Holding unto Christmas
Luke 2:1-7
Introduction-
We are going to begin a series today called Holding unto Christmas. It will run through the Advent season.
Preparing for Christmas is a time consuming process.
You have to make time to buy presents, attend dinners, work parties.
Like I said after the Christmas play last week, if you do not make time to enjoy Christmas, you will be one of those who have missed it.
Each week we will begin with a verse of the Christmas story and then grab also a text from somewhere else.
Luke 2:1-7 Read
The Christmas story is about the birth of Jesus.
The plan of God using a virgin (Mary) and a righteous man named Joseph.
The setting that the redeemer of mankind came to was a technology down version of today.
No I-pads
No I-phones
No computers
No Telephones
No printers. They didn’t even have indoor plumbing,
But some things that has not changed for over 2000 years is this:
Rulers of Rome wanted their money, demanded that all people return to their homeland and pay their taxes.
The government wanted all people to register so that they could keep track of them. Bethlehem was chaotic, the people were rude, had no time for each other, and money talked- if you had it, welcome! If not, you are on your own.
A bewildered Joseph and a pregnant Mary were trying to figure out what God is wanting and was expecting from them.
Bearing the awesome responsibility of being a part of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
They leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem. In Bethlehem, Mary is to give birth at a time when the town is the busiest , the people the rudest, and there was no room for a young girl with no money.
I think some of you who have been pregnant would have acted different with that Innkeeper… “What you mean you don’t have no room?”
(6) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her first born, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the Inn.
Listen, the Inn was no 5 star- hotel. But I’m sure it would have been better than a barn.
I think any human deserves to be born in better conditions than that. A smelly barn, animals with all the bodily functions animals produce, all alone, no doctors, nurses, no running water and a dry place to put a new born.
The first group of people we need to look at is the ones like the Innkeeper.
He sensed dollar signs- everyone having to come back to Bethlehem to register for the census and pay their taxes.
He was too busy to care for a young mother and a baby.
There was no room for them because in the mind of the Innkeeper, there was better opportunity in someone else.
I am sure if the innkeeper would have known that the savior of the world was to be born that night, he would have found some room for him.
Illustration (Sermoncentral)
In the fall of 1775, the manager of Baltimore’s largest hotel refused lodging to a man dressed as a farmer. The manager thought that his lowly appearance would discredit his inn. The man left and found a room in another place. Shortly thereafter, the manager discovered that the man he had refused lodging was none other than Thomas Jefferson, then, Vice President of the United States. Immediately he sent a note to Jefferson and invited him to return as his guest. Jefferson replied by instructing his messenger:”Tell him I have already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States.”
In the same way more than 2000 years later, there is no room for Jesus in the Inn. People hang out the “no vacancy “ sign when Jesus desires to have a place in their heart.
Write this down
I. The innkeeper missed Jesus because of indifference.
They knew their Old Testament. Torah. The law of God.
They knew that God was sending a savior to a condemned and dammed world.
They waited over 300 years for this.
They just kept putting it on the back burner until the Son of God showed up and they had no time for Him
They didn’t like the way He came. It did not suit them. It was not what they wanted it to be.
Illustration
I imagine that almost everyone here is familiar with Charlie Brown in the comic strip. Well, a few years ago it pictured Lucy walking up to Charlie Brown just before Christmas and saying to him, Charlie Brown, since it is Christmas, I suggest that we lay aside all our differences and be friends for this season of the year. Charlie Brown says “That’s a great idea, but why does it have to be just at this time of the year? Why can’t we be friends all year long? Lucy looks at him and says, “What are you, a fanatic or something.”
What are you Charlie Brown, a fanatic or something!
Why is it, those of us that love the Lord, want to take time for Jesus, share Jesus Christ are classified as fanantics! Shunned like something is wrong with us?
There is nothing wrong with us.
There is something wrong the ones that don’t take Jesus seriously.
The Innkeeper missed Jesus because of indifference.
I’m here to tell you this morning that Jesus makes all the difference!
The late Erma Bombeck in her book wrote, “If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I always in the pits?”
Some are in the pits because some are indifferent to Jesus when their life would change if Jesus was all the difference. (repeat)
My cousin sent me a Christmas Card this week and inside he said, “My prayer this season is that this country of ours would find it’s moral compass and fast.” I have to say a big Amen!
Jesus, that baby in the manger can change your life.
He is no longer a baby.
He is the Son of God who came to allow you time to right your wrong relationship with God.
No time for Jesus? You better make time for Jesus while there is still time.
Illustration-
A woman spent the day frantically finishing her shopping. In one large , downtown apartment store, she impatiently waited for the elevator, her arms full of bulky bags. When the door opened, the elevator was full. Its occupants mumbled as they squeezed closer to make room for one more. As the doors closed, she said, “whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be tarred and feathered, strung up, and shot!” the others nodded or grunted in agreement- until one voice was heard, not to worry. They already crucified him.”
While we are trying to get our head around the Christ child, they have already crucified him.
Illustration-
Max Lucado writes, “They were too busy. The day was upon them. The day’s bread had to be made. The morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred. God had entered the world as a baby. Yet, were someone to chance upon the sheep stable on the outskirts of Bethlehem that morning, what a peculiar scene they would behold. The stable stinks like most stables do. The stench of urine, ding, and sheep reeks pungently in the sir. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the floor. A lowlier place of birth could not exist. Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The Innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. And the people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility.
Too busy?, maybe another time?, that is not the right answer.
The Bible says “Now is the day of salvation!”
Walk to Jesus while his arms are reaching out to you.
Jesus is always presented as a precious gift. And He is! It is not easy for people to understand the significance of that gift, or the sacrifice that is behind the gift.
2 ways that people look at the gift of Jesus.
(1)He is this beautiful package that is put up on a shelf because we know what is inside, and we will wait until we decide to open it, because we know when we open it, it will require us to make a change and we are not quite ready to do that yet.
Illustration-
On the night before Christmas, a young father scolded his three year old daughter for having wasted expensive gold tasseled ribbon on a Christmas present. The next day however she gave him the present, a box wrapped with the gold tasseled ribbon. When he opened the box, he saw there was nothing in it and began to tell his child off. “you can’t give an empty box as a Christmas present” he said, it has to have something in it. “His daughter started to cry and then sobbed, “Daddy, the box is full- it is full of kisses for you.”
(2)We open that beautiful package and we complain because it appears to be empty, but in fact, it is filled with the love of God, a gift that has cost him everything!
Anyone who has opened that precious gift and understands being born again. That’s right Born again, I make no apologies for that, will have new motives, new desires, the Holy Spirit will empower them to live a life that brings glory to God. Amen!
1 Cor. 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come.”
The Hoy Spirit came so that we may be more like Jesus.
The sure sign of Christ in our lives is being Christ-like.
That baby in the manger is more than just a nice nativity set we place in our homes once a year.
Mary was the first person to carry the gospel, and now we have an opportunity to do that.
Closing
No room for Jesus? Then you better empty out some things in our life and make room for Him.
He will not be second to anything or anyone in your life.
This is your moment. You were born for this moment.
If you cannot say that Jesus is your savior. Now is the time.
A lot of times people accept Jesus as savior so that they avoid hell, but Jesus wants to be Lord and Savior. He promises that we will become more Christ-like. Have that born again experience.
In your journey of faith, here you are.
You are forced to face Jesus.
What are you going to do with Him?
Today take Him as Lord and Savior, or risk eternity by putting the box back on the shelf and saying another day preacher.
You say, I got questions preacher!
You cannot explain the virgin birth, it is super natural.
I can say for some this morning, God is trying to reach you.
That is why you feel the way you do right now. It is supernatural.
It is God’s love reaching for you this morning. Don’t leave without making it right with God.
No fanfare this morning, if you are one that God is speaking to this morning, I want you to quietly get up and get out of your seat right now and come forward for us to pray with you.
Altar Call.
