How The Grinch Almost Stole Christmas Series

How the Grinch (ALMOST) Stole Christmas

Play clip from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” first few lines

You hear that story and you think that must be make believe because who could hate Christmas. What is to hate?

A sweet little poor teenage bride her husband are forced to make a long trip. With no place to stay, they wind up in a barn, and the girl gives birth to her first born child, a boy. Having no nursery and no crib, the mother does the best she can and uses a feeding trough for a crib. The only people there to greet the baby are a few barnyard animals and maybe some total strangers.

What is there to hate? And yet, just like the Grinch who stole Christmas in the movie… there was a Grinch in Bethlehem who tried to steal the first Christmas.

“The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.”

Why was Herod so worried about a supposed pretender to the throne?

Surely he did not believe a baby could take his place as governor

Even if he did it would be about 20 years

I don’t believe it was because his shoes were tight…

Or because his head wasn’t screwed on just right.

“But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”

Herod’s heart definitely was too small, there was no room in his heart or his world for anyone who might… no matter how remotely the possibility… pose a threat to his power and his control.

Check this out:

• When his 16 year old bro-in-law tried to make a name for himself Herod playfully held the boy’s head under water until he died.

• Years later, one of his many his wives, Mariamne, became involved in a plot to have her family rise to power… even though he loved her deeply, he had her executed.

• And, a couple of years before his death, he heard rumors that two of his sons, Aristobulus and Antipater, were engaged in a plot to kill him – he had them executed as well.

He killed his brother, his wife and two sons!!!!

No wonder Caesar Augustus said: “It is safer to be Herod’s pig than to be Herod’s son.”

Herod was the Grinch, and he did hate Christmas – the birth of the new King, and he did try to steal Christmas.

And he almost did, but God came to Joseph and gave him the 411, and Joseph and his family barely escaped… just by the skin of their teeth… to Egypt.

But you know what? Herod was not really the Grinch. Herod was just the pawn, used by the real Grinch, to do his dirty work.

You do know who the real Grinch is don’t you?

No… it is not Obama… though as you see in this pic, he does do a good Grinch impersonation

Who is it? SATAN

I can hear it now, some unbeliever saying, “There they go again, Christians made up Satan as the ultimate bad guy on whom they can cast the blame for everything

NO, NO Christians did not make up Satan, the Bible declares his reality.

Jesus had conversations with him and battles with him… he is real

And the bible tells us that Satan has, from the beginning, led others into sin

1/3 of the angels

Adam and Eve

Judas

Satan heard his sentence in the garden… “You shall strike his heel and He shall crush your head.”

Satan knows Hell is real. He knows he has reservations in the fire. He is consumed with bitterness and hatred for God.

He knew that if Jesus came in the world… He would save the world

So Satan came up with a plan to make sure Jesus did not save the world… he would kill the Savior, Jesus, as a baby, before he could grow and become the Savior.

He failed in Bethlehem so he tried to cause Jesus to sin

He could not

He tried to get people to believe Jesus was a fraud

But His life and his deeds proved he was not

He tried to have him locked away in prison

But the guards sent to arrest Him got saved

Finally he tried to kill Jesus as a man

And he did… but Jesus could have told him what ObiWan told Darth Vader…

“You can’t win... If you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can imagine”

And Satan struck him down… and three days later Jesus rose victorious

Satan is the Grinch who ALMOST stole Christmas

ALMOST… but not quite!!!!