What do you expect on Christmas Day?
For many years our family did much the same thing.
All kids we would wake up early in the morning, even my sister who was normally a sleepy head.
We expected gifts under the tree, so we’d rush out to the Christmas tree to make sure they were there.
Then persuade mum and dad to get out of bad.
We’d open our gifts.
Then go to church, because that is what is expected.
Then come home and get dressed in something comfortable but good, jump in the car for a 45 minute trip to have lunch with one bunch of the relatives.
We always expected our aunty to bring the beetroot.
And we always expected her to be late.
And we always expected dad to eat too much.
and to play cricket.
After lunch and some gift sharing we would jump in the car and drive around 45 minutes in another direction to meet up with a different group of relatives...
And again we expected there to be plenty of food and more gifts.
What are you expecting at Christmas?
Special food. A lot of food. Perhaps you are someone who expects not too much in the way of food at Christms.
Presents. Particular types of presents from particualr types of people.
Maybe you expect families to get together. Or perhaps you expect to be seperated from your family.
Maybe you look forward to Christmas Day being a day of rest.
At Christmas we all expect things.
Christmas is really about God’s story of God coming into our world.
And we have expectations of God.
Who God is and who God will be in our lives!!
What are your expectations of God?
Who do you think God is?
If I was to ask you to describe God in one page or to paint of a picture that resembled him, what would it look like?
Would it look like how God has been active throughout history?
The story of Christmas highlights that we should expect the unexpected from God.
Even at church during Christmas we expect to hear a familiar story.
So imagine the faces on the congregation and his mum, when one of the children in a Christmas play decided to show some initiative.
Mary and Joseph had just approached the innkeeper for a room and he replied no.
The child playing the innkeeper however wasn’t quite happy with the answer he was supposed to give and so continued…
Look we have no rooms left, but you can have mine, so long as you leave the donkey outside and tell mum that you made all the mess.
That young innkeeper, surprised everyone at Christmas.
And the story of Christmas is how God begins to surprise everyone.
Luke chapter 2 is one of the accounts of Jesus birth and in this account we see some things that highlight we should expect the unexpected.
In Luke 2:1-6,
we see that God chose an inconvenient place for Jesus to enter the world.
Keep in mind Mary was pregnant.
Now gentlemen if you were God, do you think it would be a good idea to send a pregnant women 70 miles or around 112 kilometres walking or on the back of a donkey?
Ladies if you were pregenant would you like doing it?
This is exactly what God did.
Jesus wasn’t even born in His own town,
there would have been few friends around.
And God can often do things that appear to us to be inconvienent.
But often there is a good reason behind it.
In Luke 2:7,
we discover that place wasn’t even fancy, it was probably a little uncomfortable.
It was out the back of the hotel, a stable.
If Prince Frederick and Princess Mary (of Denmark) announced they were coming to Burnie/Devonport/Launceston with their children during a busy time…
Do you think they would be happy to stay in the mayor’s back shed, because everything is booked out. Would you?
Probably not.
But for God he chose to enter this world by being born in a stable.
Amongst the animals, mate if you have ever been to a show and taken yoru children through the animal enclosures you get a good idea what that would have smelt like
Think about it for a moment if God was born in a stable, then it was possible for even Him to be visited by farm workers.
That highlights something about God…
He is accessible to all people.
No matter who you are, God is accessible.
Now in Luke 2:8-20, we see God chose an unusual group of people to be the first to see Jesus.
Not only this they were responsible for sharing the fact that in Jesus God had come into this world.
He chose shepherds people who were not well respected, who society often shunned.
Shepherds were people who often were out in the fields mixing with sheep for months on end, with no showers and plenty of sheep.
They also had a reputation for being thieves.
They were not liked by many people.
However God chose them to go about the place and tell everyone that Jesus was born, and it must of had some effect because we are here, aren’t we?
And God continues to act in surprising ways.
To understand this story even a little more it is helpful to understand the Jews at the time.
Just over 2000 years ago there were a group of people in Jerusalem we call the Jews who were waiting for someone special to come.
This group of people were followers of God.
They had some indication that God would send a special person to come and be their leader.
And how did they know this?
Because they listened and read some parts of the scriptures.
Their bible consisted of what we now know as the Old Testament, the books from Genesis through to Malachi.
These scriptures contained signs of not only who God would send but also how God acts.
It showed God’s approach to life.
However the Jewish people’s expectations of God was limited.
They expected God would operate according to their thinking.
To how they perceived things.
To their visions of a leader.
However the Old Testament also indicated that God may surprise them.
And so whilst the Old Testament clearly shows God promising a leader,
it also hints that this leader although he comes for all people will not be accepted by all.
For instance in Isaiah 53, we hear the following
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
The Jewish people framed their ideas of who this leader would be based not entirely on the scriptures but on their own feelings of what God should be doing.
They expected God to send them the type of Messiah who was interested and able to guarantee them worldly success, physically defeat their enemies and help them eventually control the world and everyone else.
At the time the Jewish people were being controlled by foreigners, the Romans.
They wanted them to be overthrown, and for some of the Jewish people they wanted to control the whole world.
Do you ever do that with God?
Now we may not want to control the whole world, but often we only judge God on what He is doing for me, and is he making my life more comfortable.
Maybe you have stopped coming to church, because God hasn’t delivered these things for you, you want.
However this is why it is so important that we are continually engaging with God.
That we constantly engage this book(hold up the bible) and participate as often as we can in worship services, bible studies and other Christian activities.
It is in these places we get a clearer picture of who God is and how He operates.
This year I encourage each one of you to engage God and listen to him...
When we do we will often be pleasantly surprised.
Our approach to life will be influenced by His.
And we also receive many, many gifts from Him.
You see God had better and bigger ideas than the early Jews
And He has a better and bigger ideas than us.
God is not limited to any human thinking.
God is not just focused on the short term,
on the things that can disappear.
God is concerned about your long term welfare, about whether you will be in heaven or not.
God wants you to be with him and all other Christians forever.
That is why he sent Jesus.
In Jesus we have a gift that no one else can give.
In Jesus we get to experience God.
Yesterday in the sermon I mentioned that the purpose of Jesus can be found in his name.
His name means someone sent to save his people from their sins.
That is the type of leader Jesus is, he is an active leader, saving people from their sins.
Like the Jews of Jesus time we often are seeking to be saved from other people or things.
From bad leaders, from poor governments, from increasing prices, from bad bosses or unfair tactics, and the list goes on etc
And God does help us when we face these difficult times however God is also doing something far more.
The type of leader God sends to earth is one that helps each one of us individually experience and gain our place in heaven.
He does this by not just telling us what we need to do to get to heaven,
but by making it possible for us to be there.
He does this by living and leading in away that makes heaven possible for you.
That is God’s gift of Christmas to you.
So when you look at baby Jesus remember he is a gift for you, that no one else can give.
That at Christmas you get the best gift of all, eternal life.
So at Christmas and throughout your life I encourage you to expect the unexpected from God.
Open up the bible and consider it his personal introduction to you.
Allow His ways to surprise you.
AMEN
