KEEPING CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas!

            As I read the Christmas story I saw something I never noticed before.  Luke 2:20 says, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”  We’ve often noticed the change in the shepherds.  The events of the night changed them into men who were glorifying and praising God!  In other words, they were transformed by what they had seen and heard.  They couldn’t help but worship and praise God!  But I never thought about what it means when it says, “They returned.”  They returned?  They returned to what?  The shepherds returned to their fields and to their flocks!  They returned to their real lives!  But they would never again live their lives in the same way.  From that day on they would live lives full of praise and glorifying God!  How could it be any other way?  I can imagine what it might have been like fifty years later when shepherds were out in those same fields.  One old shepherd is sitting there talking about how great God is when a young one asks him why he is always talking like that.  The old shepherd tells the story for only the millionth time; the story of the night when he was a young lad and sitting in these same fields.  It is the story of how God changed his life forever.  It is the story of the birth of the Messiah.  He only saw Jesus once after that night and that was over twenty years ago.  He’d been a shepherd all his life but he never stopped praising and glorifying God! 

            That’s what is called keeping Christmas well all the year around!  The coming of our Savior should be something that transforms our lives.  Receiving such a gift ought to cause us to praise and glorify God every day of the year.  No matter what our work, no matter where our work, we can, like the shepherds, praise and glorify God in whatever we do!  Christmas is a wonderful time for getting together with family and celebrating.  It’s a wonderful time for feasting and resting.  But if we want to keep Christmas well we will make sure it is a time of praising and glorifying God!  It is a time of worship!

 

WONDER + AWE + FEAR = WORSHIP

            Try to put yourself into the place of the people of Bethlehem the morning after Jesus was born.  Be one of the people who listened to a dirty, smelly shepherd.  What did they say to you?  An angel appeared to them and gave them a message about a birth in Bethlehem.  That child is the promised Messiah.  He’s the Lord!  He’s right here in our town and the shepherds said they saw him!  How would you respond?  “…and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (Luke 2:18).  It was an amazing message!  Some people stood dumbstruck.  It was too much for them!  To think that the Christ had come during their lives!  God had kept his promise!  He had acted!  Their Deliverer was in their very midst!  Hearts were filled with wonder at the goodness and faithfulness of God.  The astonishing news they heard caused them to be filled with wonder and amazement at what God had done.  In short, the amazing news caused them to worship and praise the glory of their God who had done this thing.

            When one stands amazed in the presence of the work of God he begins to experience a kind of holy awe and wonder.  The reason for this is that the character of God is being revealed.  The glory of God is being made manifest.  We are astounded to see God’s faithfulness, his power, his wisdom, his love, his grace and mercy, and on and on.  These are the kinds of things we see when we stop long enough to take a good look at Christmas. 

            Then our awe and amazement starts to move toward a personal response.  God did this for sinners!  He gave his beloved Son to his enemies who rebelled against him and hated him.  The son was willing to take on human flesh for people who would reject him and deny him.  The Father and the Son looked upon their creation with love and mercy and they demonstrated grace beyond measure!  It hits us right in the heart!  God did this for my sake!  He had me in mind when he sent his Son.  Jesus had me in mind when he set aside the glory of heaven.  We look into the manger with the shepherds and are filled with amazement that we should receive such grace from a loving God!  Such thoughts lead to holy worship. 

            Have you ever stood looking on God’s creation and had your breath taken away by its beauty?  Have you stood at the base of the giant sequoias and twisted your neck in wonder?  Have you stood at the entrance to Yosemite Valley trying to find the words to describe El Capitan and Half Dome in the distance?  Have you stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon, amazed at its magnificence and the power of the God who made it?  That is when we begin to edge over into worship!  That is when we see the character of God and our hearts rise in praise!  And that is how we can keep Christmas well.  We can look again at the familiar story of the shepherds and the angels and the holy family and stand by in dumb amazement, praising and worshiping God.

 

GOD'S WISDOM IN THE INCARNATION

            In order to accomplish his purpose God had to deal with the sin in the lives of human beings so they might be able to fellowship with him.  God’s plan to redeem a people for himself began with his choosing of Abraham to be the father of his people.  He made a covenant with Abraham promising that through his descendants all the nations on earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3)  Jesus was that descendant of Abraham whom God would use to bring the blessing of salvation to all the nations of the earth.  The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem reveals the majesty of the wisdom of God.

            First, Jesus was born to a virgin girl.  This is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”  This was to be a sign for God’s faithful that the Promised Savior was born.  Jesus was born to a virgin.  The son was created in the womb of a woman by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

            Second, Jesus’ mother was betrothed to be married to Joseph.  When the time for the census arrived Mary accompanied her new husband to his family town, Bethlehem in Judea.  In this way God fulfilled another prophecy; that prophecy found in Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”  This is yet another sign to the faithful that the Savior King was born!

            Third, Jesus was born into a family in which both parents were descendants of King David.  The prophecy to David was fulfilled!  “When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.  I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.  I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from his who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever” (1 Chronicles 17:11-14).  The son of Mary would be the legal and rightful king of Israel.  This would be the Promised Son, the Son of God, whose kingdom God would establish forever!

            The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem is a point in history where we can stand and look back over all human history to observe the wisdom of God!  Think of the countless events which took place in history where God was working in his wisdom to bring about his own purpose!

            The birth of Jesus was not the ultimate purpose of God!  The redemption and eternal salvation of his people was his purpose!  The birth of Jesus fulfilled God’s promise but it was only the first event in the life of the man who would redeem God’s people!  God had revealed his law of substitutionary atonement at Mount Sinai and God would accomplish eternal salvation in the same way.  As the Son of God, Jesus was born without the curse of a sin nature.  He was born sinless, innocent, the perfect man.  As the Son of Man he could represent mankind as the perfect substitute.  As the Son of God he was capable of doing the infinite.  He was capable of removing all the sins of his people.  As the Son of God his infinite sacrifice would be sufficient to pay for all the sins of all God’s people.  As the Son of God his infinite power would make his sacrifice effectual to actually save all of God’s people!

 

GOD'S GRACE TO THE SHEPHERDS

            So how was God’s grace demonstrated to man in the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem?  The announcement of the birth of Jesus was made to shepherds who were in the fields outside Bethlehem watching over their sheep.  Shepherds were on the very lowest rung of the ladder of Jewish society.  They were as despised as gypsies are in many parts of the world because they were always on the move, always passing through, and often suspected of stealing everything that went missing in towns and villages they visited.  They were uneducated and uncultured people.  They were considered such liars that they were prohibited from being witnesses in any legal case.  Yet it was to some of these very men that the herald angel came to announce the birth of the Son of God.  If the shepherds received justice, many of them might have ended up in Bethlehem’s jail that night rather than in the stable praising God!  When we stop to consider this truth we realize that God was demonstrating grace by revealing this great event first to the poorest of the poor.  It was this gracious act of God that forever ennobled the poor, working classes of mankind!

            The announcement itself was a demonstration of God’s grace in many ways.  It was gracious of God to send an angel to these shepherds and to allow them to see his glory.  What a great honor to be chosen to see an angel and to observe the glory of God, the same glory that had once lighted the face of Moses and the glory that had departed from the temple so many years before!  Had any other man alive ever seen the glory of God?  Yet in his grace God tore through the darkness of that night and poured out his glory upon these shepherds!  What a magnificent picture of what had transpired that night in the stable behind the inn in town!  The holy God had transcended space and time to be born on earth!  The angel comforted the terrorized shepherds!  What grace that they were not incinerated on the spot but rather comforted!  Surely it is a sad state of affairs when men who are created in the image of God would be terrified of another one of God’s creatures!  So far had man fallen!  Yet God was gracious!  The angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).  Surely the shepherds expected fire and destruction from the hand of God!  Surely they expected to be incinerated at any second.  Yet God was gracious!  The angel brought news of joy, not condemnation!  The good news was brought to the shepherds but it was meant for “all the people.”  What if the announcement had come to the rulers in Jerusalem?  Would the shepherds have thought that such good news was also meant for them?  And who had been born in the city of David?  A Savior!  Not an executioner.  Not a judge.  A Savior!  What grace!  And then the shepherds heard the angel say that a Savior had been born “to you!”  He had been born to them, not to everyone except them!  Listen to the words the angel said to the shepherds!  “…You will find a baby…” (Luke 2:12).  They were not sent on a hopeful quest but they were given a revelation!  They would find the baby themselves!  Were they not astonished at the appearance of the host of angels proclaiming, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).  Could it be?  Had God’s favor come to rest upon them?  Were they to be the recipients of peace with God?  How could this be?  Grace!  Grace alone!

 

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

 

I remember it as if it were yesterday.  In reality, it was sixteen years ago.  The year 1998 had been a very difficult year as my wife’s health condition deteriorated.  As the Advent season moved toward its climax I became aware of a sense of sadness, a degree of regret, and a feeling that I had lost something.  As I began to contemplate this vague sense of unease I realized that what was missing was my usual “Christmas spirit.”  I mused and I reflected.  What was this “Christmas spirit” which I lacked?  What was really missing?  I remembered the keen sense of anticipation which I felt when I was a boy counting down the days until Christmas.  I remembered a sense of warmth and wonder as I smelled the Christmas cookies my mom baked.  I remembered the familiarity of the Christmas music playing on our old console stereo and the excitement of walking around department stores decked with boughs of holly.  I remembered the Christmas specials on television and the Christmas movies; “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Carol.”  Suddenly I saw something more clearly than I had ever seen it before!  It was in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol!”  It was in the appearances of the spirits of Christmases past, present, and future!  There were the spirits of Christmas!  Dickens had personified the spirit of Christmas!  An entirely pagan “Christmas spirit” had arisen out of the Victorian era in England which accompanied the celebration of the birth of Christ right into the modern day!  Christmas had become a time of “good will toward men.” It was not the good will of God toward men, but the good will of men toward one another!  The Christmas spirit which I lacked was not a product of Christian faith but the product of a romantic, humanistic period of English history during which biblical Christianity was in steep decline!  The two Christmases grew up together, side by side, a Christless, pagan celebration and a celebration of faith and worship!  Over the years the two have become almost inextricably intertwined, nearly indistinguishable, even though evangelical Christians have cried out, “Keep Christ in Christmas” and “Jesus is the reason for the season!”  We have decried the commercialization of Christmas and have emphasized giving rather than receiving while at the same time talked about some vague “Christmas spirit.”  This “Christmas spirit” has become more real to most of us than the Holy Spirit!  Christmas is not a time for men to be kinder to one another than we usually are.  It is a celebration of the time that God revealed himself to men as a God of grace!