Christmas Movies at the Port The Grinch Who Stole Christmas Matthew 2:1-12 December 14, 2014
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL. 7 Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him. 9 After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood overthe place where the Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. (Matt 2:1-12NASB) Every Who down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot But the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville did NOT! The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don t ask why. No one quite knows the reason. It could be his head wasn t screwed on just right. It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were tight. But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small. A few years ago, Broward County (Florida) told the Calvary Chapel they could not include the words: Jesus is the Reason for the Season in their Christmas display. So the church filed a suit in the U.S. District Court claiming they had the right to display the words. Judge William Zloch agreed with their free speech argument and allowed them to keep the words in their display as long as they included the words, Calvary Chapel says, before the words Jesus is the Reason for the Season. (report from Yahoo.com 11/ 21/ 03) Even though 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, and even though Christianity at this time is still considered the largest religious group in the nation, Jesus has been repeatedly forced into the closet during this
season. So much of the very word Christmas has been removed from the season and replaced by the term Happy Holidays As a matter of fact on the national news, Brookville, Indiana has been threatened with a law suite from a group of atheist calling themselves Freedom from Religion. There is a Nativity on the courthouse lawn and this group from another state wants it taken down. According to the news, no one in Brookville has any intentions of taking it down. The truth if the matter is there are many different Grinch s in our world today because a Grinch is anyone or anything against the true meaning of Christmas. Let me share with you just a couple before we look at our main Grinch today. We have the Grinch of commercialism. These Grinch s are the department chains. They mislead people to think they are getting a bargain when in reality they are not. Did you know that little by little of the course of the year these store slowly increase the prices so they can put things on sale for normal price and everyone thinks they have gotten a deal. Then we have the other department store who go one step farther and refuse to call it Christmas and even advertise Holiday sales. Now, I do not want to shame anyone but if you are shopping at a store who refuses to call it Christmas then you are supporting the Grinch! Another Grinch that has been around for a long time is satan himself. He goes by many different names. The father of all lies. The prince of darkness, Beelzebub, a murder and so one. But today we will call him the father of Grinch s! He hates God, he hates Jesus and he hates everyone who lives for God and desires to serve Jesus. We have other Grinch s as well. Groups such as Freedom from Religion, and many other atheist groups. We also have many other religious groups that fall into this category. Some of them are considered Christian groups yet refuse to be part of Christmas celebration. Listen, Christmas is not able the season, it s about the Savior! I know Jesus wasn t born December 25 th. But that doesn t matter to me. What I celebrate is my God coming to this earth in the form of a baby to grow to be a man who died on the cross for my sins. That is what I celebrate, not just one day a year, not with gifts to others but with my life each and every day in service to my King! That s what Christmas is about! Today I want us to focus on the Grinch we see in our text today, King Herod. Allow me to share with you a little about Herod. He called himself the Great but history tells us that he was a mean and evil man. For instance 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 became involved in a plot to have her family rise to power even though he loved her deeply, he had her executed. And if that doesn t paint a picture for you a couple of years
before his death, he heard rumors that two of his sons were engaged in a plot to kill him he had them executed as well. Herod s main motivation in life was to stay in control of his life. Anything or anyone that threatened this authority faced his wrath. He would do anything in his power to destroy whatever endangered his ability to stay in control of his life. There are many people today that will deny Jesus because they want to be in control of their life. We expect the world to be that way, but the sad part is, there are many today that will sit in a Church every Sunday with that kind of mindset and behavior. They may have let Jesus into their heart but they are not going to let Him run their life. Herod and the Grinch seem to have some similarities in personality and temperament. There is one problem that the Grinch and Herod share. Like the Grinch, Herod had a heart problem. For the Grinch, he had a heart that was two sizes too small. For Herod, his heart was hard and filled with volatile emotions. Herod s heart... I. Trembled with fear. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. To me it is interesting what some people are afraid of. Louis Pasteur, the great scientist and inventor had a fear of dirt and germs and refused to shake hands with other people. President and Mrs. Benjamin Harrison were occupants of the White House when electricity was installed. They were so scared of electricity that they wouldn t touch the light switches. If there were no servants around to turn off the lights when they went to bed, they slept with them on. Five year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made dinner. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn t want to because it was dark in there and he was afraid of the dark. His mother asked again and he still resisted. Finally, his mother said, It will be OK, Jesus will be in there with you. Johnny walked hesitantly to the door and opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when he got an idea and said, Jesus, if you re in there, would you hand me a can of soup. Herod had a problem with insecurity. We suffer from the same type of fear. We can have feelings of insecurity with our spouses, our jobs, and even God. We fear what other people think about us and aren t secure with who we are. That insecurity and fear causes us to attempt to please others and not do what we know we should be doing. The first symptom of Herod s heart condition is fear; fear caused by insecurity. The second symptom of Herod s heart condition is that... II. His heart overflowed with jealousy Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and
said, Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me. We may think it is strange that King Herod would be jealous of a baby, yet I hear quite often of people being jealous of Jesus. One spouse telling the other how they spend too much time at church. They spend too much time serving. How they are always with people in the church but never home. Why would Herod be jealous of baby Jesus? Because he wanted the attention that Jesus was getting. He wanted the praise that Jesus was getting. He wanted the honor that Jesus was getting and I believe that is why many are jealous of Jesus today. Herod s heart... III. Burned with anger. The Today s living Bible puts it this way. Herod was furious when he learned that the astrologers had disobeyed him. Sending soldiers to Bethlehem, he ordered them to kill every baby boy two years old and under, both in the town and on the nearby farms, for the astrologers had told him the star first appeared to them two years before. Herod was so filled with anger that he tried to eliminate the baby. He tried to hijack Christmas. He tried to steal the star of Christmas, the Christ Child Himself. The Grinch tried to do the same by stealing all of the presents, food and decorations in town hoping that he would also steal the joy of Christmas. Fortunately, Herod was not successful. An angel warned Joseph of what was going to happen and Joseph, Mary and Jesus were able to escape to Egypt out of Herod s reach. But many infants and toddlers were killed because of Herod s anger. Proverbs 29:11, A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back. Anger, if not controlled, can make us do horrible things. I have personally seen and have heard of many other Christmas s ruined because of someone s anger. Conclusion; Grinch and Herod both had a heart problem. Herod s heart was hard, full of fear and jealously and anger. We see in many ways the same in the Grinch s heart. His heart may not have been hard but it was still too small. However, the good news is the Grinch was able to be cured of his heart problem. He came to understand that Christmas is not about gifts, food and decorations and yet in the show they didn t go far enough. You see, Christmas is not about gifts under the tree, it truly is about the gift that hung on the tree. It isn t about buying some special gadget, it s about family and friends coming together to worship the baby born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. Amen