So our scripture reading today is from two passages. Both of them are in your bulletin, but you can use your Bibles. We will be looking at John chapter one briefly, but then spending most of our time in Matthew chapter two. So if you have or have not been with us throughout the entire Advent series or season, we have been considering that passage in John 1. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. And so we have been considering these past few weeks. how the light of Jesus Christ shines in the darkness. What particular darkness does the light of Christ shine into? And first, we looked at the darkness of our own hearts, because the reality is that none of the other darkness that we experience matters all that much if we don't deal with the darkness of our own hearts, the darkness of our own sin, and that the reason Jesus came was to deliver us from our own darkness. But along with that, He came also to deliver us from the darkness of our past. the darkness of the shadows of shame and guilt that we all experience as we look at our past and that decisions and choices we've made, those decisions that sometimes sneak up and make you shudder at night or keep you awake. Jesus shines the light of full and pure, true forgiveness so that you're not just forgiven for what you're going to do. Everything that you've done has been washed away. You are white as snow in Jesus's eyes, in God's eyes. Jesus came to deliver you from the darkness of your shadowy past. But he also came to deliver you from the darkness of your future. Yes, definitely the darkness of that eternal future of living, of having spending eternity without God, but also the darkness of your more immediate future, the darkness of the unknown. The darkness of what keeps us awake as we consider and are anxious about what's coming next. Jesus' light actually gives us hope in a dark world. And I had even written down here that, you know, this year more than ever. But I imagine if you are like me, you're getting tired of hearing that phrase. Because do we really need the light of Christ this year more than ever? Did we not need the light of Christ in 2019 all that badly? But now this year, oh, we really need it this year. Were we doing all right in 2011, but now things have really gotten bad? And what about those for whom other years were awful, were miserable, were so dark with loss? How does talking about this year as though this is some special hard year help them? And so today we're focusing on does Christ have any impact on the darkness of the world? Because we live in a dark world. Broken relationships, war, misery, pain, Pandemics, viruses, earthquakes, fires. Does Christ have any impact? Does his coming into the world mean anything for the darkness that we experience in the world? Other than the crucifixion, I think Matthew 2 is one of the darkest stories of Christ's life. It truly reveals the darkness of the world. So let's stand for the reading of God's Word. John 1, verses one to five, and then Matthew 2. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And then flipping over to Matthew chapter two. 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 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 and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may 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. 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 he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt, I have called my son. 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 in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life are dead. The grass withers and the flowers fade, and yet the word of the Lord remains forever. You may be seated. So when it comes to Christmas movies or Christmas stories, it seems that we always need some character who, well, Well, we would call him even by the title of the most famous of them all, who's a bit of a Scrooge. Someone who doesn't like the holiday season, whether it's in the Hallmark movies, and it's the evil capitalist, or in any other movies, it's Burgermeister, Meisterburger, the Grinch, there's always this antagonist who seems to exist only to highlight how wonderful the protagonist is. The exception to that would probably be Henry F. Potter. It seems that Potter never does see the light, does he? Whereas, you know, Scrooge buys the biggest goose and Grinch's heart grows three sizes too big. Potter never sees the light in Bedford Falls. He's always that cranky old man. But Potter is not the first who lives and dies in the darkness of his own anger and misery. Herod, Herod is a man who made other people afraid. In fact, we're told in this very passage, when Herod was troubled, all of Jerusalem was troubled with him. Not because necessarily Jerusalem was worried about what worried Herod, but all of Jerusalem was worried about what Herod would do when he was troubled. This man who clung so tightly to his reign that he was not above killing his own wife in order to protect his kingdom, and then killing some of his own children in order to protect his hold on the kingdom. Herod is really the picture of darkness, how darkness in this world impacts all of us. But it's interesting, Herod's one of these characters who, though he's prominent in Scripture here, he's not so prominent in our nativity scenes, is he? I mean, we like the star from the story, we like the wise men from the story, but we don't really like to talk much about Herod and his part in the story. But even as I've said throughout our series, you can't fully grasp the impact and importance of the light unless you understand the impact of the darkness. You will not appreciate the light of Christ unless you understand how dark the darkness is. The Christmas season is not a pure season of just delight and joy for everyone. For far too many people. The Christmas season is often an annual reminder of loss. An annual reminder of what isn't. Or what isn't anymore. There's a brokenness that the Christmas season often ends up highlighting, even with its focus on nostalgia and sentimentalism. Many people have to endure Christmas without any promise of ghosts coming to make everything okay for one and all. Herod matters. The darkness of the world is real, and pretending it's not real doesn't help. And so we want to look at this passage. And while there's a lot we could focus on, we're going to focus mostly on the dark side of the passage. I will throw this out to you, especially you kids. The mantled place is really the only place that the wise men show up at the manger. So there were no wise men at the manger on the day of Christ's birth. They were in root at that time. Jesus was minimally six weeks old and at most two years old. And if you want to know how I know that, if you are an adult, you can take me to lunch. If you're a kid, you could just bring me a candy cane and we will sit down and talk about it. But it wasn't, in fact, it tells us that they found him in his house and they came to worship him, which actually brings us to the first point, anger, apathy, or adoration. And while these sound like three different responses to Jesus, there's actually only two responses. And so don't fool yourself into thinking that apathy is better than what Herod did. At least I'm not trying to kill the Son of God. Apathy and anger are the same response. They are both the opposite of adoration. There's no... denying the reason for these wise men coming, these magi. They come and they ask the simple question, where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star and have come to worship him. It's interesting, Matthew as a book, opens then, early on, with people asking, where is the one born King of the Jews? Jesus is given this title, King of the Jews, and then at the end, at his crucifixion, that title comes back again. On the cross, on the board, it says, this is Jesus, King of the Jews. It's fascinating, isn't it, that both On both of these bookends, that title is given to Jesus not by his own people, but by Gentiles. These Gentile wise men, these non-Jewish wise men who travel and looking for the King of the Jews, and then Pilate, really in mockery of both Jesus and the Jews, puts this title on him, King of the Jews. But we can't miss, you can't even miss it because it's repeated three times the whole purpose of their coming. It is to worship Jesus, to worship this toddler. In verse two and in verse eight and in verse 11, it is repeated, they came to worship this newborn king. And maybe you and I don't fully grasp the weightiness of what Matthew is saying here. But the Jewish readers in that day would have known exactly what he's saying. Because in the Old Testament, and really it's still true today, there are only two categories of worship. You either worship rightly the one true God, or you worship wrongly anything and everything else. Anything other than worship of God alone is false worship and idolatrous worship. And so Matthew is very early on here making sure that we understand that Jesus, this one born Jesus, is God. They have come to worship God who has taken on flesh. In fact, one of the gifts that they bring, frankincense is an emphasis of that. Frankincense is a spice that is reserved only for God. In the Old Testament, it was only allowed to be used in the worship of God, and they are bringing this gift to this boy. But consider the apathy of God's people. You know, it's interesting that Herod doesn't, we can't even give Herod an out of like, well, he just didn't understand. Because when they ask for where is this king, Herod asks his counselors, where is the Messiah to be born? So Herod knows that a newborn king is potentially the Christ, the Messiah. And the scribes and Pharisees know exactly where he's to be born. They've read the prophecies. He's to be born in Bethlehem. But how many scribes or Pharisees, how many teachers went with the Magi to find the boy? None. How many people in Jerusalem, how many folks who heard rumor of this entourage of these wise men, they come in and there's no getting away from the wealth of these guys. Rumors would have spread, why are they here, what's going on? Well, my cousin works in the castle and says that they found a newborn king. How many people in Jerusalem went to look, went at least to fact check, At least to see, well, are the rumors true? Nobody. Because when you think you know what God is doing, or maybe said differently, when you think you know what God is not doing, you are very underwhelmed with Him. When you think you know for sure what God is not doing, It's very easy to write off everything you see. God has been silent for 400 years. You and I, living in the New Covenant, living with the full, completed Word of God, we will never grasp how dark that was. 400 years of silence, no more prophets, the priests don't even know what to do anymore. That's a long time to get used to not hearing from God. I can imagine they thought, sure, God used to do some pretty amazing things. God used to act on behalf of his people. God used to show up in amazing ways, but not anymore. Now we're just expected to believe because of something cool he did a long time ago. Do you ever feel that way? Sure, God used to do some pretty amazing things for his people. He used to show up in unexpected ways. But now we're just expected to believe because of something He did a long time ago. And through apathy, there's not even a curiosity. But what of Herod's anger? What set off Herod? It's that simple question, where is the one born King of the Jews? It would have been that little word, king, that would have set his eyelid a twitching. Herod kept a tight hold on his control, on his power, on his kingdom. We see in this passage really the The difference between the wrath of man and the wrath of God. And the wrath of God is in this passage, you don't want to miss that. But Herod's wrath is undeniable. It's awful to think through the reality that the birth of Christ brought this kind of destruction because of the sin of Herod. Herod sends men to this town to kill every toddler boy. Every young boy from two years old and down would die because of the wrath of Herod. But I think maybe the most haunting part of this passage is the angel's announcement to Joseph in Egypt. I mean, consider an angel came to the shepherds to announce the good news of the birth of the king. And an angel came to Joseph to announce the good news of the death of this false king. Herod, for all of his rage, for all of his anger, for all of his wrath, was in the end overcome by the light. We need Herod in our nativities because we need to be reminded ourselves that if I'm not going to be overwhelmed by the light in my life, I will be overwhelmed by the light in my death. Yes, Christ was born to deliver us from the darkness, but delivering us from the darkness includes delivering us from our own realms of darkness, our own idolatries, our own fears and angers and apathies. And we need Herod in our nativities because, again, we need to be reminded that there are some losses that we don't ever get over. There are darknesses in this world that produce a weeping and a lamentation that is uncomfortable. And by that I mean we are unable to comfort because of the loss. And certainly we never want to describe Christmas in a way that robs it of the joy that Christmas ought to bring. But we do want to remember that Christmastime for many is far from merry. And it's only when we remember Herod, it's only when we see the darkness of the world that then the prophecies begin to make, have a bigger impact on our hearts. They drive deeper. You know, when we realize that Isaiah 8, well, first, when we remember that, you know, the numbers and the chapter numbers and the verse numbers, those aren't original. Those were added thousands of years later. And so when chapter eight ends and chapter nine begins, it's normally not an ending in a beginning other than for us as Westerners who like to see the big number and say, oh, this is a new section. But here's how chapter eight ends. They will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness. The reality is that without Christ, it is a dark and awful world. And it's to that place of thick, utter darkness that he says, but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. If we are the ones on whom a light has dawned, it is only because we are the ones who were wandering in the darkness. Christmas isn't a time for the luminaries. Christmas is a time for the people who live in darkness. who have been delivered from the darkness by Christ. People who have lost their voice from wailing can hear the songs of the angels singing. Glory to God in the highest. Christmas is God's testimony that the darkness has been broken. You know, people say, you know, there's only two books of the Bible, two gospels that have any reference to the nativity, to the birth of Christ, Matthew and Luke. But it's right there in our focus in John. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. And so we see the light Because we who were dwelling in darkness have seen this great light. And when it dawns on us, when we receive that, we it's as though we're waking like waking like Sam Gamgee. And we ask the question, is everything sad going to come untrue? And I know you're thinking, of course, we can't get through a Christmas season without a Lord of the Rings reference, and you're right, and I would apologize, but I've been reading this book again, these books during the pandemic, and I've just recently come to that phrase, is everything sad going to come untrue? And it's a favorite phrase of so many pastors because it feels like, boy, that preaches. Because Sam has for two and a half books thought Gandalf was dead. And now he wakes and Gandalf is the one waking him. And he's like, you're alive. Is everything sad going to come untrue? And the more times you read the series, this trilogy, the more times that every time you get to that question, it becomes, It becomes a sadder and sadder question with each rereading of the trilogy. Because this time when I read it, I realized Gandalf never answered his question. Is everything sad going to come untrue? Because the answer is really, no. But yes. But no. But yes. I mean, there's still the scourging of the shire that they have to realize and see, and people still, they still have to say goodbye, and he's still gonna have to say goodbye to his very best friend as he heads off west. But at the same time, the answer's yes, everything sad is going to come untrue, yes. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the government and peace, the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. And who gives him this name? Isaiah 9, 7 says, the zeal of the Lord himself will accomplish this. God calls him by these names. And so for you who've been led astray and down false paths by this world and its dark counsels and its bad advice, know that there is one named Wonderful Counselor, whom you can trust His word. And you who've been beaten down by the darkness, and undone by it and feel so powerless against the darkness. Know that there is this one who is mighty God who has come to deliver you. And for you, for whom this dark world is just full of broken relationships and pain and loneliness, there is this child who is born whose name is Everlasting Father. and you whose hearts are full of apathy and anger and wrath and war. This one is named Prince of Peace. And for all of us who look around and think these governments are toppling and things are going poorly or well or we were so impressed or depressed by how things are turning out. God says the government of the government and peace that's on his shoulders. The increase of that will never end. And I looked and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. And they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you. You are the light of the world. You are our light. You were born in order to die for our sins, in order to take on darkness and to rise victorious from the grave. One day you will come again. and make it all new. We thank you and praise you and pray that we would trust you even in the darkness. In Jesus' name, amen.