Christmas Eve 2015

Stay with a text. So we'll walk through a book of the Bible at a time, but tonight I want to do something slightly different. And I want us to think about a particular scene, and we're going to be dependent upon the text. I want us to think about the nativity. Now, this time of year, most of us know what that's referring to, but just in case we need clarity, the nativity is what we refer to when we see somebody's yard and there's a little shack or a shed of some sort and there's two people in there with a baby, that's Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, that's the nativity. Usually there's shepherds, magi, kings, royalty. There's a scene and there's actually an interesting history to why we do the nativity set. Many of us have them on our mantles, coffee tables maybe. There's an interesting history. So the first known nativity was by Francis of Assisi. Now we've already mentioned outside. He's the guy that if you're in somebody's yard and there's a statue of the guy holding a bird, that's him. So, there you go. The first nativity we know of is 1223. He visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem and came back home and realized that the common folk, they're going to mass in Latin and they can't understand what's happening. And he wanted to make sure that these people who were coming to hear the Bible and to hear about God, that they knew what was going on, so he created a nativity scene. for the purpose of clarifying the gospel. And so that set the tradition of why we have these things on our mantles to remind us. Now, usually you've got Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the manger. Interestingly, in South America, they don't have baby Jesus present until Christmas Day, and that, quite frankly, makes a lot of sense. I think it helps build anticipation. So as we think about who's there, it's Mary, Joseph, the baby. You've got shepherds. You've got some royal figures. We call those the Magi of the East. We'll be looking at those in the text here in a moment. Before we think about Christmas and we think about the birth of Christ and the scene, I kind of want to point out who's not there. There's no reindeer. There's no snowmen. There's no Buddy the Elf. There's no elf on the shelf. There's no Santa, there's no Snoopy dressed like Santa, no Thomas the Train dressed like Santa, no Batman dressed like Santa, no Yoda dressed like Santa. We have all these things that we've attached to Christmas, and I want to make sure you understand that there's things that we as Americans do that we call Christmas that really have nothing to do with what Christianity calls Christmas. Christmas is about this one child who's born, the Savior for our sin. And so as we come, we wanna make sure we're removing, and just because it's my thing, I wanna make sure we note the drummer boy is also not at the nativity scene. Now, I know it's a surprise because what mother does not wish for a drummer boy right after giving birth to help them settle in and sleep through the night with their newborn baby? In what world does that make sense? No, we've got shepherds, angels Mary and Joseph and the Magi So we're gonna be walking through some text first There's two primary texts where we get the the the details that put together what we call the Nativity It's it's Luke 2 and Matthew 1 and we're going to go to Luke 2 first so turn with me to Luke 2 and If you don't have a Bible, there's a Bible in front of you, I hope, in the pew. If there's not, just keep tapping somebody's shoulder until somebody gives you one. Take that with you. These are the words of life. This is God speaking. This Bible is God's word for us so that we can know him and worship him. If we look to Luke 2, we're going to begin with angels going to tell shepherds about the birth of Christ. And you can see this, Luke 2, and we'll begin in verse 8. This is found on page 857, if you're using that Pew Bible, that I hope you take home with you. 857, Luke 2, beginning in verse 8. The birth of Christ has already been announced. Verse eight, and in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 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. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. 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. As we go on, those shepherds, they go, they see these events, and they go away worshiping. You see that in verse 20. They return glorifying and praising God for all they had heard. So these angels, they appear to the shepherds. Now, first of all, the created order is, well, not the created order, the order of being, God, angels, man. Men are created lower than angels. And it's interesting here that these angels, they're going about and they're telling men, come and worship this baby. This tells us there's something very unique about this baby. Angels are saying, worship this one who's a human child, so there's something different. Because it's God who has taken upon himself flesh There's something different. The angels that were with Christ, the Son in heaven, worshiping Him, are now seeing Him as a baby. They're going out and spreading the good news. You have to come see this. They go to shepherds. Now, it's an interesting choice. Why did they go to shepherds? Now, some say that they went first to shepherds because Jesus, he's the chief shepherd. That makes sense. We also see that the image of shepherd, it's a metaphor for king throughout Israel. So it's declaring here is the king. David was a shepherd in Bethlehem where this is taking place, and Jesus is a son of David. He's of the lineage of David. I thought there could be something else here. See, shepherds in this day, they were really nobodies. They're not in society. They're out in the fields. They have no power. They have no prestige. They kind of stink. They sleep on the ground. There's no place in society for shepherds. And this is what's interesting. You would think that when the most important event in all of history is taking place, you would call the most important people. But that's not God's way. He called the shepherds to come and see first the newborn king. the shepherds who wouldn't have a position in society, who wouldn't have any prestige, the humble, the lowly, they're the ones who were first brought in. Now, there may be a message here. If somebody is feeling abandoned, alone, without belonging, the shepherds, they would have been outcast. What we can see here is God saying, Everyone is welcome to Christ, who sees that they're coming as sinners, needing a savior, seeking to worship God. This is the beauty of the gospel. We're all far away from God. Our sin separates us from God. The passage Pierre read, the temple curtain was torn in two. That represents the barrier that's between us and God because of our sin. When Christ died, that barrier's removed. Christ, He died for us as sinners, to take away our sin so that now we can be brought near. So there's a great message here for those who may feel like they're far off. Well, God's saying, I am the most important relationship you'll ever have. You were created for me, to know me, to be loved by me. I am bringing you near in Jesus Christ. So it's in the shepherds. So the angels, we have to look at Mary. And we can just turn right back over to Luke 1. We're gonna stay in Luke. Look at Luke 1, verses 26 through 33. Luke 1, 26 through 33, that's on page 855. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. In his kingdom there shall be no end." And we just saw the shepherds, and they would have to feel, why was I invited? Can you imagine how Mary feels here? Of all the people in all the world at this time, God has said, at the right time, my son will take upon flesh. He'll be born of a woman, and he chose Mary out of all the women in the world to come down now, and she's troubled. That's a proper response to what's taking place here. She's troubled. And then God tells her, or the angel tells her what God is doing. Mary, you're a virgin. You've never known a man, and you're gonna have a baby. And that baby is a son of God. The Holy Spirit is gonna come into your womb and take from you the flesh that he needs to be a human. It's gonna be added to God. He's going to reside in your womb and then you're going to give birth to God. He will reign forever. Now, notice if we go back to Luke 2, when the shepherds came, they went away rejoicing. Mary treasured up these things. You ever thought of how Mary must be feeling at this nativity scene? Again, she's just given birth. They traveled a long way. We say there's no room in the inn. It wasn't a hotel. Most likely, there was a friend in the city that Joseph knew that he's going back home, and the guest room's occupied, so they take the stable. She just gave birth, and then she's contemplating all the things she's heard from the angels. She's contemplating all the things she's heard as a child about the child who's supposed to come and reverse the curse that we now live under, the child who's supposed to come and crush Satan. She's pondering these things. Now, after the pains of childbearing, there's always that rejoicing. I don't pretend to know exactly what that's like, I don't want to offend the mothers who have gone through the childbearing pain. And then that great rejoicing. I do remember my wife's face when she first saw the face of her children after the pains of childbearing. There's such a sweet rejoicing. No doubt Mary, she's holding him fast. Her heart is warm when she hears the baby's cry, he's alive. She no doubt loved him like a son. Think about it. She's loving him as her God. She's holding in her hands a son whom she loves, who she's just gone through the pain of childbearing, who she now knows as her own son. How much more she's worshiping this child as God. Now, I'm amazed by how amazing this must have been. I can't begin to contemplate what Mary is thinking about, because here she's holding in her hands a child who needs her, and at the same time, this is the child who's sustaining the universe, because he's God. This is a unique event. What Mary must be pondering, the things she's treasuring, what an amazing mix of emotion and affection. To love this child as her child and to love this child as her God and Savior. Now let's turn to Joseph, Matthew 1. And we oftentimes forget Joseph. He's not mentioned much in Scripture, but the Gospel of Matthew highlights Mary's role Matthew highlights more of Joseph's. And Clara read earlier for us, but let me read again that declaration, beginning in verse 20. In Matthew 1, this is page 807. Matthew 1, beginning in 20. As he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Now, I can sympathize with Joseph as the father, and when a child is born, you're just overwhelmed with the responsibility that lies ahead of you. The sleepless nights, the care, the nurture, the teaching, the responsibility of making sure you're caring for this child. And here he's realizing and he's understanding as well, I believe, that this is God. It's kind of amazing. He's going to train and teach this child to be a carpenter because he's a son, all the while knowing his real vocation is Savior. Joseph knows that this child being born has a higher calling, the highest calling, because he has the highest name above every name. He knows he's called to be a savior. That very important declaration, he will save his people from their sins. Now, we can contemplate Mary and Joseph. We could wish we were there. We could wish, you know, if only I could experience that kind of worship, that kind of experience with God. There's something that we share with Mary and Joseph that is the most important thing. They were sinners in need of a Savior. We are sinners in need of a Savior. That's what makes this story so important for us. Yes, they had a unique role throughout all history because only Mary gave birth to God. That's something unique that she will have for all eternity to her, but here's what we have in common. We're sinners. We need a savior. We talked about how she loved and worshiped that son. God's created so much for us to love. He's given us spouses to love, children to love, jobs we can love, homes, occupations, hobbies. There's many things we can love. Here's the problem with humanity. We love things in a way that's usually inappropriate for them. We love them more than we ought. And more so, we worship those things that we love. We quickly go from loving to worshiping. And there's only one who's really worthy of worship. It's God. When we love something, we usually go beyond its intended purpose and how we're supposed to love. We put the worship that's meant only for God on everything else but God. So this is why we're sinners. We don't worship God as He deserves. We don't seek His wisdom. We don't ask Him what we should do. We decide what we should do and then say, God, forgive me. We're sinners. We are like Mary and Joseph in that way. that we have to come and see we've sinned against God. We must believe in Jesus who's died on the cross for our sins, risen again so that we can worship. Now let's go to our last set of characters. Matthew 2, you can see on the same page. Technically we call these the Magi. Our translation will call them the wise men. We're not quite sure exactly what they were doing, in terms of they seem to have a royal and a religious purpose in their society. They're from the East, and that's significant. Jesus is born the King of Israel. From the line of David, we saw there in Luke 1, he'll reign forever in Judah. He'll reign over God's covenant promised people, Israel, forever. Here we have people coming outside of Israel, probably Persia, and they're coming to worship the King of Israel because this is what's taking place when Jesus is born. Israel is no longer at the center of God's plan. Jesus is. And all the nations are being welcomed in to come and know God and His salvation. Here, Matthew 2. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men, that's the Magi, from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, and by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who shall shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child mother, Mary, his mother. And they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening the treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." So God's brought the outcast shepherds to worship. God's brought men from the East to worship. God doesn't invite who we expect him to invite. the outcasts of society, and those from another region. Notice verse 11, they came, they fell down, and worshiped. These are men who are used to giving orders. These are men of great power and prestige, and their first response to Jesus is to fall down and worship. God is doing a mighty thing. There's one more character that's never present in the nativity scene that I want us to consider. That's Herod. King Herod of Judea. He was a ruler under the power of Rome. He was appointed by Rome. And he was a wicked man. He had numerous palaces. He was a powerful man. All these palaces were built with slave labor. And if we continue to read, we'll see that him sending the Magi, he sent them so that he could go to Jesus. And unlike everybody else who went to Jesus to worship him, he wanted to go to murder him. King Herod was threatened by this king, Jesus. This newborn king, the baby. So everyone else is just trying to come to worship. He's plotting to murder. And it goes even further. He's going to actually put in place infanticide. He is going to seek to kill all the infants born in Bethlehem so that he makes sure he kills this threat to his kingdom. He's wicked. He's wicked. He's threatened. And he's using his power to secure his kingdom. Now this is the irony. We know from scripture that no one's a king unless God appoints him a king. He's using the power that God gave him to try to kill God's own son. God's sovereign. He knows what's going on. He sends the Magi away. He protects Joseph and Mary and Jesus by sending them to Egypt. It's frightening what Herod represents here. Because we actually see his desire to kill Jesus was going to continue. Everywhere Jesus went, people sought to kill him because he represented God's righteous rule. in our rebellious hearts resist God's righteous rule. When our kingdoms are threatened, the first response is, kill whatever it is that's seeking to threaten me. This is the beauty of what happens at the end of Jesus' life that we read about. He dies for our rebellion. He dies and suffers a death as if a rebel, to set us free from the guilt. Now let's just step back and reflect upon these characters. Maybe you're from far away. Maybe Christianity is foreign to you. I want you to be clear that Christianity is not a national religion. Christianity is God's declaration that all peoples from all nations can come and repent of their sins and seek forgiveness in Jesus Christ. This is the beauty of the gospel. When you become a Christian, it actually does change your citizenship. Become a member of the household of God. Do not think Christianity is foreign to me because I am born in a place where Christianity is not the national religion. No, Christianity is the purpose of Christ to call all different kinds of people from all different nations to come and worship the one true God. Maybe you feel like you don't belong somewhere. Maybe you don't feel like you belong to a family, to a people. You're an outcast, like the shepherds. This is the beautiful thing about God's love. He loves the unloved, and He loves the unlovely. God loves the unloved, and God loves the unlovely. It's God's love that draws you to Him. Don't remain distant from God, because in Christ, if you believe in Him, He draws you near. Maybe you're like the Magi or Herod, and you've got great power, great prestige. You're coming, and you're thinking of all the things you could boast before God, and let me just tell you, God is not impressed. There's nothing we can boast of that's going to impress God because everything we could possibly boast of, He's given us. What we come with is our sin. And if we recognize our sin, we can come and we can say, Christ, forgive me. Free me from this sin and give me new life. What terrifies me most about these stories of the nativity, I feel like I identify most with Herod. Because I know when I hear the words of Christ, it threatens what my kingdom wants to be. When I hear the call to give everything up, I think, no, but I want this. When He calls me out of sin, my desire for sin wants to cling to it. My pride resists the idea that I need a Savior. I pretend to possess power that blinds me. It's not mine at all. I even presume upon the grace of God and sin. For this is the power of the gospel. God loves even those who hate. That's the power of the gospel. He has come to save sinners who hate him because that's the only kind of sinner there is. We have to realize we do hate God unless he gives us the grace to believe in Jesus and be loved by Him. Something that ran throughout all these characters, they all heard something. The shepherds, they heard the message from the angels. Mary heard it from the angels. Joseph heard it from the angels. They all heard and they responded. Friends, you're hearing something tonight. You're hearing Almighty God saying, I created you. You rebelled against me. I sent your son to die for your sins so that you can come again to be with me, to worship me, to know me. I pray you're hearing that. You can respond like the shepherds and go and worship. You can respond like the Magi and go and fall down and worship. We continue to respond like Herod, continuing our sin, continuing our destruction, and we will face judgment. I pray tonight you will think about what you're hearing. and respond saying, I am a sinner. I need to believe in Jesus Christ because He's the only one who can save me from the judgment that my sin brings. He's died on the cross for my sins. He's risen again to new life. Jesus, save me from my sins. Will you pray with me? Father, how great It is to be able to hear your word of salvation that saves sinners. Lord, for those of us who know you, we pray that we would have hearts that would be transformed to stop resisting that area of life we've been saying, no, God, you don't have a place here. Help us, Lord, to surrender our lives to you so that we worship you with all of our strength, with all of our might, with all of our heart. Lord, we pray for those who do not know you. Call them, Lord. Call them to yourself. Help them to see the one thing that will change them, and it is their sin, and your Son dying for their sin. Lord, we pray that you would do a mighty work in saving sinners. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.