A woman was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before.
Her arms were full of bulky packages when an elevator door opened. It was full. The occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load.
As the doors closed, she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement.
Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator, came a single voice that said: “Don't worry. They already crucified him.” (Homiletics, November/December 2006)
Christmas, for so many people, is a hurried, harried event. People are literally in a state of panic. They have added to their already busy schedules all the holiday shopping, holiday parties, and holiday hoopla.
The good news is: it doesn’t need to be that way for any of us. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Luke 2, Luke 2, where we see how some very anxious people found peace on that very first Christmas.
Luke 2:1-7 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (ESV)
Don’t you sense the anxiety in these verses? Caesar wants to raise everyone’s taxes. Mary, an unmarried teenager, is 9-months pregnant; and after a long journey, she finds herself in labor with no place to go except for a make-shift, lean-to, cow shed next to an inn.
Now, having a baby produces enough anxiety in and of itself. But a young girl, delivering a baby in a shed, a long way from home, in a strange city where nobody cares, that’s really scary! Then there were the shepherds.
Luke 2:8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (ESV)
Now, when you read this, don’t think about little boys in bath robes in a Christmas pageant. These are homeless, street people, with a reputation for being thieves and liars. Their testimony was not even allowed in a court of law. They are “living out in the fields,” because they have no where else to go, and they have to keep an eye on the precious few possessions they do have, namely their scrawny, little sheep.
Like any homeless person, they live in fear every day, and especially at night, of being molested and robbed. That’s when a stranger appears and scares them all half out of their wits.
Luke 2:9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. (ESV)
This alien creature comes with a blinding flash of light, and you can be sure “they were terrified!” They could handle another thief. They could handle a wild animal. But this? How could they handle the supernatural?
Their worst nightmare was coming true, or so they thought, but the angel had a message for them. And he has a message for us, as well.
Luke 2:10-12 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (ESV) i.e., in a cow’s feeding trough.
God Himself has become a homeless person just like you. God Himself has entered our pain to deliver us from it.
DON’T BE AFRAID any longer.
Calm your anxious hearts. Lay aside the worry and be at peace.
Nearly 200 years ago, in 1809, a war-weary world was anxious as they watched Napoleon Bonaparte lead his invincible army across Europe.
In that same year, Willaim E. Gladstone was born in Liverpool. Alfred Lord Tennyson was born in Summersby, England. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany, and Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
Even so, people’s minds were occupied with battles, not babies. And yet, nearly 200 years later, we know that those babies had a greater impact on world history than those battles. (Bible Illustrator # 720; 11/1988.10)
That’s what the birth of Jesus was like. Everybody was worried about what Caesar in Rome was doing. Nobody paid any attention to the birth of a little baby in Bethlehem. Today, Caesar is gone, and Jesus is still changing lives for eternity.
Think about it. When it is all said and done, that Baby’s birth in Bethlehem is going to have a greater impact on your life than any problem you are facing right now. Don’t focus on the problem. Focus on the Baby born in Bethlehem. That’s what the angel said: “Fear not… For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Don’t be afraid. Instead, find peace in the lord.
Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (ESV)
Literally, Peace among men of good pleasure. I.e., Peace among those who are the objects of GOD’S good pleasure.
Gordon MacDonald talks about meeting a Nigerian woman who is a doctor at one of the major teaching hospitals here in the United States. She introduced herself using an American name. But MacDonald asked her, “What's your African name?” She immediately gave it to him, several syllables long with a musical sound to it. “What does the name mean?” he wondered.
She answered, “It means 'Child who takes the anger away.”
When Gordon MacDonald asked her why she was given this name, she said, “My parents had been forbidden by their parents to marry. But they loved each other so much that they defied the family opinions and married anyway. For several years they were ostracized from both their families. Then my mother became pregnant with me. And when the grandparents held me in their arms for the first time, the walls of hostility came down. I became the one who swept the anger away. And that's the name my mother and father gave me.” (Gordon MacDonald, Leadership Weekly, 11-6-02)
That’s what happened when Jesus came into the world. Our sins had ostracized us from God. Then Jesus came – God’s own Son. He died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Then he rose again, because God had accepted His payment for our sins. Jesus is the “Child who takes the anger away,” making it possible for us to have peace WITH God, our Heavenly Father.
More than that, Jesus also gives us the peace OF God. He gives us an inner calmness of spirit, despite any outer turmoil. Lee Strobel describes that peace in his book, The Case for Christmas.
He talks about his days working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, he was assigned to report on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family. Strobel a devout atheist at the time, but he was mildly surprised by the family's attitude in spite of their circumstances:
The Delgados – 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny – had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny, two-room apartment on the West Side. There was no furniture in the apartment, no rugs, nothing on the walls – only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.
In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.
But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced that Jesus had not abandoned them. Strobel says he never sensed any despair or self-pity; instead, there was only a gentle feeling of hope and peace.
Strobel completed his article, then moved on to more high-profile assignments. But when Christmas Eve arrived, he found himself thinking about the Delgados and their faith in God. He wrote, “I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation. Here was a family that had nothing but faith, and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially, but lacked faith – and inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment.”
So Strobel decided to pay them a visit. When he arrived, he was surprised at what he saw. Readers of his article had responded to the family's need in overwhelming fashion, filling their small apartment with donations. Once inside, Strobel encountered new furniture, appliances, and rugs; a large Christmas tree and stacks of wrapped presents; bags of food; and a large selection of warm winter clothing. Readers had even donated a generous amount of cash.
But it wasn't the gifts that shocked Lee Strobel, an atheist in the middle of Christmas generosity. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:
As surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: “Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do.”
“That blew me away!” Strobel wrote. “If I had been in their position at that time in my life,” he says, “I would have been hoarding everything.” When he asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who gave her so much, she responded, “This is wonderful; this is very good. We did nothing to deserve this—it's a gift from God. But,” she added, “It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus.”
To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything – more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, Strobel says, “Something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus – because in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.
“They had peace despite poverty, while I had anxiety despite plenty; they knew the joy of generosity, while I only knew the loneliness of ambition; they looked heavenward for hope, while I only looked out for myself; they experienced the wonder of the spiritual, while I was shackled to the shallowness of the material – and something made me long for what they had.” Or, more accurately, for the One they knew. (Lee Strobel, The Case for Chrismas, Zondervan, 2005)
Jesus, and Jesus alone, can bring us peace – not wealth, not the prestige of a high profile job, not even the security of a big house in Lyons, Kansas. Do you want this peace? Then like the shepherds of old…
COME TO JESUS THIS CHRISTMAS.
By faith, enter into His presence. Trust in His promise of salvation, and let Jesus fill you with his peace and joy.
Luke 2:15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” (ESV)
Notice, they didn’t say, “Let’s see IF this thing has happened.” No. They said, “Let’s…see this thing that HAS happened.” They believed God. And THEN… they found Jesus.
Luke 2:16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (ESV)
A lot of people say, “Seeing is believing.” But that’s not the way it was for these shepherds. FIRST they believed, and THEN they saw.
Some time ago, Peter Jennings hosted an ABC News documentary, called The Search for Jesus. He begins the documentary with these words: “Hello, I'm Peter Jennings, and we have been searching for Jesus – as reporters, that is, because it's an irresistible story.” (The Search for Jesus with Peter Jennings, ©ABC News Productions, Inc., 2000)
Well, you can search for Jesus all your life and learn a lot of interesting facts about Him. But you will never really FIND Jesus until you put your trust in Him.
Do you want the peace He offers? Then trust Him with your life. Give yourself fully and completely to Him. BELIEVE, and THEN you will see. BELIEVE, and THEN you will receive all that He has to offer. Come to Jesus, and then…
GO TELL EVERYBODY what you have found.
Share the good news with all your friends, and let people know what Jesus has done for you. That’s what the shepherds did.
Luke 2:17-20 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (ESV)
Their panic has turned to praise. Their worries have turned to worship. Their anxiety has become adoration, simply because they believed God. They came to Jesus, and then they went out to tell the world what they saw.
You do the same. Come to Jesus this Christmas, and then go tell the world what He has done for you. It will make all the difference for you. It won’t change your circumstances – The shepherds still had to go back to their sheep. But it will change your heart – You will find peace and joy like you never thought possible. Your anxiety will be turned into adoration. I guarantee it.
One of the classic Christmas stories is that of Amahl and the Night Visitors. It’s about the three wise men, who were on their way to Bethlehem when they came to the home of a poor woman. She had a little boy named Amahl, who was crippled and could not walk without a crutch.
That night, their humdrum existence was interrupted by a loud knock at the door, and his mother said to Amahl, “Go see who is at the door.” He went, came back and said, “Momma, a king is there.” She gave him a tongue lashing for exaggerating so much and sent him back to the door. He came back the second time and said, “There are two kings out there.” He was in big trouble by then. So for a third time she sent him to the door, and he said, “Momma, there are three kings out there.”
Eventually, after much discussion, she went to the door and invited the wise men in. She was impressed, particularly with the gold they carried, and tried to steal some of it. That’s when one of the wise men, noticing her deep poverty, said, “You can keep the gold. The babe we are going to worship does not need it.” But she replied, “I would never keep that gold. Take it to the baby king, and if I had anything to send myself, I would do it.”
Then her son, Amahl, decided, “I will send my crutch.” It was the one thing he could not do without, but he was going to give it away anyway. So he lifted up his crutch and gave it to the wise men. Then a miracle occurred. His mother noticed it first. He was walking without the crutch and he didn’t even limp! He had been healed! (W. Frank Harrington, “The Love That Brought Him,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 51; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what a simple act of giving can do for you and me. Oh, it might not heal a broken limb, but it can heal a broken heart. So don’t worry about what you’re going to get this Christmas. Instead, give what you can, especially the good news of “a Savior who has been born to you.”
