Joy to the World

[Brother Love]

Joy to the World

..but not in Jerusalem!

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born” (Matthew 2:1-4).      The prophecies of Christ’s coming into the world are generally well known and often discussed in the Christian community. Furthermore, the accuracy with which they have been fulfilled is beyond contradiction and a source of great amazement. It is not my desire in this paper to stir up the traditional visions of Bethlehem, the manger, the “star,” shepherds and angels, or to discuss them. I am not suggesting that these wonderful events, found in Scripture, are unimportant or have been exhausted in sermon or study – or that I’m not interested. But rather, I find here, in our stated text, a mystery: a truly puzzling one that is very rarely – or never – discussed.

     Question: Where is the joy over the announcement of Christ’s birth…especially in Jerusalem? The birth of a child – any child – into any normal home would have been long anticipated, and preparations for the birth would have been carefully made. Upon arrival, the child would have been joyfully welcomed by family, friends and neighbors alike! But the child we are talking about is no ordinary child. He is the “Messiah” – the Saviour of the world – the Son of God! For Him, you would especially expect a joyous, glad welcome for the birth of the Son promised by God the Father. One might justly expect Him to be received with all the ceremony possible, and that crowns and scepters should immediately have been laid at His feet, and that the high and mighty princes of the world should have been His humble servants. This was the kind of Messiah of Whom the prophets of old had spoken and the Jews expected. But such was not the case in Jerusalem!

     Two long years had passed since His birth was announced by angels and subsequently by the shepherds in Bethlehem, and so far as we know, no one noticed or seemed to care until the wisemen, out of the East, took notice of “His star” and made their way to Jerusalem. As we shall see, this Child is the Saviour to a few, but alas, to most He is a stumbling block.

     Either way, at His birth, before He ever spoke a word, worked a miracle, or taught a single doctrine, He caused a stir and His influence was felt in the world. Herod the king was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Here is a very strange thing. What a mystery! How sad that the world has not come to the Saviour or rejoiced in His coming.

     The answer to this sad and puzzling reaction to the announcement of Christ’s birth in Jerusalem may be found in understanding the relationship between Christ and the world. Christ is the “light” (Jn. 8:12) and the world is in “darkness.” Darkness in the Scriptures symbolizes man’s ignorance of God’s will, and thus is associated with sin.

“They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death” (Job 24:13-17).

     The whole idea or intent of God’s plan, as illustrated by God’s act of creation (Gen. 1:2-4), was that with the coming of the “light,” the “darkness” of the primal world would be dispelled. But the spiritual reality is that when Christ, the “Light of the world,” came, “the darkness comprehended it not” (Jn. 1:5) – the reason being that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

     The prophets of old clearly identified the coming Saviour to be the “Light” that would illuminate a spiritually dark world: a world enshrouded in the darkness of sin and rebellion.

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isa. 60:1-3; cf. Lk. 1:76-79; 2:32).

     Note: It is to this prophecy of Isaiah that the Apostle Paul refers, in part, to indicate a “shift of gears” dispensationally. It answers the question, “Do the Gentiles have any hope of salvation since the Jews rejected Christ the ‘Light’?” The Gentiles could have been delivered from the spiritual darkness through union with Israel. But now that Israel and the whole world is “concluded in unbelief” (Rom. 11:32), the wonderful grace of God is extended to Gentiles (Acts 9:15; 13:46-47; 26:18,23) – again proving that God is “not willing that any should perish” (1 Tim. 2:4; cf. 2 Pet. 3:9).

     Our Lord Jesus plainly stated that He was “the Light of the world” with the result that those who would believe in Christ “would not abide in darkness” but have the “light of life” (Jn. 8:12; 12:46). The Apostle Paul said that believers would be “delivered from the power of darkness,” and “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13). But He was not received!

“(He) was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (Jn. 1:9-11).

     On the other hand, Jesus said that those who rejected Him as the “Light” would bring condemnation and judgment upon themselves and the world (Jn. 3:19-20) – for whom is reserved the “blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 1:13).

     The world to which Christ came was under the power of Satan, blinded to the light and sitting in darkness. His coming intensified the conflict between God and Satan. It is a war “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Christ told the chief priests, captains of the temple and the elders, as He neared the end of His ministry and was approaching the Cross, that “this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Lk. 22:53) – and it continues to be so today. Satan has “blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4). This spiritual truth is seen in the choices that men make.

[Brother Love]

Joy to the World


For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (Jn. 3:20-21).

     Christ witnesses against the choices of the sinner and the unbelieving world, saying, “I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil” (Jn. 7:7). Ah ha…the mystery is solved! Knowing the truth about the evil, unregenerate heart of man (Jer. 17:9), the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together. Unsaved man fears being exposed by the light of truth.



Herod was troubled

     Was not Herod knowledgeable of kingly protocol? Was he not what we would call “the head of state”? Had he not received other sovereigns? Was he inept at handling the affairs of the kingdom? Surely not! He was a hypocrite! He was a liar, and a murderer! He was infected by the disease that so often affects self-serving leaders who come to places of power and position. He was a politician. He knew Jesus was King of the Jews and he knew that Jesus was God! Living in Jerusalem he could not have been ignorant of the prophecies. He feigned interest and excitement and even a desire to worship Christ by asking the wisemen to:

“Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship Him also” (Mt. 2:.

     Should he not have received Him well? But no! Herod did that which would best conceal his evil heart and serve his interests.

     King Herod was the enemy of Jesus – the real “King of the Jews.” Herod was not a Jew! Herod was a descendant of Esau – an Edomite – and by nature hated the Jews. His true intent and desire was to murder Christ – the Son of Jacob (Mt. 2:16-18). Herod was jealous of his own power and throne. He rightly believed that the house of David, in the person of the newborn Child, would take possession of his throne; so he trembled and was troubled. Herod attacked Christ. He was an antichrist. His attack was another, in a long line of attacks, against God the Father’s promised “Seed” (Gen 3:15).

     Herod’s prejudice, bigotry, and hatred are alive today in the modern crowd of God-haters who work diligently to set the stage for Antichrist’s final reign of worldwide terror against the saint (2 Thess. 2:4). They speak ill of – would silence every voice of opposition – and declare war on those who align themselves with Christ and His righteousness. Let every believing “child of light” take warning and know that the world is not a friend. Christians are, and will increasingly be, the target of the world’s hatred.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin” (Jn. 15:18-22).

[Brother Love]

Joy to the World



...but not in Jerusalem!

The lovers of religion are troubled    Men say and do all sorts of strange things when they are troubled by Christ, and it is not because they have any real reason for their dread. They are troubled about Christ very much for the same reason that Herod and Jerusalem were troubled about Him.      Hypocritical and powerless religion: Jerusalem was the capital – no small city – the House of David. It was the religious nerve center of the nation. The city was filled with Bible scholars – the “Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees.” There may have been some small hamlets that knew nothing or very little about the prophecies of a promised Saviour, but not Jerusalem. Herein lies the puzzling thing. The Jerusalem dwellers had a head knowledge of the Scriptures (Mt. 2:4-6), but no heart or faith obedience. For if the truth of Christ’s coming had penetrated their heart and been applied by faith to the day of their “visitation” (Lk. 1:68; 19:44), they would have thanked God, prayed and celebrated with joy as did the handful of believers two years before (Mt. 2:16) in the Jerusalem Temple (Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon, Joseph and Mary, Anna the prophetess – Lk. 1:57-80; 2:25-39). But no! They were filled with fear because it was a moment of truth. They would have to face the truth or deny it. They had to, as we would say, “put their money where their mouth is.” They were called upon to practice what they were preaching. The presence of Christ filled them with dread. They were about to be found out! They were liars and counterfeits. They had “a form of godliness,” but were “denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5). Jesus said, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me” (Mt. 15:.     At least Herod was moved by the courage of his evil conviction to oppose Christ. But when Jerusalem and its leaders were asked by Herod, “where Christ should be born” (Mt. 2:5), they were moved to do nothing more than recite Scripture and tremble in fear. Amazing, not a single one of them said that they would go to Bethlehem. Not a scribe! Not a chief priest! As far as we know, not a person from Jerusalem said, “We will go worship Him!” I ask, “Where was their faith in the Bible or even their curiosity?” “Where were the men of godly courage and action”? “Where was the celebration”? “Where was the praise and worship”? It was not to be found. Neither is it to be found today. This comes as no surprise as we have come to expect that from the world. It is a great disappointment to me to discover, after all these years, the moral and spiritual condition of the mainstream religious community is in much the same condition as Jerusalem was in the day of Christ’s birth. The vast majority continues to dishonor Him with their “head” knowledge, lip service, “clap trap,” programs and three-ring circuses, but are seldom ever moved to be “doers of the Word” (Js. 1:17). This is what troubles the unregenerate heart of men both then and now! Man is so incurably religious that he finds it nearly impossible to comprehend the truth that a Holy God would send His Son to this spiritually dark world in order to save Hell-deserving sinners.“For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:17). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10).      How terribly sad that men then and now should be troubled by the gift of grace and infinite mercy. I pray to God that all of you who read these words will come to Christ, bow at His feet, accept Him as your Lord, trust Him to save you, and then rejoice in Him as your Saviour. Be troubled no more. Let your soul find rest in Christ.The lovers of peace are troubled     Theological/Doctrinal/Denominational/Dispensational peace: Believe me! When Christ came, He rocked the theological boat. There is no doubt that peace-loving men were troubled by the announcement that Christ was born. There are some who still say, “Don’t rock the boat!” “Don’t choose up sides!” “Don’t take a stand!” They are pretty comfortable with the way things are. I think most in Herod’s day would have thought of peace as resulting from compromise: a peace at any price concept – an idea that is as popular today as then. With the coming of Christ, things changed and most were forced out of their comfort zone. There is a real tension here! They don’t naturally or easily want to pay the price for change or “truth.” There are a few men of genuine “peace and good will,” but by-in-large they seek a peace independent of the Prince of Peace. They are troubled by the consequences of the choice they were called to make. It is while men are choosing whether to stand for truth and “light” or the ease that comes from compromise and silence that men are troubled.      I well recall the pain, fear and struggle when, as a boy, I was faced with the issues of the Gospel and salvation. Then again, when I was faced with the need to “rightly divide the Word of truth,” I was troubled. I had to make a decision. Would I choose what I had discovered to be the truth of the Mystery or choose the security of an established, growing ministry? It was a decision that I knew would cost me dearly. I wondered what the church leaders would think of the impending change in my doctrine. What of my family, my mother and father – who were well-known missionaries – what would they think? What of my future welfare? I know the feelings of being troubled in my spirit. Thankfully, I chose to follow the truth and “light” and rejected the intimidation that comes from family, denominational headquarters, tradition and friends.      Political peace: There can be no peace when tyranny and godlessness are on any throne. Herod was cruel and heartless. He had come to the throne through a sea of bloodshed and murder. He was much hated and very powerful. The Jerusalem-dwellers may have feared more of the same when the new King came to town; but then there is always a fight for freedom and righteousness. Coming to the crossroads always demands a decision. This is perhaps true more so today than in Christ’s day because the peace of political correctness, the peace of ecumenical union and the peace of multicultural pluralism demands the surrender of absolutes and dogmatism of the Bible. Their plea is for toleration – meaning a one-way street going the way of the “New World Order.” This is peace accomplished by compromise and tyranny. I say tyranny because the peace being sought after today comes when righteousness yields and its voice is silenced and God is dead. This is the shade of Herod and the coming Antichrist! The lovers of money are troubled.     Business will suffer: There is big money to be made in religion. And, after all, it is the “love of money” that is the “root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). The Temple Money Changers had made the “House of Prayer” a “den of thieves” (Mt. 21:13). Religion to them was a matter of money, not ministry. They were troubled, like the Ephesian icon makers who felt that their craft and livelihood were in danger (Acts 19:28; 19:34). They were not the first, nor will they be the last, who have worshipped gold rather than God; and though they become rich in this world’s goods, they are in reality “fools,” destitute and lost for eternity. The lovers of unrighteousness are troubled.     There is pleasure in sin. I have known such men. I recall a man, to whom I gave the “light” of the Gospel – he responded to my invitation to trust Christ for salvation by saying he did not want to be saved because he liked to drink and get drunk. It is sad but true that sinful pleasure is the reason many a man is troubled about Christ. There is a choice to be made. He is troubled. He does not want to give up his pet sin. He cannot continue in the practice of any known sin, willfully and deliberately, and find any comfort from the Word of God or from the Gospel. There must be, in his heart’ s intent and resolve, the quitting of sin, or there cannot be the finding of the Saviour. If this be true, can there be any doubt why Jerusalem or modern man is troubled? Conclusion     It could have been for any one of these reasons – or many other reasons – that Jerusalem was troubled. We don’t really know. Nor do we know why you, my dear reader, might be troubled about welcoming Christ into your life. What we do know is that ultimately Jerusalem and all Israel chose to reject Christ. They crucified Him, saying, “We will not have this man reign over us” (Lk. 19:14). I pray that all who read these words will come to Christ. You will not find Him in Bethlehem now. No, He is not there now. He came to earth to save sinners. He was numbered with sinners. He was made sin for sinners. He became the sinner’s substitute. He was obedient unto death. He was given a name that is above every name. He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).      You can be one of the “few” who have found Christ and joy. This is in contrast to the “many” who will never know joy but be everlastingly troubled.


by S. Lee Homoki

[Brother Love]

Joy to the World


AMEN!!!!

[Yoyostick]

Whoa. I'm not even going to try to read all of that. (the bold brown font doesn't help)

[Brother Love]

Whoa. I'm not even going to try to read all of that. (the bold brown font doesn't help)

Its Maroon NOT brown