Series: The Miracle that is Christmas 2 Text: Luke 2:8-20 Valley Community Baptist Church Dec. 3/4, 2016 Avon/Bristol, CT Pastor Jay Abramson The Miracle of the Message What did we say last week was a biblical definition of a miracle? Biblical miracles are those acts that only God can perform and those signs God uses to point to Himself. 1 We also saw last week that in just the timing of when Christmas happened in the flow of history, it was miraculous. We noticed that the prophet Daniel predicted to the day when the Messiah would be hailed as the King in Jerusalem. But the event of Christmas, meaning His birth, also fulfilled dozens of Old Testament prophecies, including such things as: - That He would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) - That He would be from the house of David (2 Sam. 7:12-13) - That He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) - That He would be worshipped by wise men and presented gifts (Isa. 60:3, 9) - That His birthplace would suffer the massacre of infants (Jer. 31:15) - That He would spend time in Egypt (Num. 24:8) So, the timing of when the first Christmas happened was truly a miracle. But now this week, we need to see that there are also miraculous characteristics concerning the message of Christmas as well. First of all, we need to recognize I. The Sheer Size of This Message Listen to it again in Eugene Peterson s interpretation of what the angel said to the shepherds: Don t be afraid. I m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A savior has just been born in David s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger. (Lk. 2:10, 11 The Message) What s the best news you ve ever received? Think about that for a minute. What made it so important? Whatever it was, it probably included these three characteristics: - You desperately wanted it to happen or be true - You had fears that it might not happen or not be true - You believed that, if it did happen, it would change your life in really good ways Now, consider: this message from this Christmas angel is the best news any person on earth could ever hear. Do you get that? What I love about this part of the story is that the angel didn t come to Herod, the king with the most political power; or to the High Priest, the man with the most religious power; or to the cultural elites, the people with the most social power. He came to shepherds, the people with the least of any kind of power! Shepherds were the lowest people on the Jewish social ladder because their jobs didn t allow them to do a very good job of keeping the ceremonial laws. Shepherds just couldn t live a highly organized, disciplined life. They lived in the fields with dirty, ornery, disorganized sheep! They were NEVER clean! They were NEVER organized. They lived with sheep! And it was to these unclean people that the angel came with good news of great joy It was news I m sure these shepherds desperately hoped would come, but deep down they feared would never come. But they also knew that, if it ever came, it would change their lives in 1
really good ways. So when it miraculously happened, they didn t hesitate. Again, listen to Peterson s version of what they did: As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders [said], Let s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us. They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed. (Lk. 2:15-18 The Message) Yeah, this was a huge, huge message. But the size of something doesn t really define it as a miracle, does it? So, let s consider: II. The Miraculous Content of the Message of Christmas. First, we see the miraculous in how the message was communicated. And to put it simply, it came by angels. Angels, by definition, are the messengers and servants of God and they re everywhere in the Christmas story! In fact, all the good guys in the story receive a miraculous visitation by an angel Zachariah (John s father), Mary and Joseph (His parents), the shepherds and finally, the wise men. And the historical context makes it unique. There hadn t been any such visitation by angels in over 400 years! No angels, no prophets since Malachi. Suddenly, BOOM!! Angels are showing up everywhere! And they continue to show up regularly all the way through the New Testament. So, how the message of Christmas was communicated made it, by definition, miraculous. But it s also the content of this message which makes it miraculous. It s the content of this message which allows it to impact our lives today in a miraculous way. Now, some of the content of these angelic messages was simply factual. In other words, they were passing on directions or information that individuals needed in order for them to follow God s will. For example, the angel simply gave the shepherds directions to the baby Jesus. He s in Bethlehem, the city of David, and He s the one in the barn. There couldn t have been too many other babies born in a barn that night! With Zachariah, John the Baptist s father, the content of his message from an angel was both factual and miraculous. It was factual in that he was told that his wife would have a baby. While she was older, there s nothing that says it was a miraculous pregnancy like Mary s. However, since Zachariah didn t believe the angel, he also received a miraculous gift from the angel. He was struck dumb (not dumb like stupid, but dumb like silent. ) He couldn t speak until his son was born. You ve got to be careful what you say to an angel! If you ever meet one, think about Zachariah!! And the angelic message to Joseph was also factual and miraculous. He was given the facts that his wife-to-be was pregnant by the miraculous actions of God. This was literally lifechanging for him! If you re a dad or a mom here today, remember when you first knew that as a couple you were pregnant? How long did it take you to discover how much your life was going to change? So, what if your pregnancy had been miraculous? How life-changing would that have been? In the same way, the message of Christmas should be life-changing for us. Is it? John 1:16 and 17 says this about the coming of Jesus: For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Do you really understand how miraculous grace is? Grace should be understood as undeserved favor. The Law of Moses diagnoses every person s spiritual condition. We re guilty of breaking God s law, of doing evil, and we all deserve to die. Justice demands it. In Deut. 17 we hear it described: (Deut. 17:2, 5) 2
If there is found among you a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death But the same God who demands justice also created a path to grace that is available to every lawbreaker. And it is the only path that leads to undeserved favor. It s through the work of His Son Jesus on the cross. Why is Jesus the only way to grace? Because Jesus is the only One who fulfilled the demands of the Law and, at the same time, offers that grace to lawbreakers. Jesus fulfills the justice of the law by dying and He can offer His death to us as a substitute for our dying, only because He never broke the law Himself. This is what John meant when he wrote, The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace could not come through the law, only justice. And grace could come ONLY through Jesus. This is the truth for which only our loving God could be the cause, which makes it a miracle. But the message from the angels to the shepherds was: Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:14 ESV) Or as the NIV version puts it, peace to those on whom his favor rests. So, on whom does God s favor rest? One pastor answered that question this way: The Bible declares that there is only way to please God. We can t flatter Him with our compliments, bribe Him with our gifts, ply Him with our praise, impress Him with our goodness, or win His favor with our greatness. The only way we can please God is by surrendering ourselves in total allegiance to the Christ whom God sent into this world to be our Savior and Lord. 2 This is the content of what the angels were declaring to the shepherds. They weren t proclaiming that Jesus was coming to end all conflict and begin a reign of good will for all men. No, they were actually predicting that, before He would be a bringer of peace, He would first be a disturber of the peace. When the adult Jesus taught on this subject of His coming as a peace giver, what did He say? He said: Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt. 10:34-37, 39) You see, most of us define peace as the absence of something like conflict or stress or noise or busyness. Right? We think, I need to get away from the conflict, the stress, the noise, so that I can have some peace! But is that all that peace is, the absence of something annoying? The Hebrew word for peace in Scripture is shalom. It means completeness, soundness, wholeness, the total harmony of one s being. So, the peace that Jesus brings to those upon whom His father s favor rests is not the absence of trouble, conflict, stress, pressure or hardship. On the contrary, as Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew, being a follower of Jesus may in fact lead you INTO those very circumstances. But what Jesus is promising is that, in those circumstances, as stressful as they may be, you can still be whole. You can be sound. Your soul does not have to be threatened. You can actually find calmness in knowing, This is where I m supposed to be right now. In the turbulence, in the smashing, dashing, crashing times of mothering three children under six or in 3
the madness of a boardroom brawl over which strategy will pull your company out of the death spiral it s in, a voice within the true follower of Jesus will be saying: (John 14:1, 27) Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. This is the miraculous content of the message of Christmas! And it is seen even more dramatically in the contrasting behavior of Mary. The shepherds see angels and hear their message and how do they respond? They say, Let s go let s move let s take action! Let s get to Bethlehem! That s a legitimate response. But it s not the only legitimate response. Mary responded differently. While the shepherds took action in response to the message of the first Christmas, Mary became very, very still. Verse 19 describes her response this way: But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Lk. 2:19) What do you suppose she was thinking about? One writer listed the possibilities: There was the angel bursting in upon her quiet life; the awkward wedding; the hard, uncomfortable journey; the labor of birth with only a clumsy, uncertain man to assist her; her infant first-born son, lying in an animal s feeding trough in a stranger s stable, and the unexpected visitation of ragged shepherds. 3 Could you ponder in those circumstances? If it had been one of us, we d probably have been texting or snap-chatting or tweeting or sharing selfies on Facebook! The Greek word translated ponder literally means to converse inwardly with yourself. Are you aware that, in the whole Christmas narrative, there are no recorded conversations between Mary and any other human. None! She speaks two sentences to an angel and she sings her Magnificat presumably within Elizabeth s hearing, but there s no talking with Joseph, no comment at the dedication of the child in the temple no recorded conversations. Yet twice we are told she s pondering; she s having an inner conversation. Rather than seeing this a weakness, is it possible that this is the character trait, the strength which drew God to choose Mary as the mother of His only child? In her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Won t Stop Talking, Susan Cain describes introverts as: the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create, but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own to brain-storming with teams. Although they are often labeled Quiet, it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society like Van Gogh s Sunflowers and the personal computer. And with Mary in mind we could add, and mothering the Son of God through His teenage years, praying Him through early adulthood and then not just releasing Him but launching Him with strength and courage to fulfill the most difficult task any human being had ever been called to accomplish. Yes, Mary was a woman of few words for people but an active inner conversation with God through prayer. So, when the angel said to this quiet, introverted, small-town teenager: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you For nothing will be impossible with God. (Lk. 1:35, 37) Quiet Mary didn t freak out and run away screaming. No, I believe she stood to attention and with a clear voice responded back to the angel: (Lk. 1:38) Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. It was as if young Mary had been preparing for this moment all her life. She was, after all, from a priestly family. She d seen the consecration of her male cousins into the high calling 4
of temple service. So, I believe Mary considered it a high honor to be drafted into the Lord s service on that mysterious day. In so many words, Mary said, Let the miracle happen through me. What impossibility is God asking of you this Christmas? To reach out to that impossible neighbor? To forgive that impossible co-worker? Are you willing to have God perform His Christmas miracle through you? Before Mary responded, the angel reminded her: For nothing will be impossible with God. (Lk. 1:37) Receive now the Message of Christmas as the miracle that it is. For if you do, you ll be joining Mary by saying, Yes Lord, I too am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. In each of our worship rooms, your site pastor will now come with a few closing words. [Pause] Let s pray 1 Kris Samons, What is a Biblical Definition of a Miracle?, www.probe.org 2 Rev. Ross Foley, from his sermon The Peace of Christmas preached at Faith Covenant Church, Burnsville, MN., Dec. 22, 1985 3 Elliott Bush, Conceiving Christ First Within One s Heart, The Christian Century, Nov. 25, 1987, p. 1054. 5