THE EDICTS OF CHRISTMAS
Christmas is tomorrow. Christmas, the day of the Messiah’s earthly birth, is the day we celebrate the most important birth in the history of planet earth. We have special memories that come to mind when we think of Christmas, and I think those memories become more and more special in our lives because those memories are attached to Christmas, the most unique and special holiday to Christians. Most all of our memories surrounding Christmas have to do, I dare say, with love and sacrifice. There is an old Johnny Cash Christmas song titled, Christmas As I Knew It, that just makes Christmas memories come alive in my mind.
I guess, from my childhood, my favorite Christmas memory involves something I did not get for Christmas. When Nerf footballs started getting popular, I really wanted one for Christmas one year, but I did not get one. I know that sounds awful, but what makes it special is that my dad took the time to write me a note telling me how sorry he was that he could not get it, and I would get one as soon as he found one, and that note echoes through my mind every single time I hear Christmas As I Knew It. Dear friend, that was love. The love to take the time to write a seven-year-old a note to apologize. AMEN!!!!
My dad loved me dearly, but his love was no match for the love God had for each of us when He sent His Son to be born on this planet. Associated with the birth of Christ are several important edicts.
Edict is an official sounding word because it is an official word. According to the dictionary, an edict is an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority. There are three significant edicts surrounding the birth of Jesus.
A. GOD’S EDICT
When someone in authority issues an edict, it is important business. Now, I know immediately when I mentioned the word and defined it for you this is what popped in your mind.
Luke 2: 1-3
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Caesar Augustus issued an edict, a decree, for a census of the entire Roman world, and each person had to return to their “homeland”, if you will, to register, and this census was first done when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Quirinius was governor of Syria and was named after an ancient Roman god of war. His name was a personification of the Roman nation. They were a people of war, but this edict by Augustus brought to Bethlehem the one who was to deliver the Prince of Peace. AMEN!!!!
Now, I want you to know, however, the edict by Augustus was not really important because there had been another edict issued by the Supreme Authority.
Micah 5: 2
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
Augustus and Quirinius might have thought they were acting on their own volition, but God had said Jesus, the King of Kings, was going to be born in Bethlehem, and Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It was God who directed the events of those days, so that His plan would be carried out perfectly. It was God that said the Ruler of Israel would be born in Bethlehem, and it was God who was pulling Augustus’s and Quirinius’s strings in getting them to issue that edict.
Dear friend, I wish we would understand that God is in control. We might not understand why something happens to us or why something is happening in the world, but God knows why, and God is going to use His hand to direct the world to carry out His plan, and if God were to tell us, what He was doing to carry out His plan, our old buddy, Habakkuk, says we would not believe what He was telling us, and in your personal life, God has made you a promise, and you need not sit around wringing your hands at what God is doing.
Romans 8: 28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
It was not the edict of Augustus and Quirinius that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem; it was the edict from the Creator of the Universe that made the edict that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. AMEN!!!! Now, we said that an edict was an official proclamation by a person in authority. Did you know there were other edicts that proclaimed who was being born in Bethlehem that first Christmas?
B. THE EDICT OF THE HEAVENS
Now, I feel the Lord taught me something in His Word this week.
Romans 1: 17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
God speaks to us through His Word if we will only engage that Word and the more we engage it, the more faith He will give us to understand His righteousness or to understand His Word. Make no mistake about it. Your faith grows by hearing God’s Word. Well, my faith grew this week in regard to the events surrounding the birth of Christ.
One of the great “mysteries” surrounding the birth of Jesus is the star that guided the Wise Men from the East. I dare say many of us have wondered about that star. Were the Wise Men the only people that saw it? Were the Wise Men the only ones to follow the star? Was no one else drawn? Why did the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees not follow the star? Can I tell you they knew what the star meant, but they rejected it?
God’s Word tells us exactly the purpose of the star, and I found this verse by either chance or divine intervention, and I am going to say divine intervention.
Look at this passage.
Isaiah 7: 10-14
Moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
I am not going into Ahaz’s personal story here, but the Lord told Ahaz to ask a sign from the Lord either in the depths of the seas or the depths of the earth or in the heavens above. Now, Ahaz was in a desperate situation, and the Lord spoke to Him and told Him to ask for a sign, but Ahaz would not ask for one, but I believe God put the Star of Bethlehem in the heavens for the world to know that, indeed, Immanuel was born.
“Jimmy, you are reading too much into it.” No I am not. Remember your 5th grade language class, and Mrs. Betty Bishop would be so proud of me. What is the purpose of a colon in a sentence. A colon connects two independent sentences. Look at verse 14 closely.
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
What was the sign? Do not confuse this with Luke 2 and the shepherds. I believe through reading God’s Word carefully that the Star of Bethlehem was placed in the heavens to proclaim the birth of God’ Son, and God told the world in Isaiah 7: 14 that when they see that sign, a virgin will conceive and bear a Son named Immanuel meaning God is with us. AMEN!!!!
How do I know this? Well, let’s finish the narrative.
Matthew 2: 1-2
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, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
The Star was not a one-night phenomena, and the Wise Men identified it as His star. It probably took the Wise Men from the East two or three years to get to Bethlehem to where the Christ’s Star was leading them. We have the misconception that the Wise Men were there when Christ was born, but they were not. Look at this verse.
Matthew 2: 9
When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
Christ was a young Child not a newborn when the Wise Men arrived. They saw the star, the sign, and started following it to find God is with us. Why would Wise Men from the East be looking for God is with us? My theory is that they knew what Daniel said about the coming Messiah, and being Wise Men, astrologers, and mathematicians, they took Daniel’s prophecy and knew the time was right, and they saw the star and knew that was the sign foretold of in Micah’s prophecy. It was not a mystery. God’s Edict, and the Edict of the Heavens proclaimed Jesus was the Son of God, but there was another edict.
C. THE EDICT OF THE WISE MEN
Remember an edict is an official proclamation from someone in authority. The Wise Men were men in authority. We mistakenly think this was a three-man operation, but I do not think three men can cause this kind of reaction. Look at these verses.
Matthew 2: 2-6
saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So, they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Herod and Jerusalem would be pretty cowardly if three men troubled the entire city. This was a large caravan that came in authority before Herod looking for the King of the Jews. This caravan did not come seeking Herod, the puppet king; they came seeking the King of Kings. We must understand this too. There is an incredible dynamic at play here. These Wise Men from the East represent the Gentile world symbolizing that Jesus Christ was for both Jew and Gentile because God is not willing that any should perish.
Notice, and this is so pathetic, the chief priests and scribes knew the prophecies surrounding the birth of Christ, but they had rejected the sign that pointed them to the Christ. Dear friend, it was no mystery. God had revealed in the heavens the sign pointing to the Messiah, but Herod and the religious leaders rejected God’s call to come and worship God is with us, but the Wise Men did not reject that call, and they burned through the desert sand as fast as they could to get there, and God kept His sign in the skies until they found who they were seeking, the Son of God. This is so incredible.
I said these Wise Men issued an edict too, and they did when they saw the Child. Look at these verses.
Matthew 2: 9-11
When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Can I point out a few things about the edict of the Wise Men?
1. They humbled themselves before the Messiah.
The Bible says that the Wise Men fell down. They were wealthy and prestigious, but before the King, they were nothing. It was only Jesus worthy of worship, and the Wise Men left the trappings of their world and followed God’s sign, and when they got to the house where Jesus was they fell down in reverence.
2. They worshipped Him.
This is an incredible statement. They worshipped Him because they believed what God’s edict said about the star and God being with us. They had the faith to believe what God said, and when they got to where they were led, their first action after humbling themselves was to worship Immanuel, God is with us. Dear friend, I hope you can see the moving of the Holy Spirit in this. The Wise Men answered the call of the Holy Spirit and followed God’s sign to Immanuel, and the reason they followed the star and the reason they listened to the Holy Spirit is that believed what God had said in His Word.
Think about the Wise Men as I read this verse.
John 6: 44
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Do you see how this verse applies to the Wise Men? I hope you do because all men that ever come to Jesus whether it was when He was a child or today are drawn to Him by the Father/Holy Spirit. The Wise Men were drawn there by God’s Word, and when they got there, they had to worship Immanuel.
Dear friend, can I be honest? And I do not want to get sideways on a day when we are talking about the details of the birth of Christ, but the Wise Men were drawn there to worship God, and you, if you are saved, were drawn here this morning to worship God, and if you came for any other reason, you have some business with God that needs to be taken care of. When we come to the church to which we have pledged our membership, we are to come in the same manner that the Wise Men approached Jesus the Child. We are to come humbly, and we are to worship. Too many times today, I believe Christians quench the Holy Spirit in a church service as they are walking in the door because they are not humble, and they are not ready to worship.
3. They opened their treasures.
AMEN!!!! Do you know what this part of this verse is saying? The Wise Men gave it all to Jesus. They did not save anything. They did not want to hold onto anything. It all belonged to Jesus, and that is the attitude all of us will have once we completely submit to Him as Lord. AMEN!!!! There is so much here but think about their gifts. AMEN!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!
The gold they brought symbolizes the royalty of Christ as King of the Jews, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. The frankincense symbolizes the Divinity of Christ. Jesus Christ was God with us. He was just as much God as a child as He is today. Jesus Christ was the Son of God born to a virgin named Mary. The myrrh symbolizes His humanity because He was born to die and to be buried for our sins.
The gifts brought by the Wise Men show Jesus as King, God, and Man, and dear friend that is who Jesus is. It is the Edict of all Edicts. Jesus is King, God, and Man. The Wise Men knew who Jesus was because they believed what God’s Word had said, and I am here to tell you that Jesus was God, King, and Man in that manger. He was God, King, and Man in that house. He was God, King, and Man on Calvary’s Cross. He was God, King, and Man when He died. He was God, King, and Man when they laid Him in that tomb. He was God, King, and Man when God raised Him from that tomb, and He is God, King, and Man today.
Jesus Christ is who Jesus Christ is. He is God, King, and Man, and if you have not come to Him like the Wise Men did, dear friend you need to do so before it is eternally too late because you are going to acknowledge Him as God, King, and Glorified Man one of these days, either on this side of glory or the other side of glory, and it will be better for you if you do it on this side of glory. You just need to do what the Wise Men did. Do you know what they did?
Romans 10: 9-10, 13
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
That is exactly what the Wise Men did, and that is what every wise man, woman, boy, and girl has done ever since.
An edict is a proclamation by someone in authority, and God has proclaimed who Jesus is, and He has proclaimed if do what you what Paul says in Romans, you will be saved.