Think for a moment about the stories you have been told about your own birth.  Are there any stories about your birth that explained why you were born that year and not at another time?  Are there any stories about your birth that explain why you were born in the town, city, and country of your birth and not somewhere else?  Are there    stories that explain the political circumstances of your family at the time you were born?  The answer to these questions is probably not.  The circumstances, setting, and location of our births are not remarkable except for our immediate families.  There was no global or political significance to when we were born or where we were born.

Now think about the stories you have been told about the birth of Jesus.  Are there stories about the timing of his birth, the location of his birth, the political circumstances when he was born, the global significance of his birth? The answer is yes to all those questions as well as many others.  There has been no one else in the history of the world where the circumstances, setting, and location of their birth mattered like it did in the case of Jesus’ birth.

Two weeks ago, we spoke about how a baby, named John, was born to a very old priest, Zechariah, and his equally old wife, Elizabeth.  And John was born for the purpose of announcing the coming of Jesus.  No one else was born before us to announce our coming and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  Last week, we spoke about how a man named Joseph, learned that his wife to be, a virgin, was pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit with a child, and Joseph was to name that baby, Jesus.  None of us were born of the power of the Holy Spirit and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  This week we will speak about how the acts of kings and emperors were used to set the circumstances, setting, and place of a Jesus’ birth.  No king did anything about our birth and that did not happen to anyone else, ever.  Next week we will speak about how angels filled the sky to announce the birth of Jesus. Again, there were no angels in the sky when we were born and that did not happen to anyone else, ever. 

So, this week, what then was it about Jesus’ birth that dealt with kings and emperors, the heads of government?  And how did the way those powerful people were dealt with signaled the way Jesus would handle all kings.  Two gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, painted the backdrop of Jesus’ birth for us with imagery of one king and one emperor.  Let’s deal first with the emperor, Caesar Augustus.

  Luke began the story of Jesus’ birth by putting Jesus’ birth on the global stage. Luke wrote, “1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.  4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child” (Luke 2:1-5).

Caesar Augustus was the first person named emperor of Rome and was the leader of the world’s first superpower.  Augustus’ empire stretched over some 2 million square miles across the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.  With a world population then estimated at 300 million, 45 million inhabitants, 15% of the world’s population, lived in Augustus’ empire.  But only 4 million inhabitants were citizens with rights.  Augustus had several titles and proclamations of interest to us today.  Augustus was called “the Son of God,” “The Savior of the World,” and that Augustus’ birth was said to bring forth “glad tidings” to all mankind.  It was Caesar Augustus who ordered a census, a counting of the inhabitants of the empire. And this census caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem to be counted, just at the time Mary was about to deliver her first born child, Jesus.  An angel had already told Mary that Jesus will be called “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).  We would read a bit later in Luke that an angel told shepherds that this Jesus was ‘born a Savior,” and that Jesus’ coming would bring glad tidings that will cause great joy for all the people (Luke 2:10-11).  Right way, we see that Jesus’ birth is a confrontation to the glory heaped upon or demanded by Augustus, the most man in the world.

Secondly, and curiously, Luke seemed to bring an unnecessary level of detail to the circumstances and setting of the story of Jesus’ birth by saying the census and birth happened when Quirinius was governor of Syria. That seems like an odd and very specific detail.  What is contributed here by that information?  On a global scale, Luke’s detail offers nothing.  However, to Luke’s original readers in Israel, that little detail about the census and Quirinius meant everything.  The census occurring when Quirinus was governor of Syria happened near the end of the life and rule in Israel by King Herod the Great.  Not long after the birth of Jesus, Herod died, and Herod’s son, assumed control over Judea, while other sons of Herod controlled Galilee.  Not long thereafter, Herod’s son was stripped of his rule over Judea.  Instead of being Judea being ruled by a Jewish king, Judea would be ruled directly by a Roman governor.  The rule of Judea directly by Romans was humiliating to the Jews and viewed as an affront to the sovereignty of God.  As a result, direct Roman rule fostered great anger and a rebellious spirit within Judea that continued throughout Jesus’ ministry and his death at the hand of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.  Luke was reminding his readers that Jesus came just prior to the humiliation of the Jews by Rome.  Luke was laying the groundwork that the coming of Jesus was very much about the battle of empires and kingdoms.

Now for his part, Matthew brought to view of his readers the ending days of King Herod, the King of the Jewish lands.  Matthew wrote, “1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3).

At this time, Herod was king of Judea because Caesar Augustus appointed him king.  Herod was not Jewish by birth but had converted to Judaism when his father did so. Herod was severely paranoid and was suspicious that everyone was trying to remove him from the throne.  In his paranoid state, just within his own family, Herod murdered his brother-in-law, his wife, and three of his sons.  Now the magi, people from the east, people from the lands of Abraham’s origin, come to Herod seeking the one born the king of the Jews.  Herod was greatly disturbed and so was everyone else who had any sense.  Why these details in this story of Jesus’ birth necessary?  I believe these circumstances, settings, and time were told by Matthew to remind his readers of the difference between a corrupt earthly king and the kingship and kingdom of Jesus.

Unlike our own personal birth stories, the birth stories of Jesus Christ were recounted in a way to bring emphasis to the life story, ministry, and mission of a new king, Jesus, and to show that circumstances, setting, and timing of Jesus’ birth were not random or of no consequence.  Everything about the birth stories of Jesus has consequence to it.  So let’s complete our look then at the consequences, the so what, of Jesus’ birth as it relates to kings and kingdoms.

One of the features common in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke is that each records that some of Jesus’ earliest words dealt with kingdoms. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness.  There Jesus fasted and was then tempted by the devil.  At one point, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  The devil then said, “9 All this I will give you,” he [the devil] said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  10 Jesus said to him [the devil], “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’” (Matthew 4:9-10 & Luke 4:6-8).  The incitement of Satan to Jesus was worldly, all its kingdoms, but taught the following the will of God alone would allow entry into the greatest of all kingdoms. 

“17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17).  Jesus had begun proclaiming a message about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God was close at hand, meaning it would come into existence in their lifetime.

It was dangerous for Jesus, a Jew, to speak about a new kingdom, a new king, while in the lands of Judea that were no longer under a Jewish king but under a Roman governor.  There were people seeking to stir people up to rebel against the Romans and bring into power a Jewish king. In fact, one time, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 people, a great crowd came toward Jesus seeking to make Jesus king by force (John 6:15).

Historians tell us the rebellious people of Judea believed paying taxes to the Roman authorities was an act against God.  And so, these rebellious people would attack other Jews who paid taxes to the Romans.  The rebels would steal the wealth of the tax paying Jews and destroy their property. The religious leaders themselves hoped the issue of paying taxes would help rid them of Jesus.  Luke wrote, “21 So the spies [of the religious leaders] questioned him [Jesus]: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 23 He [Jesus] saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied. 25 He [Jesus] said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s. and to God what is God’s” (Luke 20:20-25).  In trying to trap Jesus with the Romans or with the rebels, Jesus escaped both and highlighted again there were two kingdoms.  One kingdom was earthly and the other was spiritual and eternal.

  That kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, was a very different sort of kingdom.  It was not a kingdom that existed by conquest of its citizens.  Its citizens had to choose to enter the kingdom.  The kingdom of heaven that Jesus proclaimed was kingdom for the poor, the humble, the righteous, the afflicted, not a kingdom of the wealthy, proud, and self-sufficient (Matthew 5:3, 10).  The kingdom was for those who served their brothers and sisters who could not repay them (Matthew 5:19).  To enter the kingdom of God one must do the will of God, otherwise they would be denied entry (Matthew 7:21).  The kingdom of heaven was not new because those who would be found in the kingdom included Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11).

People wanted to know what this kingdom of God was like?  To what shall it be compared to?  Jesus said, “21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Luke 13:21).  Just a touch, a small presence of the kingdom of God, would change for good and for the better everything it touched just like a small amount of yeast changes for good and for the better a large measure of flour.  The kingdom of God was one that could not be measured by square miles of territory or by number of inhabitants divided between those with rights and those without rights.  It was an eternal kingdom lived for a short time here on earth following the will of God and then lived eternally in God’s presence.  It is a kingdom one could not be born into through their mother and father. It was a kingdom in which one must choose to be born again by the spirit and the word (John 3).

What do we make of this confluence of events surrounding the birth of Jesus into the global stage of kings and emperors and different types of kingdoms.  We could say that three individuals lived at the same time.  Two were adults and one was a baby.  Two were politically powerful and one was not.  The politically powerful were named Augustus and Herod.  Both have been largely forgotten and their kingdoms no longer exist.  One, the baby, Jesus, is known on all seven continents and changed the world and continues to change the world daily through the people, the men and women, of his living and eternal kingdom. 

Jesus said this would be the case.  Jesus was confronted the face of political power in Judea in a man named Pontius Pilate from the Roman kingdom.  Jesus stood before Pilate just days after people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with songs declaring that Jesus was the king of the Jews.  Now, the Jews religious leader had turned the song of the people into a murderous accusation against Jesus before Pilate.  The leaders screamed out, “He says he is the king of the Jews, but we have no king but Caesar.”  Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”  35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”  36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”  37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:33b-37).

Jesus came into the world and was born into a time of upheaval and passions over earthly kingdoms.  He was born at a time to correct the notion that any human could be the Savior of the World or that one could take upon themselves the title of the Son of God.  For the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is not of this world.  And the truth, the good news, is that Jesus came to lead us into that kingdom, by coming to believe and follow the truth, that Jesus is the only Son of God and that he died to cleanse us of all unrighteousness that could keep us from entering the kingdom. 

Jesus said, “Every on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37b).  So let me ask you a question about your relationship to Jesus and his kingdom.  Here is the question, “If I died right now, my level of confidence that I would be in the kingdom of heaven is?”  Got the question?  Now choose the number that reflects the level of confidence you have for your answer. Choose any number from 0 to 10, where 0 means “I know I will not be in the kingdom of heaven” and 10 means “I know I will be in the kingdom of heaven.”  And you can choose a number from 1 to 9 as an expression of confidence if you’re not sure if you will be in the kingdom.  Got your number?

          Here is the thing about this pop quiz.  Even though there are eleven numbers we could choose as an answer: 0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10.  There are actually only two answers to this question.  There is 10, meaning, “If I die right now, I will be in kingdom of heaven” and every other number that says, “If I die right now, I am not entirely sure I will be in the kingdom heaven.”  Every other number, other than the number 10, expresses some doubt about your destiny. Friends, Jesus did not come that we might doubt less about our salvation and destiny.  Jesus came that we would know.  The gospel writers were not inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell us the good news that we might doubt less about our salvation and destiny.  The gospel writers were inspired by the Holy Spirit that we would know.  The Apostle John summed it up this way, “13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).  We want to know that we are saved and that our eternal destiny with God in his kingdom is assured.  We want to live every day with the answer 10 resounding in our minds, “I know my Savior, He knows me, and that He will never leave me nor forsake me!  And I know my place is with Him in his kingdom.”  You are not here to learn how to be a citizen of this country.  You are here because Jesus wants you to choose to live his kingdom under his kingship. Please, open your hearts and enter his kingdom.  Amen and Amen.