Osceola Sermon Christmas December 20 th, 2009 By Pastor Bob Vale Biblical Focus: John 1:14 JN 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Scripture Lesson: LK 2:1 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. LK 2:4 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. LK 2:8 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." LK 2:13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,`lk 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."``lk 2:15 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." LK 2:16 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. Opening Hymn: #236 While Shepherd Watched Their Flocks Prayer Chorus: #204 Emmanuel Hymn of Discipleship: #240; Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Video: Christmas Worship Elements by Flashlight films: Shepherds Then read the morning Scripture: (Barb S. Luke 2:1-20) This morning I want to talk to you about the mystery and miracle of the Christmas Story. I believe the Christmas Story is a miracle. In fact, it is a whole lot of miracles. Stop to think about it. 1. The miracle of angels appearing to both Mary and Joseph.
2. The miracle of John the Baptist leaping in the womb of Elizabeth his mother when pregnant Mary came close to them. 3. The miracle of the Virgin Birth. 4. The miracle of God becoming flesh and living among us. 5. The miracle of the Angles speaking to the shepherds to find the baby Jesus. 6. The miracle of Joseph and Mary leaving to go to Egypt just in time to escape the killing of young infant males by King Herod s soldiers. 7. The miracle of the wise men following the start in the east to find the baby Jesus. The Christmas story is full of miracles. Do you believe in Miracles? Or maybe a better question might be; Do you fully believe in the miracles of the Bible? Albert Einstein once said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is." Is Christmas a miracle and mystery to you or is it just a nice story to tell our children for the Holiday Season? Sometimes we may wonder why an unbelieving world wants to call Christmas, Happy Holiday s rather than Merry Christmas. I understand the Politically Correct emphases is to not offend those who, don t believe, or to perhaps secularize a nation & culture. But do we as Christians lose something when we bow to that line of thinking? You know.. don t say anything religious because we might offend the one or two true atheist in our community? Perhaps we so easily accept the PC understanding of Happy Holiday s, because the Christian community has lost the Mystery and Miracle of Christmas as we have washed it in the filter of Political Correctness ourselves and an unbelieving world say s so what about the Christmas story. Anytime we as Christians run the miracles of God through the filter of Political Correctness; we always lose the mystery and miracle of the event. Play the Brad Stine Video: 0-2:31 seconds. (Christian Comedian from Plymouth, Indiana.) I have this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhdaneovqdi&feature=playlist&p=687c01c884 A72ACB&index=13 As Christians, Let s be happy and willing to say Merry Christmas this year, rather than Happy Holiday s. Can we as Christ followers and believers in the gospel admit The Christmas story is a miracle? (or a group of miracles?) Let's look at the Christmas story from the perspective of the angels. God uses His angels to communicate special news; they have made many important announcements throughout history. But this one is probably the most important.
Imagine if you were an angel in heaven. Perhaps you were going to get the assignment to tell the good news of Jesus birth to the world. You have been practicing your lines. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." You would probably think. Ok, which Jewish temple are we going to fly over and which high priest are we going to wake up in the middle of the night? Will it be the high priest in Jerusalem? Will it be a high ranking Pharisee, a Sadducee, or an expert in the law? Who is the Jewish Pope of the day we should give this good news to? Finally God gives them their orders. They are not to go to a Jewish Temple, or the local Synagogue in Jerusalem. They are not to go to the house of the high priest to wake him up in the middle of the night with the good news. In fact, God surprises them with the news, and tells the angels, that this most important announcement will be told out in the middle of nowhere. (An open Desert) In the darkness of night amidst the stars would be where the angels would share the good news of the light of the world coming to earth. Why lowly Shepherds rather than the religious elite? Illustration: Max Lucado said God announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds because they were most likely to receive the news with faith. They were probably the most likely not to be so skeptical and try and theologize the situation. Perhaps God had a deeper meaning in approaching the shepherd rather than the religious elite. The Jews at that time and even today felt as if they were a chosen people. In many ways a Holy Club; small but very significant. Do you remember when you were little and you had a back yard club house. There were maybe three or four of you in your little club. As a child one of the best parts of having your own club is deciding who could join and who you could keep out. So it was with the Jews of Jesus day. Among the Jews at the time of Jesus birth, there was no evangelism committee in the local synagogue. They did not pass out cards in the neighborhood to tell of upcoming outreach events. You were either born in to the clan, or you weren t. Maybe the message God was trying to send was, The Good News of my son Jesus Christ coming to earth is for everyone. From the lowliest shepherd to the richest of kings. God s thought may have been: Let s begin with the shepherds, because if we give the good news to the kings or the religious elite, they may not want to share it. As Christians we must cultivate a theology of mystery. I find it fascinating that God didn't reveal himself to the religious leaders. The fundamental mistake the religious leaders made was trying to force God to fit in their personal religious boxes. Illustration: In the book Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancey says there are two ways of looking at the world: "One takes the world apart, while the other seeks to connect and put it together." Similarly, there are two approaches to God. On issues of faith, do you accept it freely, or do you tear it apart?
I guess it s human nature to be suspicious of the miraculous. Perhaps in our unbelief we try to understand the mystery of God by explaining miracles through our laws of physics or nature. When we do this we, put God in a box and make the Lord Manageable to our point of view. Unfortunately when we do this, we end up with a God who can "never surprise us, never overwhelm us, never astonish us, never transcend us." In the end.god becomes less than God. In my many years of being a student of theology, I don t believe we are to totally understand the mysteries of God. Isaiah 55:8 says that God's thoughts are further from the thoughts of humans than the heavens are from the earth. Scientist are now able to see distant galaxies 13 million light years away from earth! (That is about how far the All Knowing Omniscience of God is from our finite human thinking. The shepherds who were approached by the angels exhibited a childlike faith, because they assumed God could act in any way He wanted. Did you know that. Fish don t need Marine Biologist to swim in the deep oceans. "Birds don't need ornithologists to fly." Dog s don t need us Veterinarians to teach them how to smell 700 times better than we can. God also doesn't need Pastors, theologians or deep thinkers in order to perform miracles in our lives. Amen? God is looking for people who won't tell him what He can or can't do in our lives. God is looking for people who will look at God and say Why Not. (I know this sentence sounds a bit like a John F. Kennedy quote, and it is similar; but spiritually speaking it certainly rings true.) The shepherds took God at face value; when they heard the news, they embraced it with a simple childlike faith. Sometimes we miss the miracle because we analyze it to death. In the end, if we do this.we put miracles to death. There was a young man who was sitting in his living room one day when his dog dragged in a little gift in its mouth a dead animal of some sort. Has your dog or cat ever done that? Our cats do this every now and then. One of our cats is so good at catching birds, we purposely put a collar with a bell on his neck to give the local birds a fighting chance to get away. Well, this fella found a dead animal in his dog s mouth. Upon taking a closer look, he was dismayed to recognize the dead animal to be a bunny that belonged to a little girl named Bonnie, who lived next door. Bonny was about six years old and her little bunny was brown with white ears that were very distinctive. The young man just felt terrible, believing his dog had killed little Bonny s bunny. The quick-thinking young man came up with a plan. Removing the small bunny from the dog s mouth, which by now was a dirty mess, he put the little bunny
in the kitchen sink. With a little warm water and some shampoo, he tried to clean up the dead bunny as best he could. Then he took a hair dryer (a hare dryer actually) and blow-dried the bunny until it looked pretty good; or as good as a dead bunny could look. Finally, he took the dead bunny out to the neighbor s rabbit hutch and carefully placed the dead little bunny it back in the cage. He kind of fluffed him up so that he looked very natural there in his little box. He felt pretty good about his compassionate task and hoped his neighbors would not know the real truth that his dog killed the little bunny. The next morning, the young man looked out the window of his house and noticed a large crowd of people gathered around the rabbit hutch at the neighbors house. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing. The young man decided to go over and act like any normal curious neighbor and find out what was going on at the rabbit hutch. When he got there, the little girl s mother said to the young man, You won t believe what has happened! It s a miracle, it s a miracle! Little Bonny s bunny passed away a few days ago, and we buried that little bunny right over there... Mmmmm the young man thought for a bit and said, wow, now that s a miracle. How in the world did that happen? I suppose the young man could have apologized and explained exactly what happened. But that surely would have taken the mystery and miracle out of the situation. Perhaps it was best to leave it the way it was. I suppose God could come down to earth and do his best to explain all the miracles of the world. But would we lose the mystery and wonder of God? In the end, would we say, aw---that s nothing now that I can understand it. On the ether hand is there any way we could even begin to understand the miracles or majesty of God? Perhaps there are some things we are not to totally understand, but just accept by faith in God. Maybe that young man will wait until little Bonnie is an adult and ask her.do you remember that little bunny you had when you were six years old that seemed to be a Miracle Bunny, then explain the true story to her. Perhaps God is waiting for us to return to heaven when our lives are through, and there amidst the angels of heaven, we will begin to learn more about all the wonderful miracles God has been giving us on our behalf. Illustration: Albert Einstein says that the person who cannot experience wonder has ceased living because he has ceased seeing. In my short life I have come to learn this about miracles: Miracles tend to happen to those who believe in them; and not to those who don t. I hope that you can re-experience the mystery of Christmas the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of all Creation was born as a helpless little baby in Bethlehem. The angel said to the shepherds: "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. Let s Pray,
Oh Lord that we would be a people of miracles; that we would have the faith of a child; that we would experience the mystery and majesty of Christmas this year. Help us to celebrate the wonder of Christmas with new eyes, a fresh spirit, a strengthened heart, and a deeper understanding of your love for us. We thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ as a miracle baby given to us 2,000 years ago. You are the reason for the season! Amen.