Getting Ready For Christmas
Luke 1: 46-55
Intro: Have you noticed that Christmas is coming? We started our service this morning with the lighting of the candles for the second Sunday of Advent. A time of preparation and anticipation.
. I watched as my Pam and her nieces and my son D J’s girlfriend sat around the kitchen table after the thanksgiving meal.
Thanksgiving was now officially over and the Christmas season had begun. They talked of going out and shopping that night and on onto black Friday as we call it. The realized that there is much preparation involved in Christmas.
. I know of several of our ladies here in the church that shopped all night on thanksgiving night in preparation for Christmas.
. Pam’s birthday is on Wednesday of this week but we celebrated it last night. We spent the evening getting our house ready for Christmas. We put the trees up, yes I said trees, we have more than one tree at my house. We put out all the Christmas things on the tables and decorated the trees. We placed the stockings over the fireplace and did all the other things that you do to prepare your home for Christmas. This is the tradition at our house.
.We see people starting to put lights up on the outside of their houses.
. Some folks really get extravagant in their lights don’t they. Pam says that gaudier they are the better they are.
. There was a movie that came out in 2006 titled “Deck The Halls”. It starred Danny Devito and Matthew Br0derick. It was a comedy about these two guys that get into a competition over the decoration of the outside of their houses for Christmas. Their goal is for their hose to be seen from outer space.
. While the movie is funny, I’m not so sure that there isn’t a lot of truth in the end.
.We all prepare in different ways.
. What happens with many of us is that we get caught up in the physical ramifications of Christmas and neglect the spiritual side of Christmas.
. How do we get ready, how do you get ready for Christmas spiritually.
. No matter what others will try to make it, Christmas was and always will be spiritual.
. Christmas is about mans relationship to God through the birth of a Savior, the Messiah who came to reconcile man with their creator.
. How do you prepare for the spiritual celebration that should be present in all Christians lives?
. In our scripture this morning, we see the reaction and preparation for the first Christmas.
. Mary, the mother of the soon to be born Christ child has been informed by the angel Gabriel that she, among all the women on Earth, has been chosen to be the mother of the long awaited Messiah.
. Gabriel also told her about her relative Elizabeth who was pregnant even in her old age.
. God would use this child from Elizabeth to announce to the world that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Elizabeth’s child would grow up to be John the Baptist.
. Mary went to see Elizabeth and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and confirmed what the angel had told Mary..
. In Luke 1:42 &44 Elizabeth tells Mary:
. “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.”
. “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
. Mary’s response to this is what is called the Magnificant or Mary’s song.
. We find it in Luke 1: 46-55
. 46Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
48For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
49For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.
50He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.
51His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
52He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.
55For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”
. Mary responded to the birth of Jesus first with:
.Joy
. Look at verses 46&47 again
. 46Mary responded,“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
. The Christ Child is coming, what a joyous occasion.
.Mary’s response is one of Joy. The magnificant is also called the song of Mary.
. Mary responded by singing a song of praise to God. This was a verbal offering to God.
. How my soul rejoices in God my savior. Her focus was on God. Not on herself. Mary was filled with Joy at the coming of the Messiah and realized what it was.
. A gift from God and it filled her with Joy.
. Folks God initiated Christmas and it filled Mary with Joy.
. We should be filled with the joy of Christmas.
. This Joy should be from our hearts because of what we are celebrating. The birth of our Savior.
. It’s not about us or our family, it’s about God and what He did for us on Christmas.
. Handel was leading the orchestra in a presentation of his composition “Messiah”. The orchestra was magnificent and the applause was thunderous, and everyone stood turned toward the composer. Handel stood up and with his finger pointing upward, silently indicated that the glory should be given to God rather than to himself. That is exactly what Mary did. It is as if she were saying, “Don’t praise me, but magnify the Lord who is my savior.”
. This is not about us and what we have turned Christmas into. This is about God and we should prepare ourselves for Christmas, just as Mary did, with Joy in our hearts for what God did for us through the birth of Jesus Christ.
. Are you getting ready for Christmas with joy in your heart for God?
. Next Mary prepared for the coming of Jesus through Humility.
. Look at verse 48 again:
. 48For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
. Mary realized who she was in the grand scheme of things. She was a lowly servant girl and the God of the universe, the creator God had looked down on her with favor.
. She was humbled by what God had done for her and through her.
. Christmas should bring with it an air of humility when we realize just who we are that God would come down to where we live and die for us so that we could have a relationship with Him.
. King David wrote this in Psalm 8:4
4What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
. While we are joyful about the birth of Jesus, we also realize that God did not have to do this. He could have wiped his hands of us, but He didn’t, Like Mary, He chose to come to the meek and the mild.
. Look at the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-8
. 3“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
6God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
7God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
. Blessed are those who are poor and humble and merciful.
. We should prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child with Humility, realizing as Mary did, that God could choose to do this some other way but He didn’t.
. We looked at John 15: 16 Wednesday night and as Jesus was talking to his disciples, He reminded them of this:
.16 “You didn’t choose me. I chose you…”
. God chose to bring Christmas about, He chose us to save.
.Christmas is about God choosing to save us when we didn’t deserve.
.As we, as you prepare for Christmas, as you prepare for the coming of the Savior, do so with humility and gratefulness for what God did and is doing for you and all mankind.
. Mary also prepared for the coming of the Christ child with a sense of ;
. Hope
. Mary put her hope in the promises of God.
. She knew scripture. She had heard the stories passed down through the family about a God who had promised a savior – a messiah.
She knew that God was faithful.
. Look at what she said in verse 55:
. 55For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.
. Mary realized that the hope of all Israel was coming.
. Mary knew the promise that had been passed down from generation to generation. That one would be born of the seed of Abraham who would save people from their sins.
. That hope was being brought into fruition through her and she prepared for the Christ Child with a sense of hope.
. The birth of this Christ child brought with him hope.
Mary’s hope had always been that the Messiah would come. Now her hope was in his salvation for her and her people.
. Simeon the prophet said it best when he saw the Christ child at the Temple. Taking Jesus in his arms he said this in Luke 2:30-32:
30I have seen your salvation,
31which you have prepared for all people.
32He is a light to reveal God to the nations,and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
.Mary prepared for Christmas with a sense of hope.
. We need to prepare ourselves for Christmas by remembering that Hope has come into the world through Jesus Christ.
The first coming of Christ brought hope to the world. But so will His second coming.
. Jesus has promised that one day He will return. One day Jesus will come and take His bride the church to be his wife – to live with Him forever and ever.
. It’s almost like a fairy tale – the Prince of Peace will come riding on a white horse to rescue His beloved – His bride – the church.
. It sounds like a fairy tale – but it is reality. Christ will come to take His beauty home.
. Folks, we are that bride. We are the ones that hope will be fulfilled in. If we have a relationship with Jesus Christ, He is coming for us.
. If you have a personal relationship with Him – you too can have hope for an eternal future. Because He loves you.
.If you don’t know Him that can change right here - right now. Here is what you do.
First
ADMIT that God has not had first place in your life and that you have sinned.
The apostle John wrote:
9But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
. BELIEVE that Jesus died for your sins.
.The apostle Paul assures the church in Rome that if you believe, you will be saved. He writes:
9If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.
. ACCEPT God’s free gift of salvation.
Again Paul reassured the church in Ephesus that salvation is free when he wrote this:
8God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
D. INVITE Jesus to come into your life and take control.
Again the apostle John writes in John 1:
12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Christ has come to give you hope. Christmas – Hope.
As you get ready for Christmas, can you prepare with this sense of hope that the Bible tells us about.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Illustrations from sermon central
Christmas Hope, The Story Of Mary, Tom Shepard, sermon central
