The World Jesus was Born into

Good Evening Churc! Welcome to our Christmas Eve Eve Service where we pause and reflect on the co of our king Jesus.

Lets sets set the stage here of the context our King was born into:

The world that baby Jesus was born into was not one of light, but of darkness and silence.

The people have not heard from God directly or through the mouth of a prophet for over 400 years.

They had been under the reign of foreign ruler for far longer than that.

When the Roman’s invaded they conquered under the banner “Pax Romana” - Roman peace, but they were the only ones to experience this peace, as the people of Israel were drowning in taxes surrounded by Roman soldiers everywhere they went.

The King that ruled during the time of Jesus birth was king Herod

He was in his late 60s and if there was one thing that defined his rule it was destroying everything that threatened his power.

Herod had all rivals killed in various was beating, hanging, stoning, live animals, forced to jump off buildings

He married 10 times and 43 kids. Killed the only wife he loved and his mother in law too.

Killed 2 of his sons because he feared their take over too soon. A third son, he killed just 5 days before he died. When Herod’s barber tried to stick up for Herod’s son, he killed his Barber too.

Romans Joked that it was better to be Herod’s pig than one of his sons or friends.

When King Herod, heard that “the King of the Jews” were about to be born, He did not want to share power with Jesus. Even if He was just a baby now.

So Herod sent out an order to murder all of the babies that were around the age of Jesus.

Although we celebrate Jesus’ birth for many families it was a time of darkness and death.

The World that Jesus was born into was one of greed, violence and darkness. A world in need of light and hope.