Last time, we looked at one way to miss Christmas (familiarity, complacency, and hard-
heartedness). This week, we’ll look at another common way that prevents people from rightly
seeing the coming for Christ. The second way is fear. You may be asking, “fear of what?” How
could fear be a reason for you to miss Christmas this year?
In Matthew 2 we read: “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of
Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he who
has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship
him.' When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and
assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ
was to be born.”
In verse 3, Matthew uses the word "troubled" that means to cause inward turmoil,
stir up, disturb, unsettle, throw into confusion. It carries the idea of total panic. Why was Herod
so afraid of Jesus? Why would the news result in such great fear?
In order to answer the question, we need to know more about Herod. This is not the only
Herod mentioned in the Bible. This one is Herod the Great, known for his fear and jealousy.
Julius Caesar appointed Herod's father to be the governor of Judea during the Roman
occupation. Herod's dad managed to get his son, Herod (the Great), into office. Herod was
successful in managing the Jewish guerrilla bands who fought against Rome, which earned him
high marks. Herod wasn't a Jew, but he managed to get into positon to rule them by going after
their gods and playing their political games.
Needless to say, he was more than a little worried when he heard of a coming King of
the Jews. That was a threat to him. Herod was no push over, by the way. One time he went
swimming with his wife's brother and then had men dive in and drowned him. He then put on a
big funeral and pretended to be all sad. Then he killed his wife and her mother and his 2 sons,
because he was so afraid someone would take the throne from him. The kicker of it all was
when he was about to die. Herod went to Jericho and gathered all the important people of
Jerusalem and put them in prison. Then he commanded that they should all be killed the moment
he died. This guaranteed that there would be weeping and mourning in Jerusalem. He wanted
weeping even if it was for someone else. Remember he also commanded all the male children in
Bethlehem and surrounding regions 2 years old and younger to be killed. He was a man warped
by sin who would do anything to keep someone from taking the throne.
Fear causes many people to miss Christmas. Just as Herod wasn't going to let anyone
mess with his authority, position, plans for the future, wealth, name, lifestyle, etc, so do many
others. The coming of Jesus is not simply the coming of a baby, but the coming of a king who is
setting up a new kind of kingdom. In this kingdom, personal interests and agendas are not first
priority. Jesus doesn’t come to make our lives more comfortable, our finances more secure, our
name to be more recognized, or all our dreams to succeed. His kingdom is about God’s glory and
our personal transformation, so that we are more like him. The difference between God’s kingdom expectations and ours are why people so often struggle. Just like Herod and the Jews, they want a king who fits neatly into and serves their own kingdom agendas.
Christ’s arrival is good news precisely because it interrupts your kingdom. His kingdom
shakes yours, and leaves you feeling unworthy and lacking. His kingdom often takes your
highest kingdom priorities and shakes them up. So how could that be good news? The answer is
that it’s good news because our kingdoms are self-centered.
Why did Jesus come? Here are 50 reasons:
1. To Absorb the Wrath of God (Galatians 3:13; Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:10)
2. To Please His Heavenly Father (Isaiah 53:10; Ephesians 5:2)
3. To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected (Hebrews 5:8; Hebrews 2:10)
4. To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead (Hebrews 13:20-21)
5. To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners (Romans 5:7-8; John 3:16; Ephesians 1:7)
6. To Show His Own Love for Us (Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:25; Galatians 2:20)
7. To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us (Colossians 2:13)
8. To Become a Ransom for Many (Mark 10:45)
9. For the Forgiveness of Our Sins (Ephesians 1:7; Matthew 26:28)
10. To Provide the Basis for Our Justification (Romans 5:9, Romans 3:24, Romans 3:28)
11. To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness (Philippians 2:8, Philippians 3:9; Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21)
12. To Take Away Our Condemnation (Romans 8:34)
13. To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation (Galatians 5:11, Galatians 6:12)
14. To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful (Mark 14:24; Jeremiah 32:40)
15. To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect (Hebrews 10:14; Colossians 1:22; 1 Corinthians 5:7)
16. To Give Us a Clear Conscience (Hebrews 9:14)
17. To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us (Romans 8:32)
18. To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness (Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 8:16-17)
19. To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him (John 3:16)
20. To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age (Galatians 1:4)
21. To Reconcile Us to God (Romans 5:10)
22. To Bring Us to God (1 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 2:13)
23. So That We Might Belong to Him (Romans 7:4; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Acts 20:28)
24. To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place (Hebrews 10:19)
25. To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God (John 2:19-21)
26. To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
(Hebrews 7:23-27, Hebrews 9:24-26, Hebrews 10:11-12)
27. To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16)
28. To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry (1 Peter 1:18-19)
29. To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin (Revelation 1:5-6; Hebrews 13:12)
30. That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness (1 Peter 2:24)
31. So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God (Romans 7:4)
32. To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:15)
33. To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting (Galatians 6:14)
34. To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him (Galatians 2:20)
35. To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning (Ephesians 5:25)
36. To Create a People Passionate for Good Works (Titus 2:14)
37. To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love (1 Peter 2:19-21; Hebrews 12:3-4; Philippians 2:5-8)
38. To Create a Band of Crucified Followers (Luke 9:23; Matthew 10:38)
39. To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death (Hebrews 2:14-15)
40. So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death (1 Thessalonians 5:10; Philippians 1:21,23; 2 Corinthians 5:8)
41. To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead (Romans 6:5; Romans 8:11; 2 Timothy 2:11)
42. To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities (Colossians 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8)
43. To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel (1 Corinthians 1:18; Romans 1:16)
44. To Destroy the Hostility Between Races (Ephesians 2:14-16)
45. To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation (Revelation 5:9)
46. To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World (John 11:51-52; John 10:16)
47. To Rescue Us from Final Judgment (Hebrews 9:28)
48. To Gain His Joy and Ours (Hebrews 12:2)
49. So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honor (Hebrews 2:9; Philippians 2:7-9; Revelation 5:12)
50. To Show That the Worst Evil Is Meant by God for Good (Acts 4:27-28)