I was losing my voice even though I didn’t feel sick;
At 8:30, I confused Chris Macedo with how I received new members, forcing him to audible a time for “turning and greeting.” He called me out on it, and so when I stepped up to speak I told the congregation that Chris had been loyal team member for seven years but now was moving on to “pursue other interests”;
Wondering if my voice would last until 12:30 made me loss my mental place;
I met a new friend at one of the services who put the word “atheist” on his name tag (that’s an opportunity!);
I wanted to do an invitation but I wanted it to be “low key.” In that regard, I probably set the bar lower than I should have.
In spite of all that, I felt good about the Almost Killing Jesus message which landed on this bottom line: Jesus will frustrate you when you try to eliminate him.
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(I began by reading Matthew 2:13-18 to the congregation.)
13 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.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 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.”[c]
16 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. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “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.”[d]
When King Herod . . .
“When King Herod” Now: just who is he? He was a long time ruler on behalf of the Roman govt. in the area around Jerusalem. He was half Jewish and half what they call Idumean., he became governor of the region in 47 BC and within 7 years he had been given the title king. He was ruthless, promiscuous (he had ten wives!), and one of his primary character defects was paranoia. On the other hand, he was generous – one time he melted down some of his own gold to help out some of his own subjects. He kept the peace in Jerusalem and its surroundings, so the Romans liked him. In that respect he was like the late Saddam Hussein – you wouldn’t want to have him over for dinner, really, but he did keep the order. The trains ran on time.
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
Circle that word “disturbed” will you? And why is Herod disturbed? Because a king has been born in a land that already has a king. And the sitting king doesn’t like it! A battle for authority is begin set up. And when it says “all Jerusalem with him” – it’s not so much that they didn’t like the thought of a newborn king; it’s more that they knew if Herod’s not happy, nobody’s happy. But remember: Herod’s authority is being challenged . . . by a baby. An uninvited, unwelcome, invader in diapers. And that baby invasion makes this king does all kinds of illogical things (even more than marrying 10 women). Look at 2:7-8:
So: Unnumbered wise men from another land, YOU go find this new king & when you do, let me know where he is. I want to go and worship him. So after he was disturbed in 2:3, he is now deceptivein 2:7 because the LAST thing Herod wants to do to this baby invader is to worship him. He’s got other plans.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Ah, the Magi, aided by the Lord!, frustrate Herod and never give him the report, never provide their GPS coordinates because God in a dream had provided them with info that Herod didn’t want to worship the baby; he wanted something else entirely, which we find out in 2:13:
13 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 the Lord tells Joseph to change directions like the Magi, though does it with more specificity: “to kill him.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
(I DO love the “outwitted”! Next translation I’m adding “outfoxed” and “outplayed” to it!) See: Jesus is always one step ahead of Herod. The harder Herod tries to eliminate, the more skillful God is to frustrate. Which leads to the awful, horrific scene we read at the very beginning, that scene in 2:16:
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.
Murderous rage. Infanticide. Given the size of Bethlehem, most experts figure that we are not talking thousands of little boys or even hundreds. More like 20 or 30. And your first thought to that is “Oh, that’s as bad as I first thought. That’s not so many.” Unless one of them was yours. It was a gruesome roundup on Bethlehem and one reason we squirm so much at this scene is because face it: we’re not used to other people dying for Jesus; we’re used to him dying for other people. Others don’t sacrifice their lives for him; he does so for them.
Hey Talbot, I met a friend today who told me he has a year sober. I was listening to him talk and he said that one day a year ago he wandered into church, which he never does. And at that church, the pastor was talking about recovery a lot. He said the pastor talked all about AA and the 12 steps. He said he knew God was speaking to him and he hasn’t had a drink since. I told him that was cool and asked what church. He said it was . . . Good Shepherd. I thought that was cool.
You could be that guy today! Can’t believe there’s a church that talks as much about recovery as we do! And you know your higher power is taking on the name of the Highest Power, Jesus himself. Jesus will frustrate you when you try to eliminate him.
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
He started out disturbed, then deceptive, then deranged and now DEAD. The would-be eliminator gets eliminated himself and even his son can finish what dad started:
22 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,
The frustration continues beyond Herod even to today. I believe that Jesus will frustrate you all the way to the altar where you can fully surrender to the earth shattering declaration: He is Lord. Jesus will frustrate you when you try to eliminate him.