“THE NATIVITY”
For the last week, Carrie and I have been going through the little nativity set called “What God Wants for Christmas”.
Each night comes with the story
Of one of the individual characters of the Christmas Story.
As we read the story of each person, each night,
I really found myself thinking a little deeper about the part they played.
By looking at them each briefly this morning,
We can learn how we are called to respond to Christmas.
In America, Christmas has become a “BIG DEAL”.
Maybe not always for the right reasons, but it is a big deal.
And sometimes, without even meaning to,
We can get caught up in the flow and completely miss the point.
That is why you hear so many people at Christmas giving reminders like:
“Jesus is the Reason for the Season”
It is a call to remember that Christmas
Is not about presents, or eggnog, or sleigh rides,
But it is in fact all about the day that our Savior entered the world.
I don’t know how that makes you feel,
But this morning, I want to show you how the 6 major characters
Of the nativity felt and precisely how they responded.
Maybe our lives will be challenged to respond in much the same way.
#1 THE ANGELS
Luke 1:26-27
Of course this is not the only place the angels are mentioned,
But this verse does give us the insight about what took place.
Verse 26 says, “Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,”
If we did not know that Gabriel was an angel,
And if we did not know that we were talking about Christmas,
That verse would be used continually to talk about MISSIONS.
Something great was about to happen,
And God wanted a messenger to share the good news.
Aside from the wise men (who followed a star)
It was the angels who broke the story.
• Gabriel approached Joseph…
• Here Gabriel told Mary…
• It was an Angel who summoned the shepherds…
The angels were not just bystanders they had a mission.
Now I know we tend to keep a lofty view of angels as spiritual beings,
And rightly so. There is no doubt they are far from merely human.
But in some regards we do share similarities.
• Angels are not gods – they are created being just as we are.
• Angels are not the object of worship – they worship God just as we do.
• Angels aren’t automatically good, they must choose to obey.
(We know this because 1/3 chose not to and followed Satan)
I tell you that, because I want you to understand
That their decision to spread the word was precisely that
A DECISION
God had given them a mission, they had to choose to fulfill it.
What do we learn from the angels?
RESPONSIBILITY
We opened the service this morning with the famous Christmas song:
“Go Tell it on the Mountain”
It is the Christmas song that begs us to share with the world
This wonderful truth we have found.
Oswald J. Smith
“We talk of the Second Coming;
Half of the world has never heard of the first.”
We cannot keep such great news a secret.
God has come to dwell among us, the world has to know.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The angels did their part, now we must do ours.
#2 MARY
Luke 1:26-38
Here was Mary, a young Jewish girl with an obvious heart for God.
Then she gets “The Curve Ball” of the century.
(31-33) “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
Sometimes our familiarity with a story
Keeps us from actually seeing what took place.
Put yourself in the shoes of this teenage girl.
Plans of marriage…
Planning a life…
Then, an angel enters, and says, “You are going to have a baby.”
“Excuse me?”
(34) “Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
She is reminding the angel of the obvious problem.
You can’t have a child if you are a virgin.
The angel has the answer to that question.
(35) “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will over-shadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
Oh, well that solves everything. – NOT HARDLY.
Pregnancy of an unwed woman
Tends to be a dead give-a-way of sexual immorality.
Deuteronomy 22:23-24 “If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”
She is about to be pregnant,
And then left with the task of proving she is the first girl in history
Who actually got pregnant without being with a man.
Can you see here dilemma?
Yet look at Mary’s final response.
(38) “And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”
There is no doubt what we learn from Mary:
FAITH
She was willing to commit not only her body to God,
But also her REPUTATION, and even her RELATIONSHIP with Joseph.
Mary could lose everything by obeying this command,
But she chose to trust God.
Christmas is all about faith.
We must believe that Jesus actually was born of a virgin,
That He really is the Savior,
And that He will come again just as He came the first time.
For this belief, the world may mock and scorn,
And this belief may even cost us our reputation,
Some relationships, and maybe even bodily harm.
But Christmas requires faith.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Mary had it.
#3 JOSEPH
Matthew 1:18-25
Here is another one of those “curve balls” in life.
All of a sudden your fiancé turns up pregnant
No doubt she told him the story.
“No, honest Joseph, I’ve been faithful.”
But it’s awful hard to dismiss the evidence of a pregnancy,
So he is going to divorce her privately to at least avoid the stoning.
And then the angel comes to Joseph.
(20) “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
This angel is now asking Joseph to enter into the shame
That Mary has been facing publicly.
EVERYONE WILL THINK HE IS THE FATHER
(why else would he marry her?)
But look at what Joseph does.
(24) “And Joseph awoke from his sleep and DID AS THE ANGEL OF THE LORD COMMANDED HIM, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”
What do we learn from Joseph?
OBEDIENCE
He did what he was told.
Not only to marry her, but also to keep her a virgin.
In our day, we see unwed pregnancy everywhere.
Many don’t wait until marriage, Joseph waited even after marriage.
Don’t minimize the temptation he must have felt,
BUT HE OBEYED.
This must be our response as well.
We no longer serve ourselves, we deny ourselves.
Now we serve our King.
It is all about His will.
John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
We learn that from Joseph.
#4 JESUS
Luke 2:6-7
Here we have the Christ child.
The baby is born.
Our babies have come home to
• Hand-crafted furniture,
• Multiple sets of sheets,
• Padded changing tables,
• Even a warmer that makes sure the wet-wipes feel comfortable.
This baby was wrapped in cloths and laid down in a feed trough,
Not even able to born in the comfort of a motel.
He was literally “born in a barn”.
Now any ordinary baby would not have known the difference.
For all he knows everyone lives in a barn.
BUT THIS BABY KNEW THE DIFFERENCE.
Philippians 2:6-7 “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 bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
This baby knew glory.
This baby knew comfort.
This baby knew what it meant to be God.
And yet He laid all that aside in order to take up flesh and blood.
What do we learn from Jesus?
HUMILITY
Jesus was God, and yet He humbled Himself.
The plan of God was bigger than His pride,
He willingly became poor so that we might become rich.
For us Christmas must do the same.
We are all called to deny ourselves.
We are all called to follow Jesus.
This life is not about securing our comforts,
This life is about serving our Father, and humility is required.
James 4:6 “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
Never shown greater than the Baby Jesus.
#4 THE SHEPHERDS
Luke 2:15-20
You really need to understand the life of a shepherd here a little.
• POOR REPUTATION – they were social outcasts
• POOR HYGENE – the dressed in sheep’s clothing and smelled like a sheep
• TREMENDOUS COMMITMENT – they protected the sheep at all cost
Remember David recounting his shepherding days?
1 Samuel 17:34-35 “But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.”
A hunting male lion – is separated and angry.
If the lion steals one my sheep, I am relieved.
Not a shepherd in Israel, they go after the lion, just as David did.
And at the very least bring part of the sheep home.
Amos 3:12 “Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, So will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away — With the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch!”
My point is this.
No one was more committed to their job than a shepherd.
• They lived with the sheep.
• They ate with the sheep.
• They dressed like the sheep.
• They smelled like the sheep.
• They risked their lives for the sheep.
And that is what makes this night so interesting.
When the angel reveals that the Savior of the world has been born,
LOOK AT THEIR RESPONSE.
(15-16) “When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.”
No one in Israel was more task-oriented than a shepherd
But when Christmas came, it was
“To heck with the sheep, I’m going to see the Savior!”
What do we learn from the Shepherds?
PRIORITY
When Jesus arrived, He took priority
Over the most important things in their life.
We learn the importance of that.
The person of Jesus must take priority in our lives as well.
It is not that we don’t have jobs to do, or families to feed,
Or that God forbids us to have any fun in life.
He doesn’t.
God only requires that in the midst of our “important” lives,
We remember who has the priority and when the Savior calls,
That we then give priority to Him.
Luke 9:61-62 “Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Jesus demands priority in our lives,
The shepherds had it figured out.
#6 THE WISE MEN
Matthew 2:7-12
No one told them, they weren’t even Jewish.
They did not own the Scriptures.
But when they saw the testimony of Creation they set out.
And they came with only one purpose.
(11) “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
These are the only ones that are said to have “worshiped Him”
And they traveled a great distance to do so.
They are the only ones to bring gifts, and they brought:
• Gold – for a King
• Frankincense – for a Priest
• Myrrh – for a Sacrifice
They gave what was fitting, they gave what was costly,
And they gave of themselves to get it to Him.
What do we learn from the Wise Men?
WORSHIP
Christmas is also about worship.
Not just the praise of our lips, but the surrender of our lives.
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
The Wise Men bowed in submission to the king.
And even when warned by Herod (A Roman King) they blew him off.
Their allegiance was to the King of Kings.
Take from these 6 and learn how to respond to Christmas.
• Like the Angels we have a RESPONSIBILITY to tell the world.
• Like Mary we walk in FAITH that God’s plan is right.
• Like Joseph we OBEY what the Lord commands.
• Like Jesus we cloth ourselves in HUMILITY to be usable to the Father.
• Like the Shepherds we make Jesus the PRIORITY of our lives.
• And Like the Wise Men we lift our bodies up in WORSHIP.
Psalms 95:1-7 “O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.”
