The countdown to Christmas calls us to spend less so that we can worship and not worry...

This week, we are looking at an account of the Christmas story that is recorded for us in a letter in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. Wednesday, we discovered that Mary and Joseph responded to the birth of Jesus by following and fulfilling God’s commandments to dedicate their firstborn son to be Holy to the Lord. In other words, Mary and Joseph were following God’s command to dedicate Jesus to be wholly devoted to the Lord. Jesus was being dedicated to live a life that is separated to God and separated from all that is unclean. Jesus was being dedicated by his parents to live a life that was committed to God and the mission of God in the world. Mary and Joseph worshiped God by giving their son who was the Son of God back to God.

Today, I would like for us to look at the significance of Mary and Joseph’s actions in response to Jesus birth. I would like to answer the question “What does any of this have to do with how much money we spent, as a nation, on Christmas? What does this have to do with what Christmas calls us to when it comes to our spending?” We find the answer to those questions from Leviticus 12:8, in God’s command when it came to the days of purification:

'But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"

Now look again at how Joseph and Mary fulfilled God’s command in Luke 2:24:

and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS."

You see, Mary did not offer a lamb and a young pigeon or a turtledove, did she? No, Mary only offered a pair of turtledoves of pigeons. And the reason that Mary did not offer a lamb was because Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb. Mary and Joseph grew up in blue collar working class families. Mary and Joseph were most likely teenagers from a small town who were newlyweds and had little or no financial means.

Most likely, Joseph had just opened up his carpentry business. For Mary and Joseph, their response to Christmas; their response to what God was calling them to that first Christmas was not to spend more. Instead their response to what God was calling them to that first Christmas was to respond in worship to God through their obedience to God with whatever resources they had. And it is in this story that we see what Christmas calls us to. It is in the response of Mary and Joseph that we see what the countdown to Christmas is all about. You see, Advent, the countdown to Christmas calls us to spend less so that we can worship and not worry.

Where we can get off track, however, is when we spend our treasure during the countdown to Christmas with the wrong focus. We can get off track by focusing on what the culture calls us to when it comes to spending during the countdown to Christmas. You see, during the countdown to Christmas, we can find ourselves responding to our cultures call to worship the god of consumerism by spending more money that we do not have in order to impress people with gifts that they probably won’t even remember.

And when we respond to the cultures call to worship the god of consumerism by spending more, the result is worry. The worry that can come when we wonder how we are going to pay the credit card bill that is coming in January. The worry that can come when we wonder whether or not we are spending enough money. The worry that can come when we wonder whether or not we are impressing others with the gifts that we give.

Instead of focusing on responding to the countdown to Christmas by worshipping Jesus by striving to follow the message and teachings of Jesus and engaging in the mission that He has given us, we can find ourselves focused on spending more during Christmas in order to top last Christmas and then end up consumed with worry instead of worship. And as Luke continues, we see how one man responded to the call of Christmas in Luke 2:25:

And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

Here we see Luke introduce us to a man named Simeon, who is described as a man who was righteous and devout. In other words, Simeon was a reverent, God fearing man, who strove to do what was right in God’s sight. The reason why Simeon was a righteous and devout man was because the Holy Spirit was upon him. Simeon was a man who God was active and present in his life and who led a life that was led by the Holy Spirit. Luke also tells us that Simeon was looking for the consolation of Israel.  When Luke uses the phrase the consolation of Israel, he is referring to God’s promise of a Messiah or rescuer, who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world.

Simeon was looking forward and counting the days until God would fulfill His promise to humanity. And Simeon was looking forward because the Holy Spirit had let Simeon know that he would see the Messiah enter into humanity before he died. So Simeon’s head was on a swivel. Simeon was looking forward to the day when he would be face to face with the one who God would send to provide humanity an opportunity to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that separated them from God. Luke then tells us what happens next in verse 27:

And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, "Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel."

Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph’s response to the birth of Jesus by following and fulfilling God’s commandments resulted in Simeon experiencing an encounter with the Lord. The Holy Spirit led Simeon to Mary and Joseph and opened his eyes to see that God had fulfilled His promise. And Luke tells us that Simeon responded to what his eyes had seen by embracing Jesus and worshipping. As part of his worship, Simeon quotes from a section of a letter in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Isaiah.

In Isaiah 49:6, the prophet Isaiah predicted and proclaimed that God would send a rescuer and deliverer who would bring salvation to all of fallen humanity. Isaiah proclaimed that this rescuer, the Messiah would make fully known God’s message of rescue and would provide rescue to individuals from all of the nations of the world. And this rescuer, this Messiah would receive honor and would enhance the reputation of God among the Jewish people.

And now Simeon was holding God in a bod in his arms. Simeon responded to this reality by stating “you are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word”.   You see Simeon recognized that his task had been completed; his role in God’s story was now complete. Simeon recognized that he could leave this earth because God had fulfilled His promise to send a rescuer that would bring peace on earth. God had sent the Messiah to bring a state of well being with God that comes as a result of one’s rescue from selfishness and rebellion through the life, death, and resurrection, of the baby in his arms. The baby that Joseph and Mary obediently named Jesus.

So here is the question: during the countdown to Christmas, are you responding to our cultures call to worship the god of consumerism by spending more money that you do not have in order to impress more people with gifts that they probably won’t even remember? Now, as I stated last week, 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? The point is how are you responding to the countdown to Christmas? Are you so focused on spending more during Christmas in order to top last Christmas that you end up consumed with worry instead of worship?

Because as we have seen this morning Christmas calls us to spend less so that we can worship and not worry. Christmas is about responding to what God has done to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God. Christmas is about God giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. Christmas is about God sending His Son Jesus, as God in a bod into humanity so that He could allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Christmas calls us to respond to what God has done for us through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader. And Christmas calls us to live our day to day lives in a way that places our confident trust in Jesus and follows the message and teachings of Jesus by faith as Lord and Leader.

So, how are you responding to the countdown the Christmas? Are you responding by spending less so that you can worship and not worry? Or are you responding by spending more and worrying rather than worship.

Worship and Spending...

This week, we are looking at an account of the Christmas story that is recorded for us in the bible called the gospel of Luke. Yesterday, we saw that Mary and Joseph responded in worship to God by being obedient to God. Mary and Joseph made sure that Jesus was identified with God’s people so that He would be able to fulfill His role and be identified as the rescuer of God’s people. But that is not the only way that Mary and Joseph were responding to God’s call to worship, as we see in Luke 2:22:

 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "EVERY firstborn MALE THAT OPENS THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD "), and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS."

Now to understand what is happening here, we first need to ask and answer several questions. First, what is Luke referring to when he talks about the days for their purification? We God’s command regarding the days of purification recorded for us in Leviticus 12:1. Let’s look at it together:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: 'When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. 'On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 'Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. 'But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days. 'When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. 'Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female. 'But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"

According to the Law, which are the first five books in our Bibles that contain a list of commands that reveal God’s nature and character and the nature and character that the Jewish people needed to possess and display in order to experience a right relationship with God, a Jewish mother would be viewed as being unclean for 40 days after the birth of a male child. Now a natural question that arises here is “why? Why would a mother be viewed as being unclean after giving birth? I mean doesn’t God command us to have children? Aren’t children a blessing from the Lord?”

To understand the answer to these questions we first need to understand some biology and some theology. The mother, after the birth of a child was viewed as being ceremonially unclean and unable to enter into the temple to worship because of the discharges of blood that occur after a woman gives birth to a child. In the Old Testament, bleeding or the discharge from a body lacked wholeness and was therefore viewed as being unclean. As we know, the loss of blood can lead to death, which is the antithesis of a normal healthy life.

Thus, in the Bible, we see blood portrayed as, on the one hand, representing a cleansing agent for the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God, and on the other hand, a polluting substance when it is in the wrong place. And because God is perfect; and because God is Holy, which means to be totally separate in terms of character and conduct, God presence could not be present with anything that was unclean.

So, after a male child was born, on the 8^th day that male child would be circumcised, but the mother would remain unclean for 33 more days. During that time, the mother was forbidden to enter into the temple area to worship God as she recovered physically from giving birth. After the 40 days for her purification were over, the mother was to present a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. This set of offerings was required before the mother could return to the state of being considered clean and able to participate in the worship of God.

This leads to a second question, which is, “why did the mother have to bring these offerings and present her firstborn son to the Lord?” We find the answer that question in the second letter in our Bibles, called the book of Exodus. In Exodus 13, we read the following:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me."

A few verses later, in verse 11, we read the following:

"Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD. "But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. "And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 'It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.'

In these verses we see God command the Jewish people to respond to what He had done to deliver the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. As part of that deliverance, one evening, the Lord went through the land of Egypt and struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but He passed over all of the Jewish homes who had marked their doors with the blood of the lamb. This feast was referred to by the Jewish people as the Passover. In addition to celebrating the Passover feast, God commanded that all firstborn sons of the Jewish people were to be consecrated to the Lord as a response to the sparing of the lives of the firstborn Jewish people during that first Passover.

Now, with these questions answered, we get a picture of what Mary and Joseph were doing in response to the birth of Jesus that first Christmas. Mary and Joseph were responding to the birth of Jesus by following and fulfilling God’s commandments to dedicate their firstborn son to be Holy to the Lord. In other words, Mary and Joseph were following God’s command to dedicate Jesus to be wholly devoted to the Lord.

Jesus was being dedicated to live a life that is separated to God and separated from all that is unclean. Jesus was being dedicated by his parents to live a life that was committed to God and the mission of God in the world. Mary and Joseph worshiped God by giving their son who was the Son of God back to God.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “well Dave, thanks for the history lesson, but what does this story have to do with the question that you asked at the beginning of your sermon? What does this have to do with how much money we spent, as a nation, on Christmas? What does this have to do with what Christmas calls us to when it comes to our spending?” If those questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to ask.

Tomorrow, we will discover the answer to those questions…

The Culture of Christmas Spending...

During these days that lead up to Christmas, we are spending our time together as a church in a sermon series entitled the Advent Conspiracy. During this series, we are looking at an account of the Christmas story that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke. Last week, we looked at the story of the announcement of the birth of Jesus and discovered in the response of the army of angels and the response of the shepherds what the countdown to Christmas is all about. We discovered that Advent, the countdown to Christmas is a call to worship. We discovered that Christmas calls us to worship Christ fully. And during this series, we will challenge ourselves to worship Christ fully during the countdown to Christmas in three specific ways.

This week, I would like for us to interact with a question. And that question is this: Last year, how much money do you think we spent, as a nation, on Christmas? If you had to guess, what do you think that number would be? Over the thanksgiving weekend, in spite of the difficult economic times, Americans spent approximately 52.4 Billion dollars in retail sales, which was a new record. For the Christmas shopping season, Americans spent approximately 450 Billion dollars. To give a bit of perspective, what we as a nation spend over the Thanksgiving weekend is more than the entire Gross Domestic Product for the nations of Yugoslavia, India, Pakistan, Cuba, and the Sudan.

Here is another question to consider: What percentage of the Christmas sales were placed on credit cards? The answer was 7.4% which was more than double the 3.4% from the year before. In other words, 7.4% of people knowingly spend money that they did not have in order to buy Christmas presents, which resulted in them entering into debt.  

Now here is one final question to consider: What was the one gift you remember getting last year for Christmas? What was the second? Do you remember? What was the fourth? Do you remember? If you do not remember more than one gift, do you wonder why you do not remember? Could it be that the reason that we don’t remember the gifts we received last Christmas is because the gift that we received was something that we did not necessarily need or want?

So does it bother you that you do not remember what you received for Christmas last year? Does it bother you that those around you probably do not remember that gift that you spent your hard earned money to give? And more importantly, does Christmas call us to spend more and more each year on gifts that we may or may not remember in the years to come? What does Christmas call us to when it comes to our spending?

To find the answers to these questions, I would like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last week. Last week, we looked at the responses of the angels and shepherds to the arrival of Jesus. This week, we will look at the response of Joseph and Mary to the arrival of Jesus. So let’s do that together, beginning in Luke 2:21:

And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.

Luke begins by explaining that eight days after Jesus birth, and before Jesus was circumcised, Mary and Joseph officially named their child Jesus. Now a natural question that arises here is “Why did they wait until eight days after Jesus was born to name Him?” Usually, in Jesus day, just as it is today, the naming of a child would take place immediately after the child was born. Here however, Joseph and Mary waited until the day that Jesus was circumcised. But why would they do that?

To understand why they would wait until just before Jesus was circumcised, we first need to understand what circumcision is and its significance to the Jewish people. Circumcision involves a surgical procedure that involves removing the foreskin from the male genitals with a surgical knife, or in this case, a knife made of stone. In a letter in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of Leviticus, we see God command that a circumcision was to be performed on the 8^th day after a male child was born.

The reason that circumcision was so significant was that circumcision was a covenant sign that identified the Jewish people as being God’s people. Circumcision was a religious act that was required to be performed under the Law so that you would be able to be identified as being right with God as part of the Jewish religious system. Here we see Luke reveal for us the reality that Mary and Joseph were responding to the birth of Jesus by following and fulfilling God’s commandments when it came to Jesus.

Instead of naming Jesus, as the first born son, after Joseph or another male family member, Mary and Joseph followed the angel Gabriel’s command to name the baby Jesus. And Mary and Joseph also followed God’s command in the Law to have Jesus circumcised. Mary and Joseph were responding in worship to God by being obedient to God. Mary and Joseph were making sure that Jesus was identified with God’s people so that He would be able to fulfill His role and be identified as the rescuer of God’s people.

But that is not the only way that Mary and Joseph were responding to God’s call to worship, as we see tomorrow…

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….

A Divine Encounter...

During the next four weeks at the church where I serve we are discovering the answer to the question “what are we counting down to when it comes to Christmas?” by looking at an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke, which records what happened that first Christmas. Yesterday, we started by talking about why followers of Jesus make such a big deal about Christmas. To understand why followers of Jesus believe that Christmas is such a big deal, we first need to understand a little bit of history.

We discovered that the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. The Jewish people were looking forward and counting the days until God would fulfill His promise to humanity. The Jewish people were engaged in a countdown to an unknown date in the future.

Then around 1000 years after God promised King David that there would be a Messiah, a little over 2,000 years ago, a young Jewish man, named Joseph and his fiancé named Mary, who was pregnant, traveled to Bethlehem in order to participate in a census that required every Jewish family to travel to their ancestral home town to register for the census so that they would be counted for tax purposes. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor and delivered her first child, a son.

But this child was not just any son; this child was the Son of God. This child was the fulfillment of God’s promise. And in an account of Jesus life called the gospel of Luke, we see Luke records for us how God announced the fulfillment of His promise of the Messiah, beginning in Luke 2:8:

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

You think? Of course they were frightened. Wouldn’t you be frightened? It’s not every day that the angel of the Lord, who was God’s personal servant, named Gabriel, just shows up. And if that was not frightening enough, Luke tells us that the glory of the Lord shown around them. When Luke refers to the glory of the Lord, he is referring to the awesome presence, splendor and radiance of God displayed for others to see. This is God in His greatness revealed.

Throughout the Bible, when we read about the glory of the Lord, we usually discover two things. First, we discover that humans usually cannot handle being in the presence of the glory of the Lord. Usually, people respond to being in the presence of the glory of the Lord by falling on their face or fleeing. Second, when we read about the glory of the Lord, we usually read about God’s glory being revealed either in the tabernacle or the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only church in Mary and Joseph’s day. The glory of the Lord did not just show up in a field in the middle of nowhere.

And the glory of the Lord did not show up around shepherds. The glory of the Lord may have been revealed to kings or priests, or to really religious people; but not to shepherds. You see, during the time of Jesus’ birth, to be a shepherd was almost as socially toxic as being a leper. Shepherds were outcasts. For example, even though shepherds raised animals for use in the temple sacrifices, they themselves were considered “unclean” and, as such, were not permitted to set foot into the temple. Not only were shepherds engaged in a smelly, dirty, and nomadic profession, they were considered to be unreliable witnesses in matters of law. In fact, if you were a shepherd who witnessed a crime, you were unworthy to give testimony in a court of Jewish law.

The shepherds were considered outsiders who spent their time disconnected and distant from Jewish culture. Shepherds were peasants who were located on the bottom of the scale of power and privilege. So of course the shepherds were frightened; this was most unexpected and frightening; “what’s going to happen to us now” was what they probably were thinking. Luke tells us what happens next:

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid;

To which the shepherds probably thought “easy for you to say”…

for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

The angel says “I have good news for you, which is for you to tell all the people. The good news is that the countdown to the fulfillment of God’s promise is over. Down the road from you has been born the savior; you know the promised one that you have heard about since you were a child that is coming to rescue and deliver you and your people from your selfishness and rebellion. This baby that has been born is the Christ, the Messiah, the promised one of God. And this rescuer, this deliverer, this Savior, Christ, that has been born, oh by the way, He is the Lord. He is God in a bod. Now go and check it out for yourself. This is how you will know that you have found your God, your rescuer, your deliverer, your Messiah. You will find your God, your rescuer, your deliverer in the cave on the edge of town, where He is wrapped up in clothes in a feeding trough”.

You see, Bethlehem was a small rural community that was busting at the seams as a result of all the out of town visitors that were required to come to register for the census. Bethlehem was not a destination that up and coming people moved to in order to start their careers; Bethlehem was a departure point that people left as soon as they grew up.  So there was no place for people to reside, unless there were close family that still lived in town. Bethlehem was so crowded that the only place that they could find for Mary to give birth and stay in was with domesticated animals. Most likely this was in a cave on the outskirts of town where animals where kept for their safety. Instead of a crib, all Mary could lay her newborn in was a manger, which was a feeding trough for animals.

Now you are a shepherd. You have just had an encounter with a heavenly being. What would you be thinking? What questions would be running through your mind? Here’s what I think was running through their mind. “Why would God send an angel to tell us? Why us? Why not tell the priests in Jerusalem? Why not tell the religious people like the Pharisees or Sadducees? Why not tell those in positions of power or influence? Why not tell the rest of Joseph and Mary’s family who are in Nazareth? While the shepherds were frightened and were pondering all that they had heard, there were others who had a much different response:

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

Can you imagine what that must have looked like? Can you imagine what it must sound like to hear a multitude of angels worship God in one accord without anyone being off key? But this was not just a multitude of angels; the Heavenly Host is an army of angels. And the chorus line of the worship song that this army of angels was singing was glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. In other words the angels were singing “may God’s reputation be enhanced to the max and may those whom God favors experience a state of well being with Him”.

This army of angels was 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 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?

Tomorrow, we will see what the shepherds did…

The Countdown to Christmas...

As of today, there are only 21 days until Christmas. There are only 21 days left to make sure that all of your Christmas shopping is done. Only 21 days to prepare and plan for the big day that is Christmas Day. But you did not need me to remind you of that reality, did you? No, you did not need me to remind you that there was only 21 days until Christmas, because for the last several months, as a culture, we have been counting down to Christmas.  Since Labor Day weekend, when the first signs of Christmas trees and ornaments began to appear in stores, we have been counting down toward Christmas.

And the closer and closer we get to Christmas, the more we are reminded that Christmas is coming. There are more reminders in the form of Christmas ads on T.V. and radio. There are more reminders from family and friends. All around us, the countdown to Christmas continues to grow and gain momentum. And in the next several weeks, the countdown to Christmas will continue to grow in its frequency and intensity. And as the countdown to Christmas grows and gains momentum our anticipation for Christmas also grows doesn’t it? As the days until Christmas decrease, we find ourselves increasingly looking forward to Christmas Day, don’t we?

However, I want to pause from the growing intensity of this countdown to Christmas. I want us to take a minute to pull away from this countdown in order to ask a simple question. And that question is this: What are we counting down to?  What are we looking forward to this Christmas? What is the countdown to Christmas calling you to?

To ask the question another way, what is the first thing that comes into your mind as you consider the countdown to Christmas? What are the things that you just have to get done in these days leading up to Christmas, if Christmas is going to meet your expectations? What will make this Christmas season a success in your eyes? What would cause you to be disappointed this Christmas season? I mean, so often I hear people say “I just wish I had more time before Christmas arrived?” When it comes to needing more time during the countdown to Christmas, what would you do if you were able to have some more time? 

Now this growing intensity and anticipation that surrounds the countdown the Christmas is not a new phenomenon. The phenomenon that surrounds the countdown to Christmas has been around for centuries. If you happened to grow up in church or have been around church for a while, you are probably somewhat aware of the countdown the Christmas that occurs in church world. We even have a special name that we use to describe the countdown. In church world we refer to the countdown to Christmas as the Advent season. Now the word advent comes from the Latin word adventus which the means coming and refers to a time of waiting and preparing for the celebration of Christmas.

Yet, whether you call it Advent, or the Christmas season, or the holiday season; Whether you are a follower of Jesus; or whether you are here this morning and you don’t buy the whole Jesus, Bible church thing. Whether you are a regular attender of church or whether the only reason that you go to church is because someone agreed to buy you lunch if you came to church with them, we are all counting down to December 25^th.  But what are we counting down to? And what should we be counting down to?

To answer these questions, we are going to spend the countdown to Christmas in a series entitled “The Advent Conspiracy”. During the next four weeks, we are going to discover the answer to the question “what are we counting down to when it comes to Christmas?” During this series we are going to be looking at an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the gospel of Luke, which records what happened that first Christmas. As we go through this series, we are going to discover four different ways that we can get off track by focusing on what the culture calls us to when it comes to the countdown to Christmas. And as we go through this series, my hope and my prayer is that God would move in our heads, in our hands, and in our heart, to move us to a place where we are on track by focusing on what God calls us to when it comes to the countdown to Christmas.

Now, maybe you are not sure that you buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing and for you it is difficult to understand why followers of Jesus consider Christmas to be such a big deal. To understand why followers of Jesus believe that Christmas is such a big deal, we first need to understand a little bit of history. You see, around 4,000 years ago, God had made a promise to a man named Abraham, who was the person from which the Jewish people and culture descended from, that through one of his descendants all the nations would be blessed.

Then, 1,000 years after God had made His promise to Abraham, God had promised the Jewish nations most famous king, King David, that one of his descendants would be the Messiah. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. The Jewish people were looking forward and counting the days until God would fulfill His promise to humanity. The Jewish people were engaged in a countdown to an unknown date in the future.

Then around 1000 years later, a little over 2,000 years ago, a young Jewish man, named Joseph and his fiancé named Mary, who was pregnant, traveled to Bethlehem in order to participate in a census that required every Jewish family to travel to their ancestral home town to register for the census so that they would be counted for tax purposes. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor and delivered her first child, a son. But this child was not just any son; this child was the Son of God. This child was the fulfillment of God’s promise.

Tomorrow, we will look at an account of Jesus life called the gospel of Luke, where Luke records for us how God announced the fulfillment of His promise of the Messiah…

Different Motivations Produce Different Results...

This week, we have been looking at the concluding section of a letter that is recorded in our Bibles called the book of Galatians. Wednesday, we discovered that we are to vote no on religion because religion and a religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to please men, avoid persecution, and to take pride in our performance. We talked about the reality that it is not that a gospel centered lifestyle does not strive to live a life that meets a standard of faithfulness and obedience. The difference between a gospel centered lifestyle and a religious centered lifestyle is the motivation that drives their lifestyle.

Today we will see Paul reveal a second difference between a gospel centered lifestyle and a religious centered lifestyle in verse 16:

 And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Here we see Paul explain that for the follower of Jesus who is living a gospel centered lifestyle that is driven by the motivation to please and bring glory to God by dying to a religious centered lifestyle that is driven by the wrong motivations, the result is that peace and mercy be upon them, and the Israel of God. When Paul refers to the Israel of God here, he is referring to those who compose the people of God.

While the Jewish people believed that they were in relationship with God as God’s people based purely on their ethnic heritage, Paul is revealing the reality that the people of God are those who live a gospel centered lifestyle, not a religious centered lifestyle. It is the follower of Jesus who is living a gospel centered lifestyle that will experience a state of well being with God and receive the kindness and concern of God that results in them experiencing eternal life with God. Paul then concludes his letter to the members of the churches of Galatia in verses 17-18:

 From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

Paul concludes his letter with two statements that are addressed to two different groups of people. In verse 17, Paul addresses those who were driven by the motivation to cause trouble or difficulty for him. Paul commands those who wanted to stir up trouble for him not to do so, because he bore on his body the brand-marks of Jesus. Now this sentence, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “you might want to think twice about causing trouble for me, because that will not discourage or dissuade me. Just look at the wounds and scars I have already received, yet that has not stopped me”.

In verse 18, Paul addresses those who were driven by the motivation to support and encouraged him. Paul prays for the members of the churches of Galatia who were embracing a gospel centered lifestyle that God’s divine favor would fill the core of their being in a way that would result in their continued rejection of religion and embracing of the gospel.

Because as we have discovered we are to vote no on religion because religion results in a life that is driven by the wrong motivations. A religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to please men. A religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to avoid persecution. And a religious centered lifestyle is often driven by the motivation to take pride in their performance. By contrast, a follower of Jesus who is living a gospel centered lifestyle is driven by the motivation to please God and takes pride in what God has done through Jesus in a way that brings glory and honor to God.

So here is the question before us to consider: how have you been casting your ballot? How have you been voting when it comes to the motivation that drives your life? In living a religious centered life that is motivated to please men, to avoid persecution, to take pride in your performance? Or in living a gospel centered life that is motivated to please God and takes pride in what God has done through Jesus in a way that brings glory and honor to God?