Two Kinds of Opposition to Jesus

Solid Joys Daily Devotional

Desiring God

Christianity, John Piper, Devotional, Joy, Daily Devotional, Solid Joys, 163859, Jesus, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Let this Christmas be the time when you ponder what it means — what it costs — to worship and follow Jesus, the Messiah.

Transcript

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0:00.0	December 9. Two kinds of opposition to Jesus. When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
0:16.0	Matthew 2, 3. Jesus is troubling to people who do not want to worship him, and he arouses
0:27.1	opposition against those who do. This is probably not a main point in the mind of Matthew,
0:34.6	but it is an inescapable implication as the story goes on.
0:40.3	In this story, there are two kinds of people who do not want to worship Jesus.
0:47.3	The first kind is the people who simply do nothing about Jesus.
0:52.3	He is a non-entity in their lives.
0:57.0	This group is represented at the beginning of Jesus' life
1:01.0	by the chief priests and the scribes.
1:04.0	Matthew 24 says,
1:06.0	Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people,
1:10.0	Herod inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
1:14.6	So they told him.
1:17.6	And that was that.
1:19.6	Back to business as usual.
1:21.6	The sheer silence and inactivity of the leaders is overwhelming in view of the magnitude of what was happening.
1:31.3	And notice, Matthew 2.3 says,
1:35.3	When Herod, the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
1:40.3	In other words, the rumor was going around that someone thought the Messiah was born. The
1:47.8	inactivity on the part of the chief priest is staggering. Why not go with the magi? They're not
1:56.7	interested. They are not passionate about finding the Son of God and worshiping Him.
2:03.6	The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus is the kind who are deeply threatened
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