On this Holy Night … the saving actions of God call us to believe and to have faith. But Christmas is also a call to believe and have faith … that God’s actions are real, historic events.
I mean the birth of Jesus is not a made-up story. Jesus was a man, who lived in history. Scripture is not the only source that attests to the historic life of Jesus. He is also spoken of by many early authors who were outside the Christian church.
The events of that first Christmas call us to believe, not just that Jesus was born and lived on this earth because everyone knows that, but rather those events call us to believe that this baby, born in Bethlehem, was indeed the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
To accept this world-changing truth takes more than just historic knowledge, however. Such faith means accepting and trusting that God created and loves this world, and that God is continually working to love us and save us.
The Christmas story comes down to one, simple truth …
God loved us so much, that He gave us Jesus.
Every Christmas morning, Grandpa would go to his favorite restaurant in his hometown for his holiday breakfast. Grandpa would always have the eggs Benedict. Just before they would bring out his order, Grandpa would make a special request.
He’d hand over the hubcap from his old Studebaker and say, “Would you mind serving my breakfast to me on this?” The waitress always complied.
But one year, she said, “I just have to ask. Why do you always have me serve your eggs Benedict on this hubcap every Christmas morning?” “Well,” Grandpa said, “There’s no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.”
It’s good to be home at Christmas. Whether you’re visiting or at home, I want you to know that you are always welcome here. I’ve always loved Christmastime and its traditions. I love the special meals. I love the season. I love the music … but not so much the decorating.
Christmas Eve was always such an exciting time when I was a kid. The anticipation grew to almost unbearable levels as Christmas Eve approached. Like most kids as I was growing up, if you asked me what Christmas was all about, I would have said “Presents.”
No matter how hard I’d try, I couldn’t make myself feel as excited about Jesus’s birthday as I felt about ripping into those packages with my name on them under our family Christmas tree.
I’m not sure if I should admit this to you, being the pastor on Christmas Eve and all, but as I stand here, I’m pretty excited to see what I’m getting for Christmas. I’m really excited to see how my family reacts to what they get. I’m not even going to ask you to pretend like there aren’t other things going on in your mind as well.
I’m not going to ask you to pretend that you don’t really care about the gifts, the food, the family time, and the celebration. I know the power of food and presents.
I am, however, going to ask you to take this short time we have together to pause with me for just a moment to focus on the Greatest Gift that has ever been given.
Luke 2:6–7 presents the gift to us: “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”
Jesus’s arrival says so much about who He is and how He operates in our lives. The Gift first presented Himself in a similar way to how He presents Himself to us right now. His parents had left their hometown of Nazareth to be registered for the census, and they couldn’t find a place to stay. It’s a remarkable event, if you consider who Jesus is.
He is the Almighty One. John 1:3 says, “Through him all things were made.” He has the ability to peel back the heavens, to stop time, to thunder to the ends of the earth. YET, there was no room for Him when He arrived. Really?
The way He was received—or, more accurately, ignored—speaks so much about how we can respond to Him even at this moment. The manner of His arrival reminds us that Jesus doesn’t force Himself upon any of us.
He doesn’t make threats, doesn’t beg, doesn’t make a grand display. Instead, in His arrival that night and in His arrival right now, He offers us all a quiet invitation – a call to be welcomed in and welcomed home in the dark night of our own hearts.
It’s no coincidence that the inn was too crowded for him. How ironic that the One who came to welcome us back home to relationship with God spent His first night in a barn, lying in a feeding trough, because no one welcomed Him in.
The circumstances of His birth show how people throughout the ages would misunderstand and reject Him.
More often, though, people simply wouldn’t have room in their lives and would just ignore the great gift and the great invitation that He extends to us all.
For the last four weeks, our church has been looking at the cast of characters in this amazing arrival and rescue mission. As we remember each of their responses to Jesus’s arrival, let’s consider our response to the fact that Jesus has arrived right here in this place as well.
Jesus is here right now, wanting to be a greater part of your life, or perhaps to become part of your life for the first time. Perhaps you can already sense He is knocking at the door of your heart.
The prophets, angels, shepherds, and Magi all had an important part to play in this wonderful arrival. They all responded to Jesus in a unique way. Let’s consider their responses to His arrival as we consider how WE WILL respond this Christmas.
Before we look at those responses, let’s consider a couple of common responses people have to Christmas today.
Misguided Responses
Many people feel that God is primarily concerned with our behavior … meaning that God is pleased with good people and mad at bad people. In fact, many of us look to our own goodness – or maybe I should say our “less badness”.
As we consider Jesus’s birth, many of us hope in the idea that we aren’t really bad people. Most of us, after all, haven’t murdered anyone.
The problem with that thinking is that our comparisons of goodness are ridiculous in the light of the goodness of God.
For example, let’s say the planet Mars represents the goodness of the average person. Comparatively, your goodness is quite a bit greater—your goodness is the size of Earth, which is about twice the size of Mars. Well done. However, the problem is that, in comparison to us, God’s goodness is closer to the sun.
And you can fit 1.3 million Earths into the sun. You can quickly see that in light of the goodness and holiness of God, the little differences we see between one another aren’t perceptible. We know Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot were evil men, but the truth is, our goodness is much closer to theirs than it is to God’s.
In Romans 3:23, Paul tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This is the holiday where we remember that God took a huge step toward us. We were in trouble. Although we were created to be with Him, our hearts had turned far from Him. There was a barrier between us and our Creator that had to be dealt with.
If a couple thousand years of Jewish history teaches us ANYTHING, it’s that the answer wasn’t ever going to be found in our own EFFORT AND RESOLVE to try harder.
God took a big step toward us by coming to live with us, show us the way, and remove the barrier through His death for us. It’s NOT about being good; it’s ALL about being near to God through Jesus.
I know that some of us are here right now because it’s expected or even required. Mom or Grandma said everyone must go to church, so here you are.
If that’s where you find yourself – that you’d rather we just be done with all this religious stuff so we can get home and get to the good stuff – I want you to know that I get it … but I also want you to know that I’m really grateful and honored that you’re here.
This simple story of Christmas isn’t about this church or even any religion.
It’s entirely about a relationship with God. It’s about love, life, and freedom. If you’ve already made up your mind or you’re shutting out this simple story, I’d ask you to consider a different response.
Try to look beyond all you’ve heard about Jesus and all the things you’ve seen people do in the name of Jesus, and try to find out for yourself who Jesus is.
In the back of the seats we have placed many Bibles. If you don’t already have a Bible at home, we’d love for you to take one.
Then, before you completely close the door to Jesus, open the Bible to the section titled “Matthew” and read it straight through to the end of the section titled “John” – those pages are all about Jesus’s life, and they are also called the Gospels.
It’s only a little more than one hundred pages altogether. You can decide whatever you’d like about me or the music or this service, but don’t shut the door on Jesus until you’ve taken a look for yourself at WHO He really is and WHAT His birth really means.
This isn’t a question of what church you go to. This is a question of what eternity holds for you. It’s a question of who God is, what God wants, and what your life could mean within the answers to those questions. The stakes are high enough that it’s at least worth taking a serious look.
God had been talking about this arrival for thousands of years before it took place through His Prophets.
It’s amazing to think that specific words about Jesus’s birth and death were recorded hundreds and even thousands of years before He was born. Through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, the prophets knew we needed a Savior, and they spoke of His coming.
We can respond to Jesus this Christmas exactly as the prophets responded to Him. We can eagerly and earnestly look for Him and His grace..
The prophets left us a powerful example. They believed in Him even though they never saw Him … in fact, He hadn’t been born yet, so they COULDN’T see Him.
So, we CAN respond just like the prophets of old who believed that the Messiah would come from God to save us from our sin because we can’t be good enough on our own.
But, we can also respond like the Shepherds.
They saw the angels appear before them. A great choir joined them, and they wondered what it was all about.
Some of us respond to Jesus just like many of you are responding now – wondering what everyone is pointing at and looking at.
While a crowd can get us to do silly things like look and point at nothing, the arrival of Jesus is personal to each one of us. You don’t have to be anything you’re not, or pretend to feel anything you don’t.
An angel appeared to the shepherds, announcing a Savior had come, and that He’s nearby in a stable. In their curiosity, the shepherds didn’t just stand there pointing at the sky. They said to each other, “Let’s go see this thing that has happened.” They TOOK ACTION!
Maybe you’re a little curious. Maybe you’re wondering if there really is anything in this story for you. To you, I would say, just respond to Jesus and engage the Christmas story a little more than you have in the past.
Consider the idea that God is, in fact, love. Maybe you have seen God’s greatness in the beauty of the world and experienced His brilliance and nobility in your own heart.
At the same time, you can see there’s something broken in the world, and at some level, even something in your own heart is broken.
Allow for the idea that the cross of Jesus is the great intersection of two important truths about God.
First, God’s justice demands holiness and payment for sin.
Second, God’s love provided the payment through the death of Jesus for our sin.
The Bible says in Romans 2:4 that “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.”
So, if you’re curious like the shepherds, I want to encourage you that you can respond by opening your heart to Christmas, and allow in the possibility that the first Christmas was simply God’s expression of love and kindness toward you personally.
God showed that love by sending His Son, Jesus, to remove judgment and guilt from your life.
Because He cares about you, He took a giant leap toward you on Christmas when He lowered Himself as a man. All He wants in return is for you to take a step in His direction, similar to the shepherds so long ago.
I also suspect some of us are here right now are like the Magi who were waiting and watching for God to move on their behalf.
When they saw a sign in the stars, they traveled hundreds of miles from the east and said, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2).
Like the Magi, some of us are waiting expectantly for God to move in our lives. With great faith, we’ve come here tonight just as they (the Magi) DID to worship Him.
They brought gold, spices, and perfume. You may be wondering what gift we can possibly bring in response. I want to encourage you that whatever you have is enough.
The whole reason Jesus came was so that He could be with you … not to collect gifts. The point of Christmas isn’t really gift’s, as much as it is connection. God is pleased to just have your heart and your affection and build a relationship with you.
Your response is a gift more precious to God than gold, frankincense, or myrrh. You can bring a wonderful gift by allowing God more space in your heart through faith.
Your response is simply to give more of yourself over to Him, to tell Him thank you, and in that thanks to give Him a little more devotion and space in your life. When you do that, it will be met in a joyful communion of God giving more of Himself to you – because that connection and closeness to you are what God desires.
Whomever you most identify with in that first Christmas, all of us can close our service like the Angels.
On the night when Jesus arrived, the angels praised God and sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14).
We can wrap up this part of Christmas by carrying our praises out into our Christmas celebrations.
Give Him glory in the way you treat one another.
Give Him glory in the way you celebrate.
Give Him glory in the way you sing.
Give Him glory in the way you live.
When we are looking to anything other than Jesus for our happiness, we are guaranteed to be disappointed. You can have the experience of a lifetime, but you’ll still be disappointed in the end.
There is nothing better than Jesus. There is no other who deserves our praise. Wherever the simple and remarkable story of Christmas finds you, I am so glad and thankful that you decided to share its remembrance with us.
Now that it’s finally here, I pray that your Christmas is calm, quiet, and full – and that it brings you one step closer to the One who came to be with us, so that we can be with Him forever. Amen