The Wonder of Christmas
Luke 2:1-20
A ninety year old couple sat on the front porch one night. The old man was overcome with the romance of the evening and he said to his hard of hearing wife, “I’m proud of you.” “Huh,” she said. “I’m proud of you.” “I’m tired of you too,” she said. More often than not the case is that over time the more familiar we are with something the less fascination we have with it. We get tired of things very quickly. Things that once fascinated us, now bring little emotion. A young person gets a new CD and listens to it over and over again but eventually the CD gets old and sits on a shelf un-listened to. An adult gets a new car but after six months the newness has worn off and he wants a new one.
We have a saying that “familiarity breeds contempt.” But more often than not, “familiarity just breeds indifference.” And the more we become familiar with something the less fascination we have. The newness fades and we lose the wonder. And that happens often with us at Christmastime too. We have heard the Christmas story over and over and slowly the wonder of what occurred some 2,000 years ago diminishes. It fails to do much for us spiritually. The old, old story, has become just that the old, old story.
And so this morning I want us to study Luke chapter 2, which is the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. Hopefully by studying it again we will become reacquainted with the wonder and awe of the Christmas story. And what I want us to see is how the coming of Jesus to this world immediately began to change the lives of those around him. Jesus’ birth brought transformation. So open your Bibles, to Luke chapter 2 (Luke chapter 2) as we recount the wonder of that first Christmas. And first I want you to see the change that Jesus brought to the lives of Mary and Joseph.
Luke 2:1 reads, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register.” The reason Luke includes this information about these rulers is that he wants us to know that the events of the first Christmas were factual historical events. Luke wants us to know that these events really took place and that they are not fairy tales he invented. He wrote in Luke 1:3, “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you.” These events Luke writes about in his gospel have been investigated, they are not cleverly invented stories. They happened in real time.
I think it is also interesting to note that those who were important at that time, Caesar Augustus and Quirinius are unimportant now. And that those who were insignificant are now the ones we remember. No one knows who Caesar Augustus is nowadays, but all of us know of the people of the Christmas story. I mean we name our children, Joseph and Mary and Zach. We name our dogs, Caesar, Nero. No one even uses the name Quirinius anymore. Chuck Swindoll says, “Caesar and Quirinius thought they were hot stuff but they were just passing figures on the pages of history.”
Verse 4, “So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.” (Luke 2:4-5) Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor had issued a census so that he could tax everyone in the Roman Empire. These censuses were usually given every fourteen years. And in order to register for the census everyone had to return to their ancestral home. It would be like me returning to Mason, OH my hometown. And so Joseph had to take his fiancée Mary some 80 miles from where he lived in Nazareth to Bethlehem which was the birth place of King David and Joseph was from David’s family line. Joseph had been born in Bethlehem and spent his entire childhood there before taking residence in Nazareth. The trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was a notoriously rough three day trip by foot. William Barclay points out that the journey was quite primitive and that even though Mary probably rode upon a donkey, the roadway was particularly bumpy and not suitable for a young woman nine months pregnant.
Now understand that Mary and Joseph were not fully married at this time. They were betrothed. A betrothal was sort of like a binding engagement that lasted one year. The betrothal was a contract between the man and woman’s families and could not be broken except through a legal divorce. After the year of betrothal was up the couple went though a formal marriage ceremony and were allowed to live together and have sexual relations. Now verse 5 says that Mary was with child. Meaning that she was not pregnant through relations with Joseph but through the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit. God had worked a miracle and made a virgin conceive a child. Earlier in Luke chapter 1 we read that God sent the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary. Luke 1:28 tells us that the angel said to Mary, “Greetings Mary, (which is Ave Maria in the Latin). You are highly favored by God and He is with you. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.”
I cannot explain to you fully how God performed the miracle of the virgin birth. Millard Erickson says, “Next to the resurrection, the most debated and controversial event of Jesus’ life is the virgin birth.” And many brilliant minds have had trouble grasping this pivotal teaching of scripture. Many have refused to accept it as real. Some accept it but have had trouble explaining its significance. The virgin birth is a tough teaching of scripture to understand. Like the ten-year old girl, who was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible because of her grandmother’s teaching. And one day she asked her grandmother. "Grandma which Virgin was the mother of Jesus? The Virgin Mary or the King James Virgin?" But I want to tell you that I believe in the virgin birth 100 percent because I believe in a God who can do anything. I mean if God can create this universe by simply speaking it into existence then I say a virgin birth is really no big problem.
Verse 6 “While they were in Bethlehem the time came for the baby to be born. And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, Mary must have been experiencing labor pains and they knew they must find a place to rest. Now Bethlehem was a small town and probably had very limited space for visitors. With a census going on, the town was packed and the local innkeeper was most likely very overwhelmed by the crowds. There was no room for Mary and Joseph in the local inn.
Frank Shaut Jr. told me that he arranged for him and his wife Heather to honeymoon in the beautiful Poconos in Pennsylvania. The town nearest the Poconos is a small village Bethlehem, PA. And so Frank called to reserve a room but he was told that the only hotel in Bethlehem, PA was full for a convention and the only rooms available even close to the Poconos were way over in all of places but Nazareth, PA. Frank had to give Heather the disappointing news that there was no room in the Bethlehem inn.
And there is nothing worse than traveling all day and stopping in a town only to find out there is no place to stay. The hotels are all booked and you are exhausted. Likewise Mary and Joseph had to be exhausted and so they found the only place where they could rest – a nearby stable. It would have to be the place where their baby would be born.
This stable was probably adjacent to the inn. Perhaps the innkeeper suggested to Joseph and Mary that they could stay there. It most likely was the inn’s stable where guests left their donkeys and animals as they traveled. It was a place they could rest their animals and feed them for the night. Dr. Lewis Foster suggests that the stable was most likely a cave and that is was understandable that Joseph and Mary stayed there because it would provide them the protection they needed from the night. A smelly, dark, moldy stable full of animals would have to do.
But what is most striking is that verse 6 tells us that after Mary gave birth she wrapped the infant Christ child in cloths and place him in a manger. A manger is no more than a feeding trough for animals. Straw was probably placed in the manger to make it snug but it was no crib for a bed as the song “Away in the manger” says. It was far from the best place to put a newborn baby. The manger was a place that animals had licked and ate out of. And although it might have been clean, Jesus’ first night on earth was spent in a very unsanitary environment. The Son of God began his life in a feeding trough for animals. Ironically his life would not end much better on a dirty wooden cross. From a manger to a cross. And neither place: the manger of Bethlehem nor the cross of Calvary was really fitting for God in flesh.
But the Bible says that despite such a tumultuous evening, Joseph and Mary experienced the peace that comes from being in the presence of Jesus Christ. Their 80 mile journey had been hectic and nerve racking but all that ended when Jesus arrived. Joseph’s panic about finding a place to stay had turned to peace. Mary’s labor pains were transformed to joy. Joseph and Mary had experienced the life changing wonder that came when Jesus came. They were no longer two scared kids, they now were the proud parents of most important child in history. That first Christmas, despite its trouble was a life changing event for them.
Now Luke 2:8 switches scenes from the manger to a field outside of Bethlehem. This night Jesus would not only change Mary and Joseph, he would bring a change to the lives of shepherds. Verse 8, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Shepherds in those days were the scum of the earth. They were usually very dirty people, spending a lot of their time alone with sheep. It would make anyone a little weird. Shepherds were considered to be shady characters, nomads, who wandered the countryside aimless and often participated in criminal activity. In fact, shepherds were so mistrusted that their testimony did not count in a court of law. Shepherd’s were on the bottom rung of society. They were anything but important.
But in God’s economy of things, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And so God chose to announce the coming of his son not to kings in a palace but to shepherds in a field. Not to Caesar Augustus or Quirinius the governor but to a few lowly wanderers the world had forgotten. And the message of the angel to the shepherds that night is the promise of Christmas many of us are so familiar with. “Today a Savior is born, he is Christ the Lord.”
The angels told the shepherds that this baby would be the savior of the world. He would save the world from its fateful condition. This infant was the Christ, the Messiah, the one the prophets had talked about for generations. He had arrived to free them from sin. And verse 15 says, “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord had told us about.” And so the shepherds hurried off in the middle of the night and found Mary and Joseph and the baby. And verse 17 says, “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”
These shepherds had caught the wonder of Christmas and were transformed by their experience with the Christ child. They had gone from being lowly shepherds to being evangelists as they began to spread the word about the good news. Their evening had gone from being just another mundane night watching sheep to being a part of the most exciting event in history. The coming of Jesus had revived their life and given them new meaning. They were no longer just shepherd’s they were now servants of God. What an experience, what a change. What wonder.
If there is one thing I wish for us this Christmas it is that we experience the same wonder of Christmas that Mary, Joseph and the shepherds experienced. That we each would experience the life changing power of Jesus Christ. (We should each experience the life changing power of Jesus Christ). The coming of Jesus Christ into the lives of Mary, Joseph and the shepherd’s changed them forever. They would never be the same. And it is my hope that this Christmas you would open yourself up to the life changing power that comes when Jesus Christ enters your life. You see whenever Jesus comes, whether it was that first Christmas or whether it is spiritually into a person’s life today he always brings change for the better. And if you are at the end of your rope this morning, if life has got the best of you, I want to tell you that if you give Jesus Christ a chance he can transform whatever situation you have. He can take your life and give it a complete makeover. He came to this world 2,000 years ago to change it forever and his goal is to change you.
Two weeks ago, Brad Budde and I went to Oak Hills High School to watch the varsity girl’s basketball game. While we were there Brad met an old friend from high school who happened to be Jim Biesel’s nephew. Brad mentioned to his friend that Jim went to our church and they got to talking and Jim’s nephew who is not a Christian said to Brad, “You know I don’t know what’s going on at that church but it must be good, because it sure has changed Jim a lot. I can see it in him.”
What a testimony, the coming of Jesus into Jim’s life has changed him so much that people around him are noticing. Jim Biesel has experienced the life changing power of Jesus Christ. He has discovered the wonder of having a relationship with Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:16 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
And I don’t know where you are in life, but I suspect that there are some of us who come here today, needing a new life. A spiritual makeover. Some of us who are perhaps unsatisfied with our lives, we want something better for ourselves. I am here to tell you that an experience with Jesus Christ can bring the needed change you have been looking for all along. What you are looking for cannot be found in a bottle, or in a relationship, or in money, or in religion. It can only be found in Jesus Christ, the one who came, the one who died and the one who lives forever. And this Christmas would you let the wonder of Jesus Christ transform you? Would you give your life to him and allow him to enter your world and bring supernatural change, just like he did that first Christmas?
