To many of us, we are the center of our own universe, aren’t we? To many of us, we are the only one who counts. And, too many of us think that God is our co-pilot. Let me start by saying that if God is your co-pilot, you had better change places with Him as quickly as you can.
In MATTHEW 10:34-35, Jesus said,
‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
The picture that has been painted of Christmas is the warm scene of a wonderful baby – the Prince of Peace – lying in a manger, surrounded by a glow of love and people who were happy and rejoicing. That picture makes us feel comfortable with the Lord. And, that is fine, but too many Christians stay there. They always look at Jesus as that ‘nice little Christ-baby’ who was born in Bethlehem those many years ago. Too many Christians do not get past that and look at what Jesus did to the earth.
Jesus did not come to bring peace. He came with a sword. When Jesus came, death would follow. Not long after Jesus was born, we see the pure and raw evidence of the sword arriving, don’t we?
There are several lessons to be learned from seeing the Christmas Story, not as it has been painted, but in its true light.
1. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE HEAD
There is nothing in the world that can survive properly with two heads. Whether it is a company, a marriage, or even an animal, there can only be one head. Many churches fall into this trap, too. Many pastors, think they run the church. Too many elders think they are the ones who have the final say-so in the church. In reality, the pastors and elders have jobs in the church, but they do not run the church. The one and only true head of the church is Christ. And Christ did not want any man to be the head, so he allowed us to have organization to His church. We utilize the board of directors to be the local head of the church.
When anyone tries to upset that natural order of things, problems will soon occur. As soon as any pastor or elder starts thinking that they are the one who is holding everything together and they are the one who has the final decree, they should step out of leadership and let God start controlling things through the board of directors again. See, when we start thinking and acting like we are the center, we start having the same kind of evil thoughts that a man by the name of Herod had. Let’s talk about him.
There are several Herods mentioned in the Bible, and all of them are hateful scoundrels, but this Herod is the daddy of them all. H was known as Herod the Great. I believe he is the one who came up with that name. This man was called “king of the Jews” but he wasn’t even a Jew. He was an Edomite, who was promoted to the position by the Romans after he stopped a rebellion led by Hezekiah, and had all of them executed without any trials. The Jews hated him because he was cruel and vicious.
Once Herod was promoted to king, his need for absolute power became worse. He had 45 of his ‘competitors’ murdered. He had his son-in-law drowned; his brother-in-law and his brother-in-laws wife, and their sons killed; and just five days before his own death, Herod even had his nephew killed. Herod had only one purpose in life and that was to be the only king of the Jews.
Who does that sound like in modern times? Doesn’t it sound a lot like Saddam Hussein? Whenever he thought somebody was going to give him strife, he had them killed very brutally. Just like Herod, and many others throughout history, Saddam wanted everyone to know that there was no other but him. See, that is what happens when we try to make God our co-pilot. When we try to lead God, we end up trying to take His place. The problem is that we can’t take His place. There can only be one head, and that head is not us.
We wonder how people can be so evil, but the answer should not surprise us. We are merely men, yet we too often, try to be God. We have a desire for power and in some people, it is just a lot more obvious. In Herod, as with all dictators, there is absolutely no compromise; it is all or nothing. Herod had to be the only king.
God established Jesus Christ as the only king, and He does not want anyone trying to upset that order of things. Nobody can serve two masters. You will end up hating one and loving the other. The world wants us to be our own masters, and to do that, we will end up hating Christ. God wants Jesus to be our Master, and when we allow this, we end up hating the world. There is no in-between and no compromise on this.
Many people don’t want to see the baby grow up to be the King, because that would mean they would have to be committed to doing things His way, and they want to keep doing things their way. In reality, they want to be the pilot, and they are only willing to let God be the co-pilot while only paying lip service to Christ.
Sometimes, I think Christians are worse than Herod. See, Herod was truthful. He did not want to give up his authority for anyone, even Christ. Today’s Christians say they want Christ to be the head of their lives, but they are not willing to let Him have authority over their lives. We pray, but what do we pray for? We pray for things that we want, not to ask what God wants for us. We need to simply bow down before Jesus and make ourselves and our families available to Him. After all, He is the King.
Another lesson we can learn from our passage is this:
2. IMPOSTERS ARE FURIOUS
When Jesus came, as a Jew, to be the real King of the Jews, how did Herod respond? In MATTHEW 2:3, we find that Herod was greatly disturbed. He had to do something, but what?
Being the imposter he was, he put on an act. He pretended that he cared about this new child and so he asked the Magi to find out where Jesus was so Herod could go worship Him, too. But, worshiping Jesus was not the real plan Herod had. He wanted to kill the baby like he had killed so many of his other competitors.
But what happened? God tipped Joseph off in a dream.
Turn with me to MATTHEW 2:13-16.
‘When they (the Magi) 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.”
So, he got up, took the child and His mother during the night, and left for Egypt, 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.”
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.
Imagine for one moment how the mother felt when the soldier came through the door, grabbing her infant son, throwing him to the floor, and running a sword through him. I don’t think we could ever imagine the true grief these women felt. Herod ordered the slaughter of innocent babies. No, it didn’t take long for the sword to follow the birth of Jesus, did it?
But this is exactly how the enemy works. REVELATION 12 says that the accuser of our brothers, the one who accuses day and night has been hurled down. It says that the devil is filled with fury because he knows his time is short. We have to be aware that since the devil cannot get to God, he will try his best to get to us. He doesn’t attack us through our strengths, but on our weaknesses. And one of those weaknesses is our tendency to be consumed with ourselves as the center of our universe.
JOHN 3:19, it says –
‘This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.’
Expect death after the birth of Jesus. Expect it because this world is a dark and sinful place and those in the world will try to keep it that way. Jesus came, not to bring us peace, but to bring the world a choice. A choice between life and death. Between Heaven and hell. And in so doing, He brought the sword.
Sure, it would be very easy to sit and look at the baby Jesus in the manger, feel cozy and warm, and bask in His comfortable light. But we have to remember that even the shepherds had to go back to the fields and fight the lions and wolves. We are not meant to have peace in the darkness. We have to make a choice. You cannot have a little bit of darkness or a little bit of light, just as you cannot be a little bit pregnant or shoot a shotgun a little bit. It is either all or nothing. You are in the world, or you are in Christ.
The imposter gets furious, doesn’t he? And what does he do? He kicks Jesus out of Christmas. I saw on TV the other night, where Jesus has been totally taken out of Christmas celebrations in England. They now celebrate a winter holiday.
We are doing the same thing in America. Every year, we are letting a satanic minority cause Herod-like politicians to rule over the Christian majority. We are telling Jesus to stay in His manger and never grow up to offer true salvation. We are firing judges who want to put the Ten Commandments of God in the public square. And we act surprised that all of this his happening.
But the final lesson is one of good news.
3. OUR GOD CALLS ALL THE SHOTS!
Jesus brought a sword, not a dove with Him into this dark world. And now, we are seeing the dark world fight back, because it is furious.
When Herod wanted to kill Jesus, God made Joseph flee to Egypt. Now, if God is all powerful, why would He have to make His Son flee from a murderer? And why would He allow this murderer to kill so many innocent babies? Questions like these make us wonder, but we must remember what God has already told us.
In ISAIAH 55:8-9, it says
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’
These words become clear to us as we see the slaughter of those babies. We question what good could come of this, or whose power was the greatest. It fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet.
In JEREMIAH 31:15, we read,
‘A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.’
We might not see the power right off, but we must look further. Do you remember the thorn in Paul’s side? What was the lesson in that? The lesson was that the strength of the Lord is found in the weakness of man. In other words, Paul’s weakness made him rely on God even more. We live our lives trying our best to be the ones in control, but when everything we do fails and we are standing with our backs against the wall with nowhere else to turn, we always turn to God, don’t we? Why? Because God has the strength of perfection and it is He who calls the shots.
Look at the cross. Jesus died an agonizing death upon that cross. It is a brutal scene; one that causes us to turn away so we don’t have to see the hatred and hurt involved. But it is precisely because of what happened on the cross that we can now have peace in our lives.
I don’t know why it is that God allows certain things to happen because I don’t know the reasonings of our Lord, but I do know that God works His great power through our weaknesses.
Will the Victory Singers please come back onstage?
Herod declared war on the Son of the Most High God. He tried his best to kill this competitor, but God called the shots, didn’t He? Even though other children were slaughtered, Jesus went on to live and conquer sin on the cross – just as God decreed. Herod, on the other hand, died and ended up in hell.
But it is not over yet. Satan is still chasing after God’s children. Satan is still putting some of God’s children to death. His modern-day Herods are on the prowl, looking to see who they can devour. All we have to do is look at what is happening in every city in America. Christians are being persecuted. Jesus is being kicked out of the public square, and places like Target are allowing displays that say “Happy Holidays” while not allowing displays that read “Merry Christmas.”
Expect this to happen. In fact, expect it to get much worse than ever before. Expect to feel sorrow and suffering. When Jesus came as a baby, death would soon follow. The world would eventually hang Him on a tree, yet for those who would receive Him would find everlasting life in His temporary death. Their sinful souls would be replaced with the birth of their saved souls.
As we celebrate this time of Christ’s birth, let us not concentrate on what the world thinks of it, but let us concentrate on what we know of it.
JEREMIAH 31:17(a) says,
‘So there is hope for your future, declares the Lord. …’
INVITATION
