Responding to Christmas!
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We often read the Christmas story from Luke this time of the year and almost end with … THE END.... But is it, was it???
The events of Luke are not just a story like frosty the snowman meant to make you feel good
This is God recording for us His amazing grace in sending you and I His Son!!!
God gave us these amazing events through common men who had a heart and desire for the world to know what God had done...
MATTHEW… was a despised tax collector who Jesus wanted and loved and he shared how God had sent the promised messiah
LUKE… was a gentile doctor (not even a Jew) but wanted people to know the accurate facts and events as they had occured so people would know
JOHN… loves Jesus so much he strives to define Him as the greatest communicator by the title The Word! The One who came as man (EMMANUEL) to show and proclaim God’s love for mankind John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God inspired these men to record His Word that we would know EMMANUEL!!!
Their RESPONSE took the Light of the Lord to a dark and lost world…
Joseph & Mary’s Response
Joseph & Mary’s Response
When God’s message came to them
They listened and not only that… They obeyed
As we come this evening to the message from God’s Word will we have the same response to the Christ child coming?
We also see in the closing verses after the shepherds leave… Mary treasures these things in her heart
A Pondering of the message the angels declared
In the busyness of this time of year do we take time to meditate, ponder the thing in which God has done
Sending His Son, coming as man for you and me
Giving up the comforts of heaven for your sin and mine
The other response I want to look at and remember is that of the shepherds...
The Shepherds Response
The Shepherds Response
They Listened, Looked, and Proclaimed
In our listening to the message God has given us do we listen well enough or care enough that we can proclaim it!?
We can appreciate the amazement of what God did
But as we hear the message what does it cause us to DO?
They looked into the things they were told...
They were EYEWITNESSES… seeing and hearing the message firsthand
They investigated the message to find it TRUE!!!!
This response brought about worship...
Does God’s message of His Son bring you to a place of worship?
Is there an aspect of worship in your celebrations of Him this time of year?
What they hear and what they discover brings only one response in their hearts and minds…
PROCLAMATION!!!
They tell people about JESUS!!!!
People are amazed… what God has done is amazing, needed, and wonderful
Why would anyone NOT want to tell people about him and what he came to do
The End???
The End???
You see this was far greater than JUST a story… This was the message in flesh to all mankind of how much God loves us!
If this is not just a story then this is not the end
There is much MORE…
He would grow,
Live the perfect life you and I cannot,
Show us God in the flesh,
He would shed His precious blood for our sin
He would die, only to rise from the dead three days later
He would give the greatest gift… the gift of a relationship with Him, eternal life
That is worth PROCLAIMING… as John wrote: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”
that is why we end our Christmas Eve services with candlelight… it demonstrates the light of Christ spreading as we share, proclaim this truth as the shepherds did to those around us.