The Wonder of His Preparation
(Part 1, The Wonder of Christmas)
Text: Luke 1:1-80 (pg. 723 in pew Bible)
This is the time of year when we find that our houses don’t have adequate lighting and there are not enough green plants in our homes that look like candy, so we go and put these things into place. And what’s even more amazing is that the stores sense this community need and fill the shelves with all kinds of goodies to make the necessity for greenery and adequate lighting available to those needy souls. Of course, I myself have fallen into this overwhelming need to adorn my house with lights by the hundreds, and I‘ve been a part of the “new plant and greenery” fad for the interior of my home.
But, this is not without a cause. I think some of the best things come out at Christmas time. Take Eggnog for instance. I cannot find another time of year when this absolutely perfect blend of cinnamon, vanilla, milk and eggs, makes its way to the refrigerator section of the supermarkets. I love a good Eggnog. It can’t be too thick because it kind of coats your teeth and that feels just nasty. I always add a little milk to the mix when I get Eggnog. Nothing is more refreshing. That just right smoothness of cinnamon delight going so effortlessly down the hatch, covering every inch of your taste buds with a lingering flavor of vanilla and cold milk. Ahhhhh. How many of you want Eggnog right now?
The other one is Candy Canes. I cannot find them anytime else but at Christmas. I think the best reason to have the greenery and plant festival in your house is to give the Candy Canes someplace to hang. You come home and plant yourself in front of the television, grab a nice cold glass of your perfectly blended eggnog, kick back, reach over and grab a nicely wrapped Cane off the tree, and brother, you’re set!
But, only at Christmas time do we get to enjoy these simple pleasures of the season. Someone would think that these items would sell as good throughout the year, but they just don’t. They get overlooked. First, we get aggravated with this big bulbous tree in the way and tinsel that finds its way into the uttermost parts of our laundry. The Candy Canes are no longer in easy-to-reach places and a few of the lights have gone out, so now none of them work. Ahhrrrgggg!! The best and worst of Christmas time. In time these things get put back and forgotten until next year.
We often forget what made this season such a great time to celebrate. We often forget what we are supposed to be celebrating. But people have been preaching about the commercializing of Christmas for years, so I’m not going to do it. Instead, I’m going to expect that you all understand that Jesus’ birth is why we can celebrate this time of year. The wonder of it all is how this event came to pass.
Let me read from a book of mine called Grace For The Moment, by christian author Max Lucado. This little segment is entitled “Ponder the Love of God.” (pg. 363)
This is the reason we love the Lord. This is the question we must ask at this time of year. It helps put the holiday festivities in perspective.
This month we are going to look at the accounts of the birth of Christ in the gospels. Starting with Luke, we need to understand the preparation the Lord took in bringing His son to this earth. He not only prepared the way of the newborn King, He also made preparation for a herald, a proclaimer who was to instruct people to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
A man who was born for the sole purpose of declaring the way of our Savior is often overlooked. To better understand the evidence of the birth of Christ, let’s look at God’s wonder surrounding the birth of John the Baptist.
1. Zechariah’s Encounter. (v. 11)
For a man like Zechariah to get a message from God in the form of an angel must have been some kind of faith building experience. At least you would think. But, here stands a priest of God’s people, in the middle of a duty he probably will never get to perform again in his lifetime. He was chosen by lot, in the words, it was his turn to perform this sacred duty to burn incense for the Lord in a long line of priests. This was something he was waiting to do, waiting to fulfill and he is interrupted by Gabriel, an angel of the Lord. The message that Zechariah was given was a message that God intended to be the foretelling of His personal herald. John was to be the word for the Word to come. In the midst of this. God was going to do something great as well. He was going to take an old man and an old woman and make an example of His power in the fruit of their union. This seems to be a popular course of action for God when He wants to remind His people of the promises He has made. At least it looks that way on the surface.
I think God is really doing something that has to be done to make people stand up and take notice because otherwise they would fall into the same old attitude of complacency. God has brought about change in the lineage of His people through the extraordinary births of men the God has used powerfully to carry out His will: Isaac, Samuel, Sampson, Solomon, John, and soon, Jesus. Zechariah knew of these forefathers and their stories and testimonies. So, why was he so hesitant to obey and heed the message given from Gabriel?
Maybe, it was because he had been in a place of ritual and commonplace religion to long. Here he is an old man, constantly doing the duties of a priest from the time he was a young boy, learning all he needed to know about the holiness of God and the rites he had to perform at the given time. His attention to his responsibilities for the sake of God became more important than his relationship with God. This is the case with too many Christians today. You might know someone like this. Be reminded of this when you look at yourself in the bathroom mirror at lunch today, “Am I more concerned with looking like a child of God than being a child of God?” Let’s look at Zechariah’s response, or shall I say, “excuse.”
2. Zechariah’s Excuse. (v. 18)
God has a funny way of reminding us that He’s in control. Zechariah may not have thought so. But, looking back upon that period of nine months of so, he probably had a good laugh with his wife Elizabeth. He was presented with an awesome array of God’s power in the angel Gabriel, and yet he still looked at what was being presented as being silly and impossible.
Reminds me of a story…
A logging foreman sold a farmer a chainsaw that he guaranteed would cut down 15 trees in a single day. A week later, a very unhappy farmer came back to report that the power saw must be faulty – it only averaged 3 trees a day. The foreman grabbed the saw, pulled the cord, and the saw promptly started up with a loud “BUZZZZZ!”
“Hey”, demanded the startled farmer, “what’s that noise?”
I wonder if we’re kind of like that farmer, we just don’t get it… We can’t see how faith works – all we can say is, “Hey, what’s that noise?” or we end up complaining pretty loudly. We can’t see how ineffective and inadequate our lives are when we trust our own goodness rather than the goodness of God shown through Jesus.
Zechariah got a taste of what a lack of faith in God will do in the face of a challenge. I also love Gabriel’s reply to Zechariah’s doubt. He says, “My name is Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.” Duh! I think Gabriel was being a bit sarcastic! He was also reminding Zechariah of his position as a priest, in that he was the one standing in the presence of God for God’s people, and he was found without the faith he was supposed to be providing as a leader. This happens in the church to often and like Zechariah, we are often found wanting when God comes to challenge our faith.
This boy that Gabriel promised to Zechariah and Elizabeth is to be the one who makes clear the coming of the Lord. Zechariah read about these prophecies all his life. Yet in the face of the task to carry out God’s plan, he found an excuse. He tried to use his inadequacies to discount his effectiveness for God. We talked about this before, didn’t we?
Don’t let your inadequacies get in the way of being an important part to God’s plan. You are worth much to God in the plan of bringing this Gospel to those who need to know Him this Christmas season. Those of you who don’t know God the way He wants you to, you have to stop putting excuses in front of your answers to Him. He’s asking you to be a part of His family. Don’t turn Him away! Zechariah did and he was struck dumb for almost a year! That sure would help us figure out who missed an opportunity to be used by God.
But, guess what? God used him anyway. Zechariah became the sore spot of his family for nine months so that God would be honored in that household. God started in him a fire that would not be easily be put out. Zechariah was given back his voice when John was born. And it’s not that he was speaking again, what was important was what he was saying. Let’s take a look.
3. Zechariah’s Expression. (v.64)
He began to speak, praising God. What an awesome testimony to those around him. If you read further, it tells you what an impact this man’s life now had on those who lived around him. Not only were they excited about Zechariah’s newfound faith, but they were excited at the new baby among them. Questions arose, thoughts were thought. People were looking for big things to come from this new little one. What was he to be? This is what people wanted to know. They wanted to know what his purpose in life was going to be.
You have a purpose in this life. God is planning things that you are the biggest part of.
Joan of Arc was a young woman with an incredible sense of purpose. Her actions and leadership brought her to an early death at nineteen. But even in death, she had these words to say to those listening…
“Every man gives his life for what he believes, and every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have; we live it, and it’s gone. But, to live without belief is more terrible than dying, even more terrible than dying young.”
What are you living for? What is your purpose in life? John would soon find out what his purpose would be. He was to be an important part in Jesus’ ministry and crucial for the time before Jesus began to preach. Zechariah and Elizabeth found new purpose to their lives as parents. What a revelation God gave to them in this late stage of their lives!
This Christmas time we have an opportunity to use the story of our Lord’s birth to begin a walk with Christ that we may never have had. If you have never had a relationship with Jesus and you are finding no joy in the superficial stuff of Christmas, I urge you to consider the reason for the season. Don’t put off God’s evidences any longer. He wants you to be a part of His family. A big part.
The foretelling of the birth of Jesus by the parallel of John’s birth is a fitting tribute to the One who was to be called the Messiah. Christmas is the time to celebrate the wonder of His birth, and when the evidences whereby we find our faith are realized. Because of these events, we have the foreknowledge of a faithful Father in our God. In this Christmas time, we are given a chance to remember what was done for our benefit. Become a child of His today through Christian baptism and find the wonder of Christmas all over again.
