Changed By The Spirit Of Christmas Series

INTRODUCTION:

Christmas time! My favorite time of year.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.

It’s a story about a greedy, grumpy old man named Scrooge who hated Christmas and everything about it. Scrooge lived for his money, but his money brought him little happiness. Instead, he lived a lonely life of bitterness, with the goal of making those around him half as miserable as he was. He had no love, pity, or compassion for anyone. And with each harsh word and hateful action, Scrooge forged a chain of debt that wrapped around his soul.

You know one of the parts that get to me every time I watch it even though I’ve seen practically every version of every movie made a million times… is when Old Scrooge speaks to the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge says to Marley as he tries to justify himself, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.” Then Marley’s Ghost cries out making Ebeneezer Scrooge and me jump, “Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.”

Ebeneezer Scrooge had missed the point of life itself. He thought that life centered around one central figure – himself. And a gold coin became his god for whom he gave up all that was precious and priceless.

You know the story. For Ebeneezer Scrooge to change his ways, he had to be visited by three spirits – The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas’s yet to come. He had to be shown the ugliest and selfishness of his heart. He had to be shown that life does not consist of the accumulation of wealth, but one is wealthy who gives with a cheerful heart. And at the end of the movie (or book) we see a once greedy/grumpy old man become a joyful and generous man full of kindness. A once dark and dreary story ends as a happy one.

I love that story. It’s a story about change. It’s a story about transformation. It’s a story about second chances.

To me, that’s what sums up the Christmas Story. That’s what sums up the reason for God sending us His Son. He sent His Son so that we may see the error of our ways, the ugliness of what we’ve become, and the selfishness we live for without Him. He entered our dark and dreary world full of pain and corruption and became one of us. “The Word Became Flesh and dwelt among us! And we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” - John 1:14 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” - John 3:16-17

The Christmas Story is about second chances, about change, about the transformation that was made possible because God … gave.

This month we are going to look at that story together. And we going to ask what does it mean to be among those favored by God, to be in God’s favor, and to be changed by the story of Christmas.

BODY:

Please Turn in your Bibles to... Luke chapter 1 and verse 26

[Guzik] Luke’s Gospel is the longest of the four gospels. He documents the story of Jesus all the way from the annunciation of the one who prepared the way of the Messiah (John the Baptist) to Jesus' resurrection and ascension. And it is Luke’s Gospel where we find the most written about Jesus’ birth.

Luke 1:26-27 New International Version (NIV) says…

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

This follows the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth who would be the parents of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. Elizabeth is six months pregnant.

God sends the angel Gabriel to a place called Nazareth. This is the same Gabriel that spoke to the prophet Daniel 550 years earlier foretelling the coming of the Messiah. This is also the same Gabriel that spoke to Zechariah in the temple announcing the birth of John the Baptist. And now the angel appears to a young woman named Mary.

Nazareth was a place with a bad reputation if any. A small village that is not even spoken of in the OT, in the Apocrypha, or in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus. Nazareth may have been in the general region of Galilee, but it was actually located 15 miles away from the Sea of Galilee. In Jesus’ time, it was 6 miles from the closest major road with no good water supply. Only a simple well in the center of the village. The future disciple of Jesus, Nathanael, said this about Nazareth, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”