Embracing the True King: Justice and Hope at Christmas

"We are in our Christmas series, which we've called More Than Merry, because we're trying to realise how Christmas is more than about prawns on the barbie and going for a swim at the beach, which if you are not from Australia, you're like, how is that what Christmas is about?" [00:28:20] (19 seconds)


"But there is, Christmas has a confronting message. This is the... This is the original Christmas. Or take Ruben's famous artwork, which is just so dynamic, so much happening in this artwork. You can see the soldiers with a sword bent on violence. You see women cowering in fear. You see another woman doing everything she can to stop the butchery that's about to happen. You see a poor mother weeping." [00:32:35] (35 seconds)


"This kind of injustice still happens in the world around us. And what we cry out for in our world is for justice to arrive and that is what the promise of Christmas is all about, more than justice. God has placed within the hearts of each and every one of us a restless desire for justice, hardwired into us by God. There is this hunger for justice that is meant to drive us towards him and the desire for justice really is one of the most important of the major themes of the Bible, if not the major theme." [00:35:26] (38 seconds)


"And the Bible, the solution to justice is the arrival of a king. All of us live in search of a king, whether we know it or not. We're hardwired to want a king because God is our king and he's hardwired us to make us seek him. And that's why every culture tells story after story about benevolent kings who bring blessings to their subject. And that they put down evil kings, they reject evil kings and they cast down the evil kings and they lift up the poor and lowly." [00:37:04] (35 seconds)


"And yet, despite us longing for a king, we have this double -hearted attitude towards kings. Because although we want justice, we actually want to live within a republic, right? Because we don't want a king telling us what to do. We don't want to be answerable to anyone else. We want to be able to be free, free of the shackles of having a king over us, telling us what to do. But at the same time, we want evil people answering." [00:38:02] (27 seconds)


"And so, here you have the worst character in the Christmas story, who probably also has the best theology in the Christmas story, right? Because he knows that the child born in Bethlehem is a threat to his kingship. He knows that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born into the world to be our rightful King, if He is King, then Herod answers to someone else." [00:44:34] (28 seconds)


"And that's why he's going to be set forth into doing what he's about to do. But you know the Christmas carol, O Holy Night, my favorite Christmas carol, that and O Come, Come, O Come, Emmanuel. But there's that line which goes, chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. Herod gets that. He knows that when the Christ King arrives, oppression's going to cease. And he knows he's on the side of the oppressors. He is an oppressor. And so he knows his time's up." [00:45:28] (39 seconds)


"When Herod realized that he'd been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem. And it's vicinity who are two years old and younger in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. He thinks nothing of killing a bunch of two -year -old boys by assassins he sends to Bethlehem. What a villain. He's gone down in history as one of the most horrific villains of all history, the butcher of Bethlehem." [00:48:35] (37 seconds)


"No matter how powerful you are, no matter cruel, no matter what your position or privilege, all of us are destined to die once and after that face the death of Jesus. And so, we meet two kings at the start of Matthew chapter 2, God's judgment. And can I say, that is great news. Because if this world is all there is, then tyrants get away with whatever they want to do." [00:50:59] (22 seconds)


"And that's great news because it means justice is coming. Every wrong will be righted. Now, the challenge is we want others to answer for the way they've lived their lives, but we... We often don't want to answer for the way we've lived our lives. And the sharp part of the Bible is that Jesus is an impartial judge. He doesn't show favoritism. He doesn't take sides. He will judge everyone according to what they have done." [00:52:49] (33 seconds)


"He's given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead. So, the one God's raised from the dead is judge, is your judge. So, what is He? Judge or Saviour? Depends what time you live, because right now, He is Saviour. He's not come to condemn the world. That's the time we're living in. We are living in the day of salvation, where the message is going out to people who maybe you've never murdered some kids in Bethlehem, but all of us have buried within our own hearts a resistance and a hostility to Jesus' rule over us." [00:55:02] (41 seconds)


"Christmas is about a war of kingdoms, mine and God's, and who has the right to rule. And the good news is, God offers peace, forgiveness, even to rebels. But in order to do that, He must confront the war in your soul, because His desire is to bring you peace. And you're not at peace with Him, because we all resist the kingship of Jesus. And you see Herod, he's the only realist in the Christmas drama. You call him a liar, call him a maniac, whatever the case." [00:57:50] (41 seconds)