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What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? Is it lunch with your family? Is it singing carols? Probably not after you've been hearing them in the shopping centres for the last 2 months! How about Christmas presents? Are you like Garry's wife in this cartoon? Does it matter whether you get the things you've really been hoping for? Are you like some people who go out and buy the thing you really want just to make sure you get it? That's what I do sometimes. Or would you rather be surprised? I actually like it when I'm surprised. It is good to get the thing I really wanted that I went out and bought three weeks ago, but opening up a parcel and discovering something inside that I really like but I hadn't expected at all, makes it much more fun, I think. Now I know from last week's children's talk that Roy's been crawling under the Christmas tree for the last few days or even weeks to find his presents and then feel them and shake them to try to find out what might be in there. But I reckon if you do that it just spoils the fun; both for you and for the people who are giving the presents. In fact there was a time when I used to wrap up the presents I was giving in all sorts of strange shapes so no-one could work out what might be in there: so the surprise would be all the more on Christmas Day. |
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Well, today I want to talk about some surprises we find in the Christmas story. Then I want us to think about what's inside this gift from God that we're unwrapping today for the umpteenth time. |
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Surprise 1: Jesus' Parents |
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I'd like you to stop for a moment and ask yourself this question: if you had the choice, who in our world today would you choose to be the parents of the Messiah, this child born to be king? Now I think if you were honest your first choice wouldn't be a couple of teenagers from an insignificant country town with limited prospects. You'd want them to at least have some money behind them, preferably 'old money', perhaps with a bit of social standing, maybe even some political clout. Or you might choose a spiritual leader, someone the world looks up to; someone perhaps like Tim Costello or Billy Graham, though they're probably both too old now for the job. But you wouldn't naturally think of a couple of young kids from Galilee. Yet that's who God chooses. |
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When the wise men come looking for the Messiah, where do they go first? To the palace. That's where you go to find a newly born king. Not to a little village like Bethlehem, let alone Nazareth. |
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I mentioned yesterday Nathaniel's comment about Jesus' origins: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Yet that's exactly where Joseph and Mary come from. Who would have thought that God would choose people like them to be the parents of his only Son. |
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Surprise 2: The Timing |
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Jesus is born at a time in Israel's history when it's at its lowest ebb since the exile. Israel is a lowly part of the huge empire of Rome. Had he been born a couple of centuries earlier when the Maccabees were about to rebel against Syria, maybe his Messianic claims could have amounted to something. Or imagine if he'd been born into modern Israel with all its military might. In fact if he'd been born anywhere during the 20th or 21st century, with our instant communications, mobile phones, SMS messages, CNN, the Internet, etc. the whole world could have heard about him in a matter of minutes. This is the age when the news coverage is instant wherever something happens anywhere in the world. So why not have Jesus come into a technological world like ours? |
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Yet, you know, this is what we read in Gal 4:4: "But when the fullness of time had come, [or, "At just the right time"] God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law." |
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As far as God was concerned this moment in history was just the right moment. In fact if we think about it some more we realise what was so good about this time in history: |
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Language: 300 years before, Alexander the Great had conquered virtually the entire middle east and established Greek as the common language throughout the region. |
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Roads and garrisons: The Romans had taken over from the Greeks and had built roads and garrisons across the known world, making it much safer to travel, allowing the message of Jesus Christ to be taken to the far reaches of the empire in a reasonably short time. |
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Religions: You would have to say that the old religions of the world were in decline. The Romans and Greeks were looking for new ways of approaching God. In Athens they even had a temple to an unknown god. Even the Jews realised their need for a saviour as they observed the way their religious leaders failed to bring any real hope to the nation or even to observe their own rules. |
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And so when the apostles went out after Pentecost to preach the gospel people were converted in droves and the gospel quickly spread to the far ends of the empire, all the way from Britain to India. |
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Surprise 3: The Place of Jesus' Birth |
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As the Wise Men approached Jerusalem, their immediate thought was to go to the palace to find the baby born to be King. But that's not where we find him. We find him in a smelly stable, out the back of a little village inn. |
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Something we don't think about very often when we're talking about this scene is this: Joseph and Mary have come to Bethlehem because it's their ancestral home. It's where their family comes from. So where would you expect them to go. In that culture you'd expect them to go to a cousin's house. To one of their relatives. But they don't, do they? Is that because of the shame associated with Mary's advanced pregnancy? Were they worried they'd be shunned by their relatives? Had that actually happened? We tend to concentrate on their rejection by the innkeeper, that he didn't have room for them, but we overlook the more important rejection, if this is the case, of their family. |
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Jesus' birth in a smelly stable is a sign that he and his mother are outcasts, shunned. It's a foretaste of the rejection he'd experience from his own people that would culminate in his death on a cross. |
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Yet at the same time his birth in a stable allowed him to be born in a place where only those called by God would see him. |
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Surprise 4: Those who were told of His Birth. |
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The next surprise is the people who were the first to hear of his birth. Shepherds, you would have to say, were a long way down the social pecking order. If you were thinking of people to invite to a cocktail party in Government House, you'd go through a long list before you came to any shepherds. They were uneducated, unsophisticated, they slept with their sheep and would have smelt like it. Many would have been migrants, refugees, with little understanding of things Jewish. |
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Yet God sends his angelic army to announce Jesus' birth to these men first, sitting out in the fields, watching their flocks in the middle of the night. And they immediately leave their sheep and race off to find this child who's been born to be the Messiah, the Saviour, Christ the Lord. |
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Well, there are 4 surprises in this story and each one of them reveals a great gift that God gives us through the birth of his son. |
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Listen to what those gifts are: |
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Gift 1: God uses Ordinary People. |
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This seems to be one of the themes of Luke's gospel. Do you ever wonder why some people seem to be born to greatness or at least achieve greatness, and others like us remain just ordinary citizens the whole of our lives? There doesn't seem to be any particular rhyme or reason to it. It's just one of those things, the luck of the draw. But the great thing about God's plan for the world is that whether we're great, or just ordinary people, God chooses to use each of us in his service. Each one of us is a steward in God's household. Each one of us has a task to perform that God counts on in running his kingdom. God is the master at using the unexpected, the ordinary, to do extraordinary things. Just as Jesus turned ordinary water into superb wine, so he can take our ordinary abilities and use them to do great things for the kingdom. All he needs is people who are willing to be used in his service, and who are willing, like Mary, to believe that what God says he'll do, he will do. |
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Gift 2: God's Control of History. |
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Sometimes I think we wonder whether maybe history's got out of control; whether humanity has gone too far in its search for bigger and better weapons and communications and medical science. The effect of terrorism over the past few years has been to make some people question whether God is still in control, or whether he's ever been in control, for that matter. |
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But we see here in the timing of Jesus' birth that God is the Lord of history. Augustus thought he was in control when he ordered a census, but in fact that was God's way of having his Messiah born in the city of David, rather than Nazareth. Herod thought he could control things by killing all the babies under the age of 2, but God took Jesus away to safety, and in so doing had Jesus re-enact the exile to Egypt experienced by the first Israelites. The Pharisees and Sadducees thought they were in control when they had Jesus crucified, but it was God who was bringing his eternal plan to completion, opening the way of forgiveness to all who have faith in Jesus Christ. |
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So many people today think that they have their lives under control, that they're able to determine their own destiny. But God says, "No, I'm still in control. The word that goes forth from my mouth will not return to me empty. It will accomplish what I purpose. A day is coming when I'll call all people to account for their response to my son Jesus Christ." |
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This is the thing that most needs to be considered on this Christmas day. How do we respond to this Jesus who was born as Saviour of the world, as Christ the Lord? How do we respond to the one who's in control of history. |
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Gift 3: Significance |
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If you think about that stable, you realise that the day before Jesus birth it was the most insignificant place in town. Yet a day later, people were coming to it as a place of worship. And the only difference was that a day later, it housed Jesus, the Son of God. Bethlehem would have been a forgotten town, a nowhere on the map of Israel, if it hadn't been for the birth of Jesus 2000 years ago. |
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Look around here today. This isn't a particularly impressive building is it? It's nice and homely but you wouldn't place it high on the list of great Church buildings of the world. You can tell that by the fact that not many people come asking to be married here. Yet there's a significance about this building that has nothing to do with the architecture, the height of it's ceiling, its stained glass windows or lack of them, or its age. This building is significant because it's a place where we gather week by week to worship Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world and to be a small part of his body here on earth. |
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The same goes for each one of us. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ you have a new significance in the world. You've been made one of God's sons and daughters. You're part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation belonging to God. You have a significance that comes from your relationship with Jesus Christ. |
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Gift 4: God's acceptance of all people |
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As we think about the fact that the first people told about Jesus' birth were those lowly, probably smelly, shepherds, we realise that the gospel is for all people, irrespective of rank and race and education and even personal hygiene. God has no favourites. Anyone who comes to him will be accepted. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, will receive forgiveness of their sins. He accepts the outcast just as readily as he does those who are born into the kingdom. The gospel is for all the world. |
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When we come to the cradle and kneel before the king with our heads bowed, we're all brought down to the same level. None of us can claim to be better than anyone else. None of us need fear that we're less worthy than anyone else. Jesus came that all might believe, that all might have life and have it abundantly. |
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Do you feel like you're just an ordinary person, unworthy to be part of God's family? If so then that's great, because you're just the sort of person that God calls and uses. |
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Do you wonder whether God is still in control of the world? Well, be reassured by this account of Jesus' birth. God was bringing his plan to completion at just the right time, and he'll bring history to an end, again when the time is right. God has appointed a time when he will judge the world in righteousness, by this man, Jesus Christ. |
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Are you looking for a sense of significance for yourself? Then turn to Jesus Christ. Ask him to be with you, because wherever he is becomes a place of significance. Ask him to give you a task to do that'll make a difference in the world. |
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And be assured that God accepts everyone who will come to him in faith. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." |
