A New Message
Luke 2: 1 – 20.
I.
Introduction.
December is probably the busiest month of my year. Christmas shopping. Christmas parties. Family—Lufkin
family, Texas family and Mississippi
I have quoted Merle Haggard before. But let me quote him once again:
Got laid off
down at the factory
Their timings not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows I been workin' hard
Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl
Now I don't mean to hate December
It's meant to be the happy time of year
But my little girl don't understand
Why daddy can't afford no Christmas here
But If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the fallin' snow
If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we'll be fine
Their timings not the greatest in the world
Heaven knows I been workin' hard
Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl
Now I don't mean to hate December
It's meant to be the happy time of year
But my little girl don't understand
Why daddy can't afford no Christmas here
But If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be alright I know
It's the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the fallin' snow
If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we'll be fine
(For some of you, it changes the way you think about
your pastor to hear me quote Merle Haggard.
For others, you are thinking, “This is my kind of church.”)
Traditionally, there are four themes for the four
Sundays of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love
Hope is believing that the future will be better than
the past and the present. It is
believing that we have not yet experienced the best that life has to
offer. There are only two ways to live
with Hope. Some people find Hope in
believing that the world is becoming a better place to live every day. If you don’t believe the world is becoming a
better place to live, then you can live with the Hope of Heaven and eternal
life. God sent his Son, Jesus, that we
might have eternal life…true Hope.
Peace is what we think of as living without
conflict. But, I think it means
something more than that. To live in
Peace is to live without any fear. No
fear of retaliation from other people, and no fear of the wrath of God. The only way to live without fear of God is
to be in a right relationship with God.
This relationship is not possible through the Law. If anything, the Law shows us that it is
impossible for us to live up to God’s expectations. So, God sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus lived up to God’s expectations and was
therefore qualified to be our perfect sacrifice…making it possible for us to
have relationship and Peace with God.
Joy is often mistaken for happiness. However, happiness depends on our
circumstances. Joy is living above the
circumstances. The Joyful life is a life
that cannot be controlled or deflated by difficulties or struggles. This Joy is only possible when we live in the
presence of God. God sent his Son,
Jesus, that we might live daily in the presence of God. Jesus is Immanuel—or, God is with us.
Love is more than a feeling. Of course, feelings and emotions have a lot
to do with Love. However, Love is
actually giving your life away for another person. If you Love someone, you will sacrifice your
own needs and desires so that their needs and desires can be met. This is why God sent his Son, Jesus. God loved us so much that he provided the way
our needs could be met.
I have been
thinking about our Advent themes over the past week and have made a couple of
observations.
In the first place, true Hope, true Peace, true Joy and
true Love are things which we cannot achieve for ourselves. Ultimately, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love are
gifts of God’s Grace. We cannot achieve
them, and we cannot earn them. All we
can do is receive them from God. And
that is why Christmas was necessary.
In the second place, we live in a world that is
searching for Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.
Some of us recognize that Hope, Peace, Joy and Love are gifts we receive
from God. Yet, most of the world is engaged
in a fruitless search for an elusive kind of life. For example, you only have to watch the TV
news for about 10 minutes to discover how many people in our world do not have
Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. But they are
trying to achieve it through humanitarian efforts, politics and religion.
Read Luke 2: 1 – 20.
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
(NIV)
This
is the traditional Christmas story. We
read it in church and in our homes every year.
It tells the historical details of the day when the Christ child was
born.
Sometimes,
we read this story and focus our attention on Mary and Joseph. Other times, we read the story and focus on
the shepherds. But how often do we focus
on the angels?
In
the Bible, angels were messengers. In
fact, the Hebrew word for angel in the Old Testament is the word for messenger;
and the Greek word for angel in the New Testament is the word for
messenger. That is an important
theological truth. We are not supposed
to bow down and worship angels. We are
to think of angels as messengers from God.
Therefore, we should listen to what they say. The messages angels bring us do not come from
the angels themselves. Angels bring us a
message from God.
Luke 2: 10, “But the angel said to them,
‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good
newsof great joy that will be for all the people.’”
II.
Good News.
The
angels’ announcement used an important Greek word (euaggelion) that we translate into two English words. This word
comes directly into Eng. as “Evangelism” or “Evangelize” and other forms of the
word…It is a compound of 2 Greek words…Good + Message…In other places, the NT
translates it “Gospel”…
Recent
archaeological finds have discovered that evangelion (euaggelion) was not just a Christian word…It was a common word in
the 1st Century Roman world…It was often used to announce the birth
or the ascension of a new king…
For
example, this inscription can be dated around 9BC, announcing a new Roman
Emperor…
The providence which has ordered the whole of
our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation
for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing
the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a savior
for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order
everywhere…; the birthday of the god (Augustus) was the beginning for the world
of the good news that has come to men through him…(N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said. [Grand Rapids
In
other words, Romans placed all their Hope in the government…The Emperor was
god…savior…the prince who could establish peace…the one who could take away all
grief and make life Joyful…
But
the problem was that it never exactly worked that way…No Roman Emperor actually
brought more Joy to the people…So each time a new Emperor was either born or
ascended to the throne, the people announced the Good News, that maybe this one
would be different…
III.
Great Joy.
And
the angels announced…This one WILL be different! This is certainly a new king, but this
time…God himself has come…And Jesus is the only one who can make things
different…He can change things…He can give you Joy!
And
that is the difference…Joy does not depend on you…Joy does not come from your
own efforts or attempts to make the world a better place…Joy is a gift—or a
Grace of God…
It is
like a story that Jesus once told…Found in Matthew 25…We know it as the Parable
of the Talents… (Tell the story of the master and the 3 servants…)
In
the story, the 3rd servant sought Joy in his own happiness…He looked
for the easy way, trying to avoid discipline by his master…He looked for
comfort, trying to avoid conflict with his master…
But
it was the 1st & 2nd servants who found Joy…It’s not
that they looked for Joy or for happiness…They were concerned with only one
thing, pleasing their master…And when the master was pleased by what they had
done…The master said, “Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will
put you in charge of many things; enter into the Joy of your master (Matthew
25: 21 and 23).”
They
didn’t look for Joy…They didn’t earn Joy…They were given Joy…They were invited
come into Joy with their master…
I
find it significant that Joy is listed as one of the Fruit of the Spirit… This
illustrates that Joy should never be the goal of our lives, but the Fruit—or
the produce, or the harvest, or the result—of a life controlled by the Spirit
of God…
That’s
the same thing that happened with the shepherds on the 1st Christmas
night…The angels announced the Good News that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem
(Luke 2: 20)… “The shepherds went back,
glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had
been told them.”
The
shepherds looked for Jesus, and the shepherds found Joy.
IV.
All People.
Yes,
the Good News of Great Joy was for the shepherds…But it doesn’t stop there…This
Joy is for All People…Luke told us what the shepherds did when they heard the
Good News…
(Luke 2: 16 – 18)… “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.”
We
can’t keep this to ourselves…Let’s be like the shepherds…We’ve heard the Good
News…We’ve received the Great Joy…We ought to tell somebody…
(John 3: 16)… “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life.”
V.
Conclusion.
Did you notice a shift in the
way the message was delivered? In verse
10, the message was delivered by angels.
In verse 18, the message was delivered by the shepherds.
This is where we enter into
the Christmas story. Once we have heard
the Good News, it becomes our job to be the messengers. The Good News is for all the people. The Good News is not supposed to stop with
us.
On Wednesday, our ministers
sat down with another minister to dream about the future of our church. He quoted some frightening statistics on
evangelism.
Some surveys claim that only
2% of Christians share their faith with others.
(I can find numerous websites that quote this same number, but they all
refer to “recent surveys” without citing the actual surveys.) If this is true, the reverse is also true—98%
of Christians never share their faith with others.
He asked us to guess the top
three reasons why Christians do not share their faith. We were able to guess numbers 2 and 3. Number 2—“I am afraid of failure.” Number 3—“No one has ever taught me how to
witness.” But we could not guess the
number one answer. Number 1—“It’s not my
job.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if we
discovered that only 2% of our church members share the Good News with
others. But, I would be shocked to
discover that you don’t think it is your job.
The Good News is not supposed
to stop with us as American, Baptist, Christians. The Good News is for all the people. We have received the Good News so that we can
spread the message to all people.
You are a messenger. God has given you a message. Don’t let the Good News stop with us.
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