The Unconquered Baby
Rev. Sean Lester
December 14, 2003
Matthew 2:1-23
Introduction
A. There is cause for concern for those who follow the way of Jesus Christ because of the seemingly hostile turn our world has taken toward our faith. It has been reported that nativity scenes are disappearing from public places where such symbols have traditionally been displayed, such as courthouse lawns and city squares. Isn’t it proper to keep government from promoting religion? Of course, but government should never prevent society from expressing its faith, even if it means using the properties that belong to society and its institutions. Government and Society are not the same. The government and all of its institutions belong to the people, and if a community wants to display the symbols of its values on its property, what makes that immoral or oppressive?
Even in our own military, soldiers are not allowed to receive Bibles or symbols of the Christian faith that might offend the local population where they are stationed. Is the army to use force to spread Christianity? Of course not! But if the army of our nation calls upon Jesus Christ, is it right to deprive them of the practice of their faith, the faith that allowed them to volunteer to put their lives at risk? If our soldiers are dying to liberate Iraq, is it right to allow Iraqi prejudices to be master of our soldiers souls? Again, it has been reported that Christian military chaplains are restrained from speaking about Jesus Christ in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Islamic chaplains have free reign to preach their faith to the imprisoned enemy.
By now you may have heard that Wisconsin state law prohibits the use of God’s name in Christmas carols being sung by students in the public schools. Can you imagine the dilemma this is causing? First, it would seem that they would have to substitute the first syllable of Christmas to say, perhaps "Bob-mas." However, the second syllable also causes problems because "mass" refers to worship. So, now they have to substitute that word for something more secular, like "fest." So, I can imagine that in the public schools in Wisconsin they will be celebrating "Bob-Fest" during this time of the year.
You have to understand that the powers over society are opposed to the faith of Christ. Human kind wants freedom to do as each person pleases, even if that means freedom to practice immorality. Today’s mantra seems to be "If it pleases you and doesn’t hurt anyone else, do it."
But the faith of Jesus Christ restrains people from doing what they please. Believers preach righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and by so doing they bring conviction into the society. Believers who preach Jesus open people eyes to the truth about the world and its destructive practices. Believers who preach righteousness cause people to hate sin and oppose those who promote it. Where people believe on Jesus, the powers that promote human pleasure are restrained. And they hate to be restrained.
This is nothing new. In fact, the hatred for Jesus Christ began in the world the moment that the Messiah was born. The moment the puppet king of Israel heard that a new king may have been born, Herod tried to have the baby killed.
B. A heavenly metaphor took place when the magi gazed into the night sky. Magi are astrologers of sorts. They study the stars in order to discover order in life. They study the night sky and they chart the movements of the stars and the planets. A star might disappear and you or I would never miss it among the thousands of stars that hang over the darkness of night. But to someone who looks to the stars for order, they would notice. One night, they noticed star that was peculiar, perhaps out of place. They studies their charts to find out what it meant. To them, the star was saying that a king was being born over the nation directly under it. Only the Magi would have noticed the star and thought to look for meaning in it.
But while the Magi searched the stars for a blessing, Herod was constantly searching among the people he ruled for trouble. His hold on power is guaranteed only by the whims of the Emperor. If any unrest flares up among the Jewish people, he is done. The worst thing that could happen to him is a rumor of a Messiah being born. The people would look to such a person for boldness to revolt. If it didn’t end his career, it certainly would be the end of the throne for his own son. So, when our passage said Herod was troubled, that is why.
Herod’s best move was to find the one who may be regarded as the Christ and have him killed. And it would appear that Herod has the ability to do it. He knows where the Messiah is to be born because the Bible identified the town. The baby is guarded only by a teenage girl and her husband. They are hardly a match for well-armed soldiers.
And it seems that is the same situation that believers face in much of the world today. In America, followers of Christ are being squeezed out of public life. But around the world, governments are trying to shove them out of existence. Powers and rulers have guns and armies. Christians have Bibles. Who is more dangerous?
So where is the hope for us? The hope for Christianity is seen in this story. As you know, the baby wins. Herod fails to kill the infant Messiah. Why? Because God intervened by speaking in dreams to the people who were obedient to His will. One person to whom the Lord speaks cannot be overcome by the strongest army mankind can muster.
Proposition: God defeats the powers and rulers in this world merely by speaking to the people who are obedient to his will.
Interrogative: How can believers defeat the enemies of the faith by merely hearing from God?
Transition: As this passage shows us, the Word of God alone defeats the powers that oppose Christ and protects the believer from them.
I. God reveals the true motives of the powers that oppose Christ.
A. Elsewhere in Scripture this is called the discerning of spirits. God gave the magi a word by means of a dream to show them the true character of Herod. They could have been fooled into spying for Herod because nothing Herod did showed him to be violent. Herod searched the Bible for answers. Herod blessed their journey and stated that he wanted to pay homage to the baby as well. At first glance, there would be no reason not to trust the king.
B. But not everyone who comes to worship does so out of love for God. A larger church of which I am familiar seemed to always be short of nursery workers. One gentleman who had been attending for awhile signed up to be a worker in the nursery. He was well behaved and enthusiastically worshipped during services. He attended the required membership and leadership courses. No one knew that he had served time in jail for sexually molesting children. The powers behind such vileness had it in mind to destroy that church. But God sent someone to the church who noticed the man. That person went to the children’s pastor to tell him about the man. After a brief confrontation with the man, he confessed that he was hiding his past, and was escorted out of the children’s wing of the church. You see, the man had every appearance of being godly, but his motives were evil.
Another time, a young woman who attended a church with her family was found to be pregnant. Her boyfriend proposed marriage so that the baby would be considered "legitimate." They went to their youth pastor, who agreed to perform the wedding. However, the Holy Spirit revealed to the senior pastor that the spirit of the girl desire to marry was impure. The senior pastor told his young associate that he was not to perform the wedding. As it turns out, the baby was not fathered by the girl’s boyfriend.
C. We should take the voice of God seriously when he speaks to those who are responsible for carrying out responsibilities in the church. There are times when all I have is a sense about someone’s motives. There are times when that is all I have to go one, but many times that voice has turned out to have protected the congregation from serious turmoil.
By revealing the spirit behind peoples’ actions, the people who are doing God’s will are able to avoid enabling people with evil intentions.
Transition: He reveals the spirit of a persons actions and then he also reveals the enemy’s plans.
II. Gives reveals the plans of those who oppose Christ.
A. Herod hadn’t done anything yet, but the Lord gave a word of knowledge to Joseph while Mary’s husband slept. Before Herod could send a detachment, or perhaps send a covert assassin, Joseph was already out of the country. I find it interesting that Herod went to Scripture to find out where the Messiah was to be born, but never bothered to look to find out where the baby would go. Not only did Joseph escape Herod, but he fulfilled God’s purpose as was stated in the prophet Hosea.
A word of knowledge is necessary for those who are working the will of God as part of the ministry. There are dangers lurking for people whose life and ministry is a threat to the powers of the world.
B. When I was in high school there was a girl who attended our church who seemed to love God, but the Lord had revealed to me that she was going to try to get me in trouble. She told me that she wanted to meet me somewhere, but I wasn’t going to have anything to do with her despite her claim of faith. I was glad to have heard the Lord speak to my heart because not long after it was discovered that she was having an affair with an older man, and he was sent subsequently sent to prison for statutory rape.
C. God gives people who are involved in His will words that tell them where danger is lurking. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense because there doesn’t seem to be any danger, but afterward the behavior of such a person becomes clear. Remember that Herod had done nothing to tip anyone off as to his intentions. But when he discovered that the magi didn’t return, he killed every boy that had been born in Bethlehem who was under two years of age. Now, it was obvious that his faith in God was just a pretense for fulfilling his own desires.
A word of knowledge is the Holy Spirit’s way of revealing the enemy’s plans.
Transition: Sometimes, the Holy Spirit doesn’t reveal a specific fact, but instead teaches a principle that leads to wisdom.
III. God imparts wisdom that leads those who do His will to make good decisions.
A. Joseph stayed in Egypt until God gave him another word of knowledge that Herod and those who shared his hatred were dead. So Joseph left for home, but when he heard that Herod’s son had taken office, Joseph was understandable afraid. But God didn’t just tell him what to do or where to go this time, he warned him about Archelaus. Instead, God gave Joseph a word of wisdom.
Here is the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the awareness of facts. Wisdom is the ability to make good decisions with the knowledge. Here is the knowledge Joseph had; Herod’s son is on the throne, he probably knows about the rumored birth of the Messiah, Galilee is not in Archelaus’ jurisdiction. So Joseph, enlightened in his thinking by the Holy Spirit, made a wise decision to move to Galilee. Also, by so moving his family, he fulfilled the prophecy of Scripture.
B. Several years ago, when I was on staff at my previous church, one woman, a mother of four young children in our congregation, was diagnosed with a tumor at the base of her brain. She was sent to the finest hospital in the area for an operation to remove the tumor, which according to x-rays, was the size of a golf ball. When they opened up her head, they saw that the tumor was the size of a softball, and had grown tentacles that wrapped around and grown tightly down the spine. The doctors were about to give up and send her home. But just before they began to sew her up, the lead surgeon had an idea suddenly come to him. He went back to work on her to try a different technique, and when he went to lift out the tumor, the tentacles that were wound around the spine let loose so that he could pull them entirely out, in one piece.
Afterward, the doctor admitted that he didn’t know where the idea came from. But we know that messages of wisdom come from the Holy Spirit. The woman recovered fully and continued to be actively involved in the ministry of her church.
The Holy Spirit protects his people through words of wisdom, messages spoken into the mind that give the people who are involved in doing the will of God the ability to make good, and at times, creative decisions.
C. One of the missionaries describes the messages of wisdom that the Holy Spirit this way: “Sometimes, the Lord makes us smarter than we really are.” Supernatural wisdom is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers who are active in doing God’s will. In the account of Joseph, that wisdom kept the baby and his family out of harm’s way.
Being a witness for Jesus Christ requires tact in this day. For instance, those of you who teach in the public schools know that God has called you to be His witnesses to the students and colleagues with whom you work. Yet, our laws prohibit you from speaking about Jesus Christ while on the school’s time. Overcoming this restriction takes wisdom. Some of you work in places where you are expected to work and keep your mouth shut while at work. Your testimony is not welcome. But that is why the Holy Spirit led you there. You need supernatural wisdom to do God’s will and your jobs at the same time. But, wisdom is something that God has promised to all who ask Him. (James 1:5) It is right to have confidence that the Holy Spirit will give wisdom to all who are devoted to the will of God.
Transition: The wisdom of God, as well as messages of knowledge and discernment, are all that God needed to defeat Herod’s plan.
Conclusion
A. I hear it all the time, people who fear coming to Jesus because of what people who have influence in their life will respond to them. Some have been taunted by their families because, as they say, they have become “churchy”. Others have friends or employers who disrespect people who follow Christ. But, the Lord gives the Holy Spirit to everyone who comes to Christ in repentance. Faith in Christ is a change in lifestyle from how you live before coming to him. But the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, to give you wisdom and knowledge about how to be safe from people who hate Jesus, as well as opening your eyes to the true motives about those who oppose God.
B. It was this kind of truth, messages spoken in dreams, that caused the baby Jesus from being destroyed by Herod. If the Holy Spirit can speak so that a helpless baby and his family can be safe from the king’s armies, the same Holy Spirit will speak to you to keep you safe. Not only will you be safe, but you will be given the wisdom and knowledge that can lead those you love to the same salvation that God will give to you.
C. And, that promise is for you. In the past, God used some people by speaking to them at special times. But now, God speaks to all who come to do his will all of the time. That promise of the Holy Spirit is given to everyone who come to God to offer their lives in service to Him.
