The Man Who Had PTSD

Today, just reflect a little bit on what happens now after Christmas. What happens to life after Christmas? We've all heard of the psychological condition called PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. It's a lingering condition when people have gone through a very stressful or traumatic moment in their life. Well, today, I wanna talk to you about a man who suffered from PTSD, Post-Christmas stress disorder.

Perhaps there are a few people here who might feel that they are suffering from PCSD themselves after their Christmases with their family members. But it's obviously PCSD, a tongue-in-cheek joke about the flatness we might feel after Christmas. The flatness or the fatness. But I want to reflect this morning with you on a man who we may say is the first recorded person in history to have gone through some pretty severe symptoms of PTSD. But his reactions to this PTSD are a little bit more serious than simply feeling like you need to get to the gym or that you need to block that annoying family member on Facebook now.

It's a person who appears in Matthew chapter two. A man that I want to suggest suffered from this disorder, but not from the potential merrymaking of Christmas, but from the first event of Christmas itself. And I'm thinking, of course, of the man, that dark character in the Christmas narrative, King Herod. Let's have a look this morning at Matthew chapter two, and we'll read of the events immediately following the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, and how the man, King Herod, responded to the arrival of the Messiah. Let's look at Matthew chapter two, verse one.

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 saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard of this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, oh 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." Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 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." 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.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother and they fell down and worshipped Him. Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you.

For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him." And he rose and took the child and His mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Out of Egypt, I called My son." Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more." But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, "Rise, take the child and His mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life are dead."

And he rose and took the child and His mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: "that He would be called a Nazarene." So far, our reading.

Now, if you've studied the life of Jesus, and perhaps many of us here have, you will know that He was a divisive figure. All throughout His ministry, there were people like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who opposed Him. They were the pilots. They were the King Herod Antipas. They were the wealthy and the influential people who feared He might impose something on their wealth and their power.

But the gospel writer Matthew points out that the divisive nature of Jesus' ministry didn't start at age thirty, when His teaching ministry began. His divisive nature started at His birth. People will reject Jesus, we see, from the very moment He arrives. This morning, we're going to reflect on what the effect of the good news of the birth of Christ had on King Herod. The first thing we notice is something we find right here in verse three of chapter two.

And that was his reaction when he heard the news at first. When Herod the king heard this from the wise men, he was troubled. And because Herod was troubled, because he had this kind of new message that he received, the whole of Jerusalem, we see, is troubled with him. Now it's probably not the whole of Jerusalem, rather it was the leading figures or the advisers that Herod had.

They are troubled along with the king. Out of nowhere, there is an arrival of these strange, mysterious wise men from the East. They knock on the palace gates. They wanna speak to the king about the new king. Now there's an endless debate, if you were to go in and read commentaries, of who these wise men were.

Who are they? Some people say that they could be as far east as China, that they could have come from China itself. In fact, I've had a Bible college lecturer who is a fascinating man, an ex-South African, grew up in Toowoomba, not that that is a bad thing, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Married a Chinese lady who is a doctor, speaks fluent Mandarin, does his teaching at various times in Mandarin, flies to China to the underground church to do ministry there, and he's written papers sort of trying to prove that these wise men could have come from China. Why?

Because fascinatingly, there is a Christianity in China that is ancient, way before the Hudson Taylors came in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. So there's a connection there somehow that Christianity from a very early age existed in China. Anyway, whoever these men from the East were, they come based on an ominous star. Why do they go to Herod's palace? Well, it's the natural place to go, isn't it?

You'd expect that the birth of a new king would happen in the palace of the king. There's an heir that's arrived. So surely, this must be the king's son. But we are told that Herod is troubled at the news of this star and what it will mean for him. Most people in the Roman Empire, Herod would have believed in astrology.

Every card-carrying Roman citizen observed the movement of stars very closely. And there was a common belief that the appearance of a new star signified the arrival of a new king. Stars were connected to emperors and kings. But more than the star, what troubled Herod even more was hearing the wise men say that the king had already been born. He had already arrived.

In other words, Herod has no resources to prevent the birth from happening. But even more troubling is the title that the new king is given. He is the King of the Jews. You see, Herod himself is not a full Jew. King Herod the Great was a half-Jew.

His father was an Edomite, the hated descendants of Esau. And throughout his entire reign, there was constant accusation and constant friction with Jews, Orthodox Jews saying, "You have no right to be our king." And here's the title that he is the King of the Jews. A legitimate Jewish king. But maybe the final nail in the coffin is when Herod gathers together all his advisors, his spiritual leaders, all the chief and high priests, and they tell him that the long-awaited Messiah is supposed to be born in Bethlehem.

So it's not just astrology and stars anymore. It's the very word of God that is confirming this arrival. And Herod's reaction is his heart is troubled. The word there, it means to be shaken. He is shaken to his core. Right at the beginning of the life of Jesus, right here at the arrival of the good news of Jesus Christ, we see something evoked that will be repeated again and again and again throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, indeed, the other twenty-three books of the New Testament.

At the announcement, the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, hearts are troubled. At the good news of Jesus Christ, there is hostility and deeply troubled hearts, and it is tragic. Because what did Herod have to fear from Jesus? What would Herod have been? Would he have been less of a king because he loved and trusted Jesus Christ?

Of course not. We might even say that he would have been a better king if he had. But herein lies the problem. At the end of the day, the kingdom of Herod, the kingdom that Herod feared losing most, was the kingdom of his own heart. It was Herod on the throne that he feared losing most, and losing Herod on the throne, he felt, would be losing all of his power, all of his control, all of his significance.

And so, friends, what we see here in Herod is in some way the archetype for the human reaction to the good news. We see in here the metaphor for the problem of every human's heart when we first hear the gospel. Will I really renounce my throne and let Christ reign? And ironically, as Matthew unfolds the message of Jesus Christ, the marvel of the gospel is that real power, real significance can be found in Jesus Christ.

And so the heart of Herod is deeply troubled by the birth and the arrival of Jesus Christ. But it's not only part of that very first Christmas. It is the part of every Christmas, isn't it? It is the deepest sadness of every Christmas to know that men and women, last week, this week, on Tuesday, I have sat in this very church, hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ being read, and their hearts may respond by saying, "I will not have this One reign over me." On that joyful day when they should remember the arrival of the Saviour, there are men and women who, desperately unhappy in their rebellion, reject the One who can save them. And so for those men and women, even if they sit here and they are moved by the joy and the merriment, they are moved for a split second by the cards and the gifts, there is no joy at Christmas.

The whole thing is a tragic illusion. And so, friend, I wanna ask you this morning, post-Christmas, are you troubled by the kingship of Jesus over your life? You know that He should have come. You know that He should have all of you, but you are fighting hard to hold back some parts. Perhaps some dark parts that you don't want Him to enter.

His light to draw near. There's nothing here for you to win, friend. There's everything for you to lose with that attitude. And so don't make any excuses. Don't wink at any sin and tell yourself it's simply a mistake when you know that sin is far from accidental.

Are you troubled that Jesus is King? It moves on beyond this. There's a second reaction in Herod's post-Christmas stress disorder where we see not only a troubled heart, but we see a hypocritical reaction. You'll notice in verse eight, Herod calls for the wise men and he lies through his teeth. He sends them to Bethlehem with these words: "Go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found Him, bring me word that I too may come and worship Him."

And if you've read this for the first time, I mean, we know what happens. But even on a first reading, he was troubled in his heart and he says, "I want to worship Him," and the two don't align. You know there's something going on here. He's hatching some sort of plan. But here's another common reaction that we are seeing rearing its head, and that is that the Christmas gospel produces more hypocrisy than any other message in the world.

Don't you think it's true? The message of Christmas produces more hypocrisy than anything else in the world. People say, "I will come and worship Him," and they don't. It's a bit of a trademark thing, actually, in Matthew's gospel. But Matthew is quite interested in hypocrisy. He's quite interested in the dynamic between the truth and the false consequences.

His gospel account highlights it more than all the others. We know that, of course, the gospel writers, they have their own perspectives and they have their own personalities coming through, their own interests. Matthew is the one who's most interested in this dynamic of hypocrisy. And it's fascinating how Matthew highlights this inconsistency between what Herod felt and what he does. And it centres on the deepest part of his humanity: his insecurity and anxiety.

That's what drives the hypocrisy. His insecurity and his anxiety. It leads to that hypocrisy. What hypocrisy does Herod show? Well, he's a man who will not trust the gift of the heavenly Father who he's just read and heard from the chief priests saying, "The Messiah, the gift of God, is coming to Bethlehem." He does not trust that that is a gift.

And because he will not trust in this gift, he will not experience the eternal peace of what Paul says in Romans eight happens when it is received. That if God could so love us and give us His Son to die in our place, how will He not also give us all things? How will He, who is God the Father, having sent His Son, given Him for us, how will He not give us everything we could possibly need? So the irony is Herod could have been relieved of all his anxiety, all of his insecurity. But unrelieved from anxiety, life becomes a kind of pretence, a kind of coping mechanisms built up into a personality, built up into an image to hide the fact that in our hearts of hearts, we know we are not resting joyfully in the acceptance of a loving heavenly Father.

One of the greatest lies, I think, at the moment, and I have to be careful how I phrase this. One of the greatest delusions of our time, in my opinion, is the idea that anxiety or depression is a neutral thing. We are being positioned more and more through ads on TV and general discussion to talk about mental health issues, which is not a bad thing. But to be positioned to think that you are a hero if you have anxiety or depression. It's almost noble to have anxiety or insecurity.

And I want to be clear: how you manage anxiety or depression can be noble. How you handle anxiety or depression can be noble, but having depression, having anxiety is not noble in itself. And it's very scandalous for me to say something like this, and you may reject what I say here, and I'll be okay with that, but I'll explain from my own experience. I have in the past wrestled with depression. I will probably in the future wrestle with depression and, to a lesser extent, anxiety as well.

In fact, talk to most pastors and they probably do. There's a whole bunch of young pastors in my cohort, friends of mine, who have shared with me how they have panic attacks, bouts of depression in ministry. Why is this? Is it because they are heroes? No.

It's because they want to be kings of ministry. They want to be perfect men. They want to be the next Tim Kellers and John Pipers, and they feel anxious because they're not. Is it noble to have this anxiety? No.

What it's pointing out in them and in me is the hypocrisy of our hearts where we say Christ is Lord and we will worship Him, but we keep a little something of ourselves up our sleeves. Is it any wonder, is it any wonder, that the people who most put up those inspirational quotes and beautiful selfies on Facebook and social media are the most anxious? It's not surprising. It's because the hypocrisy of the human heart does it. We pretend to be what we are not, to try and either convince ourselves or to hide the fact that we are not restful.

We have no peace. We fear that we are rejected by God. And so my prediction is that anxiety and depression in our society in Australia will just increase and increase and increase exponentially as less and less people hear and receive the blessed hope of forgiveness and acceptance in Jesus Christ. How could I ever feel insecure when I truly believe with all my heart that God so loved me that He sent His only Son, that I may have eternal life, eternal peace with Him. And then we come to the third symptom or perhaps the third consequence of Herod's PCSD, and that is realising that he's been defeated.

After Herod becomes deeply troubled and then shows his hypocrisy because of his anxiety or insecurity, he attempts to destroy this new King. This is the dark side of the Christmas story. Apart from all the angels and all the wonderful nativity scenes, there's a darker side to the story in Matthew two. Herod realises that God has put one over on him. He realised that the men are not returning.

And in his rage, verse sixteen tells us, he sets in place a massacre of all male babies two years and under in the Bethlehem region. What an absolute horror it must have been. And how detestable, if we read it, how detestable and how wrong, how evil is that? Innocent babies ripped from the arms of their mothers. Here's a very tricky proposition to put to all our post-modern secular friends. In the Christmas story itself.

The ones who say we don't need God to tell us how to live. If there is no one absolute moral law to live by, then you would have to say this horror of innocent babies slaughtered at the jealous insecurity of a corrupt king is okay. If there's no real right or wrong, there is no wrong in this. But right here in the very marrow of the gospel message that intimates, that hints at the reason Christ had to come. Sin incarnate.

Right here in this gospel message is the event that most post-modern individuals would look at and say, contrary to their philosophical logical foundations, "That is wrong. That is absolutely reprehensible." No one would ever, in this situation, have the limp little line that I've heard so many times: "We have agreed as a society that we don't do that sort of thing." Rubbish.

But the horror of Herod's attempts to destroy the Messiah is blunted by the hope of the little scene in verses fourteen and fifteen. It's just a wonderful little snapshot of a dad and a mum and a baby travelling silently in the middle of the night towards a faraway place. And they remain there, it says, until their enemy is dead. And so, against the backdrop of violence and horror, another little message is starting to rise. This new King is not going to be stopped.

This little baby King is going to resist evil. He will defeat His enemies. And these events recorded of Jesus' birth, they fit perfectly, don't they, into the overall picture, the overall mission of the Bible. None of the events, remember this, at Jesus' birth happened accidentally. None of them are unimportant.

Herod's attack is not, you know, God sort of trying to play off against, you know, other people's plans. It is part of the image. It is part of the mission that God is declaring to the world. What we see with the hatred and the attack of Herod against Christ is really the fulfilment of a promise made way back at the start of the Bible, Genesis three fifteen. The first promise of the gospel.

And it states at the start that the offspring of the woman and the offspring of Satan would be in constant conflict until the day would come when the serpent would seek to crush the heel of His offspring, of the woman, but the offspring would crush His head. And you can almost feel it in this story. The demonic rage against the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as it were, saved from the serpent's power in this awful massacre, he is the One that is saved in infancy, is the One that might crush the head of the serpent on the day of His crucifixion. It's a wonderful testimony that we can bring every year at Christmas time.

Every year at our carol events. Every year at our Christmas day service. Singing about the glorious deliverance that Christ has brought. Not only from the power of sin and darkness, but deliverance from evil. If you look carefully, you'll see King Herod's whole dynasty is out to get this message.

King Herod dies soon after they are in Egypt. But his son, Archelaus, we see that in the passage already. Joseph comes back with Jesus and Mary, and he sees his son Archelaus. Herod Archelaus, his full name is, he takes his father's name, is still in Israel, still in Judah. So they don't settle in Judah.

They go up to Galilee. Later in the gospels, we see the brother of Archelaus, also called Herod, Herod Antipas, behead John the Baptist. And he desires to have Jesus crucified. He signs off on the paperwork. Then we see Herod's great-grandson, also known as Herod, but this time Herod Agrippa.

He has the apostle James executed. He laughs at Paul when Paul shares the gospel with him saying, "Do you think you can make me a Christian in an afternoon?" What a dynasty is set up against the child of Bethlehem. But where is Herod's dynasty this morning? Where is it?

And friends, where is the child of Bethlehem? We are worshipping Him today. Hebrews one verse eight describes it this way. About the Son is said, "Your throne, oh God, will last for ever and ever. A sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and have hated wickedness. Therefore, God, Your God, has set You above Your companions by anointing You with the oil of joy." This is the glorious good news of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has been granted the kingdom. Through His successful mission, through His arrival on earth, His battle against our greatest enemy, Christ has been given the keys of the kingdom, and He has been anointed the King of joy.

We see this morning that it is possible to reject Christ because His arrival, the message of His arrival, troubles us. And we become deeply hypocritical as it threatens the lordship of our own hearts. My friends, Jesus Christ has won. He has won. It is a futile battle.

And He invites us again this morning to raise our hands and say, "I wanna be in that kingdom. I want Him to be my King. All of me." And so we say, "Don't let Christmas be the time in your life where you give empty lip service and say, 'Tell me when He arrives that I may come and worship Him.' Let Christ at this Christmas time reign, not only this Christmas, but the ever afters as well."

Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the conviction of Your word. We thank You, Lord, that these are just words on a page. They are words we read in three minutes. And yet, through the power of the living Spirit, they take on life.

Thank You, Lord, that You are King, Lord Jesus. Thank You that we may not simply know and believe that You are King, King of some far-off distant world and kingdom. A kingdom perhaps simply in heaven. You are the King of life itself. And so, how we live now matters.

You are the Redeemer King. You are the God. You are the King who came to give life, not to take it. The King who came to serve, not to be served. The King who gave up His life for His kingdom.

And so Lord, we say, as we've already started singing, thank You for the Spirit now that You leave. That will redeem this kingdom. That will grow this kingdom. That will conquer the areas in our hearts and our minds that still don't belong to You. Lord, for those here that do wrestle with anxiety and depression and the sinful self-absorption that it causes.

I pray that You'll break those bounds, that You'll break those chains, and that they'll be able to give their hearts, their minds, and peaceful rest over to the God and the King who loves them. Who will, along with Jesus Christ, give them everything. And so Lord, may there be peace in this kingdom. May there be life for dusty hearts and souls. And, Father, may Your kingdom be established more and more.

May there be many, many more people that enter into this rest. Many people that may have heard this Christmas time of Your Son coming and what that means. Father, may more and more people enter into this kingdom to Your glory with more worship, with more adoration for what You have done. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.