Lessons from the Stable

Lessons From the Stable Spring Valley Mennonite; December 23, 2018; Luke 2:6-7 I love Nativity scenes, and am amazed at the variety we see. If you haven’t examined this one we have up front, please do so and admire the detail. This was created by ___ from Goessel. We personally have several nativity sets; my favorite is one carved out of olive wood from Israel. I like to arrange all the figures in a circle around the Christ child figure: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, 2 sheep, a donkey and a camel. There are the three wise men, although scripture does not place them at the manger scene. All these figures are very familiar to us who have heard the story so many times. There is a danger, however, in familiar things; the danger of thinking we know all there is to know about them, and the very real danger of overlooking any possibility of learning something new. The scene at the manger is like that. As we look at the night of Jesus’ birth, we naturally lapse into warm feelings and memories, perhaps failing to think about the true message of the stable. This Sunday before Christmas, I want to guide you back to that Bethlehem stable, and the miracle of miracles of which the stable was the scene. By the way, do you realize that there is never a mention of a stable in Scripture? We assume its existence from one verse in Luke 2. Turn there and follow along as I read. Read Luke 2:6-7 I. THE BETHLEHEM STABLE The Scripture speaks of a manger in which the baby Jesus was laid. I do not feel it is wrong to assume the existence of a stable in which we find that manger. Consider that most of the modern world would not know what a manger is without the Christmas story! We also assume that the stable was associated with the overflowing inn, and although highly likely, that also is not clearly stated. We speculate about what the stable was like. Most likely the stable was carved out of the side of a hill, enclosed to some extent on the front. As such, with the warmth of the animals, the stable would have been warmer than the open air. Perhaps the greatest advantage of the stable was the privacy afforded. I have read that the inns of that day typically provided open areas in which a person could find an unoccupied place to lie down. An inn got a person out of the weather, but that was about the extent of it. God protected the Holy family from the gaze of the public by placing them in the stable. Perhaps you have heard the story of the children’s Christmas play where two boys were vying for the part of Joseph. The one who lost the chance to play Joseph was to play the innkeeper. He jealously plotted to embarrass Joseph, and when Joseph knocked on the door to inquire about a room, instead of his assigned line of “No room here!” he said, “Sure I have room; come right in!” Without skipping a beat, the boy playing Joseph looked through the doorway, and said, “There is no way I would stay in such a crummy inn! I’m going to the stable!” However Joseph and Mary ended up in the stable, it serves as a metaphor of Jesus’ rejection by men. He “came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Jesus was unwelcome from the very beginning. II. HE WAS UNWELCOMED BY MEN We need not romanticize the stable too much; it still was a place meant for animals instead of people. We must not miss a very important lesson: the reason Jesus was born in the stable was that there was no room in the inn. In those words “no room” we read an icy indifference to the plight of a young couple in need; the great need of a young women on the verge of giving birth. No one volunteered to give up his spot in the inn and no room could be found. Yet such indifference is not particularly surprising. Perhaps we each practice this attitude when we see people who are homeless. Often, do we not look right through them, ignoring their existence? Selfishness is one of the marks of sin. We naturally look after ourselves first, and seldom inconvenience ourselves to look after another. I wonder if we would have reacted any differently to Mary and Joseph… I thank God for homeless shelters and organizations like the Salvation Army that provide for the needs of the homeless and needy. We should all generously support such efforts. As a bit of an aside relating to helping the needy, God is giving expanded opportunities to our Ministerial Alliance through the Thanksgiving and Christmas voucher program; for example, in 2017, we provided 7 Thanksgiving vouchers; this year that expanded to 21! The Christmas voucher numbers are also running far ahead of last year. The food pantry is also seeing increased usage, and this week I received a check from the ReUseit Center in McPherson for $1000 for the ministry of the Alliance—as the outreach expands, so does God’s provision. We can rejoice together in our joint ministry to the community. Back to considering the stable: Isn’t it telling how many people did NOT visit the holy family after the birth? Although it is an argument from silence, we know that the scribes who told Herod where the Messiah was to be born never bothered to check it out. All Jerusalem was stirred when the Wise Men came inquiring about the birth of the new King, but apparently no one bothered to check out the story. Even the people of Bethlehem informed by the shepherds were too busy to visit the newborn child. From J. Vernon McGee come these words describing the welcome Jesus received into this world: “The first breath He drew was the air of a stable. He came from the atmosphere of heaven to the air of a stall! He departed from the presence of angels, and He arrived in the presence of animals! He gave up the halls of eternity to enter a stable of maternity. It was a long way from the joy of heaven to the sorrow of earth! All the way He came to rescue man from hell! Is this the kind of welcome the world accords the God-man?” We must realize that the Son was invading enemy territory. Christmas is really the celebration of an invasion! Scripture clearly tells us that this world system is presided over by none other than Satan himself. Remember when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world if only our Lord would worship him? Jesus never disputed Satan’s dominion over those kingdoms. Ephesians 2:1-2: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” The world system never was nor never will be cordial to the good news announced by the angels. The world system is not looking for another lord; the only lord recognized is the enemy of God. God sent His Son into enemy territory; into a foreign land to fight and defeat the great enemy of God and mankind. 1 John 3:8: “The Son of God appeared for this purpose; to destroy the works of the devil.” Jesus came to meet Satan, to defeat him and destroy his works, the fall of mankind into sin being the main work of Satan. Jesus came into an alien kingdom with one purpose in mind: to die for our sins, to be the acceptable sacrifice. The victory over Satan and sin would cost Jesus His life. No wonder there was “no room”. But God made room; contrary to the efforts of all the forces of evil; I wonder if perhaps the massive gathering of angels who sang praises to the shepherds had another purpose: that of protection of the infant. We do know that one way we resist the devil is by praising God, as did the angel choir to the shepherds. I can imagine an army of angels surrounding the whole vicinity of Bethlehem including the shepherd’s fields and the stable in protection of the infant Christ child. We know Satan was aware of Jesus’ birth; he motivated Herod to murder all the male children in Bethlehem as he searched for the Christ child. As we think about the Son of God coming from heaven, we realize that: III. A FULL STABLE MEANS A VACANT THRONE When Jesus was born in the Bethlehem stable, a vacancy was noted in Heaven. For the first time in all eternity past and present, one of the seats on the Throne of God was empty. The Eternal Son’s seat was vacant. Angels are thinking beings, and I’m sure they had questions about this plan. “Why would God want to leave heaven to dwell on earth?” “Why would the Son of God become a man?” “You can’t mean He is going to become a baby!” And said with disgust and righteous anger, “But it is so dark down there; that is the domain of the fallen angel.” There was a different tone about heaven for that period of time we know as 33 years, the time Jesus walked upon earth. The angels were puzzled. Turn to 1 Peter 1:10-12 (Read) Although the Old Testament Prophets spoke of many of the aspects of events relating to our salvation, they still largely were in the dark. The angels also “long to look” into such things, but it remains a mystery to them. When the Son left heaven for earth, they were left with questions. Remember there was no forgiveness or redemption ever offered to the fallen angels like is offered to mankind. The angels must have agreed, “This is a strange way to save the world—by sending a baby!” Through the stable, God speaks eloquently that His ways are not our ways. The things mankind values so much mean little to God. Man works and strives and sacrifices to gain that which gives him prestige in the eyes of others, and in one event on a back alley in Bethlehem, God shouts out to us: THAT STUFF DOESN’T IMPRESS ME AT ALL! So often in life we are puzzled about how God works out His plans for our lives, and what He allows to bring about His will. He does not always let us in on His plans. Whether we know what He is doing or not, our response is to trust Him and remain faithful. Something else we can learn from the birthplace of God’s Son is that: IV. JESUS IS A SAVIOR FOR ALL Let me pose a question: If Jesus had been born in a palace, would shepherds have been likely to come to worship Him? For that matter, would the majority of inhabitants of the world be able to identify with a Savior who was surrounded with great wealth? The stable was the ideal launching point for a ministry to all men. God chose to not shelter His Son from the harsh realities of the world. God did not send His Son to live in the artificial world of the palace, surrounded by servants and splendor. Anyone too proud to accept a Savior born as a common man…won’t be saved. Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger to demonstrate that God’s salvation is available to all men. Jesus, born in a stable is approachable. Jesus was a common man who experienced life as we do. He was born as a baby like all of us. His life was lived in surroundings which were quite humble. Our Savor, beginning at His birth, did not come to isolate Himself, but to make Himself available to all men, even the poorest of the poor. Look at the people with whom He associated: the poor, the sick, the lepers, fishermen and children, zealots and tax-collectors, sinners every one. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is God made available. God uses a young mother and a carpenter father, and an inexperienced set of parents. He uses an insignificant little town in Judea. He chooses poor, humble shepherds to receive an Angel chorus of “Glory to God in the Highest!” The message rings loud and clear from the stable: Jesus is a Savior for all men! God exalts the humble and brings down the proud. I Corinthians 1:26-29: “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.” J. Vernon McGee tells the story of the son of a Persian monarch who was making his first voyage with the fleet of his father. During the voyage, an unfortunate occurrence happened on board the vessel on which the prince was traveling. One of the servants of the captain fell overboard and was in danger of drowning. The captain made no attempt to rescue the servant, nor did he appear to be concerned. The prince, who observed all this, turned anxiously to the captain and inquired, “Aren’t you going to try to save the man?” To which the captain smiled and quietly answered, “We do not hold up the fleet of the king for a mere servant.” The prince hurriedly removed his royal tunic. Then he climbed to the rail, but before he leaped into the water he cried, “You may not hold up the fleet for a servant, but you will for his son.” McGee comments: “The Lord Jesus Christ saw that we were lost in the sea of sin, and that we were going down with none to save, with none who could save. He climbed to the parapets of heaven, laid aside His glory robes, and then leaped into the sea of mankind that He might rescue us from the treacherous waters of sin.” Jesus came as a Savior of all men. V. THE STABLE ( also) DEMONSTRATES GOD’S GREAT LOVE The stable demonstrates that God would go to all lengths to demonstrate His love, for compared to heaven, all the world is a stable. He would leave the glories of heaven, confining Omnipotence within a human form. He would voluntarily put aside His glory and the exercise of many of His attributes. Philippians 2:6-8 is really a Christmas passage; listen to it and I think you will see the connection: Paul is speaking of Jesus when he says, “…who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” The Son of God is eternal, eternally existent. He had no beginning. John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The Son has always been equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. Yet by joining His deity—His “Godness” with human flesh, God the Son became something He had never been before—that is the meaning of “begotten”. John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God the Son took on flesh—He became God incarnate, which means exactly that: God in flesh, Jesus, born in Bethlehem’s manger, Emmanuel. But we must realize that the Christmas story, this giving of the Greatest Gift to mankind, did not end in the Bethlehem stable. That was just the beginning. Jesus grew into a man, and walked up and down the dusty roads of His land, teaching the people what God was like. He told people, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” He taught true righteousness was more than outward conformity to rules and commandments, but that righteousness is a matter of the heart. He taught that man needed to be born from above—born of the Spirit. And His teachings angered the religious leaders of Israel so greatly that they put Him to death. But His death was not a mistake, but according to God’s eternal plan of redemption, Jesus became the perfect, sinless sacrifice that made atonement for our sins! God’s love was demonstrated at the cross. Jesus is the lamb that takes away the sins of those who will claim His forgiveness. Jesus was born into this world for one purpose: to die as a payment for sins. Until Jesus became flesh, until He became the God-man He could not have died as the perfect sacrifice. The shadow of the cross fell across the manger in the stable. How much does God love you? This much (arms extended)! The great gift of Christmas is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that is what Christmas is all about.