23 Jan

DEC. 30, 2018   MATTHEW 2:13-23        “GETTING FULFILLMENT!”

I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas this past week.  But what I really pray for is that no one got depressed when it was over because it was over.  It is done.  We won’t have Christmas again until next year.  Many times people have an empty feeling when major holidays are over.  This is unfortunate because we have Jesus all the time, all year round and that should be good news.  But this type of letdown happens in major events also.  Several years ago I watched an interview with New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, who said that even though he has won 2 or 3 Super Bowls at that time and they then had an undefeated team, he still wasn’t satisfied.  He was still looking for something else.  Something was missing in his life.  I felt like jumping through that TV screen and telling him about Jesus.  Anyway, people do sometimes feel a little let down.  Today I would like to talk a little about what happened after Jesus was born and how this applies to our feelings after Christmas.

I read this story on Sermon Central and no one knows where it came from.  Anyway, it seems that this farmer had a mule and the mule had fallen down his well.  The farmer did a little figuring and came up with a solution.  The well was dried up and the mule was old.  So he got his neighbors together to fill in the well and put the poor mule out of his misery.

The men started to shovel in the dirt.  Now this particular mule may have been old but he was wise.  At first he thought that he was doomed as the dirt fell on his back.  But then he got the idea that if he kept stepping down the dirt as it came in he would be all right.  So the dirt kept coming down and the mule kept moving.  It wasn’t long before the mule was level with the top of the well and he stepped to the ground, exhausted but alive.

The mule had survived because he had refused to give in to a bad situation.  If he had decided to feel sorry for himself or just give up, he would have died.  This can happen to any of us when we feel sorry for ourselves.  But instead this mule took a bad situation and made it a good one.

This is kind of what we read about today in our Scripture.  Joseph finds himself in a bad situation.  Most of the time when we read these stories of Jesus, we like to skip over parts like this.  We like the part about the birth of Jesus because we all like babies.  I’ve never been to a baptism where the baby wasn’t beautiful.  We love babies.  Then we may like to read about when Jesus was 12 and at the temple.  We also like to read about Him as He started in His ministry.  I know that we would like to read a lot more about Jesus as He was growing up but we can’t so there is no sense dwelling on it.

So we have Herod, the king, sending his troops to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem who are under 2 years old.  Just think about this for a moment.  Herod really had to be beyond our definition of ruthless.  He was a monster.  Here was a leader who had 2 of his own sons killed and his favorite wife.  He had many of his extended family killed.  He even gave the order that when he died, someone from every family would be executed so that he would have mourners.  So there is no doubt that he would do this.

One author likened this to Satan trying to have a hit squad on Jesus.  This was Satan trying to get rid of the baby.  I think that we can see his ugly head many places in this story.  We have to keep in mind that Satan is powerful, far more powerful than we are.  But this baby with the helping hand of God was beating him at every turn.

Our world has not changed too much in 2000 years.  We have monsters like Herod all over the world.  The Muslims in northern Africa are even worse as they try to starve the Christians to death.  These solders think nothing of killing children.  It is the same way in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and China to name a few places.  There are so many places where people are tortured and killed just because they are Christian.  Don’t let anyone ever tell you that these other false religions are nice and kind.

Even in this country we are not very nice to our kids.  We allow our kids access to drugs so that Satan through the drugs can ruin their lives.  If we really wanted to stop the drug problem in this country, we would.  However, there is too much money involved.  I have talked before of the many avenues that Satan is using to get at our children.  And for the most part, we just sit back and let it happen.  Many times we willingly help to do things that are bad for our children.  I for one am a strong advocate of putting prayer back in the schools where it belongs.

Now, back to the story and enough of my editorializing!  We read that an angel came to Joseph and told him to flee with his family to Egypt.  Joseph obeyed and got up in the middle of the night and went to Egypt.  Now let’s think about this story from Joseph’s perspective.  He married a woman who had a child that wasn’t his.  Because of the census he had to take her and travel when she was about nine months pregnant.  The only place to stay was in a barn where the baby was born.  Now he is probably thinking that the worst is over and he can relax a little.  Satan strikes again, and again Joseph obeys and leaves in the middle of the night.  Both Joseph and Mary had to be realizing that this little baby was pretty important.

I would like to note here that we really don’t say too much about Joseph in our usual Christmas stories.  But his role was important.  He obeyed God at every turn.  Here again we have him packing up and running with Mary and the baby.  Herod is going to kill all the babies in Bethlehem.  This isn’t a lot different than when the Pharaoh of Egypt killed all the infant boys looking for Moses.  This fact is not lost on those early readers who held Moses in the highest of esteem.  Then Joseph stayed in Egypt until he was called back.  This fulfills another prophecy that we read in Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  By the way we also read in Jeremiah about the killing of the babies.  So we have two more prophecies fulfilled in this passage.

The reason I bring keep bringing up the prophecies being fulfilled and Satan working hard to kill Jesus is that God wins.  It is important during the Christmas season and really at anytime to remember that God wins.  No matter how bleak things look, no matter how impossible the situation seems; God wins.  All we have to do is to do what Joseph did.  We have to obey.  Trust and obey!

This all begins with a prayer life.  It is pretty hard to obey if all you are ever tuned into is Netflix, The Big Bang Theory or Grey’s Anatomy.  It is pretty hard to obey if you never take the time to talk or listen to God.  I don’t know of a person alive that is too busy to take 5-10 minutes in the morning and the same in the evening to pray to our Creator.  I repeat that I don’t know a person alive that is too busy to do this.  This is something that should be automatic.  If everyone did just this one little thing, our world would be infinitely better.

For many of us this is just a reminder.  Some of us already have a prayer life and that is a good thing.  But there maybe someone here today that figures prayer wouldn’t be any help because you are too far down the road to something terrible. It may be a health problem, financial problem or a marital problem.  If there is a major problem in your life, then come and talk to me.  I can’t always tell you the answer but I do know where the answer always is.  God loves you so much that he will help you out of any situation.  It is never too late to talk to God.  Things are never so bad that God will not listen to you.  If you just remember that He wants the very best for us, then you can begin to recover through Jesus Christ.

Let’s get back to Joseph.  God tells him to go back to Israel.  So he goes once again.  Herod is now dead and his three sons have taken his place. One son, Archelaus, ruled in Judea, where Bethlehem was located and where Joseph wanted to go.  He was much worse than his father and had to be removed in 2 years after slaughtering so many.  God knows all of this so he sends Joseph another dream telling him to go to Nazareth in Galilee.  Another son of Herod, Antipas, ruled there and was much mellower.  He was still very bad by our standards but he was a little less harsh.  And then we even have another prophecy fulfilled, “He will be a Nazarene.”  This also comes from Jeremiah.

I would like you to take three things away with you from this wonderful piece of Scripture.  First of all, the safest place to be is where God leads you.  Notice that the wise men did what God told them to do and they found the baby and escaped Herod.  Joseph listened and escaped Herod and then his son, Archelaus.  If any of these people had faltered, then the baby Jesus would have been in serious jeopardy.  But God knew their hearts and knew they would follow.

Things aren’t any different with us.  If you want to be successful in life, then obey Jesus Christ.  How many people do you know who are lost and wandering through life?  Maybe you are one of them.  If they or you had Jesus Christ as the center of their lives, they would be fulfilled.  This isn’t rocket science.  If you want to feel like you are really doing well, then you have to be working for the Lord.  There is no substitute!  And that begins with repenting of your sins and asking Jesus to live in your heart.  I guarantee that things will change for the good.

We need Jesus because of the second lesson here.  As Christians we will have our fair share of troubles.  We are not exempt from hardships.  Look at the wise men in trouble with Herod.  Joseph and Mary had to flee for their lives.  Just think of the families in Bethlehem that lost their babies.  Why didn’t God just do away with Herod instead?  Or better yet, why doesn’t he just get rid of the Devil?  We have all been in situations in life where we ask these really tough questions of God.

Well, the answer is that He will get rid of the devil in His time.  It’s all about God’s timing which is perfect.  And God wins in the end all the time.  Herod died shortly after this in a horrid fashion.  His son Archelaus was exiled in disgrace.  You see evil only wins in the short term.  Satan can never win in the long term.  Remember this when life has you backed up in a corner.  Remember this when your marriage fails.  Remember this when the bank comes knocking on your door to repossess your house.  God will win in the end.  All we have to do is exactly what He tells us to do.  Don’t be a half-hearted Christian.  Go after God with a passion.  Pray to Him and honor Him in all you do.

Do these things as you remember the third lesson here today!  God is in charge.  If you notice God was in charge of every aspect of our Christmas story.  When you are living in the will of God, then He helps you in the end result.  Bad things are going to happen because the dark one is in charge of this world.  But he has lost the big battle.  However, he wins many of the smaller ones.  So remember that Satan has lost the war.  We just have to keep in God’s will and He will take care of us.  Mary and Joseph had some tough times as we read today.  But they also had a strong faith in God and they obeyed.  God doesn’t want to see us hurt.  He wants what is the very best for us and the only way we can know His will is through prayer and the reading his Word.  So don’t give up on your prayer life.  God is in charge so let Him be in charge.

Remember this as I tell you about how we are trying to take the word Christmas out of everything.  We are supposed to call the Christmas tree on the Capitol lawn in Washington DC a Holiday tree.  We are told, and told falsely from a legal perspective, that we cannot have any of our Christmas carols in our schools Christmas programs which also cannot be called Christmas programs.  As we extend this, we have to take God off of our currency.  We have to take God out of everything.  All these things should be very insulting to a Christian and I’m insulted!  Here is the point to remember.  Herod tried to take Christ out of the first Christmas by murdering Him and he failed.  I will keep saying this until I die.  God is in charge and He belongs everywhere.

Remember this as we wind down our Christmas season.  Remember this as we begin a new year.  Call out to Him in your prayers.  Ask Him how for the fulfillment you need.  He will answer you.  That is the one thing He loves to do.  He loves to answer prayer.  God loves you on an individual basis.  He loves each and every one of you.  He will not give up on you.  This is the Good News that Mary and Joseph found.  This is the Good News for all us.  Turn to Him often and He will talk to you.  That is a promise and I praise the Lord for it.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.