Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20121223.htm

CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE
God's 2012 Christmas Season Provisions
Part IV: God's 2012 Christmas Protection Against Evil Destruction
(Matthew 1:18-2:23 et al.)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In the aftermath of the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, many people are feeling vulnerable to evil, destructive forces, and this fact is evidenced by several letters to the editor in the December 17, 2012 Republican-American, p. 4A:

    (a) Donna K. Hammers of Waterbury pleaded: "Please, someone begin to get it . . . Innocent people are being killed . . . Assault weapons . . . Violent video games . . . Mental illness . . . (D)o something to control the killing of innocent people in this country."

    (b) Holding the view of many others that the bigger evil is gun control, Wayne Stitzer of Morris wrote: "As we progressively disarm law-abiding citizens or restrict their movement, we send a message to perpetrators that they are free to act with impunity . . ."

    (3) However, with this sense of vulnerability to evil destruction often comes the greater dread that no one is able to insure himself and his family against such destruction:

    (a) Chad Joshpe, a resident of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, wrote an op-ed in the same day's issue of The Hartford Courant, p. A13 ("Let Us Be Worthy Of Their Memory") to report: "Last year, not long after the birth of my first son, I decided to move my family to an ideal, safe American town -- the Sandy Hook section of Newtown . . . Sandy Hook, however, proves once again that tragedy can befall anyone, anywhere . . ."

    (b) Rick Green, a columnist in The Hartford Courant that same day voiced this dread in his story, "Sending Them Out The Door Will Never Feel The Same," p. A1, by writing: "I listened [to a media report] as a leading educator said we are all at risk. A school security expert told me it's the world we live in now." (brackets ours)

    (c) On the other hand, fear of increased government control of guns in reaction to the Newtown shooting is reportedly leading numerous Americans to join the National Rifle Association and buy many more guns! The Newtown shooting has only deepened convictions on both sides of the debate, and both sides are fueled by a dread of vulnerability to harm by one source or another!



    Thus, we ask, "How do we handle the dread of feeling unavoidably vulnerable to evil destruction this Christmas?!"

    Need: "How do we handle the fear of evil destruction this Christmas?!"

  1. Joseph and Mary committed themselves to heed God's will that first Christmas, with Joseph agreeing to take Mary as his wife though she was with child, the Messiah, and Mary agreeing to bear Him though she was a virgin, Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38.
  2. Thus, God protected them as a family from great evil destruction:
    1. Revelation 12:1-4 teaches Satan as a dragon stood before Israel, seen there as a woman, to destroy the Messiah "whenever" (hotan, U. B. S. Grk. N. T. , 1966, p. 864; Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 592) He was born, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 958.
    2. However, Revelation 12:5 reveals God protected the Messiah from harm outside of God's will until He safely ascended [back] to heaven.
  3. Matthew 1:18-2:23 records this protection in Jesus' NATIVITY:
    1. God protected Jesus when He was still in the womb, Matt. 1:18-25:
      1. When Mary became pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit before she married Joseph, he planned to end the betrothal, Matt. 1:18-19.
      2. As that meant a divorce, it would ruin the reputations of Mary and her Infant, fulfilling Satan's will to discredit Jesus, Rev. 12:9-10.
      3. God's angel thus told Joseph in a dream the truth about Mary's pregnancy, urging him to marry her to protect the reputations of her and her unborn Infant, Jesus, Matthew 1:20-23.
      4. Joseph obeyed God, so the reputations were saved, Matt. 1:24-25.
    2. God protected Jesus when He was a newborn infant, Matthew 2:1-18:
      1. Herod, an evil king influenced by Satan (Matt. 4:8-9; 2 Cor. 4:4), was so threatened by news from the magi of a newborn Messiah, he tried to use them to find and kill Him, Matthew 2:1-8, 13b.
      2. However, God had the magi not tell Herod Jesus' location, and He told Joseph to flee with Mary and Jesus into Egypt, Matt. 2:12-13.
      3. Joseph obeyed this order (Matt. 2:14-15), saving Jesus, and Herod in evil fury killed Bethlehem's other small children, Matthew 2:16.
    3. God protected Jesus when He was a growing infant, Matthew 2:19-23:
      1. After God again by a dream led Joseph to return to Israel after king Herod's death (Matt. 2:19-21), Joseph learned that Herod's violent son Archelaus, also influenced by Satan (Matt. 4:8-9; 2 Cor. 4:4), ruled Judaea, so he was afraid to go there, Matthew 2:22a.
      2. God again warned Joseph in a dream against returning to Judaea, so Joseph returned to his city of Nazareth, Matt. 2:22b-23; Lk. 2:4.
  4. Now, GOD SOVEREIGNLY ALLOWED EACH of these intense conflicts to OCCUR to FULFILL HIS HIGHER PURPOSES:
    1. God used the conflict over the union of Mary and Joseph to reveal Christ's VIRGIN BIRTH in establishing His INCARNATION as God come in the flesh , Matthew 1:18-21, 22-23 with Isaiah 7:14.
    2. God used the conflict over Herod's effort to destroy Jesus to fulfill Jeremiah 31:15 that foretold of Israel's sufferings in divine judgment for the nation's sins against Him, one such suffering being Israel's great grief over the slaying of her infants by vile Gentile rulers, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Matthew 2:17-18; Matthew 2:16-18.
    3. God used the conflict over Archelaus that drove Joseph to settle in Nazareth to fulfill the Scriptures that Messiah would be despised by other Hebrews because He came from Nazareth, Matt. 2:22b-23 with John 1:45-46; Isa iah 53:3 and Psalm 22:6; Ibid., B. K. C., N. T., p. 23.
  5. We can also trace God's sovereign protection in Jesus' childhood:
    1. Isaiah 49:1-3 shows Joseph's move to Nazareth hid Jesus for a time from Judaea's religious rulers so that His critique of them would not lead to His premature crucifixion versus the Daniel 9:24-26 timeline!
    2. Under Satanic influence, two violent Hebrew Galilean farmer tax revolts by the time Jesus was 12 led Rome to wreck their farms and carry off many of their children as slaves, Jean-Pierre Isbouts, The Bib. World: An Illus. Atlas, 2009, p. 276-278! Joseph and Mary must have obeyed their secular rulers, thus preserving their children from being taken as slaves, keeping Jesus in Israel to fulfill His calling!
    3. When Jesus at age 12 stayed at the temple to speak with the religious leaders, His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, in light of the recent seizing of Galilean Hebrew children by Roman soldiers, were naturally very concerned about Jesus' whereabouts (Luke 2:41-50), so He returned to Nazareth with them to be subject to them, accepting their protection (Luke 2:51) until it was the Father's time for Him to be revealed as Israel's Messiah and begin His trek to the cross!
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to become a child of God and be put into His "Much-More" care, John 1:11-12; Romans 8:32. (2) May we then heed God's will and see Him sovereignly protect us from evil destruction so we can fulfill His calling for us, and (3) even sovereignly use deeds by evil foes to further His plan.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 (1) When my parents served as SIM missionaries in the town of Omo Aran in Southern Nigeria in the 1950s, a little Nigerian boy from the town was suddenly kidnapped by an elderly African woman who belonged to a witchcraft society that practiced child sacrifice!

The village people were traumatized over this abduction, and search parties frantically set out to find the child before he was slain.

I will never forget my Mother informing me of this crisis, and ordering me to play in full view of her eyesight outside her kitchen window lest I be kidnapped for human sacrifice! It was my shocking introduction to the fact that there is great evil in the world!

Thankfully, the searchers rescued the little boy in time, and the witchcraft society under pressure from the village had to leave the area.

One might ask why my Mom and Dad would stay in Omo Aran when it meant risking their sons to die by pagan child sacrifice! Mom testifies that no place on earth is as safe as being in God's will: the Lord Who had led her and Dad to Nigeria as missionaries and Who had also given them three boys had to provide for their welfare so they could fulfill His will for them. That meant God had to provide what supernatural physical protection we needed for us to fulfill His calling!

(2) Years later, when I was in college in the Viet Nam War, and many American soldiers my age were dying in the war, the draft board of Butte County, California where I lived suddenly withdrew my student draft deferment status. My birthday was one of the first dates chosen in the Selective System lottery, so I was set to be soon drafted and likely sent to Viet Nam. I'll never forget Dad's reaction to this: he said that the Lord Who had preserved me in all the life-threatening things I had faced while growing up in Africa, be it wild animals, lethal diseases or harmful people, could just as well protect me in Viet Nam!

Believing God had called me to the pastorate, I asked the draft board for a ministerial student deferment status so I could finish my training, trusting God to move the board to grant me this request. The draft board granted me the deferment, so I returned to college and went on to seminary, and was in seminary when the war ended! I was then ordained and entered the ministry, eventually becoming your pastor.

So, if we submit to God's calling for us, He provides all the protection we need from evil destruction so we can fulfill His calling! May we then trust in Christ and commit to doing His will!