A. Good morning church family and good morning to all our honored guests.
1. I hope you are being uplifted by our worship this morning.
2. It is our tradition here at Wetzel Road, to focus on the birth of Jesus on the Sunday closest to December 25th.
3. Because a large portion of the world is thinking about that first coming of Jesus into the world, it is a good time for us to focus on the spiritual importance of His coming.
4. As I looked over all the messages I have presented about the birth of Jesus, I noticed that I have never concentrated on the part of the story that I want us to focus on today.
B. I want to begin by retelling a story written by Dina Donohue that was first published by Guidepost Magazine in 1966.
1. For years now whenever Christmas pageants are talked about in a certain little town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling.
a. Wally’s performance in one annual production of the Nativity play has slipped into the realm of legend.
b. But the old timers who were in the audience that night never tire of recalling exactly what happened.
2. Wally was in the second grade that year, though he should have been in the fourth.
a. Most people in town knew that he had difficulty in keeping up.
b. He was big and clumsy, slow in movement and mind.
c. Still, Wally was well liked by the other children in his class, all of whom were smaller than he, though the boys had trouble hiding their irritation if the uncoordinated Wally asked to play ball with them.
3. Most often they’d find a way to keep him off the field, but Wally would hang around anyway—not sulking, just hoping.
a. He was always a helpful boy, a willing and smiling one, and the natural protector, paradoxically, of the underdog.
b. Sometimes if the older boys chased the younger ones away, it would always be Wally who’d say, “Can’t they stay? They’re no bother.”
4. Wally fancied the idea of being a shepherd with a flute in the Christmas pageant that year, but the play’s director, Miss Lumbard, assigned him to a more important role.
a. After all, she reasoned, the Innkeeper did not have too many lines, and Wally’s size would make his refusal of lodging to Joseph more forceful.
5. And so it happened that the usual large, partisan audience gathered for the town’s Yuletide extravaganza of the staffs, of beards, crowns, halos and a whole stage full of squeaky voices.
a. No one on stage or off was more caught up in the magic of the night than Wallace Purling.
b. They said later that he stood in the wings and watched the performance with such fascination that from time to time Miss Lumbard had to make sure he didn’t wander onstage before his cue.
6. Then the time came when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the inn.
a. Joseph knocked hard on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop.
b. Wally the Innkeeper was there, waiting.
c. “What do you want?” Wally said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.
d. “We seek lodging.” Said Joseph.
e. “Seek it elsewhere.” Wally looked straight ahead but spoke vigorously. “The inn is filled.”
f. “Sir, we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and are very weary.”
g. “There is no room in this inn for you.” Wally looked properly stern.
h. “Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired.”
7. Now, for the first time, Wally, the Innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary.
a. With that, there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment.
b. Quietly, the prompter whispered from the wings, “No! Be Gone!”
c. “No!” Wally repeated automatically. “Be gone!”
8. Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary, and Mary laid her head upon his shoulder, and the two of them started to move away.
a. The Innkeeper did not return inside his inn, however.
b. Wally stood there in the doorway, watching the forlorn couple.
c. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes filling unmistakably with tears.
d. “Don’t go, Joseph,” Wally called out. “Bring Mary back.”
e. And Wallace Purling’s face grew into a bright smile. “You can have my room.”
9. Some people in town thought that the pageant had been ruined.
a. Yet there were others—many others—who considered it the most Christmas of all Christmas pageants they had ever seen.
C. One of the traditional Christmas carols that is my favorite is “Joy to the World” and I love the line: “let every heart prepare him room.”
1. The question that I want each of us to personally wrestle with today is the question: Have I made room for Jesus in my life? And if I have made room for Jesus, what kind of room is it?
2. Is it the biggest and most prominent room in my life or is it some small tucked away closet in the basement?
D. How astonishing is it to realize, that in many respects, the world that Jesus came into didn’t have room for Jesus.
1. It was true in the literal fact that the inn was full and there was no vacancy, but it was also true in the spiritual sense that so many rejected Jesus, including the religious people He was sent to.
2. At the beginning of John’s gospel story about Jesus, he wrote: 10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God… (Jn. 1:10-12a)
3. But this is actually the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah 53:3 – He was despised and rejected by men.
4. When we look at the rest of Jesus’ earthly life, we continue to see that there was no room for Jesus.
a. There was no room for Him in His hometown of Nazareth.
b. There was no room for Him among the religious leaders.
c. There was no room for Him among the wealthy and high society since he was a friend of sinners and tax collectors.
E. Tragically, there continues to be little or no room for Jesus in a lot of the world today.
1. Jesus has been pushed out of our government and our schools and universities.
2. Jesus has been pushed out of our culture and entertainment.
3. And in some respects, Jesus has even been pushed out of the celebration of Christmas.
F. Even though all of this is true, I don’t want to focus on that reality today, because Jesus didn’t come into the world to save governments, schools, cultures, or holidays, rather He came to save sinners.
1. The most important question for you and for me isn’t is there room for Jesus in our government or culture or schools, but is there room for Jesus in my life and am I helping others make room for Jesus in their lives?
2. Sometimes, people are hard on the innkeeper who didn’t have any room for Jesus, but the truth is there wasn’t room because of all the people who had come from out of town to register for the census.
3. And if the innkeeper had really known who Joseph, Mary and Jesus were, he would certainly have found a way to make room for them.
4. The late motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar used to say that his brother was able to get into many hotels that had no vacancy signs by saying, “If the President of the United Stated needed a room here tonight, do you mean you couldn’t find him a room?
a. The hotel employee would usually say: “Well, if the President needed a room, we would find a room for him.”
b. Ziglar’s brother would then say, “Well, I happen to know the President isn’t coming tonight, so I’ll take his room.”
5. If the innkeeper knew it was the Son of God, the Messiah who needed a room, He would have found a room, and it would probably have been the nicest one he had.
a. Imagine the marketing opportunity he missed.
b. He could have marketed his inn: “Stay in the inn where God was born.”
c. Or “If God chose our place so should you.”
G. But unlike the innkeeper, we know exactly who Jesus is and we know the promises that Jesus has made.
1. How ironic is it that there was no room for Jesus, but Jesus has promised to make room for us.
2. On the night before Jesus was crucified, He told His disciples: 1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. (Jn. 14:1-3)
3. Another great promise is made in Revelation 3: See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)
4. I hope that all of us who are hearing this message today have opened our hearts and lives to Jesus and have offered Jesus residency and Lordship in our lives.
5. Jesus isn’t pleased if we just crack the door and only let a little of Him in, Jesus doesn’t like lukewarm commitment, He would rather us be either hot or cold to Him.
6. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.” (Mt. 16:24-25)
7. The Hebrew writer gave this impassioned plea: Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. (Heb. 3:12-14)
8. In those verses, we see the emphasis on faith and faithfulness.
9. We need to make room for Jesus and keep making room for Him.
a. The starting point for making room for Jesus is for us to deny ourselves and turn our lives over to the Lord.
b. Then, from that starting point, we begin to evaluate all of the activities and commitments of our lives in reference to our commitment to Christ and our calling as disciples.
c. As our spiritual involvements and activities increase, there will be the need to reduce our involvement in earthly things.
10. Our relationship with God must be our number one priority and our highest commitment.
H. So, as our minds go to that manager scene during this Christmas season, let’s remember that there was no room for Jesus in the inn.
1. Let’s think about how making room for Jesus and receiving a room from Jesus is what life and eternal life is all about.
2. Let’s be sure we don’t try to live life without Jesus and or leave this life without Jesus. Amen!
3. Have you made room for Jesus?
4. have you made Him your number one priority?
5. Are you making sure no one and no thing is hindering your walk with Jesus and your service to Jesus?
Resources:
• Trouble At The Inn, Sermon by Freddy Fritz, SermonCentral.com
• There’s Still No Room, Sermon by Stephen Funderburk, SermonCentral.com
