1 So much about Christmas is impressive. The lights in DOWNTOWN CDA. One of the most impressive streets. The Xmas tree in the Spokane Mall. It has to be one of the tallest trees ever. House decorations in neighborhoods are becoming like a high budget Hollywood set. There is a 25 foot tall abominable snowman in my neighborhood. It is so cool! My neighborhood is very pleasing to the eye. Very impressive. Christmas productions, church music programs and church backdrops/sets and advertising is more and more impressive. The Christmas economy is impressive. Americans are spending even more than expected this year. We are approaching 4 Trillion dollars in holiday retail spending. That is impressive. This is very interesting to me because the origin of this impressive Christmas display was about as un impressive as it could be. The first Christmas was obscure, humble and lowly. The purpose of Christmas was not to be impressive, the purpose was to be impactful. Sometimes we all have to decide what we want in life. Do you want to be impressive or do you want to be impactful? They are not necessarily complimentary or mutually inclusive and can actually cancel each other out. If I really want to impress you it can cancel out my ability to impact you. If I really want to impact you it quite possibly will cancel out my ability to impress you. Present whisperer illust. I could accurately predict the gift inside the wrapping. Very impressive. It soon became clear that I may have been impressive I was also very annoying and losing my ability to impact people for good reasons. Tan Honey you re being annoying. What started as oohs and aahs became uughs. God chose and was committed to impacting the world at the cost of impressing the world. I want to talk about the IMPACT OF CHRISTMAS! 1
2 Where is Jesus from, where is his hometown? Where did the baby Jesus grow up? A very unimpressive location. Nazareth had a sordid reputation amongst the proper folks of Israel. There was a Roman garrison in this Jewish village. A tiny town full of soldiers of depraved habits with not much to do. Could be trouble. The slogan of Nazareth became, Can anything good come from Nazareth? If Jesus grew up in Jerusalem that would have been impressive. The impact of Christmas says It is not where you are from but who you become that matters. Let s continue with the lowliness and obscurity of Christmas. It first starts out with the genealogy. Nothing very exciting here. Matthew 1:1-2 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Vs. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab vs.6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah s wife, This is how the Christmas story starts in the bible. We like to skip that part. Not very impressive! Geneology of Christmas Genealogies were a deeply integral part of Jewish society at the time of Jesus. Land was inherited based on family lines, and those who could not prove their ancestry in Israel were considered outsiders. Jesus is the Savior who was promised throughout history. We can trace his ancestry some 4000 years. The genealogies in Matthew and Luke show Him as the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and eventually David men to whom these prophecies of the Christmas gift were made. The geneology is the resume of Jesus. It established prophetic credibility. But then you start to analyze who is in it and you really begin to wonder. 2
3 We know how important a good resume, the content, experience and skills within are intended to impress and to get a good job. The more impressive, the better chances of employment. For ancient Jews their resume was who they were connected to, not what they could do. Their lineage, their family ties, their clan. You impressed others based on how impressive the men were in your geneaology. Ancient Jews would modify their lineage to make sure they listed relatives they could be proud of and hide the ones that were less impressive morally and spiritually. If your cousin Vinny was a professional shoplifter you could just use some genealogy white out and remove him. Jesus resume has very suspect characters in it. Not very impressive. He lists Judah and his brothers Why not just Judah? Do we know the story of Judah and his brothers? These brothers first wanted to kill Joseph, the youngest, they ultimately betrayed and abandoned their little brother Joseph and left him to die in a cistern due to jealousy. They then sold him into Egyptian slavery because they could at least profit from him. Highly dysfunctional family. The geneology says, you remember those evil, dysfunctional jealous brothers? Yeah, those are my relatives! Jesus is claiming them. Impact of Christmas: If you are dysfunctional in any way Jesus desires to claim you as one of His. He lists 5 women, 3 not even Jewish. In a male dominated culture most ancient Jews would not include women. Caananites and Moabites. Vs. 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Rahab, is a Caananite and a prostitute. God includes her in the lineage and resume of the Son of God, the Messiah. The impact of Christmas is: Jesus includes those that other people might exclude. He lists David and Uriah s wife, not Bathsheba. Why doesn t it just say Bathsheba? Why Uriah s wife, one of David s most loyal Mighty Men, whom David had killed after he had an affair with his wife. An adulterer 3
4 and a murderer. And God includes him in the genealogy of the Holy One of God. Not David s best moment. The Bible is real and transparent and does not sterilize reality. Because God knows we don t live sanitized lives. God s forgiveness reaches the harshest sin. The impact of Christmas: You can betray your closest friend, cheat, steal and murder and can still be forgiven through Jesus. This genealogy is not very impressive for a spiritual leader in the eyes of the Jewish readers. But it is very impactful. It says no one is excluded from the family of God through Jesus. It says the grace and forgiveness of God is available to anyone and everyone. God did not sacrifice His holiness by including sinful people in the faith family. Do you have a past or a family heritage that isn t perfect? Do you have some dysfunctional relatives? Have you inherited it in your own life? Do you have friends or family members that are unspiritual and highly sinful? Jesus says, so do I. The geneology of Jesus has a full range of the human condition and each one of us might be able to see ourselves within it. Which is just the point. Have you been jealous of others success? Have you had bad intentions towards someone? Have you been unfaithful and sexually immoral? Have you ever betrayed a good friend? Do you ever feel your past prevents you from being loved fully and experiencing God s absolute best? The impact of Christmas a checkered past does not disqualify you from His love. God saying loudly I still want you to be a part of my family. Even the greatest human being in the world is in need of God s grace and the worst human being in the world can receive the forgiveness and acceptance of Jesus. God loves you the way you are, and He loves you so much not to keep you that way. Jesus came for you. To redeem you and bring you into His family. God is not ashamed of you to be called His Son or Daughter. 4
5 Additionally our association with unspiritual, unholy people does not contaminate us. This was the fault of the religious elite. They believed association with sinners contaminated them. They believed the less contact with unholy people made you more holy. That is not the Christmas message. Quite the opposite. Your assimilation with unholy people will contaminate you, but not your association. Visiting a prisoner felt most holy this last year. The impact of Christmas: God is always thinking how can I reach people, not how can I avoid people. Poverty of Christmas Luke 2:7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger. Actually garments or strips of clothing that used to be clothes. Several commentators called them rags. This would suggest they were poor. The parents of Jesus were poor. We know this by the type of offering they gave at the temple on behalf of Jesus. In describing Jesus circumcision, Luke reports that Mary and Joseph offered two pigeons as a temple sacrifice for Mary s purification. Leviticus 12: explains that the usual sacrifice at the time of circumcision was to be a lamb, but if the birth mother could not afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Apparently, then, Jesus parents were too poor to offer the customary lamb. It appears that Christ had very little by way of material possessions during his ministry. Consider the following: Jesus preached from borrowed boats, multiplied borrowed food, rode on a borrowed colt, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. We don t have to have a certain financial status in order to have an impact on people. 5
6 71% of the world s population is in the poor to low income category. What if Jesus was middle class or even from a higher income family? How well could he relate to the poor or could the poor relate to Him? Have you ever had hard times financially? Do you feel like you are behind and can t catch up? Do you have more expenses than you have assets? Do you feel like you haven t achieved the American dream? The impact of Christmas: Jesus understands every trial, loss and financial challenge you have experienced. Jesus knows how you feel. Jesus did not live the American dream. I grew up poor but never once did I see how that limited me in impacting people and being a blessing to people. You can be poor and rich at the same time. Our financial level does not have to dictate the level of our impact. It may effect the level of how we can impress others in culture but not impact people s hearts. Popularity of Christmas Not many people knew of the birth of Jesus and those that did know not many people knew. Luke 2: 13-14 And suddenly there appeared (to the shepherds) with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. The first and biggest crowd to hear the Christmas message were the shepherds. Shepherds were very unpopular with people but seem to be popular with heaven. In a Jewish book called the Mishna, buying from shepherds food and clothing was forbidden because they were probably stolen goods. They weren t allowed to give court testimony in judicial or civil cases, because they were judged to be utterly untrustworthy men. Shepherds were despised; they were considered unclean, and so they were banned from entering various homes; they couldn t enter the courts of the temple in Jerusalem because they weren t ceremonially clean men. The impact of Christmas: God is known to give His best to the least. 6
7 God shared his first heavenly chorus with the most overlooked unpopular group of people, the shepherds. No Christmas production can ever equal this one. Yet God gives the shepherds the best Christmas choir ever. He goes to them. Popularity and spirituality don t always go hand in hand. I was very popular, and very unspiritual, then I became a Christian and became spiritual and then very unpopular, and I was lonely. I was in the in crowd at school. Then I was in the no crowd, which is a step down from the out crowd. It was the healthiest time of my life. Here is something I have learned. To be unpopular in the world does not mean you are unpopular in heaven. Do you feel ignored or unnoticed in life? Do you wonder if people even know who you are? Are you overlooked at work or in your family? Do you ever wonder if people really care about you or are interested in you? Jesus initially was not impressive in the world, but his influence grew and He became the most impactful person in history and He continues to impact people for all eternity. The impact of Christmas: You don t have to pursue popularity and self promotion to be impactful. Social research says people try to look more impressive than they are. Social media teaches us to project an image to impress. What if we laid that aside and sought to be more impactful. 1. Serving people would matter most. God wasn t seeking to make a name for himself as much as He was serving the needs of the world. He did what was best for us not what was best for His Son. 2. Including people would matter most. Outlying people would get our attention fast. Christmas should make us sensitive to the outcasts or outsiders. There are many people new to our community. People are moving here for a reason. 7
8 3. Praying for people would matter most. Christmas is about a great light, a spiritual light. The most productive thing we can do in the Kingdom is pray, because what we do next will be more effective. Everyone needs spiritual light to see God. 4. Pointing people to Jesus would matter most. Being impactful is not just about being nice. What do we leave behind that will help people in life and in eternity? Bethlehem: The way to true satisfaction is through the bread of life. Candle Lighting to recognize His impact and our desire to make an impact for Him. 8