Covenant Sermon: Everybody Wants to Rule the World 12/22/2024 by Nate Williamson

One of my all time favorite songs is Tears for Fear’s “Everybody Wants to

Rule the World.” I think it is a near perfect song. The way it is sung and composed.

The way it builds and flows is amazing! It hits every nostalgia button for me and I

can’t help but smile when I hear it. It is one of those songs that barely made it to the

album. It was the last song, written and recorded in two weeks. But the band

members have shared that the song is about, “the desire that humanity has for

control and power.” While expressing the futility of the desire with lyrics like, “so

glad we’ve almost made it” and “all for freedom and for pleasure nothing ever lasts

forever.”

Now the truth is that not everyone wants to be dictator and rule the world.

But if we are honest with ourselves, everyone wants to rule “their world.” We want

to be in control over our personal kingdom even when it seems like the walls are

falling down and we are building castles in the sand. Why is this? Why do we seek to

be in control of a tragic kingdom doomed to end?

The truth is that, apart from Jesus, this is how the world works. Just like the

Verve’s song, “Bittersweet Symphony” that says, “trying to make ends meet, you’re a

slave to money then you die.” Or Smashing Pumpkins song “Bullet with Butterfly

Wings” that relates, “despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage. Someone would

say what is lost can never be saved.”

So if death wins and this life is it, then living for the moment and grasping as

much money, power and fame is the only satisfaction in our short lives. But the

advent season is a yearly reminder that this is not our doomed existence. Our lives

are not over when our bodies give out and we breathe our last. We are eternal

beings who are going to live in eternity in one of two places: heaven (eternally with

God) or hell (eternally separated from God).

Advent season reminds us that there is

only one that can rule the world and that is the God that created it. Jesus coming to

earth as an infant was the start of his rescue mission to save the world from the

consequence of our sin. The King of the universe was about to establish his rule and

reign in his creation for all of eternity. And his death and resurrection gives us a

choice as to where we will spend our eternal destiny. We don’t have to waste our

lives building a kingdom that will not last beyond our earthly lives. By choosing to

follow Jesus, we become part of his kingdom, sons and daughters of God and heirs to

his eternal destiny.

Today, we are going to look at the futility of trying to rule the world and how

God’s kingdom is built different as we look at the life of King Herod. Let’s set the

scene from Matthew 2:1-18

1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that

time some wise men [ a ]  from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 

2  “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, [ b ]  and we have come to worship him.”

3  King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in

Jerusalem. 

4  He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law

and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

5  “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:

6  ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities [c]  of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’ [d] ”

7  Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from

them the time when the star first appeared. 

8  Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

9  After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the

east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place

where the child was. 

10  When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 

11  They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down

and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of

gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

12  When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route,

for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

13  After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

“Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until

I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14  That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15  and they

stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through

the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” [e]

16  Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent

soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and

under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 

17  Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

18  “A cry was heard in Ramah— weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.” [f]

Let’s start off by looking at Herod purely from this Scriptural narrative. Later

we will go into what we know about him historically to get a fuller perspective. At

face value, most of us could understand Herod’s concern. Rome has made him “King

of Judea.” Hearing the news of any other possible threat to his kingdom, even a baby,

would put up your guard. What makes it even more strange is to have this news

delivered from foreign wise men who said they received the news by a new star

rising in the night sky.

It seems that Herod knows this isn’t just some scheme of man, but something

greater because he goes to his personal “wise men” (the leading priests and teachers

of the law) and asks them “where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” Everyone

knew from the Old Testament prophets that a king would come up to rule Israel from the line of David as God has promised. Given how this news has been delivered to him, Herod has surmised that this is the “baby usurper” may be that prophesied king.

Outwardly, he comes across as favorable to this news as he asks the wise

men to return to him once they have found the baby so he can worship him too. But

inwardly, he has no desire to worship this infant king. Instead, his desire is to

protect his own rule and reign at whatever the price. When he realizes that the

wise men were onto him, the only way to ensure that this infant Messiah is dead is

to kill every baby boy in the city of Bethlehem. He even gave his soldiers an age

range, two and under, based on when the star appeared. And so, we see Herod

killing babies, his own people that are part of his kingdom, in a desperate attempt to

make his feeble kingdom last a little longer.

It takes the extreme joy of Jesus’ birth into the extreme reality of the lost

world that Jesus came to save. A world where babies are massacred for momentary power and position.

What Luke 2 doesn’t state about Herod’s life we gather from Josephus and

other historians. Herod the Great was raised as a Jew even though his father was

and Edomite. His father, Antipater, was a friend of emperor Julius Caesar. That is

how Herod first got his positions of power. His first charge was over Galilee, later,

Herod was appointed “King of Jews” by the Roman senate after some political

maneuvering.

As ruler in Judea, he expanded the Temple mount and the Temple. The

western wall is the part of his construction still standing today. He also built the

harbor at Caesarea Maritima, and the fortresses Masada, Herodium, Alexandrium.

Hyrcania, and Macherus. Why did he build these fortresses? In case of insurrection

to protect him and his family.

To rule in Judea was tenuous at best. In order to protect his rule and reign, he

had three of his sons killed, some wives and many others. Herod lived in constant

fear of losing the power and control he had worked so hard to gain. His great

buildings and expansions were a way of being remembered and seeking to gain the

favor of others while doing terrible things to maintain power. He made a show of

faith in God, but his morality and compromises show that his true “god” was himself.

Herod died in Jericho of an extremely painful disease later titled, “Herod’s

evil.” Josephus tells us that the pain was so bad that he attempted to end his own

life. And to ensure that people mourned his death, he ordered that several great and

notable men be killed at the same time that he died so no one could tell apart who

was grieving for whom. They did not carry out that order.

Herod is a vibrant example to all of us of the dangers of not accepting Jesus as

king. You can convince others that you are a follower of Jesus and desire to worship

him, while inwardly all you care about is your own earthly kingdom. But that

kingdom is fleeting and frail. And in order to gain and keep that kind of kingdom, a

person must compromise their morals and values. In order to maintain his kingdom,

Herod killed some of his own family and the most innocent of lives as his fear ran

rampant.

In contrast, the kingdom of the little child born in Bethlehem was not gained

through conquering and compromise, but by surrendering to the will of God and

standing on the truth no matter the consequences. And nothing can stop the

purposes and plan of God. For God caused that star to appear that called the wise

men to visit the newborn king. It was the wise men’s gifts that funded the flight to

Egypt that very night and enabled Mary and Joseph to live as refugees in Egypt until

Herod died. Herod schemed to kill Jesus, but God knows even the thoughts of men

but warned Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, in a dream to flee to Egypt and even led

him to living in Nazareth after their return for the dangers of Herod’s son in Judea.

The purposes and plans of God cannot be thwarted and his kingdom never ends.

Everybody may want to rule the world, but that role belongs solely to Jesus.

The question before us today is will we continue to build snow forts melting when

the temperature rises a few degrees or will we surrender to the one who holds all

our days in his hands and let him build something lasting in us.

To be part of his kingdom is the exact opposite of how earthly kingdoms are

built. It is self giving rather than selfish. It is through giving rather than taking. It is

through honesty rather than scheming. It is through humility rather than pride. It is

through complete self giving love rather then a pure selfishness that leads to our

death and the deaths of those who follow us.