I heard the story once of a great Cherokee wood carver. He took logs and sat them on a stump outside his back door and sat in front of that log sometimes for hours just staring at it. Finally, he would pick up his carving tools and start carving the most beautiful of things out of the wood.
He was known for his intricate details in feathers of eagles, or the look of sadness in the eyes of the faces he carved. A tourist once asked him how he decided what to carve, and the young man said that he looks for the picture that is already in the wood, then just takes the excess wood away, leaving the beautiful finished image. He said people would continually ask him how he came up with the ideas as to what he was going to carve.
People are curious about everything. For hundreds of centuries, people wanted to know what God looked like, too. Many thought He might have the face of a demanding judge or strict disciplinarian. It seems we always put the face on God that we fear the most.
On a Christmas eve, some 2,000 years ago, God took off His mask and showed the world what He looked like. He let us see Him how He really looks. We have all hard what we call “the Christmas Story”, and we all feel very comfortable with Jesus in a manger, don’t we? But we must be very careful, too.
Just as God will use everything for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, the enemy will also try to use everything good to destroy us. I think the biggest difference between God and Satan (other than one being good and the other one evil) is that God does things out in the open. He hides nothing to those who want to see it. But the devil is always lurking in the hidden shadows. He works in the dark and doesn’t want anyone to see what he is doing, for fear of being rejected.
We must be careful because there is danger in the manger. Let me explain. It has been proven that if you drive the same route to work every day for a number of years, you become so used to it, you stop paying attention, and start letting your mind wander off the potential hazards and onto more pleasant thoughts.
In the same way, those of us who have been in church for many years sometimes find the story of Jesus so familiar, so route, that we actually become resistant to the meaning of the manger. Just like driving that same route to work, we become so used to the manger that we stop paying attention to it and just go through the motions; we actually let ourselves become immune to the birth of Christ. And when we do that, we open ourselves to all kinds of dangers.
Are we so used to the story that we miss the Christ in it? Are we so used to the story that we don’t see how God really looks?
It was Christmas time again, and the little girl watched as her mother was so busy scheduling parties and get-togethers with family and friends that she had no time to relax. Her father was also busy putting up the outside lights and decorating the yard for Christmas that he, too, had no time to relax.
In fact, the little girl noticed how they kept telling her to get out of their way as they worked. This made her feel very lonely at the time of year everyone should feel included, so she prayed that God would forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us.
Christmas should not be a time of rushing, but a time of loving. And that brings us to the heart of this morning’s message.
1. IT REVOLVES AROUND A MANGER – BUT WHY?
I am sure that if God had asked me to plan the entrance of His Son into this world, I would have never chosen a cold stable with a manger for a cradle as a back drop. But in that lowly setting, we actually find the true simplicity of our Lord.
The mystery of Christ is beyond all human understanding, but because we have gotten so used to the story, we somehow have overlooked the mystery and have taken the birth of Christ for granted. Somehow, we seem to think we deserve it, or in some way have earned it. But the God who revealed Himself that night did it in such a way as to show His true personality. He did it not because of anything we are, but because of what He is.
His true personality; His true looks; were the personality and looks of true love. He loved us enough to give us His Son, knowing what we would do to Him. Last Sunday night, Willie brought to our attention something we too often forget. He told us how very much God loved us. He loved us enough to give us His only Son so that we might kill Him, and in so doing, find a way to be released from the bondage of sin.
Willie said that God didn’t just offer His Son to those who loved Him, but to those who spit on Him, beat Him, and hung Him on the cross. He loved us so much He offered His Son so that His Son might offer us a way out. That is what God really looks like; absolute love.
And how did He reveal Himself that wonderful night so long ago? He reached down to the lowly in life – those who nobody else loved or wanted and offered His Son. This Christ-child who would change the world was offered in the most humble of settings. I think that in itself was meant to help us become humble to Him.
I don’t think God entered this world just to show us what He looked like, though. He came to save us. He came to reconcile us back to Him; if only we would just choose to do so. And, if God would do that for us, what should we do for Him?
2. WE SHOULD REALIZE OUR GREAT NEED FOR GOD
First, understand this very important message. God did not need to come into this world; He wanted to come into this world. If there was a need on any part, it was on our part. We needed God, and we should be forever grateful that God loved us enough to respond to our need.
ISAIAH 7:14 says,
‘Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’
In MATTHEW 1:23, it repeats what the prophet Isaiah said, and went on to explain that the name ‘Immanuel’ means ‘God with us.’
Why did God see the need to send us His Son? We see the manger as this nice warm and fuzzy scene of a baby lying in a manger. That is not the correct way to look at it. We should see the manger and always remember that God sent His Son to us because something is very wrong with us!
In GALATIANS 4:4-5, we find out just why we needed Jesus.
‘But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son – born of a woman – born under law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons.’
Did you pay attention to that? God has given us the full rights of being His children. We have been very bad children. We have been rebellious to our Father and we have done all the things He told us not to do.
In COLOSSIANS 1:21, we are told
‘Once, you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.’
That may not sound like a very nice portrayal of humans, but it is a very truthful one. But, be of good cheer! But because of His great love for us, God has invited us to become a part of His household once again. All we have to do is accept the invitation and reach out to Jesus.
In COLOSSIANS 1:22 tells us what will happen once we do that.
‘But now, He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death – to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusations.’
Just like the innkeeper had a sign out front saying he had no room in his inn, we have posted a sign saying we have no room for God in our hearts. And now it starts to be clear just why we needed Jesus to enter into our world.
From the sin of Adam and Eve, God has been exiled from our hearts. But because of His great love for us and desire to have us be reconciled to Him once again, He sent His Son to rescue us.
The danger in the manger is that we become so used to hearing it and seeing it, we end up equating it to the celebration of a gift-giving holiday, not the birth of our Lord and Rescuer. The manger should prompt us to think about how we have been given something so incredible that we do not deserve in the least. And the manger should remind us that the reason we have it is that God loves us so much.
If our greatest need would have been for information, God would have sent a professor. If our greatest need would have been for entertainment, He would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was to be forgiven, so He sent us Jesus.
ROMANS 5:8 says,
‘But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died - for us.’
Each time we view a manger scene we should be reminded of our sinfulness and God’s righteousness. You and I - our sinfulness - was the foremost reason for God entering this world.
But why a manger?
3. THE MANGER SHOWS THE HUMILITY OF GOD
God could have announced His arrival in many ways. He could have catered to the kings and had them tell the world; he could have made the Pharisees announce that He had come as one of them. But He didn’t. He chose to do it in love.
God sent an angel to tell a young virgin that she would give birth to the Christ-child. And when that birth came about, He chose a stable and a manger. He did this to show the world that He came for everybody, not just the upper echelon of society. And when He first announced the birth, God came to the lowest of the lowest; the shepherds in the fields. It was to them that He first announced the birth of His Son.
My dad used to tell us that it is better not to make waves in life, but if you ever get in a situation where you have to, make them as big and as quickly as you can to get everybody’s total and immediate attention. If I had one chance to make a grand entrance and get everybody’s attention, I don’t think I would choose a manger in a stable. I don’t think I would notify the guys working out in the fields by night. I am a human, and being human, I would probably choose something as grandiose as I could think of. But that is me, and I am just a human.
God, however, has more sense than I do, and He chose a manger. It is in the manger that we see His uncomplicated and perfect wisdom. We needed someone who had never sinned - to die a death that would satisfy God’s justice and righteousness. God humbled Himself, and in so doing, he allows me to approach Him.
Everyone cannot go and visit kings and royalty anytime they want or need to. They are prohibited from being around those people. But, everyone can go and visit a manger. God wanted His Son to be available to everybody from the highest of kings to the lowest of people; the child, the prostitute, the drug-user, you and me.
He wanted us to know that there is nothing He would not do for us. If we really look at it, the manger is not really the stuff of pretty Christmas cards and plays. It is what transformations are made from; where the most important of all decisions are made. Immanuel in the manger is how God came to be with us.
My prayer is that none of us can ever again see the manger and not stop to think about the details of that scene. I pray we will see God in the flesh, our desperate need for God, and the humiliation He went through later – all because He loved us enough to want us to come back to Him.
God offers us more than this world does, but most of us never take the time to see it. There was a 15-year old boy named Joey, whose mother died at birth. She was a severe alcoholic, and that had affected his pre-natal development. The result was that he was slightly retarded.
Joey’s dad always took him to church, and he especially looked forward to Christmas at church. There was always a Christmas tree with lots of gifts under it. Each gift had the name of a young child. Even though Joey was a little too old for this, they always included him because he enjoyed it so much.
On one particular Christmas, Joey and his dad got there early. Joey ran to the tree to look for his present. There it was! It was the biggest present under the tree. It was all wrapped and looked so pretty. Joey’s anticipation skyrocketed.
All during the service, all he could think about was opening that present. What was in it? Was it a sled – a bicycle – would could be in that biggest box?
Finally, at the end of the service, the pastor called all the kids up to the tree and began handing out the gifts. Joey couldn’t wait. He was so excited! He finally got his gift and he ran over to the front pew and sat down to open it. With his eyes full of joy, he tore open the wrapping paper and opened the box.
He suddenly stopped and just stared in the box. His eyes began to fill with tears and he began to sob. The box was empty. Somebody had played a game on him, and it hurt him. Who would do this to him? The gifts under the tree always promised something good inside, but now, he found the box that had been wrapped so pretty was empty. There wasn’t any gift inside. Somebody tricked him with a lie.
Can you imagine how hurt Joey was? But that is what the world does to us. The world offers us all kinds of promises that are wrapped in very pretty boxes. The world promises us that if we would but follow it, we would find the joy of a lifetime, or if we forget about serving the Lord, we will be rewarded with everything we ever wanted.
But what really happens? When we turn our backs on God and follow the world, what do we get? We get an empty box, don’t we? We get lied to. There is no reward.
It is my prayer that we see the manger as the only real promise we have. The manger offers us the true gifts of God Almighty. The world is offering us the empty box. I pray you see this in the light of Christ, and choose Jesus above everything else in your life.
INVITATION
