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!!!!
