go back and tell Herod where he is.

And so God warned them in a dream. And as a result, instead of going back through Jerusalem and stopping in to see Herod like they were supposed to, they went another way back to their country and avoided Herod altogether. And when they were departed, verse 13, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

So God warns Joseph now. He says, Take Jesus and take Mary and go into Egypt, because Herod is going to come and destroy him. And when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, and was there until the dream of Herod, I’m sorry, the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I have called my son.

There’s another prophecy that we didn’t even get to in the last series. It was written that the Lord would call his son out of Egypt, and he did that here because Herod was going to threaten Jesus’ life. So God tells Joseph in a dream to take Mary and to take Jesus into Egypt and hide out until Herod was dead.

Verse 16, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Okay, Herod took this as a mockery. Herod was so.

. . People have said that Herod gets a bum rap from historians, but I don’t think so.

From looking at the Bible accounts, Herod seems like a paranoid, crazy man. That even the fact that they didn’t come back, he took as a challenge to his authority. He took as them mocking him.

And so what does he do? He responds by saying, I’m going to slaughter the children in Bethlehem. from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

And so he had asked, if you remember back a little bit before in the passage, he asked the wise men how long ago the star had appeared. And then he says here in verse 16, according to the time which they had told him, he said, go and slaughter all the children under two years old. And that leads us to believe that the wise men didn’t show up until somewhere around two years after the birth of Christ. My mother used to laugh at me when we had a tradition growing up that the men would decorate the outside of the house for Christmas and the women would decorate the inside.

To this day, I don’t enjoy putting up the inside decorations, but I used to love to climb around on the roof and all that kind of stuff. She would laugh at me because they had this precious moments nativity set that was shaped out of hard plastic and lit from the inside, and you’d put it out in the yard. Well, I would either refuse to put out the wise men, Or if she just insisted, I would put them way off on the east side of the yard, separate from the rest of us, so they’d be far off into the east. But she used to laugh about it, still does.

But we believe the wise men didn’t show up until about two years later. But he was still a child, and they came to worship him. And Herod said when they mocked him, he was going to slaughter all the children under two years old in Bethlehem.

And secular historians throw up their hands and yell, wait, wait, we don’t see record of that in history. How could that possibly be? We don’t see record of that in history.

You’d think a massacre like this would show up in the history books. Bethlehem was not a huge city. Even in the days of Micah, when he prophesied about Jesus being born in Bethlehem, he said that it was considered a small town, very small town, not far from Jerusalem, but really kind of out in the middle of nowhere.

And the reason it was remarkable that Micah would prophesy that Jesus would be from Bethlehem is because it was small, it was unimportant. Nobody really cared much about Bethlehem. There probably weren’t that many children in Bethlehem at the time just because of the size of it.

And so the idea that he says, go and wipe out all the kids under two in Bethlehem, and his soldiers go out, they may have killed fewer than a dozen kids in some remote outpost. And so with somebody as crazy as Herod was, with somebody as crazy as Herod was, that would hardly stand out in secular history, but it records it in the Bible that he did this. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah there was a voice heard and lamentation and weeping, and great morning Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, which sought the young child’s life.

And he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. That the man who took Herod’s place was his son Herod Archelaus.

And just as crazy. So Joseph was afraid to take him back. Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee.

God told him, go on and go up to Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. So that’s the story there.

We want to look at this this morning from the ruler’s perspective and see what the ruler’s, I don’t just mean Herod, but I’m also including the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief priests, the other people that it mentions, the religious and political leaders in Jerusalem at that time, their perspective on the birth of Jesus. The first thing that we need to see from this is that Jesus as a king threatened the ruling elite. Jesus was born to be a king, and because of that, he threatened the ruling elite.

Now, when we think of threatening, we all know what that means. I’m not talking about Jesus being violent, or Jesus being, I mean, he was two years old at this time, or under, or Jesus taunting them. You know, I think of back in the 60s.

I wouldn’t have lied for it, but I’ve seen video. Nikita Khrushchev, at the General Assembly of the United Nations, taking his shoe off and pounding it on the podium and shouting in Russian, we will bury you. I think of that as a threat.

You know, there are all kinds of, you know, some kind of threat that I’m going to do something bad to you. And that’s not what I’m talking about when I say Jesus threatened the ruling elite. Jesus didn’t have to do anything.

As a two-year-old child, his very presence was a threat to them because he came to be a king. And they understood it that he was coming as a Messiah to be an earthly king and set up an earthly kingdom. And that’s what the people wanted, as we’ve talked about so many times.

That’s what they were expecting. We do believe that he is the king and that he will be the king, but he also said his kingdom is not of this world. But he came with them knowing that he came to be a king, and they were threatened by that because they knew the prophecies.

They knew that he was going to come and that his kingdom would be never ending, that he was going to be sent by God and there would be no defeating him. And there can only be one king in town. Folks, let me say that to you again.

There can only be one king in town. And Herod was determined because he knew if Jesus became king of the Jews, that he was out of a job. And Jesus, by his very birth, by his very existence, threatened the ruling elite.

And today, he is still a threat to the ruling elite. Today, the Bible calls Satan the God of this world, G with a small g, God of this world. That he rules in the hearts of men, those who have not trusted Christ. And the ruling elite of the world still defy God.

That’s not to say that everybody that is rich or powerful is anti-God. That’s not necessarily the case. But you can see it all around us.

There’s a disproportionate number of those in high places that want nothing to do with God and are driving the direction of the way the world’s going. You notice that? See it in the government, see it in the media.

And I’m not here to preach an anti-government message. That’s why I prefaced everything with we are supposed to be in submission to those in authority over us. But so many of those that run things and push the direction of the world have no interest in being ruled by God or anybody else being ruled by God.

And Jesus is a threat to them. Because when we recognize Jesus as our king, then they are no longer the ultimate authority over us. They no longer have ultimate power over anybody who recognizes Jesus as their king.

The same was true in the first century, and it’s true today, that Jesus as a king threatened the ruling elite. By his very birth, it’s said that Herod was troubled in his heart and all of Jerusalem with him. They knew they were out of a job.

They knew they were out of power, or so they thought. If he came and set up an earthly kingdom, They misunderstood what his kingdom was to be. They said, we’re going to try to stop him.

Fortunately, they were not able to stop him, as we’ll get to in a minute. Second thing that we need to see about how the rulers viewed Jesus is that as an object of worship, Jesus as an object of worship enraged the ruling elite. Jesus as an object of worship enraged Herod.

When he found out that the wise men came not just to see Jesus, but to go and worship him, you notice that’s what he picked up on, because he said, I want to go and worship him too. Herod didn’t focus on the fact that they were bringing him gifts, that they were doing all these other things. He focused on the fact that they wanted to come and worship Jesus.

And the scribes and the chief priests, not only here, but throughout the rest of the New Testament, were enraged at the thought of people worshiping Jesus. So many times throughout history, the reasons, and I could go into example after example. I’m a little bit of a history geek, but the reasons that people have persecuted Christianity is not only because they thought, We have another king and so we’ll be disloyal over here to them.

But also, many times kings and rulers have seen themselves as gods, as objects of worship. Herod was crazy, thought people should worship him. Nero, who started the persecution under the Romans, was crazy and thought people should worship him.

The Roman emperors all thought they were gods. Going back to North Korea, even today, you watch some of the videos of the few people that have been over there and taken videos. Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-sung, their pictures are up everywhere, and people have to bow down before something like a 30-meter high statue when they show up in Pyongyang.

They have to bow before him and lay flowers. They think he’s a god. And when you go so far away from God that you see yourself as a god or an object of worship, then you’re going to be enraged when Jesus shows up on the scene and says it’s time to worship the true God.

And they were threatened by that. They were enraged by that. And Herod, that’s why he focused on that, I believe.

when he said, oh, then come back and tell me where he is that I may go. And this is just my speculation, but as I imagine the story unfolded it, through gritted teeth, he says that I may worship him too. They were enraged at the thought of Jesus as an object of worship.

And that did not stop. That did not stop. Throughout his earthly ministry, when people recognized him as God in the flesh, the Jewish religious leaders were incensed by it.

When the Romans saw the Christians worshiping Christ and Christ only instead of the emperor or Christ plus the emperor. They were enraged by it. Christ as an object of worship enraged the ruling elite.

The final thing this morning is that Jesus as a target for elimination frustrated the ruling elite. He frustrated them. Not in the sense that he got on their nerves, but he frustrated their attempts to eliminate him.

They were unsuccessful at trying to eliminate Jesus. Herod said, okay, here comes this man who is to be the king of the Jews and that these people are coming even from afar to worship him. So I’m going to put a stop to this right now.

I’m just going to go make sure I get him. I’m just going to go and wipe out all the children under the age of two in Bethlehem. We’re just going to put a stop to this now.

Folks, God knew what Herod was going to do even before Herod was born. It had been prophesied hundreds of years before by the prophet of Jeremiah that this was going to happen. And Herod thought he was so slick and God knew what was going on all along.

And God told Joseph, take my son and go to Egypt and hide out. See, Herod wanted Jesus eliminated, wanted Jesus out of the picture. To preserve himself as a king, to preserve himself as an object of worship, just get rid of Jesus.

And countries all around the world today do that still. To secure my position as king and object of worship in this country, we’re going to eliminate Jesus. That’s why so many countries say you can’t even be a Christian here because we want you to worship us.

That’s why the Soviet Union came down so hard on the Christians on the churches. They were not even as bad as some of the countries that are around today. But that’s why they came down so hard on the churches and on the Christians, because they wanted people to worship the state, and they were threatened by Jesus.

Folks, not even just governments, okay? Not even just governments. I could talk about this all day, but too many of us see ourselves as rulers in our own lives, don’t we?

We see ourselves as the rulers in our own lives. I know not every one of us do. Not every one of us do all the time.

Some of you may be more spiritual than I am, But there’s a human tendency to say, I want to take control of my own life. I want to be in charge here. I want to be the king.

I want to be the object of worship. We do that, don’t we? We focus on serving ourselves.

We’d never call it this, but we worship ourselves from time to time, even as Christians. But it’s not a Christian, non-Christian thing, folks. The world is full of people who want to rule their own lives.

As Christians, we fight against that with the aid of the Holy Spirit. But without the aid of the Holy Spirit, we are powerless to fight that. We want to rule our own lives.

And we can say it’s not true, but man has been dealing with that since the Garden of Eden. God said, don’t eat this one piece of fruit. I’ve given you everything you could ever want and need.

The only thing I ask from you is that you don’t eat this one piece of fruit. And Adam said, I want to do what I want to do. People tried to give any number of other justifications for it, but it comes down to that.

I want to do what I want to do. I want to be the ruler of my life and decide what I’m going to do. And Adam sinned against God.

And ever since then, we have been struggling with this, about being the ruler in our own lives. And to a world that wants to rule itself, Jesus is a threat as king. And Jesus enrages the world as an object of worship.

But you know what? Jesus frustrates the world as a target for elimination. Because for 2,000 years, people have been trying to stamp out the gospel.

For 2,000 years, people have been trying to get rid of the Bible. People have been trying to disprove Jesus. And there are more people alive today who have trusted Christ than ever there have been before.

Now, that’s still not to say that everybody that claims to be a Christian is one, but just in sheer numbers of people in the world, there are more people who trust Christ today than there ever have been. Despite the efforts of the rulers, whether it’s government trying to rule over us or whether it’s us trying to rule in our own lives, Jesus cannot be eliminated. And He still stands there to do what the Father sent Him to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know some of you have not been here for the whole series of messages and so I’m probably going to repeat myself a little bit today. But Jesus Christ was not born just to lie there in a manger and look pretty on the Christmas cards for us. So we could always think of Him as the baby Jesus.

I still hear people refer to Him, not just when talking about the Christmas story, but just talking about Him in general, refer to Him as the baby Jesus. Ladies and gentlemen, He’s not the baby Jesus. He was.

But that baby was born for the purpose of growing up, living a perfect, sinless life that not one of any of the rest of us could do. But he did because he was God in the flesh. And he came for the purpose of being born, living a sinless life, pointing us to God, and dying on the cross, shedding his blood, so that we could have forgiveness in a place with God in heaven.

That’s what Christmas is about. There is no importance to Christmas without Easter, without Jesus dying and rising again from the dead.

Powered by atecplugins.com