THE FIRST CHRISTMAS WORSHIP SERVICE
Luke 2:1-20
Bob Marcaurelle
Preparations
When Neal Armstrong put his foot on the moon, someone from NASA said, “We should change the calendar and mark our dates from this moment.” In other words, that was more important than dating our calendars from when God walked on the earth. Looking at the first Christmas in Luke, it has all the elements of a worship service. It has:
GOD
Without God, there would be no service; no Bethlehem; no donkey for Mary to ride and no Mary. After his first year at college, a young man told his parents he had taken philosophy, and truly believed there was a God. The dad said, “We spent $5,000 for you to learn you are not a fool;” and quoted Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart--there is no God.” Hershel Hobbs said, “He said it in his heart; his head knew better.”
People who don’t believe in a God are like two fish swimming in the ocean, between here and Europe. One asks his buddy beside him, if he believes there is an Atlantic Ocean?” When his buddy said he did, he said, “I don’t. I’ve never seen the Atlantic Ocean. Show it to me and I will believe in it.” Acts 17:28 says, “In Him we live, and move and have our being.”
A PLACE
Churches remind us that GOD IS HERE. The place of worship was a barn in the little village of Bethlehem, near Jerusalem. We do not need a special place to worship God, but God knows it helps us. Every time God touched Abraham’s life he built an altar (Genesis 22, 26, etc.). In the forty years Israel lived in the burning desert with fierce tribes all around, God promised Moses He would travel with them, and Moses said, “Lord, if You don’t go with us, I don’t want to go”(Exodus 33:15).
God was with them every step of the way; and He made His presence known in a Tent (Tabernacle) He designed. It was set up in the center of the camp where the glory of His presence shined for all to see. When the glory came out and moved, the whole camp moved. When enemies attacked, the glory went between them and His people. God was saying, “To get to them, you have to come through Me”
Picture a little Israelite boy, in his tent getting ready to go to sleep. The night is pitch-black and he remembers the lights of the Amalakite campfires glowing in the hills. He asks his daddy if they want to come and kill us to take what we have. When his dad said yes, he said, “Daddy I’m scared.” The dad motions for him to come over; opens the flap of their tent; points to the glow in the middle of the camp and says, “Son, look who’s here.” (The darker the night, the brighter is the light of God’s presence.)
Churches remind us that God is here to help. In the shock wave of “911” people flooded into the churches, like they hadn’t done in years. It didn’t last long, but they came. When we see a church building, we are reminded that God will be “our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46: 1) if we ask Him.
Churches! Thank God for the sight of them,
The beauty, dreams and right of them.
That make us think, every time we look,
Of God and right and the Holy Book.
Churches also give us HOPE IN HORRIBLE TIMES. There is the hope of heaven. Steeples and crosses remind us of the hope of heaven. The Christmas story takes place in a terrible time. It has the bloody scene of baby boys in Bethlehem, being killed with Roman swords. This bothers me, but I find comfort in knowing those little boys and their families were the first people to suffer for Jesus and they are in heaven right now singing His praises. (And we all know where Herod is.)
In World War II, the Germans bombed England day and night. A Lutheran church took a direct hit and all that was left standing was the front of the building. All behind it was rubble. The Pastor stood in front, Bible opened, trying to comfort a small group of people. A man walking by said, “Put the Book up preacher. You preachers talk about hell; hell is right here. Look around you! This is hell.” The pastor said, sir, this isn’t hell. Here is a church and there are no churches in hell; here is a Bible and there are no Bibles in hell; and here is someone inviting you to come to Christ, and there is no one, who will do that in hell”.
Some find HOPELESSNESS in horrible times. They see things like the horrors of war; crimes against children; cancer wards; people dying of Covid-19; and lose their faith in God. In the 1950’s, guards in a prison at the Buford, Georgia rock quarry were so cruel, that a group of prisoners broke their own legs, to get the attention of outsiders. When the prison was investigated, they found written on one cell wall, “They ain’t no God.”
This was no proud, philosophical fool spouting his atheism. It was one of life’s walking wounded, so crushed by life that he was saying, “If there is a God, He doesn’t care about me”.
People can SEE GOD IN US. In World War I, soldiers slaughtered each other between long trenches. One day a wounded soldier in a trench, grabbed a Chaplain, and said, “Where is God in all this?” About that time, they heard a wounded soldier trying to get back to the trench, crying for help. When a soldier in the trench, went out into the line of fire to bring him back, the Chaplain said; “There He goes son. There He goes.” We all saw this in “911” as firemen and policemen would bring someone out of the burning, crumbling buildings, and keep going back until they didn’t come back.
The Christmas Story also tells of One who came to us; and the wood of His trough (manger) would rub up against the wood of His cross in 33 years. Adrian Rogers said, “Jesus was born in a stable, because that is where lambs are born and Jesus is ‘Mary’s little lamb’.” – the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). God has not asked us to go through, what He was not willing to go through also.
A first responder at “911” told me he would never forget, or get over, the sound of bodies hitting the sidewalks as people jumped from above. Max Lucado wrote a little tract for those workers and in it, he said to each one personally:
“Jesus looked at the cross and saw hell,
but He went there anyway, because
He did not want to go to heaven without you.”
THE PREPARATIONS
Preparations are always made before a worship service. GOD prepared the world for the coming of His Son. The Bible says Jesus was born, “in the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). The time was just right. Before “the foundation of the world” God’s eternal Son made the decision to sacrifice himself for us. (Revelation 13:8)
At creation God put the Holy Land on a narrow strip of land connecting the trade routes between Europe, Asia and Africa. Growing up in the central mountains, Jesus watched caravans and ships from every nation pass by.
PROVIDENCE IN HISTORY PREPARED THE WAY Through the centuries millions of Jews had been taken from their land and dispersed all over the world. They took their Old Testament Bible and their belief in one God with them. They also built local “churches” (synagogues – meeting places) everywhere they lived.
The Greeks made the Greek language the language of the world. The Romans connected the world from the Middle East to Britain with roads, some of which are still here. The roads were patrolled by soldiers for safe travel.
People all over the world, like the “Magi” (Matthew 2:1), were longing to know the “One” true God who would be a universal Savior from wickedness and idolatry. Because of all this, in the First Century the story of Jesus could be carried safely to all parts of the world and be preached in a language all could understand.
We WHO ATTEND must also make preparations. A stall is not a clean or sanitary place, and I believe Joseph worked hard to make it as clean as he could. Growing up, on Saturday nights, we got our Sunday clothes out; shined our shoes and hurriedly read our Sunday School lessons.
The most important preparation is in our hearts – praying for the service; asking God to let us know what we need to do or stop doing; etc. As a typical, proud young Pastor, I would go to church services at times, and find all kinds of faults with the preacher’s sermon. God let me know this was wrong so I began praying for Him to teach me something from any sermons I heard, and to this day, He has done it.
THE PEOPLE
The crowd was small that night in Bethlehem. There were two newly-weds about to have their first baby; a few shepherds and some strange people in the East, who had a long way to come and missed this service, but had another one when they made it there.
Mary was about to have her baby but the Empire required her to make a ninety mile trip to Bethlehem, walking, riding a donkey or in some kind of wagon. That had to be dangerous. But behind that petty Emperor was Almighty God, getting her to Bethlehem where Micah 5:2 said Jesus would be born. God’s “providence”, His control of history, good and bad, brought them to the right place at the right time.
God’s personal touch brought the Shepherds and the Magi to church. The shepherds were minding their own business when God came down on them like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. They were like Paul, riding his horse to arrest Christians, being knocked off of it and being struck blind, by Jesus (Acts 9). That got his attention, and he became a Missionary.
Shepherds were outcasts in Jewish religion because they could not do their work and keep the ridiculous rules of the Rabbis. They probably kept the sheep used for Temple sacrifices. The “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) opens the door to all of us.
The Magi, who most believe, were pagan priests from Persia, had grown dissatisfied with pagan and idolatrous religions all around them. They hungered for something better and God, who put that in their hearts, put a light in the sky to guide them. (Matthew 2:1)
No one becomes a Christian “by accident”. Circumstances good and bad will put us where God wants us. Things look bleak today. We are in a pandemic without a vaccine; racial unrest is more volatile than ever, and there is talk from Washington about bombing Iran, a country that probably has a nuclear arsenal.
God is still in control. History is still “His Story”. All events, good and bad, are being used to accomplish His purpose - getting the gospel story of Christmas and Easter out to the world, so Jesus can return. (Matthew 28:18-20; 24:14)
I believe conversions are happening now. The dangers all around us, I believe, are leading many to turn to Christ. More people were converted in the four-year period of our Civil war, percentage wise, than in any other four-year period in our history. Danger draws people to God. (Jonah 1:5)
Betty Page, who posed nude as a young girl, was the pin-up “darling” for soldiers in WW II. “Betty Page Dolls” were in the stores. After the war she suddenly disappeared and a popular song was, “Where did you go Betty Page?”
What happened was that after another marriage failure she was walking down a Miami street crying. She heard a gospel song like, “What a friend we have in Jesus” coming from a little store-front church. She went in, accepted Jesus and later worked as a volunteer in several Billy Graham Crusades without anyone knowing who she was.
Much the same thing happened to Johnny Cash, who sang in Billy’s crusades. In an Alabama jail, the jailer urged him to change his ways and released him. He didn’t change his ways – Jesus did. That is conversion.
