Christmas Calls Us to Worship Christ Fully...

This week we are pausing from the growing intensity of this countdown to Christmas to ask the question: What are we counting down to?  What are we looking forward to this Christmas? Wednesday, we looked at a section of the Christmas story in the gospel of Luke where an army of angels of angels announced to a group of shepherds that God had fulfilled His promise to send a Messiah and who were worshipping the Lord in response to God’s activity of sending His Son as the One who would provide the opportunity for humanity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion so that they could experience the relationship with God that they were created for.

Now, today, as we jump back into this story, imagine yourself as a shepherd who have just received this Divine Announcement and have just witnessed this scene of worship. How would you respond? What would you do if the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord showed up and made that kind of announcement to you? Probably what the shepherds did, which we read as Luke continues in verse 15:

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."

Notice the shepherd’s response here. There was no doubt that the shepherds believed that they had an encounter with God. The shepherds recognized that they were given an opportunity to participate in God’s activity in the world because God had chosen them to be the first to hear of His entry into the world. And as they watched the angels return to Heaven, this unexpected announcement to this unexpected group of people created an uncontainable passion to see God’s entry into the world that had been proclaimed to them.

This uncontainable passion to see the evidence of God’s activity and entry into the world caused them to go straight to Bethlehem. No time to find someone else to watch the sheep; not time to tell family and friends where they were going; just a desire that is focused on encountering God and experiencing and participating in His activity in the world.

And just as it was for the shepherds, it is God’s activity in the world and in our lives that can change the desires, the focus, and even the trajectory of our lives. Luke then continues to shows us how the shepherds responded to this most unexpected announcement in verse 16:

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and began to search for the baby wrapped is clothes in a feeding trough. So they went through town asking “have you seen him? Have you seen a baby in clothes in a manger? Is he here? Where do you keep the animals in town? Why are we looking for a baby in a manger? We are looking because this baby will be our rescuer, our deliverer. We are looking because this baby is the Lord God who entered into humanity”.

And all in Bethlehem who encountered these shepherds looking for a baby in a feeding trough were amazed and impacted by the shepherd’s uncontainable passion as they searched for a baby in a feeding trough. I mean how unexpected would it be for shepherds to be searching for the Messiah, instead of religious or political power players.

And when they found the baby, in a cave, in a feeding trough, any hesitation or doubts were removed as to what they had seen and heard that night. They responded by sharing God’s announcement that the countdown to the fulfillment of God’s promises was over to all around them. For Mary, however, there was a different response:

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary responds to this unexpected announcement by making another page in the mental scrapbook that she was creating about the role that God had given her in His huge story. This morning, wouldn’t you like to look at that scrapbook? Can you imagine what Mary’s scrapbook would look like as she placed treasured moment after treasured moment of the evidence of God’s amazing activity in her life? Luke then reveals for us how the shepherds responded to all that they had heard and seen:

The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

The shepherds, after seeing God entry into humanity as a baby in a feeding trough, return to the sheep and to the field. The shepherds returned to their relatively mundane lives that most would view as being of little importance and as having little impact on the world. However, the shepherds were forever changed as a result of God’s announcement of the fulfillment of His promise. Luke tells us that the shepherds went back glorifying God for all that they had heard and seen. The shepherds responded by making much of God in a way that resulted in God’s reputation being enhanced.

The shepherds responded the same way that the army of angels responded.  The shepherds responded by worshipping the Lord in response to God’s activity of sending His Son as the One who would provide the opportunity for humanity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion so that they could experience the relationship with God that they were created for.

And it is in this story that we see what Christmas calls us to. It is in the response of the army of angels; it is in the response of the shepherds that we see what the countdown to Christmas is all about. You see, Advent, the countdown to Christmas, calls us to worship. Christmas calls us to worship Christ fully.

Where we can get off track, however, is when we spend our time, talents, and treasure during the countdown to Christmas worshipping the wrong thing. We can get off track by focusing on what the culture calls us to worship during the countdown to Christmas. You see, during the countdown to Christmas, we can find ourselves worshipping the god of consumerism instead of Christ. We can find ourselves worshipping the presents that come under the tree instead of worshipping the Son of God who came to hang on a tree. Now, the question is not whether or not we are worshippers. Every human being on the planet was created to worship. The question is what are we worshipping?

So here is the question: during the countdown to Christmas, what are you worshipping? Are you worshipping at the altar of consumerism? Or are you worshipping the arrival of Christ? Now, I am not saying that we should not buy presents or give gifts during Christmas. That is not the point. The point is who or what is preeminent and prominent in your life? How are you responding to the countdown to Christmas? Because worship simply put is a response. Worship is a response to who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do. If you are not sure what you worship, here is a quick question to help discover what you worship: What does how you spend your time, talent, and treasure reveal about what you truly worship? Because we invest our time, talents, and treasure in what we worship.

During these weeks leading up to Christmas, we will challenge ourselves to worship Christ fully in three specific ways. During this series, we will challenge ourselves to worship Christ fully by spending less. During this series, we will challenge ourselves to worship Christ fully by giving more. During this series, we will challenge ourselves to worship Christ fully by loving all. Because that is what the countdown to Christmas calls us to. The countdown to Christmas calls us to respond to God giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away by spending less at the altar of consumerism and instead giving more to those around us who are less fortunate than us in a way that reveals and reflects the love of Christ and the message of Christmas.

Because that is what the countdown to Christmas calls us to….