Introduction
Christmas can be a very hectic time for people as we focus on gifts and activities. Back home people are focused on various Christmas parties and social functions to go to, they have been decorating the house and Christmas tree, sending Christmas care packages to their loved one serving in a foreign land, sending Christmas cards and buying just the right Christmas present for everyone. Gifts and gift giving have always been a large part of Christmas. Take Ralphie for example, he was consumed by his desire to receive “an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.” It was a very specific gift and it had to be the real thing, not just any BB-gun. When Ralphie received his “official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time” he proclaimed that this was the best present he has received or will ever receive.
James tells us in James 1:17 that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” God always gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. Today, in Luke 2:8-20 we are going to look at the greatest gift any of us could ever be given by our Heavenly Father the Greatest Giver of Gifts that ever has been or ever will be.
Please stand with me as I read the Biblical Text.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christa the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
15 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.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 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.
PRAY
Please be seated
Tonight we are going to look at God’s greatest gift to you and me; the gift of a personal relationship with Him.
You and I are created to be in relationship with God and other people. We need God and each other. In the beginning of creation Adam and Eve have total and complete access to God. It was a completely unhindered relationship between man and his creator until mankind decided to disobey God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil after being tempted by Satan. Since that initial act of disobedience our relationship with God has been hampered by the sin of our own pride and selfishness. How it must have broken our Lord’s heart to cast his children out of the Garden of Eden. Sometimes a parent has to do what is difficult for the good of his children. But notice Gen 3:21 says that “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Even after casting them out of the Garden of Eden he continued to meet their physical needs and pursued them in order to meet their spiritual need. God personally pursues us. He began implementing a plan to restore our relationship with him from the moment we broke that relationship and on Christmas morning we celebrate the fact of John 1:1,14 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
God also pursues us humbly. He knows what is best for us. He knows what is in our best interest for the near and long term. He knows what our deepest need is but He does not force anything upon us. He allows us to make up our own mind whether we want to follow His plan or our own.
Illustration of “loving into it”.
A stock assistant was working at a grocery store on Christmas Eve. One of the things he was responsible for was the display in one of the aisles which was a pyramid of canned products. He had to rebuild this display many times throughout the day because people would inadvertently knock it down. It had been a very long day and it was 15 minutes to closing time. A little boy about 4 years old approached the display fascinated by it with his older sister nearby. The little boy reached up and took one of the cans out of the middle of the display before his sister could stop him and the entire display came crashing down. The stock assistant snapped and started yelling at the boy and demanding that he pick up every can. The little boy stood there in shock until his sister quietly bent down and started picking up the cans and restacking them. The little boy then followed her example. Once the display was rebuilt the sister apologized to the stock assistant and said, “My brother has Down’s Syndrome and is a little different. Yelling at him or demanding that he do something doesn’t work. You have to love him into it.”
That’s what God does for us. He loves us into a personal relationship with Him by sending His Son, Jesus Christ in the humble form of a baby. Can you think of any more non-threatening way that God could have extended His hand out to us and said “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”?
God pursues us publicly. He doesn’t just whisper it. He pursues us with a heavenly army. The shepherds were out in the field with their flocks at night. They were minding their own business like any other night. They were settled into the monotonous routine of every other day when something different happened. Can you just imagine the dark clear sky with all the stars twinkling like they do here? Just imagine how quiet and still the night air is when all of a sudden an angel appears. BAM!!! There it is. Like something you have never seen before!
But that was not all. The glory of the Lord shone around them. What is that? It is a white shining cloud of intolerable brightness that represents the presence of the Eternal God. It is the same brightness that was in the burning bush that called Moses. It was the pillar of light that guided the Hebrew people out of Egypt. It is the same brightness that appeared around Jesus at the Transfiguration. God Himself was present for this incredible announcement to the shepherds.
But that was not all! The test says, “SUDDENLY A GREAT COMPANY OF HEAVENLY HOST APPEARED WITH THE ANGEL!!!” That is God’s way of saying “BAM!!! The sky was filled with more angels than you can count!” And you know what they were doing? They were worshipping and praising God. It is a beautiful picture of public, heavenly worship. Picture it, an angelic choir filled the sky in the glow of the presence of God and they were saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
They were worshipping and praising Him because of the message of peace that was being sent and the prophecy given 700 years prior to this was being fulfilled. The message was then and is today, “I bring you 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.”
700 years prior to the birth of Christ the prophet Isaiah told King Ahaz to ask God for a sign to show that God was going to deal with the armies that were massing against Judah but Ahaz used a spiritual cliché saying that he did not want to put God to the test when in all actuality he did not want a sign from God because he was planning on doing things his way rather than God’s way. God responded through Isaiah in Isa 7:14, 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give youc a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, andd will call him Immanuel.e
This time the shepherds are told that God’s sign has arrived. The shepherds responded by rearranging their priorities. They left their jobs and their livelihood to go and see what was just announced to them in a spectacular way. God had gotten hold of these shepherds because they had no doubt that they just encountered God Himself.
They went and found Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. And when they did those shepherds were forever changed. They now saw what God had done in their lives and they had to share it with others. They spread the word about what they had seen and what God had done and the people were amazed at what these common shepherds were saying. When we encounter God we are changed.
One of the traditions in our home at Christmas is that after all of the presents have been opened and things have settled down someone announces that there is one more present to open. As we look at the present we see that it is labeled From: God To: All of us. When we unwrap it we find that it is the baby Jesus in a manger.
When we do that every year I am reminded of the day in August 1994 when I received Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. I remember knowing that something was missing in my life but not knowing what. I had tried filling what was missing by focusing on career and monetary gain. With each new promotion and raise I would think, “AHA!, I finally got it” only to find out that whatever was missing was STILL missing. I tried filling it with relationships, hobbies, and moving to different parts of the country. Still, it was missing. Then, one Sunday morning I woke up and decided to give church a try. I walked into this large Baptist church that have 1,000 people there. I didn’t know any of these people, I didn’t trust them and I really didn’t know why I was there so I sat in the very back row on the edge of the aisle closest to the door so I could run out at any time and not be caught. As I listened to the pastor it seemed like he picked me out of 1,000 people and was talking directly to me even though I could barely see him. I knew what I needed but in order to get it I had to walk down this long aisle in front of all these people that I didn’t know and tell this pastor that I needed Jesus in my life and I couldn’t live my life on my own. The problem was that I was too concerned that all these people that I didn’t know would think I was weak so I left that day emptier than when I came in because I knew what I needed but I was still too proud to humble myself before God.
A few weeks later I came to the Sunday evening service and it was going to be all single people that were going on a singles’ conference singing in the choir. I had never been on a singles’ conference and for me to do that was an act of desperation. I also do not sing in choirs for obvious reasons. Well here I was, no longer in the back row but up front in the choir. The guy sitting next to me got up and gave his testimony as part of the worship service. The words he shared described exactly what was going on in my life. I started to crumble but I sucked it up like a man and carried on. Then the choir was filed out of the choir loft into the front two rows for the pastor to give his message. Now I was trapped in the very middle of the second row. There was no escape! God was speaking directly to me through the pastor and I knew that I had to have Jesus Christ in my life and I did not care who knew it and nothing was going to stop me. I pushed 5 people out of the way in order to make it to the pastor and tell them that I needed Jesus Christ to forgive me and be my Lord and Savior.
Like the shepherds, my life was eternally changed.
If you have never received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior He is here today and says to you in Rev 3:20, “Here I AM! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, opens the door and invites me in I will come in and eat with him and he with me.” Jesus Christ calls us to a personal relationship with him. If you would like to have that relationship with him then please talk with me at the end of the service.
Conclusion
On Christmas Day we celebrate the message announced by the angels, “I bring you 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.” We celebrate that 2000 years ago God so loved the world, you and me, that God himself took on flesh, was born of a virgin in the little town of Bethlehem, just as it was foretold 700 yrs earlier, that He walked among us in humility and came as a servant to seek and save the lost, you and me, and to be a sacrifice to pay the penalty for all the sins of the world, yours and mine, and to offer forgiveness in its place and eternal life with God the Father to all who would receive Him as their personal Lord and Savior.
If you have never received God’s gift it is available to you today. If you have then rejoice and celebrate remembering what God has done for you and continues to do. This year and every year let’s celebrate and remember the greatest gift God has ever given, Himself.
