A Terrorist Attack and A Refugee Crisis: The Christmas Story, Part 2 - Audio
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Last week, if you were here, you heard part one of our sermon series, our two-part sermon series, our Christmas series this year, and to be honest with you, when Neil and I were hammering it out and working it out, and we were deciding who was going to do what and kind of the themes that were going to be hit and whatnot, I said, "Neil, there is no way I would ever get up in front of the people and preach that sermon, so it's on you." And he did. If you weren't here, I mean, let me just remind you what happened. Listen to just the title of the sermon series, which he came up with, by the way, just FYI, a terrorist attack and a refugee crisis, the story of Christmas, not what you normally thought of when you set up your creation or your nativity scene or did your advent calendar. And it was really even more fascinating if you were here last week and you were listening, Neil told a story to begin the sermon, and the story was kind of gut-wrenching, let's be honest. It was the story of a terrorist attack, and he framed this tale of a leader, a president, a king of a country who finds out that there are terrorists in his midst. And he's trying to respond because everyone in this, in the capital city of this country is frightened and scared because they've got inside intelligence that this is happening. And so this king takes drastic measures to eliminate the threat, and then Neil read from Matthew 2. And it was revealed that the terrorist attack was the birth of Christ, a new king who was going to upset the status quo, who was going to be a threat to the people in power, to the peace of the city. And it really was uncomfortable. When we were talking about it, it was uncomfortable. When I was listening to the message this week, it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for us to think as we are in 2015 as Americans, especially in the midst of just horrible things that have happened recently in both San Bernardino and Paris, we are very heightened, very sensitive to the threat of terrorism. And to hear the story of Christmas told in such a way that we honestly identified a little more with Herod than with Mary and Joseph made things really uncomfortable. In the perspective, Herod, the people of Jerusalem, the birth of a new king, was like a terrorist attack. Herod's response ignored the possibility of heavenly realities and focused on what honestly we focus on today. Real politic. What are we going to do about this? But Neil did bring out some major differences. Thank the Lord. Unlike terrorists today, Jesus gave himself to bring life and not to take it away. Jesus wasn't terrorizing people, he was terrorizing demonic powers and the enemy Satan. And yet even in light of those caveats, in the midst of our current political discourse, in the midst of, let's be honest, the climate of fear that you and I live in when we think about our country and our world, it is worth asking, are we only focused on this? And are we doing anything different than Herod? And if not, is that a problem? And if so, is it okay? So thank heavens, I did not preach that sermon. I just, wow, bold man, bold, bold move. I get a happier one, the refugee crisis. Before we look at the text for today, I'm just going to set up a little bit, want to talk
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In part two of this message (Matthew 2:13-15), Pastor Tom discusses refugees in Biblical history, reminding us that believers are obligated to serve the interests of the gospel in all of our interactions with strangers.