"What The Baby In A Manger Didn’t Do"
Christmas In The Real World Series
December 15, 2002 FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
A We sing it every year during this special season: "Joy to the World." The inspiration for this hymn came to Isaac Watts from Psalm 98:4-9.
a Centuries later, we can read verse one, "Sing to the Lord a new song,"
b and turn to the Seventh Day Adventists for additional inspiration. They altered this carol when they chose to focus on the Second Coming. They changed the lyrics to read, "Joy to the world, the Lord will come."
* As Christians at Christmas, we have two reasons to celebrate: "the Lord is come," and "the Lord will come."
* The Lord has come, is coming...but in between those two things...there is some rough sailing.
B Today’s message is "What The Baby In A Manger Didn’t Do"
a Text: Matthew 2:13/23
MT 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, [15] where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. [17] Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt [20] and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. [22] But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, [23] and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."
b Christmas didn’t stop King Harod from killing innocent babies in Bethlehem. (ETS)
C Christmas shows us that evil will ultimately be done knocked out. (ESS)
a I hope this Christmas you’ll know that all of the evil in this world will be thoroughly dealt with. (Objective)
b What are you hoping for this Christmas?
T.S.: Let’s look at two things that the baby in the manger didn’t do.
I The baby in the manger didn’t stop bad things from happing.
A King Herod proved that evil was alive and well even after Jesus was born.
a Right after the star, Magi, shepherds, stable birth....we see Harod killing babies.(vv:16) 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
*In the same chapter we have.....
the innocence of Jesus and the corruption of Herod,
Salvation of God & the slaughter of innocent babies,
Purely Good & Purely Evil....Jesus’ birth didn’t eliminate evil in this world.
b His birth didn’t eliminate suffering either. (vv:17-18)
[17] Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."
*Most biblical scholars believe that between 20 & 30 babies were murdered in Bethlehem that day. (Sons, Nephews, Cousins, Grandsons...)
*Intense suffering, didn’t want to be consoled,
(IL) When we were in the five week process of losing Kaylea I couldn’t pray with woman in our church about it (Diane), when I was leaving Wardline she told the church I wasn’t a man of prayer because I refused to pray to when she offered to pray with me. I was simply devastated, empty...refusing to be comforted. Suffering.
B I don’t have to prove to you that bad things still happen even though Jesus was born.
a We live in a very evil world. Why is the world full of evil? It’s full of people.
(IL.)The old hymn "Come, Thou Fount" was written by Robert Robinson when he was just twenty-three years old. The third verse contains a phrase, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love." Unfortunately, this phrase was prophetic for Robinson: in his later life, he lapsed into sin. While riding a stagecoach, Robinson heard a woman humming his hymn. She later engaged him in conversation and asked what he thought of the hymn. Overcome with emotion, he said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then." Since we are all "prone to wander" we need to hold each other up from the clutches of sin and the unhappiness of backsliding.
(IL.)Be careful if your King James Bible was printed in 1716. That particular year the printer made a flagrant mistake. In John 5:14, the final copy read "sin on more" rather than "sin no more." That must have been a good year for Bible sales, because it seems like a lot of people are still heeding the advice of that old edition.
b You also know suffering! (You know the pain of loss, illness & suffering)
T.S.: Bad things happen even though Jesus was born, but I do have some good news.
II The baby in the manger didn’t let bad things off the hook.
A Although the birth of Jesus didn’t destroy evil, Jesus was born that evil might be destroyed.
a John 3:8 "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested (born), that He might destroy the works of the devil."
*Jesus was born to destroy evil. Evil is the work(s) of the Devil!
b How is Jesus destroying evil?
Cassie Bernall was the seventeen-year-old student who died for her faith in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Fellow students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, stormed the school and gunned down twelve students and one teacher before taking their own lives. Cassie was the brave young lady who took a bullet because of her faith in Christ. One of the gunman had yelled, "Anybody in here believe in God?" With all of the students lying on the floor, Cassie stood up and replied, "Yes, I believe in God. I belong to the Lord Jesus." The young killer then asked, "Why?" but shot her before she could answer. This radiant teenager died a martyr, but just a few years prior she might have been an accomplice to such a massacre. When Cassie was in the ninth grade, her parents, Brad and Misty Bernall, became very concerned about their daughter’s behavior. They discovered she was interested in witchcraft and involved with alcohol and drugs. When they searched her room they found letters that talked about harming parents and other people. The Bernalls immediately intervened. Cassie was enrolled in another school and cut off from friends who had exerted evil influence. They regularly searched her belongings and monitored her activities. Apart from school, she could only attend their church, West Bowles Community Church in Littleton, Colorado. Cassie reluctantly went on a weekend youth retreat that changed her life. Her dad said she went away as a gloomy, troubled teen and came back transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. She discovered the joy of salvation that she carried to her early grave. Her transformation can be summarized by the words she shared on a video just two days before her death. She said, "You really can’t live without Christ. It’s like, impossible to really have a really true life without him." Just two years earlier, Cassie Bernall was very similar to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, but Jesus Christ changed all of that. We can’t help but ask the same question posed by Baptist Standard editor, Marv Knox who wrote, "One wonders how thousands of lives might be different today if the parents of Harris and Klebold had intervened in their lives, if those boys had been exposed to the sweet gospel of Jesus in a loving church youth group."
How is Jesus destroying evil? One life at a time.
B Christ didn’t eliminate suffering, but because He was born, one day there will no more suffering for those who call Him Lord.
a Rev. 21:3-5 "[3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [4] He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
b When we see the suffering of the world we want to ask God, "Why?"
*Some of you work(ed) with lowest element of human existence, guilty of heinous crimes of depravity so gruesome and brutal that it turns the stomach of any person with a conscience and you say "God, Why?" Wrong question!
*The right question is "When?" When will you stop the evil/suffering! When will you finish what you began in the manger?
*Christians know that’s coming!!!
(IL.) Dr. James Dobson, Focus on the Family, told about a 5 year old boy dying of lung cancer. The boy had a Christian mother stayed by her son till the very end. She would spend hours talking to him about the Lord, heaven. She would cradle him in her lap, instinctively getting her son ready for the end. His nurse entered the room one day as death was approaching and heard the boy talking about hearing bells. "The bells are ringing Mommy," he said. "I can her them." The nurse thought he was hallucinating because he was already slipping away. She left and returned a few minutes later and again herd him talking about hearing bells ringing. The nurse said to his mother, "I’m sure you know your baby is hearing things that aren’t there. He si hallucinating because of the sickness." The mother pulled her son closer to her chest, smiled and said, "No, ma’am. He is not hallucinating. I told him when he was frightened-when he couldn’t breath-if he would listen carefully, he could hear the bells of heaven ringing for him. That is what he’s been talking about all day." That precious child died on his mother’s lap later that evening, and he was still talking the bells of heaven when the angels came to take him. (Ring Church Bell)
*Isn’t it great to know that once this life that is lived in a world of evil and suffering is over, were going to a place where the bells are ringing, a place Jesus prepared for us where there will be no suffering or pain?
*Christmas gives us hope and that hope gives us something to hold on to!
Conclusion:
Christmas didn’t stop King Harod from killing innocent babies in Bethlehem.
Christmas shows us that evil will ultimately be done knocked out. (ESS)
We’ve look at two things that the baby in the manger didn’t do.
*He didn’t stop bad things from happing.
*He didn’t let bad things off the hook.
I hope this Christmas you’ll know that all of the evil in this world will be thoroughly dealt with. (Objective)
a Live in fear, loathing, miserable, because of evil.suffering...
b Live knowing that Jesus will finish what he started.
What are you hoping for this Christmas?
a We all want something different, some of us want nothing at all.
(IL.) It was clearly a perfect Christmas for little Jessica. She got all of the presents she wanted, her cousins were with her to share the holiday, and she had eaten great food all day long. As her mother tucked her into bed, Jessica smiled and sighed, "I sure hope Mary and Joseph have another baby next year."
*I hope Joseph & Mary have another baby everyday and he’s born in my heart with every passing day until I or the world pass away.
*Believers, we want Jesus to hurry up!
b Pray
***Notice: I have used Sermon Central sermons for a VERY long time. If this or any of my sermons are similar to a sermon that is already on Sermon Central by another pastor or teacher....chances are I have used it. Actually, there is probably absolutely nothing in this sermon that hasn’t been preached before! If I used your sermon and haven’t given you credit, please write me and I’ll give you credit by name. I have in no way intentionally withheld credit to any work I’ve used/borrowed from. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF I HAVE "USED" YOUR WORK IT WAS BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU HAD A SUPER SERMON! I prefer to preach with an outline and just rearranged your sermon. My intent is to make sermons relevant and easy for outline guys to use. If you use MY work, feel free to claim it. I do not care!! Simply realize that I have borrowed from other preachers, too.
Mike Fogerson, Pastor, Chester’s First Baptist Church
