The Dilemma of Obedience

Hello Hello. My name is TC Cook and I am the Director of The PowerHouse and Daviess County Habitat for Humanity. I am honored and humbled to be able to come and share Gods word with you today. First Pastor Joe has asked me to give a little update on the PowerHouse and some of the things we have been doing. Our mission at the PowerHouse is to build relationships with teens in order to share the Gospel. Our largest program that we do is our after school program. It is where teens walk down from the Jr. and Sr. High School just the 2 or 3 blocks to the PowerHouse on Main St. There we provide a safe place where teens hang out and get a warm meal 5 days per week. In just over 2 years of my wife and I being back we have seen so many amazing things happen. I have many stories but can I just tell you one right now. I had a 15 years old boy sitting in my office one day and I was reprimanding him for some things that he had done. Now over all he is a good kid but just made some mistakes and needed to be corrected. As we were discussing it, I noticed that the Dad voice and really just the Dad was coming out in me. So I paused and said, listen I know i am not your dad. And he looked back dead in my eyes and said, no you don’t understand, i want you to be my dad. See this particular boy had a dad up until he was 2 years old and his dad was murdered. He had his mom and she works crazy hard to try and make ends meet. So I told him that i cant be his dad, but i can teach him things a dad would teach him. So we began to dive in to his grades, work, family and relationships and he is really coming along and working through that. You see we can not replace a parent in their lives, but we can take the time to love them and teach them like a parent would. To show them who God is and what it looks like to follow Him. If you want to here more of those stories and ways to help please see us at the table we have in the entry. We also have envelopes for our campaign. This is pretty simple, we have envoples marked from 1 dollar to 250 dollars. Grab the envelope that you would like to give money to and either pay now or send it in later.

Ok so now back to the message. I am always torn to make the pulpit into something other than preaching the Word of God but Pastor asked me to update you guys on a mission that you as a church faithfully support every year. So we want you to know we appreciate you and love you.

Please open your Bibles to Mathew chapter 2. Mathew chapter 2. I have been tasked with the message called The Dilemma of Obedience. This message is pertaining to the Wise men or Magi however your translation translates it.

Now if you are able, would you please stand as I read from Mathew chapter 2 verses 1-12. Please stand out of reverence to Gods word.

Mathew 2:1-12

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, 2 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.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “ ‘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.’ ”7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 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.” 9 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. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 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, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

You may be seated.

Now this is interesting passage that really takes a lot to unpack. First to unpack all of this section we need to go back in history. We need to go to the Old Testament. Now Im just going to give an overview here to set the scene so bare with me. In 2 Chronicles we see Nebuchadnezzar King of the Babylonian empire, which later became captured by the Persian Empire, take captive Judea and the Jews because of their disobedience to God. So skip over to Daniel, Ezra, Esther, Jeremiah and Nehemiah and we see Jews in foreign lands serving kings. Nebuchadnezzar according to secular history and biblical history was a ruthless and harsh king, yet he was used by God for God’s purpose. In chapter 2 of Daniel we see Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and because of that the king promotes Daniel as a ruler over some land and then makes him chief over all the wise men. So to understand where the wise men or Magi came from we have to know that they started out pure gentile astronomers. But because of the appointment of Daniel they became biblical scholars that believed everything is biblical, the sun, the moon, the stars, the grass, the dirt, everything.

Now since Judea was exiled to a foreign land they started to marry Babylonians or non jews. So when a King married a jewish women he became sympathetic to the Jews and decided to let them go back if they wanted to. So we have Nehemiah who finds out that the temple is rebuilt but they failed to rebuild the wall and you know the rest. Now as time goes on the Magi became a tribe of sorts that gained in political power and became the ones in the Persian Empire who appointed the Kings. They were the King makers. So when they come on the scene in our text we have no clue how many came and they were not kings but King makers. So the song WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE is, well i hate to break it to you, wrong. What we can assume is that however many came to follow the star that there was a whole D< DASSSSSSSDADDASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSDLKDJH0 DRSTSARRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD of Persia the wise men. And they didn't come quietly they came saying,”Where is he who has been born King of the Jews.” It says in the text that when Herod heard this he was troubled. Why? Who is this Herod guy anyways.

So Herod was not born jewish but His father an Edomite that converted to Judaism(most likely for political power) and raised him up jewish. Herods dad Antipater rose in power and even became good friends with Julius Caesar. Anitpator had the power to anoint rulers over the lands that he had control over and gave each of his sones to regions. Herod did well to help continue the expansion of Rome. You see in history the Persian Empire and the Roman Empire were the two largest. They also bordered each other. That border just happened to be Judea , Israel Jerusalem. These two fought 3 major wars but many smaller ones to continue the protection of the border. Herod did have a small part to play in that as he was considered ruthless and reckless in his young years. In fact it was so much so that a king brought him up on chargers of murder for breaking a peace agreement. This sent Herod running back to Rome and to Julius Caesar in fear. While there he waited a time and then appealed to his good friend Mark Antoni and Cleopatra to ask Julius Caesar to reinstate him as a ruler. They did and gave him the land of Judea and coined him King of the Jews. Now he was doing well for Rome and even winning back some land he had lost to bring into the Roman empire. Everything was fine until he heard the commotion and saw these Persian wisemen, these Persian king makers and all their guards and servants asking “Where is he who has been born king of the jews. We want to worship him”. And if you look at our text in verse 3 it says When Herod the King heard this he was troubled. troubled. Some might even say He was terrified.

So he gathered the smartest men he knew, the high priest and the scribes and asked them where the Christ was to be born. Then our text says that he brought the wisemen in and asked them when the star had appeared. They told him and he told them where the Christ was born. He then told them to go and find them and be sure to come back and tell him where he is so he, Herod my worship him too.

So they did just that. The star appeared again and showed them the way and they rejoiced when they found the house. So just another misnomer is that the wisemen came in on the night of his birth. No we see that it was now a house not a stable and Jesus was probably between 1 to 2 years old now. So here we have these foreign King Makers in a land that is not occupied by them proclaiming a new king. A king of the Jews. Not only that but these highly political and spiritual wisemen bowed down and worshiped a toddler and they showered him with expensive gifts.

Now it is with all this background and history that we now get to the Dilemma. We get to the new born Messiah and his entry into the world in human form. We have two Dilemma’s here. We have Herod. Herod has been coined and known as the King of the Jews. He is the one that through many years of friendships and battles won and lost that he has gotten to where he is today. But now, there is this unknown non royal baby that has been born that is being called by his title, The King of the Jews. Not only that but these Persians come in to his city to his territory and are proclaiming him King. What should he do? To kill the wisemen would start a large war. But to kill this baby could fix it all. So he ask for them to come back and tell him where to find him.

You also have the dilemma of the wisemen. They for one do not want to start a war, but they know what the old testament says. They know what is written by their tribe father Daniel. They have seen the star and they know its Him the King of the Jews, the Saviour to the world. Could this be the saviour that would bring peace to all their land. Could he rule so they may all have peace. Does king Herod actually want to worship them. Well God did not leave this up to them to decided, he gave them a dream and it warned them not to go back to Herod. But now what if us not going back actually starts a war. What if we dont obey this King.

So the wisemen did what we all should do, we listen to God. God is in control. Our job is to obey Him. So these men took another rout home.

Well finally Herod noticed that they were not coming to tell him where the new king was. So the only thing he could think of to try and protect his rule was to set a decree to kill all of the 2 year old and under males. Now this is crazy. He has now wiped out future priest, future warriors, Shepard's and farmers. He has taken a small part of a generation and destroyed it all. Done. He did this all out of fear that his own kingdom, his own small little terriorty was coming to an end.

We really see to very stark differences in the way the wisemen handled their dilemma and the way Herod handled his. We see the wisemen worship the new born King as saviour to the world. Their hopes were based in him. We see Harod take offense to the King and worry that all he had would be stripped away. His hope was found in his own abilities. And his misplaced hope lead him to go back to his reckless and terrible ways and create a full fledge genoiced.

The wisemen found truth in Gods word from Geneses to the last book they had for the minor prophets. They knew that the all creation was Gods because He was the creator who spoke it into being. Herod found truth in his power and might, not knowing that it is God who gives that and takes it away. Herod had for himself status until the one bearing the true name of King of the Jews arrived.

So as we have gleaned from so much of the incredible entry of God in the flesh, Emanuel or Saviour and as we go on into the new year let us remember that the same dilemma Herod had and the wisemen had is ours today, who do we listen to. Is it ourselves, is it the news, is it the papers, is it even the pastors on FB or social, no. We listen to God our Father who has given us His word that gives us hope, shows us love, is truth, corrects us, trains us and guides us as a Lamp unto our feet. The wisemen had confidence because they new Gods word and may we be bold enough to do the same.

Lets Pray.