Christmas Questions: Discovery
Luke 2:8-20
Rev. Brian Bill
11/30/08
Our culture really gets into Christmas cards. It’s reported that Americans send 2.1 billion of them each year. Hallmark alone has more than 2,700 Christmas card designs. I confess that, like Nathan in our drama, I don’t always read the cards but do like to catch up on those famous “Our-family-is-perfect Christmas letters” often found inside. Some cards just seem to be sentimental and sappy while others are just plain predictable. And a few make us laugh.
I came across some comical cards that made me chuckle like jolly old St. Nick. Check out this one: “Christmas is just plain weird. What other time of the year do you sit around staring at a dead tree in your living room and eat candy out of your socks?”
Behind all the serious and light-hearted cards, stands the truth that at Christmas we celebrate the sending of God’s Son into our world. We’re beginning a new series today called “Christmas Questions.” Today we’re looking at the theme of discovery. At the heart of Christianity is the invitation to come and see if what the Bible says is really true. God is an inviting God and wants each of us to pursue Him. To discover means “a thing found out through exploration, or for the first time ascertained or recognized.”
One night a couple months ago our family heard a loud noise in the neighborhood which was followed by what appeared to be a flash of lightning. We immediately lost power, as did all the houses around us. We scrambled to find flashlights and candles. I was very curious as to what happened so Becca and I got in the car and started driving in the direction of the noise and flashing light. While we were driving down darkened streets, we noticed a bunch of people walking and driving in the same direction we were. I commented to Becca, “Look at all those crazy people trying to figure out what happened.” She just rolled her eyes at me. When we came out of our subdivision, we saw flashing lights near a power pole and learned that a car had hit it, thus knocking out the transformer. Now here’s the deal. If we had not done some discovery, we never would have known what happened.
It’s my prayer that we’ll get past all the Christmas clutter this season and discover what really happened 2,000 years ago when the babe in Bethlehem burst onto the scene. Marcel Proust has some great words in this regard: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” It’s my hope that we will have new eyes to see the Nativity.
Have you heard the saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt?” That basically means that the more familiar we are with something, at best we get bored with it or at worst, we start resenting it. That’s why many of us just chuck our Christmas cards. Let’s try hard to encounter these accounts as if we were hearing them for the first time.
People had been pleading with God to come down into their world for a long time. Listen to Psalm 144:5: “Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down…” Isaiah said something similar in Isaiah 64:1: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down…” Isaiah is bold about his longing for something more. He dared to believe that something better was coming even though his culture was corrupt and everything around him seemed so dark. He is longing for the Lord to somehow come down into his world to make sense out of all the nonsense, to bring peace to all the problems, to dispel the darkness and to extricate evil. He’s hungry to have the Holy One enter our whacked-out world in an extraordinary manner.
Friends, aren’t you glad that the Lord has come down? Please turn in your Bibles to Luke 2. Most people in America are familiar with this passage because every December since 1965, in between scenes of the Grinch slithering around Whoville and George Bailey looking for a wonderful life and Rudolf not playing reindeer games, we hear from Linus who knows the true meaning of Christmas. Listen to the answer he gave to Charlie Brown’s question: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
--> YouTube Video: Charlie Brown’s Christmas
Let’s set the scene. An angelic intervention takes place when God rocks the routine of some guys who are just out doing their job. Luke 2:8: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” In the early pages of the Bible, shepherding was considered a noble profession but in the first century shepherding had lost its luster. Shepherds made up the lowest class of people, coming in just ahead of the lepers. Living out in the fields away from society made them outcasts. Most of them had foul mouths and were ready to fight at the drop of a hat. Kind of sounds like me in my high school days.
Except for an occasional bleep from the sheep, the night was quiet. In the midst of the mundane, an angel of the Lord suddenly shows up. Look at verse 9: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” Into the darkness of a silent night came the brightness of the glory of the Lord. I’m sure the shepherds were rubbing their eyes and shaking in their sandals. In fact, the word “terrified” means that they were alarmed and agitated. This is totally understandable because angels often announced judgment but this time they had a message of joy.
“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.” Once again, an angel has to tell humans to chill out in the Christmas story. Some of you are afraid about your job or your health today. The reason the shepherds did not need to be afraid is because the messenger was bringing “good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’”
The phrase “good news” is where we get the word “evangelize.” Notice that this is good news of great joy. The Greek word here is “mega” which means exceedingly, large, loud and mighty. It’s a superlative of greatest degree. Wycliffe translates it this way: “I evangelize to you a great joy.” This message is for “all the people” but I want you to see the word “you” as well. It’s for the whole world but it must also become deeply personal.
As the shepherds are trying to handle the message from this one messenger, they are taken aback again: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God…” The word “suddenly” means that the heavenly host came unexpectedly. I imagine the sky filled with a multitude of messengers. The phrase “heavenly host” refers to the Lord’s army. By the way, while angels do sing in other instances, this time they say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
If we want to get our concerns and questions answered this Christmas, let’s allow the shepherds to show us a few things.
1. Until you go, you’ll never know. After witnessing this incredible display of unbridled adoration and praise, the shepherds knew that they had to move. “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’” They discussed what they should do and were unanimous in their decision to head to Bethlehem. I love verse 16 because it shows that their fear had been replaced with faith and then their faith went to their feet: “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” There was no delay. The word “hurried” carries with it the idea of speed. The idea is “come on, hurry up, and let’s bounce over to Bethlehem.”
I did a study on the word “come” this week and discovered that it appears 1,463 times in the Bible! The Almighty invites us to come to Him. Psalm 66:5: “Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!” I’m reminded of what Philip said to Nathaniel in Luke 1:46 in response to his skepticism about Jesus: “Come and see.” In John 4:29, the Samaritan woman is so moved by what Jesus told her about herself that she runs to tell others and makes this invitation: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”
I love the fact that we don’t have to pay for what God wants to give us – we couldn’t afford it anyway. Our only responsibility is to come. Check out Isaiah 55:1-3: “Come to me, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost…Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” And, when we’re wiped-out and heavy-hearted, Jesus makes this invitation to us in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” If you ever worry about whether Jesus will receive you when you come, hold onto John 6:37: “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
Drop down to Luke 2:20 where we read what happens as a result of their going: “…all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” Just think what would have happened had the shepherds delayed a few days or if they had just discussed what they had seen in the night sky. I don’t know where you are, but there’s a point in which you will never know until you go.
The offer is to come. Have you done so? Don’t hold back. Don’t stay distant. Instead, its time to discover! Until you go, you’ll never know.
2. Until you know, you’ll never show. Too many times too many try to act like Christians but the fact of the matter is that until you know Christ, you can’t do the Christian life. Once you know, it will show in the way you sow the seed of the gospel. It’s striking that the shepherds don’t pull up a bale of straw and make themselves comfortable. They didn’t hang around the manger because they knew that they were now managers of the message. Notice that the message they shared had nothing to do with seeing the amazing angels or of adoring Mary and Joseph.
They came to see Him and now they head out to herald the good news in verse 17: “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” The word “spread” means to “make known in such a way that people can understand.” We’re here today because they couldn’t keep quiet. Let me encourage you to spread the word about the service next Sunday because we’ll be tackling the topic of doubt, which many people struggle with. Our Christmas outreach services will be held right here at PBC on December 21st and we’re also putting together a creative Christmas Eve service that will be held at 6:00 p.m.
Friends, once you know Jesus, it will show. His name was Bill, a college student. He had unruly hair, wore a T-shirt with holes in it, old jeans and shoes with no socks and had just become a Christian. Located next to campus was a well-to-do church that wanted to develop a ministry to students but didn’t know how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go to church there. He walked in late, wearing his everyday wardrobe, and couldn’t find a seat because the church was full.
People noticed him walking down the center aisle and became uncomfortable. Seeing no seats anywhere, when Bill got up to the front, he just sat down right on the floor. While this was perfectly acceptable at a college fellowship, this just wasn’t done in church. The congregation became visibly uptight, tension filling the air. And then people noticed an elderly deacon in his eighties slowly making his way to Bill. He was a distinguished man with silver-gray hair and a three piece suit. He walked with a cane. As he made his way to Bill, the congregation was relieved and most thought to themselves, “I’m glad somebody is going to tell that kid he can’t sit there!”
It took some time for the deacon to reach the young man. The church became utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane on the tiled floor. All eyes focused on him. When he finally reached the college kid, he dropped his cane and with great difficulty he lowered himself to the floor and asked, “May I sit with you?”
I see two truths from this incident. First, when we know, it will show. Jesus calls us to reach out to people. Second, this is similar to what God did when He sent His Son. Jesus entered our world and wants to sit down in relationship with us.
Until you go, you’ll never know. Until you know, you’ll never show.
3. Until you show, you’ll never glow. With hearts filled with gratitude, these men break out into praise in verse 20: “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” They don’t just wonder about what they saw, they worship Him whom they saw. These rough shepherds go back to their jobs, but now do so with praise on their lips and a renewed desire to give glory to God. Psalm 34:3: “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” I love Psalm 34:5: “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” That means that when we give glory to God and praise Him with our lives, our faces will be radiant with the grace of God. When we show, we will glow.
Jesus is Hard to Ignore but Easy to Miss
In a Christmas sermon, David Devine relates a story that appeared in the Washington Post last year... “He emerged from the Metro at the Plaza Station and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt and a baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. It was 7:51 a.m. on a Friday.
For the next 45 minutes the violinist performed six great classical pieces. During that time, 1,097 people passed by. No one knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the world’s leading classical musicians, who fills concert halls. On this Friday morning Bell played on one of the most valuable violins ever made - a Stradivarius valued at $3.5 million. The train station provided good acoustics for his performance and his beautiful music filled the morning air.
Over the time that he played, seven people stopped to listen for at least a minute. 27 people gave money. Just to give a frame of reference, Bell was accustomed to getting paid $1,000 per minute in his concerts. This day, in total, he received $32.17. At the end of each piece, there was no applause - just silent indifference. The master musician was ignored. People walked past musical glory without giving it a second glance – with the exception of two people.
The first was a postal worker named John who had learned the violin as a youth. He recognized the quality of Joshua Bell’s performance and stood enjoying it from a distance. And then there was a woman named Stacy. Stacy had seen Bell in concert three weeks earlier and had recognized him. She had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was, she wasn’t about to miss it. She moved closer, positioning herself front and center. She had a huge grin on her face and she stayed until the concert was over.
Later Stacy told the reporter: ‘It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington. Joshua Bell was standing there playing in rush hour, and people were not stopping, not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I was thinking, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?’
In another place, at another time, the night was filled with heavenly music and brilliant light. Never has earth seen such glory. Angels sang to some workers about a majestic one - a Savior; the Chosen One; the long-awaited One; the Lord. His arrival was ‘good news of great joy for all people.’ Where would the workers find this glorious one? In a palace? A temple? A concert hall with an orchestra perhaps? No. An angel gave the astonishing news: ‘You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in manger.’
Who would expect to find a heavenly King in such a setting? Usually he lived among angels; now among cattle. What a surprising place to find God. The One who made the Universe placed himself in the inexperienced hands of a teenage Mom and the rough hands of a carpenter. God among the ordinary. Most people ignored him and went about their business. Only some shepherds, who were let in on the secret of his identity, stopped to acknowledge him and enter into the joy of his presence in their world. One of the puzzles of Christmas is why God did it that way. Why not make the angelic sound and light show a global event? God came as a baby in a manger for at least two reasons.
First, because God wants to be accessible to all people – especially to the least and lowest of us. Like a violinist playing in a train station, God made himself available to the masses so we can all enjoy the beauty of his gift.
A second reason for God coming as He did is that He does not impose himself on people; rather he invites us to enter into relationship with him. The Shepherds heard the angel’s message, sought the Christ and found him. God invites us to seek him too. Finding the virtuoso in the subway, John and Stacy rejoiced. Finding Jesus in the manger, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told.
A Christmas Card from Christ
Christmas cards first came on the scene over 150 years ago in England when Sir Henry Cole commissioned John Horsley to create a card that depicted the destitute that needed help during the holidays. But actually, the first Christmas Card was sent by God himself when He announced the birth of His Son, sent to depraved and destitute people like you and like me.
I want to propose that there are three words that appear in God’s Christmas card to us.
* Close. The shepherds were close to Christmas but still needed to make the journey to Jesus. You may be close yourself but you’ve not yet made the discovery that will change your life. Jeremiah 29:13-14: “‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord…”
* Cost. The shepherds left their sheep behind so they could look at the Lamb of God. It will cost you something to discover Christ. Don’t be afraid to pay the price. To know Christ will cost you more than what you spend on presents – it will cost you your very life.
* Come. Like the shepherds, you don’t need to have much or know a lot, what matters is whether you’ll go or if you’ll just stay the same. It’s in the going that you’ll start knowing. Friend, God may be trying to break into your ordinary routine with the message of good news. He loves you and has sent His Son to be your Savior. How long will you continue to ignore Immanuel? When will you hurry to the Holy One? He wants to bring you joy in the midst of all the junk going on in your life. Will you receive what He has done for you? Will you put feet to your faith?
Jesus was born to the whole world but He was also born “to you.” Christmas is real history but it must become your story. Luke 2:11: “Today [that means right now – don’t hesitate or procrastinate] in the town of David a Savior [one who forgives sins] has been born to you; [personal] he is Christ [the long-awaited Messiah] the Lord [master and Leader].
It is not enough to just get sentimental during this season. I close with three questions:
* Is He “Savior” to you?
* Is He “Christ” to you?
* Is He “Lord” to you?
Until you go, you’ll never know. Until you know, you’ll never grow. Until you grow, you’ll never glow.
If you’re ready to receive the gift of Jesus right now, please pray this prayer with me.
“I’m in awe of you. Thank you for inviting me to come. I don’t understand how you can accept me when I don’t measure up. I confess that I am a sinner and I want to turn from the way I’ve been living. I need you to be my Savior and so I come to you now. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I desire to live under your lordship for the rest of my life. Thank you for not only being born but for dying in my place and rising again so that I can be born again. I now receive the gift of salvation and forgiveness by asking you to come into my life. Make me into the person you want me to be. I want to show what I know to be true and I want to grow so that I can glow for you. In the name of Immanuel, I ask this. Amen.”
