WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.440 Amen. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:09.179 Please have a seat. 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:21.379 And for a few moments together, we're going to think about those two passages from Luke's 00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:21.379 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:38.000 there. I think it is clear that this year Waitrose absolutely nailed the Christmas ad battle. I 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:43.140 don't know if folks agree. Keira Knightley, Joe Wilkinson, it's the short advert that has 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:48.079 everything. It has friendship, it has drama, it has romance. Of course, there's lots of delicious 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:54.799 looking food as well. The question is, why does it work? It works because of what we can call perhaps 00:00:54.799 --> 00:01:03.599 the beauty and the beast effect. It's the unexpected, unlikely couple, the pairing that surprises, 00:01:04.479 --> 00:01:13.120 that makes the drama of the story work. When we turn to Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:21.879 we see something of the same theme that he detects, that there are unexpected, surprising 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:28.280 wonders and combinations when we come to think about the birth of the Son of God. 00:01:29.259 --> 00:01:33.819 So we're going to spend a few minutes just thinking about those familiar stories, 00:01:34.459 --> 00:01:41.219 but I hope that we'll discover something of the unexpected wonder, both of the miracle of Christmas 00:01:41.219 --> 00:01:47.439 and also the mission of Christmas. So to begin with the wonderful miracle of Christmas, 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:53.399 Christmas. So over our Advent series services here as a church up until the end of December, 00:01:53.399 --> 00:01:58.140 we've been thinking about some of the names and titles that you find for Jesus in the Bible. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.519 He is Emmanuel. He is God with us. He is Prince of Peace. He is King of Kings. 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:09.639 This evening, as Barry was reading for us, perhaps you heard one of the most striking. 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:20.779 In Luke chapter 1 verse 31, Jesus is called the Son of the Most High. Verse 35, He is called the Son of God. 00:02:21.419 --> 00:02:27.139 So we're going to think about that for a moment. Think about the reality that an angel comes 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:37.379 to declare of the unborn baby Jesus that He is in reality the Eternal One. He was there before the 00:02:37.379 --> 00:02:44.879 universe, sustaining trillions of galaxies by the word of His mouth. He is the one who receives the worship of heaven. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:55.659 Luke tells us He is the promised one. He is this promised King, this righteous King who would rule and reign forever. 00:02:57.460 --> 00:03:03.419 And He is the one who will be perfectly filled with the Spirit. The Spirit was there. He was conceived by the power 00:03:03.419 --> 00:03:09.599 of the Holy Spirit. We get to His baptism. And the Spirit comes on Jesus like a dove. So that all that 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:20.859 Jesus does and says is in God's power. But here's the unexpected wonder. We have the infinite glory of God 00:03:20.859 --> 00:03:31.359 wrapped in the fragility of a human body. This is a fact more fantastic than any work of fiction. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:39.300 This is the fact that calls us to faith at Christmas. That the creator and sustainer of this universe and of 00:03:39.300 --> 00:03:46.440 all our lives becomes a tiny bundle of cells. A developing baby in the womb of His mother. 00:03:47.200 --> 00:03:53.120 A child who, like every other child, will cry out for milk in total dependence and need. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:04:01.080 This is the unexpected miracle that the King of heaven, whom all the angels worship, will enter 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:07.219 the world, not into a palace, but into a stable, not born to royalty, but born to a poor family in a 00:04:07.219 --> 00:04:15.140 backwater town. The Savior sent to reveal God's glory to the world? He's the one who'll be wrapped in 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:24.259 cloths and placed in an animal feeding trot. Earlier this year, you may have seen the story in the news of two 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:31.959 brothers in San Francisco who were clearing their mom's house after she passed away. And they went up into the 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:41.019 attic and they made a remarkable discovery. That in an old cardboard box, under layers of cobwebs, under layers of old 00:04:41.019 --> 00:04:51.979 newspapers, they found a mint copy, first edition Superman comic, which, when they took it to auction, 00:04:53.099 --> 00:05:02.639 was worth over nine million dollars, the most expensive comic ever sold. Hidden for years in this old cardboard box. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:12.800 As we read Luke's gospel, we are invited to discover an infinitely more valuable treasure. It's that God 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:22.639 himself has wrapped himself in human flesh to make himself known to us personally. And so, I wonder, 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:31.139 as it were, have you climbed the attic stairs? Have you uncovered this box and made this discovery for 00:05:31.139 --> 00:05:41.300 yourself? Here's why I would suggest this matters. That with the coming of Jesus to be God with us, 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:49.060 making himself known to us personally, he answers so many of the deep longings within our hearts. 00:05:50.180 --> 00:05:55.219 That longing that we have at times to connect with something bigger than ourselves. 00:05:55.220 --> 00:06:03.060 That longing that we have to find meaning. That recognition that we have deep within us that 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:13.000 there is something more. The rise of spirituality within our nation. It is testimony that we want to 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:18.600 connect with the divine. We want to connect with God. And the wonderful news of the Bible and of 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:25.080 Christianity is that in Jesus, the search is over. We don't need to speculate anymore. We don't need to 00:06:25.080 --> 00:06:30.360 say, well, I think God is like this, and maybe you think God is like that. No, we see the God of glory 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:37.980 in the face of Jesus. That to read Luke's gospel, to read his words and his actions, is to read about the 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:43.879 words and the works of God. So, in the coming of Jesus, he answers, I think, so many of our deep longings. 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:49.459 But it also answers the really important question, how can you and I have a relationship with God? 00:06:50.159 --> 00:06:55.399 So, it's really common to think about religion in the sense that, well, what I need to do is try and 00:06:55.399 --> 00:07:02.259 work my way up to God. That there are things that I must do, and I must feel certain things, and I must 00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:08.620 act in certain ways. And if I can reach that standard, then surely God will be obliged to accept me. 00:07:08.620 --> 00:07:15.980 And the truth of the matter is that, according to the Bible, we can't meet God's perfect standard, 00:07:16.060 --> 00:07:22.079 which sounds like bad news until we understand that with the coming of Jesus, we have this wonderful 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:28.280 announcement that the God of love, well, he's come down to us to make himself known to us so that we 00:07:28.280 --> 00:07:34.660 might know him personally. And that's not something we have to earn. That's a gift he gives to all 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:43.060 who will put their faith in Jesus. And so, that's the wonderful miracle of Christmas that Luke presents 00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:50.440 to us. But connected to that, and secondly, we need to think about the wonderful mission of Christmas. 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:56.780 Now, I wonder if in the midst of all the busyness that this time of year always brings, have you ever 00:07:56.780 --> 00:08:03.760 stopped to ask yourself, what is the meaning of the Christmas season? I know here tonight we are from 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:10.039 different cultures and backgrounds. We may have lots of different answers to that question. Perhaps 00:08:10.039 --> 00:08:14.379 when we think about the Christmas season, we think about time with family. It's a wonderful gift, isn't 00:08:14.379 --> 00:08:22.519 it? Maybe we think about a time to rest, to put work to one side, a time to feast. Maybe for us, 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:27.920 Christmas is about trees and traditions. It might even be about church and Christmas carols. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:34.300 What's the point of Christmas? What's the point of Christmas story? It's a really significant 00:08:34.300 --> 00:08:39.720 question to ask of all the many questions you and I might have about Jesus or about Christianity. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:48.360 And to understand the point of Christmas, we really need to see the wonderful mission of Christmas. 00:08:48.899 --> 00:08:52.940 Because the point is that God has made himself known personally to us in Jesus, 00:08:52.940 --> 00:09:01.960 so that you and I could know God for ourselves. That God has become one of us. He has come near to us 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:07.720 on a search and rescue mission so that we could draw near to him. 00:09:09.900 --> 00:09:19.320 If we return for a moment to the rom-com of Kira and Joe, we know that it works because it works like 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:26.160 a fairy tale. It's not fact. You know, somehow the beard wins the heart of the beauty. It sounds like 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:33.680 a classic fairy tale. But the wonderful reality, as Luke presents us, is that this is nothing in 00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:41.700 comparison to the true story, to the true wonder of Christmas. That here is the God of the universe, 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:49.860 the most glorious, the most holy, the perfectly good God. And he takes on humanity to live among us, 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:59.180 to live in true humility. And even more than that, he is issuing an invitation to the lowest, 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:07.120 to the least, to the least likely. That there is in Luke's gospel, 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:17.519 the great news of a God who is glorious and is full of grace. And he invites a group of shepherds 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:25.639 into his presence. And what's true for those guys then can be true for each one of us today. 00:10:27.340 --> 00:10:33.159 Because here's the thing we might miss about these shepherds. We're so used to the nativity story 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:41.939 that God deliberately chose to invite them to be the first visitors. You know, of all the people he 00:10:41.939 --> 00:10:48.360 could have chosen, in all the places he could have gone to, in all of Judea, he sent the angels 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:58.539 and chose them. Now, that's unexpected. Because in Jesus' day, shepherds were very low reputation. 00:10:58.539 --> 00:11:05.199 They were known for being unclean. They were known for being dishonest. They literally lived on the 00:11:05.199 --> 00:11:09.719 margins of society. But the message that they hear, 00:11:11.299 --> 00:11:17.439 do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy. Today in the town of David, 00:11:17.539 --> 00:11:25.679 a Savior has been born to you. In effect, they hear, come, meet your Savior. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:34.539 The message that they hear, and it's the message of Christianity, is that you are welcome to come 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:43.299 to know God. And Luke loves this theme, that Jesus reverses all the usual expectations. 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:51.159 Let me encourage you to read Luke's account of Jesus' life this Christmas season. It's a short but 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:58.459 thrilling story. And when you read that, you find Jesus extending kindness to the outsiders, 00:11:59.199 --> 00:12:06.219 to those that nobody else would give the time of day to. We see him showing unexpected grace and favor 00:12:06.219 --> 00:12:14.519 to moral and social outcasts and failures. We see him welcoming gladly the unclean, those regarded as 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:23.600 unclean for physical reasons and for spiritual reasons. And so, as we come to the story of the shepherds, 00:12:24.139 --> 00:12:32.480 we see that they become a canvas onto which God paints a wonderful picture of his grace, 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:39.620 his restoring, his forgiving, his rescuing, his welcoming grace. 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:47.080 Grace is when we get what we don't deserve from God, and we see it in the story of the shepherds. 00:12:47.259 --> 00:12:53.200 And it becomes good news for all of us. It becomes good news for people who have messed things up, 00:12:53.220 --> 00:13:00.200 and they know it. For people who don't measure up, and we feel it. It's good news for those who are 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:07.720 looking for a peace and a hope and a joy that lasts. There's good news for those whose conscience is not 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:16.440 clear. There's good news for those who, up until now, have turned their backs on God, that God loves to 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:26.440 welcome because he is full of love and grace. He loves to reverse what we might expect. And so, for these 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:32.620 shepherds just going about their day like any other day, they receive this invitation to go and meet 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:40.700 their king. Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that's happened that the Lord has told us about. 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:49.139 And so, we get this insight, even as Jesus is born, that the true God of the Bible, he is a seeking, 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:56.080 searching, and saving God. In fact, Jesus will say that himself. I came to seek and to save the lost. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:03.420 He came to deal with what separates us from God so that we can know God personally. 00:14:04.580 --> 00:14:09.540 Now, how does he do that? You'll perhaps have noticed that some of our Christmas hymns and 00:14:09.540 --> 00:14:17.300 carols have spoken to us of that, that this same Jesus in the manger is the same Lord who will grow 00:14:17.300 --> 00:14:25.480 to be Jesus Christ of the cross and of the empty tomb. And so, for the way for us to be saved, the way 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:34.200 for us to know God is through Jesus' self-giving love. The way that we know peace with God is because 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:39.940 God in his love sent his Son to take the anger of God against all the wrong things that we have done 00:14:39.940 --> 00:14:48.279 so that we could be forgiven. And as Jesus rises from the dead, we can be fully forgiven. We can be 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:55.279 welcomed into God's family. We can experience the great joy of life with God where he is our 00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:03.879 Savior and he is our Savior and he is our friend. Have you considered and discovered the wonderful miracle 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:09.659 and meaning of Christmas for yourself? Let me leave you with one question and a couple of suggestions. 00:15:12.579 --> 00:15:18.519 Luke is clear that in Jesus, God has chosen to come near to us, 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:26.659 and that in Jesus we are being invited to know God personally. So, here's my question. Will you 00:15:26.659 --> 00:15:30.360 move nearer to Jesus in this Christmas season? 00:15:32.819 --> 00:15:37.819 Perhaps that will look like talking to God in prayer. Maybe you haven't done that since you were a child. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:46.720 Maybe it'll look like reading Luke's gospel and asking God to reveal himself to you. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:54.720 Will you move nearer to the God who has moved near to you? And a couple of suggestions as we close that 00:15:54.720 --> 00:16:02.320 come from the shepherd's own story. When the shepherds received this great invitation to meet their King 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:09.320 and their Savior, we are told they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, and they're filled 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:17.080 with joy and wonder. Will we follow them? Will we receive this invitation? Will we move towards Jesus 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:22.340 with wonder that God loved us and gave his Son to be the Savior for us? 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:30.040 And then it's interesting what happens after the manger. We're told there when they'd seen Jesus, 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:35.080 they spread the word concerning him, what had been told to them about this child. 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:43.720 So as we come to discover the wonder of Jesus, will you move towards others to share this wonderful 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:50.520 news? Will you extend something of his love and kindness to the people around you? 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:56.780 The wonderful news of Christmas is that God in Jesus has come near to us 00:16:56.779 --> 00:17:01.519 so that you and I, we can come near to him. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:01.600 Amen.