Three Questions To Consider On Christmas Morning

Well, here we are at church, gathering for worship, on Christmas morning.

Let’s take a quick poll:

How many of you would say that having church on Christmas has added to your Christmas celebrations in some way?

Now, being honest, I’d like you to raise your hand if having church on Christmas Day has complicated your Christmas plans.

Most years, at 11am, we would probably be opening the last of the presents, or having a second helping of breakfast, or getting in the car to travel out of town to grandma’s house in time for turkey and dressing.

Instead, we’ve paused all of that. And here we are.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m glad we’re here today. It’s appropriate that we’re here today. It’s good that we’re here.

In fact, what a blessing from God it is that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.

Because in the midst of all the frenzy of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, in the middle of all of the food and the family and the traveling, in the midst of juggling family gatherings with one side of the family with gatherings on the other side — in the midst of all of that chaos, God has given us a chance hit pause on all of that, to come here, and to be reminded what it’s all about.

And so with that in mind, having pushed the pause button our busy Christmas morning activities, consider with me three questions that help us make the most of pausing our gatherings and coming here to worship.

[GO TO SLIDE #1: HAVE WE PAUSED TO CONSIDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES…]

#1: Have we paused to consider the circumstances of our Savior’s birth?

First there was the inconvenient journey. The inconvenient journey.

Travel is easy today compared to the first century. But not then. The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was long, it was uphill, it was dangerous. After this service, we’ll get up as a family and go to Asheville. If we take I-40, from Marion to Asheville, we’ll go up Old Fort Mountain. Beautiful drive. And from the base of the mountain at Old Fort to the western side of the mountains at Ridgecrest Conference Center, it is 8.3 miles and it takes us 12 minutes. We’ll be comfortable in our car and we’ll enjoy the beautiful drive.

Bethlehem is about 2,500 feet above sea level. Joseph and Mary weren’t in a car. They were either on foot or they had a camel. At best, Mary rode the camel and Joseph walked.

And Mary is pregnant. If you’re female or if you’re married and you’ve had kids, you know there are two kinds of pregnant: pregnant, and very pregnant. Mary is very pregnant.

And on top of all of this, this was not a fun trip. This was a mandatory trip. Far, far, far away in Rome, on the other side of the known world, the tyrant Caesar Augustus rules the empire with an iron fist. There is no town, no matter how small, where he didn’t suck the life of the people through taxation, and that includes Nazareth. This census was an order. You had to go whether you could afford it or not. Travel took days, weeks, months.

So, uphill, dangerous, required, long, exhausting, painful — this was the inconvenient journey. It was an inconvenient journey.

But there were also uncomfortable accommodations.

A couple years ago, Shannon and I took a trip to Phoenix for a pastor and pastors’ wives retreat. The retreat was over on Wednesday and our flight wasn’t until the next morning, so we needed a hotel to stay in Wednesday night, preferably cheap.

Well, let’s just say you get what you paid for. The smell of cigarettes was baked into the walls. There were holes where people had, I assume, gotten into fights and smashed their first through the wall. We were about 90% sure that someone at some point had been murdered in that room.

And the icing on the cake was this: it was next door to a strip club, and the back entrance — you know, the entrance where people can enter discretely so their spouses or family won’t see them going in — that entrance opened onto the parking lot of the hotel. This is what you get for booking a cheap hotel room online.

We stayed about 10 minutes and left and paid a little more for a nice room at Comfort Suites near the airport. It was so bad we didn’t even want to stay to haggle for our money back. We just left.

We had it pretty good because going somewhere else was actually an option for us. But not for the Savior’s parents. And once they arrive, there’s no rest for the weary. Mary goes into labor.

We were fortunate when we had both of our children to live close enough to go to one of the big hospitals in Raleigh. The best doctors you could have, the best facilities you could have, the most advanced medical care, the best pain relief. My wife actually slept through the labor of both of our kids.

Obviously, that’s nothing like what people were accustomed to in the first century. it was dangerous. The infant mortality rate was here. The maternal mortality rate was high.

The overcrowded inn was the only option, and it was full. Mary and Joseph are relegated to a nearby barn where Mary will give birth to the Savior and place Him in a feeding trough for a bed.

Have we paused to consider the circumstances of our Savior’s birth?

Let’s pause and consider this. Our Savior was not given to wealthy parents, he was born to peasants. He was not born in a plush Jerusalem mansion, but in a barn. When God sent His Son, He sent Him to a nobody village carpenter named Joseph and a nobody teenage girl named Mary. [Hughes p82]

God prefers the nobodies over the powerful!

He prefers the poor over the wealthy, the dirty over the clean. There’s nothing wrong with being powerful or rich. But it’s often the poor and the dirty and nobodies who most feel their need for a Savior. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3 ESV).

[GO TO SLIDE #2: HAVE WE PAUSED TO CONSIDER WHY OUR SAVIOR’S BIRTH…]

#2: Have we paused to consider why our Savior’s birth was first announced to shepherds?

No matter how old I get, I still think the Charlie Brown Christmas special is the best Christmas film there is. We watch it every year. I think about the little guy that is chosen to play the innkeeper. It’s Pigpen, right? He’s the guy with the cloud of dust always swarming around him? He says, “Despite my outward appearance, I shall try to run a neat inn.”

I also think of the little guy that plays the shepherd in the play they’re going to put on. Shermie and Linus, I think. They’ve got their staff and shepherd’s robes. And Linus has his blanket. “This is one shepherd who’s going to keep his trusty blanket.”

It’s cute. But in reality, the shepherds were not cute. The shepherds were the lowest of the low. The shepherds were a stereotyped group of people.

Shepherds had the reputation for stealing.

They were seen as dishonest.

They were seen as unreliable witnesses.

They were seen as unworthy of basic care like comforting someone who was grieving.

And because the shepherds had to always be with the sheep, they couldn’t go to the temple or synagogue and worship.

And this just adds to the general sense that shepherds are undeserving, unworthy, undesirable to God.

Not all shepherds were like this. But those shepherds who were upright, good, godly men, were still lumped in with the others and it was hard for them to redeem themselves.

You might say shepherds were a class of people that it was sort of seen as ok to discriminate against them.

Have we paused to consider why our Savior’s birth was first announced to shepherds?

Why, when the most important person who will ever be born is about to be born, is it that shepherds are the first audience of this news?

Think about this, friends. When Jesus was born, there had been 400 years of silence. 400 years since the last prophet Malachi spoke the word of the Lord to HIs people. 400 years since anyone had heard from God.

It was a hopeless time in Israel. What had happened to God’s promise that a righteous and better and true David would sit on the David’s throne in Jerusalem and usher in a perfect kingdom of happiness and peace? With every passing decade, with every passing century, it seemed as though He would not fulfill His promises. Maybe they were too good to be true. Hope was fading. But the longing had not faded.

“O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”

There was always that hope in Israel, no matter how dim it had gotten, even after 400 years. The news the shepherds receive is that Emmanuel has come. To these despised, forsaken men, God first announces the advent of the long-awaited Savior.

So, knowing what we know about shepherds, and knowing what we know about the darkness of the last 400 years and the hope for the Messiah, we can really appreciate the news the shepherds receive.

Listen as I read this news. I’ll read it out of the KJV because this is the version we know: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:8-12 KJV).

It’s nighttime when the shepherds are given this news. The night sky lights up with nothing short of the blinding, brilliant, beautiful glory of God Himself. This light encompassed them — the shepherds! The ones who were seen as living in darkness, the ones seen as being the least worthy of the light, to them God reveals Himself.

I don’t need to tell you that we live in a dark world. Billions of people are still lost and without Christ. Living in a world with divorce, sickness, chronic pain, war, rumors of war, oppression. It’s a dark world. No wonder so many people live in their own private darkness, which is mental illness. Record numbers of people are seeking help for depression and anxiety.

It doesn’t help when, for example, Canada says it will allow people with mental health disorders seek to end their own lives with the help of a doctor. We’ve come so far as human beings, you know? You know that’s true when the best our secular world can offer someone with mental illness, is death.

But light is coming. The book of Revelation tells us there is coming a day when all those who love and trust Christ will live in a world so bright there will be no need for the sun. God Himself who is light, He will be our light.

Light is coming, but it’s also true that light has come. John the apostle says of Christ, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5 ESV). Light is coming but light is also breaking through the darkness if we have eyes to see it.

I read an article written by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His mother has dementia, rapidly progressing. He said that his brother broke down crying when his mother picked up a fork with some food on it to eat it but couldn’t find her mouth.

But here’s interesting thing: when his mother saw that her son was upset, she suddenly seemed to grow more alert and lucid. She called him over to her, put her hand on his chin, and said, “Son, it’s going to be okay. God will get us through this.” Then it was gone. But for a moment, this pastor was reminded that things are dark now, yes, but just wait until Jesus returns! In the meantime, the Light of the world will walk with us through this world’s darkness. Only Jesus who is the Light of the world can bring light and life in our dark lives, our dark hearts, and our dark world.

And the fact that this news was not announced first to Caesar, the fact that these good tidings were not first given to the high priest in Jerusalem — that is God signaling how He works. In fact, look at verse 10: the angel says “I bring you” — you shepherds! — “I bring you good news great joy that will be for all the people.” The message is for them and people like them. Again we see it in verse 11: “For unto you” — unto you shepherds! — “is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”.

God does not prefer the powerful because they have power, or the wealthy because they have wealth. “But These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word” (Isa 66:2b NIV). “Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says, “for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5 ESV).

Have we paused to consider why our Savior’s birth was first announced to shepherds?

[GO TO SLIDE #3: HAVE WE PAUSED TO CONSIDER HOW MUST RESPOND…]

#3: Have we paused to consider how we must respond to our Savior’s birth?

This Christmas has been tough for us, not really sure why. Shannon and I were just saying that this year feels different. I’ve had to force myself to listen to Christmas music, probably for the first time in my life. It’s been hard to get into the “Christmas spirit”, whatever that even means.

I would like to be able to go back to our Christmas festivities as a different man than when I left. I bet some of you might like the same thing.

So how do we do that?

Well, what did the shepherds do? They act on what they have heard. They act on what they have heard. They waste no time. This good news they’ve received has changed them. They go in haste to Bethlehem. Arriving, they report what the angels told them. They worship the newborn King. And they come back, verse 20 tells us, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them”.

Do you remember the scene in Charlie Brown Christmas where Linus reads the Scripture? He reads the text we’re looking at today. Do you remember why Linus reads that Scripture? Why does he stand up on the stage and read Luke 2 for Charlie Brown? It’s because Charlie Brown, is really desperate. What is Christmas really about?

If you remember, Charlie Brown had tried almost everything to find happiness and joy at Christmas. He tried playing in the snow; his friends liked it but it didn’t do much for him. He tried helping his sister write her letter to Santa. He tried “therapy” with Lucy. Lucy tells him he needs involvement, so she makes him the director. He’s not up to the task. He even goes out and finds the Christmas tree. It droops and everyone hates it. He says “Everything I touch is ruined”.

And that’s when, in exasperation, he says, “is there anybody who can tell me what this season is all about?”

And Linus — as if it had been obvious all along — says, “Sure Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. The curtain on the stage goes back. The lights come up. And he reads begins reading: “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night…Fear not, for 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, which is Christ the Lord.”

“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

[GO TO LAST SLIDE]

Call for response

Charlie Brown hears that Scripture, smiles, takes the tree, and walks purposefully off the stage. Charlie Brown has figured out that, before it’s about anything else, it’s about the birth of the Savior.

His birth is the best news the world has ever heard, because it is a message that brings the joy and fulfillment that the whole world is searching for!

Here is the birth of One who you have been searching for all your life even though you don’t know it!

Here is the One who will bring you the satisfaction you’re seeking in food, sex, porn, career, money, relationships!

It’s a message that changes us on the outside, because it takes root and transforms us on the inside. The shepherds were changed by that message. Would you like to be changed today?

Some questions for you as we close this morning:

Has the message of the Savior changed us?

Are our lives different for having heard the good news of forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ?

Is there a contrast between your life before Christ and your life after you met Him?

If you ran into someone who knew you before you met Jesus, would your life now be recognizable to them? Or would you be the same person? Would they say, “You haven’t changed a bit”? Or would they say “Something is different about you”?

Has the message of the Savior changed us?

Is the good news of the gospel continuing to change us?

That is to say, are we growing?

Can we see that we are more mature, more humble, less proud, more gentle than we were five years ago?

Are you more solid in your convictions but more loving and compassionate toward those who disagree with you than you were 10 years ago?

It’s good that our Christmas plans have been complicated this morning. And maybe we’ll find that the complication of coming to church on Christmas morning actually makes the rest of the day lighter and simpler and more filled with joy.