Frightened By a Baby - The Peace Church, Loyal OK

Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
John 14:27 NIV

Loyal, OK

Pastor Leon Seaton

Frightened By a Baby

When you think of a baby, what do you picture?

A cute little human being… some one to love and to hold… but certainly not someone to fear, unless you are the brother or sister and that little bundle of humanity is stealing all of the attention that you used to get.

Babies can do nothing for themselves. Their only source of communication is crying. A baby left on its own will die.

And when you think of a king, you think of power and authority. As one writer stated, "If it is noontime and the sun is shining bright and the king says that it is midnight, his subjects will bow down before him and say, "Yes, and the stars are beautiful!"

Two men were frightened when they heard about the baby Jesus. Joseph, the man engaged to Mary, was first. He was very upset when he heard that his fiancée was pregnant. It took the intervention of an angel to get him to accept his lot in life.

The second man was King Herod – when he heard of the birth about 2 years after the event.

Matthew 2:1-23

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a Ruler who will be the Shepherd of My people Israel.'"

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the Child. As soon as you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him."

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

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."

So he got up, took the Child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt,

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."

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.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "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."

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 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."

So he got up, took the Child and His mother and went to the land of Israel. 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, 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."

The scriptures teach us that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind.

The angel calmed Joseph’s fears. The wise men ignited the king’s fear.

Herod was a wicked, old man. Surely he understood that someday he would die, but he had not made provisions for his sons to take his place, as was the custom of the day. Herod ruled under the pleasure of Rome. That meant that he could lose his position at any time.

Because he was not a godly man he lived by fear and he lived in fear. It is interesting that Satan wants to destroy everyone. That means if you serve Satan with all of your heart he still wants you dead. Why? Because he understands God’s love and is fearful that God will reach the wicked man and convert him. Thus drug addicts, murderers and all evil people need to be aware that their only hope is Christ Jesus and accepting God’s love and guidance for their lives.

At Herod’s command all the male children, not only in Bethlehem, but in all the villages of that city were killed. A wicked man with total power can create absolute chaos. God did not cause the tragedy; He only described what would happen because He knows the heart of all men – both the wicked and the righteous.

The diseases and deaths of little children only proves that there is "original sin." Matthew Henry explains that the murder of these infants was their martyrdom. We can describe this as the persecution against the early church! No doubt, Herod thought that he had fooled the Old Testament prophecies. But God always wins. The baby Jesus was spared, and God’s truth marched on.

I have to admit that I get frustrated whenever I read this section of scripture. If God knows everything, then why did He let the wise men (no one knows how many there were) let them go to Jerusalem to see King Herod?

If God knew that Herod would have those children killed, then why would He let Herod live long enough to do that?

And if God is so powerful and all-knowing, then why does He let me do stupid things?

The story of the wise men illustrates how God draws men to Himself. They lived a long way from the Holy Land, yet they were there in the very early days!

If you are a Christian today it is because God called you and you responded. God, working through people, took the first step!

The Magi learned about Jesus through studying the stars. Somehow God spoke to their hearts. The "Star" you and I follow is the Bible, God’s Holy Word.

Herod was spiritually dead and could not understand the spiritual nature of the Messiah's kingdom. What does it mean to be spiritually dead?

Simply this: because we are not in tune with God, we may be persuaded by many truths – yet hate them, because they interfere our plans or love for sin. Such a belief makes him miserable.

Can you imagine the joy the wise men felt when the star reappeared? It is sort of the joy we feel after a long hard night of pain when the sun shines in our window about the time the problem goes away.

We have to wonder if they were disappointed when they discovered that Jesus lived in a cottage instead of a palace. Because they were in tune with God they understood that they had found the right person, so they presented their gifts to Him.

This was the problem that the religious leaders in the Holy Land had when they saw Jesus. God did not present Himself as they expected, therefore they would not accept Him.

Has that ever happened to you?

God’s call for your life may not be like you wanted or expected. People may oppose you. You may not be called to be the great success or well known person that you were called to be. But none of those things really impress God.

What impresses Him is love and obedience.

Will you give that gift to God this evening?

Christmas Eve, 2007

There is no situation I can get into that God cannot get me out. Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.

Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, "There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again." At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, "Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right." That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years. James Brown, Evangeline Baptist Church, Wildsville, LA, in Discoveries, Fall, 1991, Vol. 2, No. 4.