Christmas Reversed

Intro

Hey everyone,

It’s been a bit but welcome back to our Thursday night gatherings. If you’re new around here, my name is Cody and I’m the worship and college pastor here..and if you need anything at all while you’re here with us tonight…if you have any questions or would like to talk or pray with someone, just find any of us that have a nametag on and we’d be glad to help.

Well, like I mentioned a couple weeks ago when last we opened the word together…we are reaching the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth…and the end of our series in the Gospel of Luke. We’ve got just two chapters left…one tonight…and one next week…and they are some big chapters, because the are the culmination of the gospel.

The culmination of all that Jesus has done up to this point…and truly…truly…the reason that he was born in the first place. And since our church is in the Christmas season now…I thought it would be cool to remind ourselves of the Christmas story, through the lens of the crucifixion.

Meaning…I’d like to look at the birth of Christ, through the death of Christ. I’d like to better understand the beginning, while we are studying the end.

So here’s what we are doing tonight…instead of just being in Luke 23…we are going to be both at the beginning of the gospel and at the end. We are going to be comparing the Christmas story…to the crucifixion…all to better understand the weight of the crucifixion…the purpose of the crucifixion…and the hope that is in the crucifixion.

So here’s what I’m calling the message tonight…a Christmas Reversal.

Title Slide

And I’m calling it that because while I was studying this passage over the past couple of weeks…the Lord began to weigh my heart down with the tragic difference that can be found between Christmas and the Crucifixion. It’s a weight that brings a new level of importance to both accounts…and I’d like to share it with you tonight. So what we are going to see…is four points about how Christmas and the Crucifixion relate…and here’s the first one.

Praise turned to lament (2:20 vs. 23:27)

When it comes to reading the crucifixion beside the Christmas story…we see that the praise in Luke 2, turned to lament in Luke 23.

Let me show you…since we are jumping around a bit tonight…I’ll have the Christmas passages on the screen, and let you have Luke 23 open in your bible.

So here’s what happening in the Christmas story…the Shepherds were visited by angels to be told the long awaited savior was being born in Bethlehem…so what do they do? They naturally to go the Bethlehem and see him…they saw the newborn baby savior…they saw the hope they had been promised, the miracle of the son of God coming to earth…they saw angels proclaim it to them…and here’s what is said when they left.

Luke 2:20 ESV

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

So here’s what I want to draw out of this story right now. Jesus is in the scene right? Like..he’s the center of attention. He’s the newborn babe, the long-awaited messiah…the Davidic King (which we’ve talked about a few times in this series and will be a lot more next semester…hint hint).

But anyway, Jesus is at the center of this story…the people are around him..they know who he is and what he is meant to do…and the shepherds represent what their response is…and what is that response?

Praise.

See that? they glorified…and praised God for all that had been done. Why are they praising? Because they are filled with wonder…with awe…with joy…and with hope…because their long awaited King…the one who is to fill the throne that’s been empty for generations…he’s finally here.

It’s a scene filled with hope and praise and joy…and It’s a pretty different scenario at the end of Jesus’ life. Let’s look at it together..

If you’re in Luke 23, you’ll see we are at the crucifixion…Jesus has been tried…he hasn’t been found guilty, and yet he’s being executed anyways…the same baby that the shepherds adored and praised…is now the man that is marching towards his own execution…and part of his execution is to walk his cross (with some help we see) to the place of his death.

To put this in perspective…this is like someone having to build their own electric chair before taking a seat in it to die...

And here’s what it says...

Luke 23:27 ESV

27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

So once again…Jesus is at the center of this scene…and people are looking upon him…but the response is much different. Instead of praise and glory…it’s lament and mourning.

And why are they lamenting? Because their long awaited king…their messiah…their promised one…is meeting his end. We see in verse 49 that these people had been with him since Galilee…they understood who he was…they understood where he came from. We know that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was here as well.

Can you imagine the difference in her heart at this moment?

It says in the Christmas story...

Luke 2:19 ESV

19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

This woman went from treasuring all that God did…to allow her to get pregnant with the savior of the world…so much that she even wrote a song of praise about it in the middle of Luke 1.

And now…she’s here…weeping and mourning…and watching from a distance.

So the praise at Christmas....turned to lament at the crucifixion.

So why is this important for you to understand?

Well, first....to the depth that we understand the hope of Christmas, we understand the sorrow at the crucifixion.

Understanding how the birth of Jesus made people feel, helps us understand the tragedy of Jesus’ sacrifice…and I would say that it’s important to understand the tragedy of Jesus’ sacrifice to get the most out of this context as we finish the Gospel of luke.

And third…I think it’s important for us to understand these things as our church enters the Christmas season…because as we head towards Christmas…and we reflect on the birth of Christ…it puts into perspective all this baby boy was expected to do…and all that he was going to do.

So these reasons are true of our first point…and they will be true of the next two points as well. And here’s the second point.

In the christmas reversal of Luke 23:

Comfort turned to caution (2:10 vs. 23:28)

Go ahead and stay in Luke 23…but let me show you another aspect of the Christmas story in Luke 2…it’ll be on the screens.

So we are back to the shepherds that we said have visited Jesus…but this is before they visit him…this is back when the angels appear in the first place…let me give some context and see what 2:10 is saying.

Luke 2:8–10 ESV

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 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.

So the angels just *bam* show up on the scene…and the shepherds are immediately filled with great fear. Now, it doesn’t say what kind of fear they were filled with...

It could have been like self protection fear, startled fear, or it could have been a fear of the Lord…thinking they were being judged..

Either way..they were fearful.

And being filled with fear..they were comforted. Comforted by what the angels said…what was it the angels said?

I bring you GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY....meaning…what they are bringing is something that shouldn’t cause fear…but it should cause joy…exuberance…exaltation…happiness....glee…however you want to describe it…the Good News of the birth of Christ should cause joy in the hearts of those who hear it…and not just the shepherds…but for who?

The text says that it’s good news of great joy that will be FOR ALL THE PEOPLE.

Not for just the Jews…not just for the shepherds…not just for those who are in Bethlehem…but for all the people.

That’s them, that’s the nations…guys…that’s me and you.

A reason to celebrate Christmas is because good news has come…that good news causes great joy for those who understand it…and Christmas is the time that we celebrate that fact that it came…and we reinvigorate ourselves to share it because it’s for all the people.

So that’s Christmas…we see a great comfort given to those that were fearing at the sight of the angels…but the same is not true for those who were seeing the sight of Christ…30 years later…carrying the cross.

Let’s look back at where we are in Luke 23…we just read verse 27, let’s see verse 28.

Luke 23:28–31 ESV

28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

So what we see here…is that the comfort of Christmas…that Good news is here for all the people…also comes with some caution.

I don’t want to spend the entire rest of the message on just this one point…so let me summarize for you what Jesus is saying.

When Jesus says “daughters of Jersusalem”, he’s speaking to not only the women there, but the city of Jerusalem. He’s not only speaking to them, but he’s pronouncing one last judgement on the people of Israel…we’ve seen this quite a bit in the Gospel of Luke if you remember the messages given about the Jewish people refusing the invite to God’s table and instead the gentiles being welcomed…

This is along those same lines.

So he’s speaking to them and what he is essentially saying is, don’t weep for me…weep for you and your children, for the day is coming when you are going to wish to be cursed (because infertility was seen as a curse)…you are going to wish to be cursed because that seems so much better than what is happening to you...

And then Jesus says in there in verse 31…if they do these things when the wood is green…what will they do when it’s dry? Meaning…if God is willing to let his son suffer…how much more will he let those who persecuted his son suffer.

So as you can see…this is a serious statement from Jesus…and it’s not the same kind of hope filled statement that we saw in the Christmas story…this is not a “fear not” statement but rather at “you should fear statement”.

So once again…we have a statement made based on what is happening to the son of God…in the Christmas story he’s being born…in the crucifixion he’s being executed…and this statement of adoration and comfort at Christmas to mourning and caution at the crucifixion.

So what do we do with this information? What do we do with the fact that Jesus pronounces judgement on those are suppose to know him…suppose to love him…but actively deny and persecute him?

We always seek to adore Christ, rather than ignore Christ.

Seek to adore Christ, not ignore Christ.

Seek to be like the shepherds who eagerly sought to worship Christ, and find comfort in his words of “do not fear”…and wake up if you’re like the jews who claimed to know God…yet actively persecuted his son.

Well, how can I be actively persecuting his son you ask? By sinning…and refusing to repent of your sin.

So…viewing the Christmas story, through the lens of the crucifixion allows us to see the difference in the way we can choose to respond to Christ…and I pray that you choose to praise and adore…and to find comfort rather than be the one who receives caution.

Third point.

A promised king became a suffering servant (1:32 vs 23:35)

This point is shorter…but just as important. And the purpose of this point…is to emphasize Christ, his person, and his character in all of this.

Let’s look back at the Christmas story.

We’ve gone a bit further back now…before the shepherds and the angels…and to the tine that Mary…a young virgin girl…is told by the angel Gabriel that she will be giving birth to God’s son…and here’s a part of what Gabriel says to her.

Luke 1:32–33 ESV

32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

So what we see here…is that Jesus is the promised King. We’ve talked about it a lot this series and like I hinted at before, we will be talking about it next semester. So..we see that Jesus will be promised to take the throne of King David...

But let’s go ahead and jump to the crucifixion and see the difference.

Luke 23:35–38 ESV

35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

So…this promised king becomes a suffering servant…one who is mocked, and scourned…one who is beaten instead of praised.

And I call him the suffering servant because Isaiah alludes to this over 800 years before Christ was ever born. It says in Isaiah 53..

Isaiah 53:2–5 ESV

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

So in the crucifixion…we see a reversal of what we expected from a king in the Christmas story. We see a humble birth…become a humiliating death.

And I would say…that so far…these points sorta depress you about Christmas right? And on top of that…it’s hard to say we fully grasp all that is understood in Luke 23.

Listen…tonight I’m running off the assumption that you’ve heard Jesus died on the cross for your sins…and what I’m trying to show you…is the tragedy and reversal it was of the Christmas story.

It’s good to see this…and it’s good to understand just how tragic the death of Christ was…but at the end…this last point still stand above all things. And that point is..

Yet hope still abounds and God still reigns (23:39-47)

Luke 23:39–43 ESV

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”