It gives me a lot, a lot of great joy to say these two words to you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. So I wonder what was the word? What word did you think of? What word do you think of when you hear Christmas?

Do you think joy? Do you think nostalgia? Do you think tradition? Do you think Jesus? What do you think? What is your one word response? You know, when it comes to

Christmas there are a lot of different ways that people respond. And as I just said, here at Peace Church, what we've been doing during this Christmas series is we've been looking at the Bible and we've been looking at how different people responded to the news that Jesus Christ was born or was going to be born, and we've looked at how their response helps us to understand how we might respond. What is the best way to respond? Now we've looked at the news given to his mom,

given to his dad, Joseph, given to his people, the shepherds, given to his relatives, but every instance that we've looked at so far in Scripture has been a positive example for us. We've seen the Holy Spirit work through different people

in a positive way, and it's helped to encourage us to think about how do we rightly respond to Christmas. But today, tonight, we're going to look at the opposite of a positive response. We're going to look at a really hard, negative response as we look at the news given to his enemy, to the enemy of Jesus Christ, as we look at how King Herod responded to the news that a king has been born. So here's what I'd love for you to do. Would you open up

your Bibles to Matthew chapter 2. We're gonna read a longer than normal section tonight, but hey, this is the crazy crowd and we're gonna get into our Bibles here today. Here's the setting for you. We are looking at how King Herod reacts to the news. Now Herod was not a good guy. Murdered one of his wives, murdered a couple of his sons, just so that he could maintain and hold on to power. He was desperate to hold on to power. And we're going to see how he responded to the news that a king,

a new king has been born. So here's the setting. Jesus has been born. And the star that marked his birth has guided the wise men from their country to Judea, to Jerusalem. And when they get to Jerusalem, they're like, so where is he? Where's the newborn king? And nobody has any idea what they're talking about. And so everyone starts getting on edge, everyone's wondering what's going on.

And King Herod especially is troubled by this, because Herod is a man who's obsessed with his own power, and he does not want another king in the country. And so with that, let's look at Herod's response. Let's read the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 2. We'll read verses 1 to 16. So would you hear God's word?

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 the king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and we 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 the scribes of the people, he inquired of them

where the Christ was to be born. And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written by the prophet and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. 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 search diligently for the child.

And when you have found him, bring me word that I may too go and worship him. And 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.

And when they, when the wise men 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 worshiped him then opening their treasures they offered him gifts of 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 now when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph

in a dream and said rise take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And when he rose, he took the child and his mother and departed by night to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets out of Egypt. I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was tricked by the wise men, he became furious and he sent and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the region who were

two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. This is God's very sobering but very powerful word. Let's pray and then we'll continue but let's start with prayer. Father we gather here tonight to glorify you for the birth of your Son and our Savior. On this eve of the celebration of his birth, would you please send us the Holy Spirit to be with us, that we may know your word and by it know your Son all the more this Christmas. For it is in the name of the newborn King that we pray these things and everyone said

Amen and Amen. My friends, Christmas is about good news. And so let me give you some good news here tonight. It may be challenging, but it's good news nonetheless. And it's this, the result of Herod's reaction to the news of Christ's birth shows us that Jesus can't be stopped. And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a few moments. Let's do a good

old fashioned Bible study. Let's look at Herod's response, Herod's reaction to this news, and then we're going to look at our response. So we're first going to look at Herod's reaction, then we'll see how that might inform our response. So first thing, Herod's reaction to the news of Christ's birth. First thing, he feels threatened.

So the wise men roll into town talking about a newborn king, and verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. He was troubled because he's a man obsessed with rule and obsessed with power. And he sees this prophecy. He sees this news of a new king as a threat to his power. And you know what? I'm pretty sure a lot of us sit here and we think, yup, exactly. That's how it's like. That's what it's like with those who are in power. All they care about is keeping their power and eliminating those who oppose it.

And you know what? Yeah, that actually is what's happening here. But don't be too quick to judge, because here's the reality. Jesus does come to upend ungodly rule and power. Herod does not want to give up the authority over Judea,

but so many of us do not want to give up authority over our own lives. And Jesus comes to upend ungodly rule and ungodly power. So you better believe Jesus is a threat to the power structures that do not glorify God. He has come to take his throne upon this world, upon his creation, and yes, upon our own lives. Herod understood this in many ways that we don't even.

So let's hold that thought, we're going to come back to it. So Herod reacts to the news of Christ's birth by feeling threatened, and the second thing we see is that Herod reacts to the news of Christ's birth by spreading, speaking lies. So Herod hears about this king, and he doesn't know his own Bible very well, so he calls the biblical scholars around him, calls them together, and he asks them, where's this Messiah going to be born?

And they say, well the prophets say that he's going to be born in Bethlehem. And so this is what Herod does, verse 8. And so he, Herod, sent them, the Magi, the wise men, Herod sent them to Bethlehem saying, go, search diligently for the child. And when you have found them, bring me word that I may too come and worship him. But we all know that this is a big fat lie. He has no intention of doing that. But listen to me for a moment.

The wise men sincerely, genuinely want to worship Christ. And Herod only acts like he does, but he has no intention of doing this. And I want to ask you, how many of us are really that different? For so many people, maybe even you gathered here tonight in front of people, in front of church

people, you act and talk a big game. I too want to worship Jesus. But when it comes time to do it, you don't show up. Don't judge Herod so quickly. Herod responds to the news of Christ's birth by spreading death. So God, God in his goodness warns the wise men, don't go back to Herod. Go back to your own country. And they do. Now, we're pretty certain that the wise men came from Persia, which is modern day Iran. So God tells them don't go back. He's not a good guy. It's not going to end well. Go back to your own country.

So they do. But when Herod finds out about this, he's absolutely livid. Verse 16, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children of Bethlehem. This is nothing short of absolute horror. And it shows the utter depth of what one man will do to maintain power. Now listen, there were actually many Herods in the Herod dynasty. It can be really confusing to try and follow this lineage here, but what you need to know is this is not the same Herod that Jesus meets with during his trial right before his crucifixion. That's one of his sons.

This Herod, this is the original. This is Herod the Great. This is the OG Herod. This is the Herod that was installed to his kingship by the Roman emperor himself. This was the Herod, the great Herod,

who rebuilt the second temple, expanded it, and made it the crowning jewel of Jerusalem, how could a man who did such an amazing thing for God turn around and kill children? Here's how. Because Herod didn't do it for God. Herod built the temple for himself. He did it to garner favor among the people to maintain power, and in this we are seeing the true extent of Herod's obsession with his own power. He's willing to kill innocent children rather

than see God's good prophecy fulfilled, even if that means having to give up his own authority. And right there's another challenge for us. How many of us are willing to do things for God, even great things for God, as long as we don't have to give up our own authority? How many people will say things like this? They'll say things like, God, I will do great things for you as long as you bless me and don't tell me what to do with my life. That that's the spirit of Herod.

That's the spirit of Herod. This is God. I want to serve you. I'll do good things for you. Just don't tell me how to live my life. That is the spirit of Herod.

And I'm telling you, it is alive and well in America. And unfortunately, even in the American church. We love to serve God, we just don't like to follow God. We love to serve God, but we don't like to submit to Him. And so, I'm asking you, would you look into your own soul tonight?

I fully recognize on a day like today, I'm speaking to people who I will never see again, and you will never hear me speak again. I am thankful to the Lord on high for the moments I have to be able to share something with you. I hope and I pray is of eternal value. So let me just ask you, would you look in your own soul? Do you have this spirit in you? Because if you do call it out, reject it and embrace Christ, because

when you do, you realize that what God has for you is better than what you have for you. And so let's see what that is. Let's contrast Herod's reaction with our response. First thing is this. Where Herod feels threatened, we are liberated. Where Herod feels threatened, we are liberated. Let me ask you a question. Do you know what the Stockholm Syndrome is? Let me explain. The Stockholm Syndrome is this condition where a person falls in love with their captor, meaning a person who has been kidnapped or is held in bondage, they will actually develop feelings of love

and protection for the very people or person who keeps them enslaved. It's an unhealthy mental condition. And for so many people in the world, we've developed Stockholm syndrome for our own sin. We've fallen in love with our sin. We love our sin, but sin keeps us enslaved. Sin keeps us away from God and away from the freedom

that's only found in the Lord. Christmas, let me remind you, if anything, Christmas is a heavenly invasion where the Son of God left His throne in heaven, stepped into creation, born in that little manger, and He came on a rescue mission to save you,

and to save me, to save us from sin, to save us from the grip and the bondage of sin and the reign of Satan. I know we all have lots of different opinions on what sin is, but let me tell you what the Bible says. Sin is slavery, and yet we've come to love it,

and we celebrate it, and we protect it. And so when a power comes into our life that wants to free us from that, we, like Herod, we feel threatened. We feel threatened when this power comes in, even if it's a power to liberate us from our sin.

Herod feels threatened, my friends, but when we accept Christ, that's liberation. That's freedom from our sin. That's salvation. And with it, we come to know the truth. And that's the second thing we're going to see, is that where Herod speaks lies, we receive truth. If you know your Bibles at all, you'll know that there's actually not a lot of ink spilled

talking about the birth of Christ. Of the four Gospels that we have, only two of the Gospels actually even mention the story of Jesus' birth. Talking about Jesus' birth isn't something the Bible does a lot about, but there is this one very rare occasion where Jesus himself speaks about his own birth. You may know what I'm talking about. It's when he's on trial, when he's looking at possibly being

crucified and he's standing before Pontius Pilate, the governor, and Pilate calls Jesus aside and Pilate's trying to figure out, should I crucify this man or not? So Pilate pulls him aside and is having this conversation with Jesus. And we see this amazing, amazing interaction. It's in John 18. Here's what it says. Then Pilate said to him, to Jesus, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king, but then listen to this twofold response. It's powerful. You say I am a king. And then Jesus says for this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness

to the truth. So on the one hand, Jesus says he is born. On the other hand, Jesus says that he's come into this world. This reminds us that Jesus is both the son of Mary and Jesus is the son of God. But then Jesus follows up with this line, with this next line. And let me tell you, this next line is a line in the sand. I know we like to think about Jesus as that guy that draws big circles around everybody and brings us together. You have to understand that Jesus said things that at times that was nothing short of a line in the sand.

And this is one of those. And let me remind you, my friends, Jesus says this to a man who is trying to decide whether or not to kill him by crucifixion. This is how amazing Jesus Christ is. Jesus says this to Pilate,

everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Of the truth, because Christ is Emmanuel. He is God with us. Jesus is the truth and by Jesus we know what the truth is. That's what we get at Christmas. We get to know the capital T truth that transcends all of our opinions, all of our cultures, all of our societies, all of our language. We get to know the truth

that will be true even when we're not here. For Jesus is the truth. Herod responds by speaking lies. We respond by receiving truth. For Jesus powerfully said this line, and if you went to Sunday school, you probably know this line. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. Anybody know the last one? And the life. And that's the last thing that we see. Where Herod spreads death, we have life. King Herod was the enemy of the Son of God. I'm going to say something hard, but we, until we receive Christ as our Savior, we are also enemies of God. And I know you're thinking,

that is a horrible thing to say, especially on Christmas Eve. Hold on a second. It actually, yes, it's hard to hear, but it actually reveals something pretty amazing. That even as we are enemies of God, God still loves us enough to send his Son to save us. Yes, understanding that until we accept Christ we're an enemy of God, that's a hard thing to hear. But with it, you also have to understand, it also kind of shows us the magnitude of God's great love, that even for those who hate God, who revile Him, who spit on Him, who mock Him,

God still sent a Savior to save us. That's how amazing God's love is. Romans chapter five, verse 10 says, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more now that we are reconciled,

how we shall be saved by his life.

His life.

My friends, it's an odd thing to consider all the things that you've worked for in your life. It's an odd thing to consider all the things that you think you've earned in your life. It's an odd thing to consider all that you have accumulated and yet your very life was given to you.

You did not earn it, you didn't work for it. It was given to you, as is the breath in your lungs. But you have to understand that Jesus, Jesus comes to give us so much more life. True and everlasting and eternal life marked by salvation in his name. And the Bible says here, says that we are reconciled. Don't get put off by that word. I know it sounds like a religious word. It simply just means to be reconciled, means to be put back into a right and proper relationship

So by the death of Jesus we are brought back into the relationship with God that we should have not as enemies but as friends as Friends of God and even more than that We are adopted By Jesus God adopts us into his kingdom and looks at us and calls us his sons and his daughters And he welcomes us into his kingdom. He welcomes us to His table.

That's what we get to have at Christmas through Jesus. Christ came to give His life to save you. True and everlasting life. And we can have this life because Jesus gave His. For the child that was born at Christmas, as we're going to see here and reenact here in a moment, Jesus Christ is the light of the world who came into this dark world to give up his life on a cross and

His death on the cross was the payment for our sin Because sin is death but yet in Christ we have life for the death of Christ means life for us So this Christmas remember this especially if I will never see you again, especially if you'll never hear me speak again. If I could leave you with one thing, let me leave you with this. This Christmas, remember that Jesus can't be stopped, not even by Kings, not even by lies and not even by death. Herod tried and failed. Herod lied, and yet the

truth still went forth. Herod killed and murdered children, yet Jesus still lived. This Christmas, remember that Jesus Christ cannot be stopped. And this was not the only time that death tried to stop Jesus, but couldn't. Death couldn't stop Christ as a child. And death couldn't stop Him even after He was killed on the cross. For three days after his death, Jesus Christ got up and walked out of his grave.

The child that was born at Christmas is the Savior who rose again. That's who we are here to celebrate, because Jesus can't be stopped. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's pray.