Luke 2: Wondering and Pondering Hearts

Luke 2:8-20

1. God Calls us to Come and See.

2. God Calls us to Wonder.

3. God Calls for us to Ponder.

God Desires You to Come and See

Jesus just came into the world. All the hotels were full and they had to stay in a stable or a cave. Jesus is sleeping, cooing and or crying in a manger, or in a feeding trough. Jesus is wrapped tightly with strips of cloth; he is swaddled… in these clothes...

What do we see? We have the Nativity scene. We have the birth and birthplace of the Savior.

Now… in the area… there were shepherds watching over their sheep herd. And God desires to have some witnesses on the scene… What does God do?

God sends angels, messengers, to the shepherds to proclaim the message and to invite the shepherds to come and see what God has done.

The angel shows up with the divine glory of God shining bright all around. It freaked them out. They are afraid… The glory of God is powerful/awesome and overwhelming.

The glory of God will knocked you down and make you fall like a dead person...

The heavenly messengers got their attention and spoke simply: The Savior has been born. He is Christ the Lord. This will be the sign that you are at the right place. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths… lying in a manger.

The manger was a feeding trough… most likely made out of stone, clay, or rock.

And you will find the baby in that...

This would be a sign to them… Why? Because this is not common. It is not common to have babies in this type of location… This is odd or rare.

And you… dear poor shepherds… are called to come and see this!

So Get This: God Calls People to Come and See

God’s invitation did not first go out to the highest and the mightiest. The first ones on the scene are not the Magi, or the We Three Kings… This would be expected… This would be common...

When kings are born… other kings are called to be there. Other important people should be close by. The baby royal should be in a fine place, with the best of materials, the best environments, the best for the parents… and they should be accompanied by the most important people...

What does God do?

God the Son comes into the world through a poor mother, with poor parents, born in a stable… maybe with animals around… in a feeding trough… and now with smelly shepherds...

I mean if this was your story… If this was your son… would you have done it this way? Would you have done it differently? Maybe...

Would you have used rich, wealthy and sophisticated people to care for your child? Would you have had Jesus be born at the Plaza, the Ritz… surrounded by doctors? Hospitals are going to be invented in about 400 more years… so...

Would you have invited only a few people, a few very, very clean people?

Yes… yes… most likely… sure.... why not… If it was my story… absolutely!

But this is God’s Story. God, the Son, emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. Though He was rich… for your sake, He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).

For your sake… For my sake… For our sake… He does this...

Jesus Christ, God the Son, the King of Kings knew the whole human experience. Jesus grew to know the pains and challenges of humanity… He knows the pain of hunger, thirst, cold and heat… love and loss.

It was ordained that our Savior knew every fiber of humanity… He not only knows it intellectually, He knows it intimately, within Himself… He feels it.

He can now sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15).

He knows and feels our weaknesses and sympathizes. Jesus understands all people… and all people can come to Him for understanding.

The rich men, the wise men, the magi… are coming too (Matthew 2). This may be up to 2 years later. But the poor are coming first. The poor will have the first opportunity...

We will see that the rich, wise men/magi will come, and that they too can come… It might have been more difficult; it have taken them a little longer...

But God reveals the truth of Christ to both of these polarized groups of people… and God leads them all to the Saviors side...

What Does the Whole Story Communicate?

All of you, poor and rich… Come and See!

All are welcome to come and see. All are welcome to come to the Savior. All social classes… All economic backgrounds… All skin colors… All smells… Some are closer… Some are further away… Some are slow… Some are fast...

For God so loved the World… He is the Light of the World… The Savior of the World… The Light for Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slave, Greek, and free.

And He will save you from your sins...

God desires all to Come and See...

The messengers went to the people. The messengers pointed the way and spoke simply. The messengers knew that God wanted the people to come to Jesus.

a. So, we as God’s messengers… have a simple model to follow here. Messengers of the the Kingdom and of the King… We are to know that God wants us to proclaim this news. We are to point the way. And we are to speak simply about Jesus...

Speak To whom? To the greatest and to the least. Proclaim the message to all.

Are we associating with all people groups? Are we ashamed of the lower classes, the poor folks, the smelly folks?

b. Or… Do we disconnect from the wealthy… because we are jealous or because it is so difficult to talk with them… to work through their pride and ego?

It may be easier to draw hungry and thirsty people… It may be easier to excite poor and the most desperate people...

But… God desires all to come and see what God has done.

2. God also Calls us to Wonder over these things...

Verse 18 - All who heard this message from the shepherds… Wondered at what the shepherds told them… We read in verses 17-18… that lowly shepherds make wonderful evangelists.

And from their witness and testimony… This created a wonder to form in the hearts and the minds of the people listening.

What does this mean? What does it mean to wonder?

Many times we say things like this: “I wonder what they are doing. I wonder what time it is. I wonder around from time to time… and I wonder what I am going to do… when Wonder (Wanda) gets home Wonder Land...”

This is a different kind of “wonder” usage.

What are we talking about Here? We are talking about emotion. We are talking about that which many Baptists are allergic to… We are talking about excitement over something new, and or unusual.

We are amazed, astonished, surprised...

And I believe that Christians lose this wonder... as we hear the story over and over again. We lose the awe and wonder, the excitement of the story… To the point that we moan and roll our eyes in boredom… “Oh, this again… Yeah, yeah, God became a man… get over it.”

No! No!

No! Do not get over it! Get under it and humble yourselves in wonder... and keep yourselves there. This is a wonderful place to live and be.

Have we become so pious and arrogant that we believe that this is now beneath us and that we have need to move on to better things? I hope not!

Should only new believers have wonder, excitement and joy in their lives over this story? No! I am going to get mine to.

The Christian Story and the Christian life is not supposed to be boring. Our default response is not suppose to be, “Yeah, yeah… do not be surprised by anything God does… He is God and He can do anything… So act like its not a big deal, because to be astonished is to show a lack of faith… or a lack of maturity...”

Listen: Don’t let your minds and hearts go here.

Be in wonder. Stay in wonder. Be excited and stay excited about these wonderful truths. Be in child-like wonder about these things. Stay in awe. Be astonished and amazed by this Story and all the glorious things that God does.

Enjoy the story. Enjoy the works of His hands. Be amazed and tell the story with the same surprise and amazement...

And someone just may believe you then...

When? When you tell it with passion… when you tell it like you really believe it!

This is how the shepherds told it… and the people believed and they wondered...

The shepherds made it known… They made it known what they heard and saw. They made it known to those who were in the town area.

Were they shouting in the streets? Were they going into stores? Waking people up? I don’t know. Maybe they were just telling everyone they made contact with on the way back to the fields... But they were excited, and they returned to their fields glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen.

This is a great model for all of us.

Hear and see… Go and tell. Be filled will wonder. Go spread the wonder. Be filled with excitement. Go and spread the truth... with excitement.

And do not forget this last one...

3. Do not forget to Ponder These Things Forever...

Ponder them… Keep pondering them...

Mary, Verse 19, treasured up (kept) all these things, pondering them in her heart.

What does this mean? She thought about them deeply. She examined them thoroughly. She weighed these things in her mind and heart, thinking about their importance, thinking about the consequences...

The weight of this story… the value of this story… the glory of the story… should not be pushed away or forgotten. The weight of the Incarnation, of God becoming a man, of angels announcing and shepherds testifying...

The story… the words… the songs… must be pondered… should be pondered forever.

What will this produce in us? Pondering… Deliberate Reflection... on these wonderful truths will produce wonderful benefits for all of us who practice it.

Gratitude and appreciation will grow. The beauty of God’s Story, God’s Gift, God’s love, power, mercy… will grow.

If we will ponder more… We just may be in wonder more...

If we ponder more… joy and excitement may remain, and love will grow.

Ponder the Truth/Story. Treasure them. Think about them often.

Now: While we only hear of Mary pondering twice in the the Bible...

The Bible speaks much about meditation:

Psalm 19:14 - Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O lord. Psalm 119:15 - I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

Joshua 1:8 - You shall meditate on the Book of the Law day and night… Philippians 4:8 - Whatever is true, honorable, is just, is pure, is lovely, commendable… if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise… think about (meditate on) these things...

Colossians 3:2 - Set your minds on things that are above...

Now Listen: The absence of our wonder, joy, and excitement may mean that our minds are not where they should not be… The Key to your joy may be found here: Pondering/Meditation.

Where is your minds today? What do you think about the most? Is it life giving? Does your pondering consist of only work, politics, wars and rumors of wars? Does this create life/joy in you? Does pondering money and all that which creates anxiety… make you an excited Christian in awe of God’s marvelous grace and gifts?

“Hey… What’s on your minds today?”

Many times… When we ask folks: “Hey, what’s on your mind today…? Hey, what are you thinking about… O not much of anything...”

And our lives tend to reflect that… not much of anything… a dullness...

Our lives reflect little zeal, passion, wonder, and Christian excitement.

Why? Because we have quit pondering, thinking deeply, and meditating on these wonderful things of God.

Maybe this is the key to someone’s joy and excitement today. Maybe this is your day, your month and year to turn your mundane Christianity into a vibrant Christianity experience… By beginning to ponder these marvelous realities again.

So, when people ask: “What’s on your mind? What are you thinking about?” We might be able to say on a regular basis… “I am just pondering the things of God, the work of God, the gifts of God, the wonders of the the life of Christ, the Cross of Christ… Oh, the Goodness of God.

“Oh let me tell you… let me tell you what’s on my mind...”

God became a man… God told us He was going to do this for thousands of years… and in the fullness of time, He came to us, was born in Bethlehem, through a virgin girl named Mary, shepherds and wisemen, poor folks and rich folks came to Him, the angels proclaimed Him, the Star led the wise men… and they gave Jesus gifts. Satan tried to kill Jesus through Herod the Great… But God the Father rescued the Son… and He grew up to become a man, the One Who would die for my sins...

Oh, I am just pondering… and I am filled with wonder...

For God so loved the world (me)... that He gave His only Son… he came to this world and this world rejected Him… Even though He came to die for them… He came, became a man, identified with our pain and took our sins and our hell from us… So that we might become the righteousness of God...

Oh, I am just pondering… And I am growing in wonder… And I just want to see more and more of this Beautiful Story… In the Light of Jesus’ face.

Come and See. 2. Be filled with Wonder. 3. Remember to Ponder these things.

And may your excitement never fade or die.

God has come to us… Immanuel is here. Salvation is here… The Savior of the World is here...

And He is for whosoever will come to Him...

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