Sermon Tone Analysis

What if Satan had been successful at preventing Jesus’ birth?

No Christmas?

Mt 2:1-15

A few years ago, a small book by John Grishom called “Skipping Christmas” was a hit.

About a couple Luther & Nora Krank tired of all the commercialism & stress of Christmas, decided to skip it, no lights, no gifts no celebrations.

From that the book tells of all the ramifications with neighbor & friends.

Realizing they couldn’t skip Christmas no matter how hard they tried

**Of course we all know the famous book & movie "The Grinch that Stole Christmas"

But I submit to you, That Satan is the Grinch that has tried to

steal or stop Christmas since the beginning & continues to

steal its true meaning,

Our message for today is titled "Satan's Attempt To Stop Christmas"

Our scripture is taken from Matthew 2:1-15 (NLT)

Let me ask you a hypothetical question.

What if Satan had been successful at preventing Jesus’ birth?

Let's think about this a few minutes.

Since the first promise of the seed of the woman, the coming Messiah.

Satan has made every effort to stop Jesus’ birth.

He tried to destroy Abraham and or his descendants.

But that’s another story.

Now it is time for Jesus to come into the world.

Do you think that Joseph and Mary would travel a long way hoping for delivery complications.

I would say no, but what happened to them?

Mary gave birth in filthy, cold, filthy, did I say cold, diseased barn filled with animals

Jesus is born but that evil one can still stop Christmas.

How you ask? Get rid of the baby by using Herod the Great, the Awful, Tyrant.

We find three Wise-men/ Kings, seeking to honor the baby Jesus with gifts but their GPS units fail them.

So its only natural to come to local leader, and inquire, surely he knows of the about the birth of the King, the Messiah.

But this local leader named Herod, who just happened to be the king of the region at the time, is deeply disturbed by what he hears , or shall I say threatened by this announcement of the birth of a King.

He calls together his own peps to learn of this baby that these wise men were in search of.

He asked his advisors in verse 4 through 6: where the Christ was to be born, and they replied:

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’

”

With this newly gained knowledge Herod pointed the way to Bethlehem, asking the wise men to return the with the news so he being Herod could worship the King, yeah, Right!

He lied.

We soon find out that after the wise men had left again following the star in the East, and it came to stop over the place where the child was and they rejoiced and worshiped the Messiah.

But God in verse 12 alerts the wise men to King Herod's deception,

12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

So they returned home another route.

However, when they failed to return, this enraged Herod and he had ALL the babies two years and under murdered.

But again, we find that God had a plan.

In verses 13 and 14 He dispatched an angel to warn Joseph to leave Egypt immediately.

As we read from the Holy Scripture …

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,

But what would have happened if the Grinch/Satan had succeeded?

What if Jesus was never born or during the Christmas season as a baby, He was murdered?

What if Christmas wasn’t Christmas?

Never was or has been?

There would be no Rejoicing: No Glad Tidings Celebrations.

All these years Christmas has developed from a simple recognition of the birth of the Messiah to a mega commercialized, season with things that have little to nothing to do with the birth of the Savior.

Yet we celebrate.

Look, But Satan fails in his attempts, therefore we keep stop and get back to the original intent of the season.

We need to keep our focus on the real reason of the season.

The birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Christmas is a family time, a joyous time a time for memories, fantasies, giving, visiting, singing & love.

Yet if no birth, there is no Christmas, no one would be celebrating, there would be no hope.

It is the Christian holiday of Christmas that has affected all other religious holidays, Hanukkah tries to keep up but it was never the festive occasion that Christmas is.

Think about it, no other religion has a holiday on the scale or as festive as Christmas, at least that I know of.

No Christmas would do away with most celebrations in the world, that means we wouldn’t have the on going debates about Religion verses secular ideals or freedom from religion or

Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holiday or Christmas parades or Holiday parades or winter Solstice or Christmas break in school.

No parties at work or school, No gift exchange,

No hassles shopping at the mall, finding the perfect gift or getting that gift for the person who already has everything.

Well, I guess there is something good

No searching for the perfect Christmas tree

No decorating the tree or the house

No Christmas specials on tv

No Christmas songs on the radio

No annual “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Hummm, after thinking about it, things would be rather drab and dull.

We wouldn’t have this holiday to look forward to all year, we only have to look forward to Tax Day or April Fools Day or Halloween

I submit to you there wouldn’t be a “Thanksgiving Day’

No Redeemer, No God, No one to give thanks to

You know even with all the stress, hoopla, hassles of Christmas I am glad we have it.

But let me give some more consequences of No Christmas

II.

No Redemption: Gospel/ Gift

Romans 6:23 says For the wages of sin is death;

Galatians 3:10 says For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Revelation 21:8 reads But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

But on the brighter side, there is hope for us all.

Romans 6:23 also says …. but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 3:15 reminds us … That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 3:17 shows us God's love for us ….

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

1 John 5:11 says … And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

Oh, we really did need a gift from God.

The Word says that Man is sinful, is a fallen creature, racked by the disease of sin, condemned lost for ever.

Man lives in this fallen condition and we see the results everyday around us in our world and in our own life.

If we would just be honest for just on moment, there are things we don’t like in our lives, our cities, our states, our country, our world.

Unfortunately, Our Holy Creator sees more in us than He intended.

He sees our Sin nature, our rebelliousness, our Pride, our greed, our selfishness, our Uncontrolled passions, rage, anger, lusts,

We commit sin each day of our life and cannot work a remedy for

our self.

As humans who are sinners.

It is that human flaw that condemns us and reveals itself in our conduct, behavior, habits and choices

Each person is Lost, separated from God, hopeless and hell bound

Eternity doomed, we need mercy, we need help from God

Christmas is the beginning of that Help.

God’s gift to mankind started in Bethlehem.

Picture this …

The hurried, hassled Christmas shoppers crush into the elevator the door closes.