Keeping Christ in CHRISTmas – Day #6 – What Can You Birth For Christ This Christmas?

Keeping Christ in CHRISTmas – Day #6 – What Can You Birth For Christ This Christmas? (Luke 2:8-19)

What Can You Birth For Christ This Christmas? (Luke 2:8-19)

Luke 2:8-19, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

Mary cherished the fact that God had kept His promise. God had promised to send a Messiah, a Saviour, and He had kept His Word. There may have been many times when Mary wondered if God would keep His Word. Things had gone against her little nation. Once proud people, they were broken and conquered. The people groaned under an oppressive burden of taxes, and there was a raging restlessness rising within the nation. Where was God in all of this? Mary must have asked that question many times. The voice of the prophet had not been heard in the land for four hundred years. Why this strange silence of God? Would He speak again? Would He keep His promise to send a Messiah to save His people? However, there is a reason for these things. We find in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God's ways are not our ways. His schedule is not ours. He acts in unexpected places, unexpected ways, and in unexpected times. You remember how startled Mary was when she learned she was to be the mother of the Messiah. She certainly would not have expected it that way.

An angel had announced in Luke 2:11, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
There is nothing people should want more than a Saviour since there is nothing they need so much as to be delivered from the power and bondage of sin. We are sinners. We are rebels. We have taken up arms against God. We break God's laws, injure our brothers, and sometimes destroy our own lives. Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” God created people with freedom, that is a free will to make our own choices. What if people misuse their freedom? This they did. They turned from obedience to God to their own willful ways. We are told in Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Sin often leaves its terrible marks upon the lives of men and women. In the early years of my ministry within my local church, I had an opportunity for street ministry and homeless ministry. At the Calvary Rescue Mission in downtown Memphis, TN, I crossed paths with several people I knew from my own childhood and those who were once at an elite status now living on these streets. Their faces were empty and without hope. These poor men were not always this way. Some of them were once successful, professional, and businessmen with loving families. But they had fallen as low as humanity could go. Sometimes they slept in the streets. Sometimes they found their way to the Calvary Rescue Mission and cast themselves upon the mercy of a mission for a meal and a place to stay. We, no matter how respectable or shameful our sins, all need a Saviour. The good news is a Saviour has been given. This is why the Gospel is good news, exceedingly good news. The angel could announce to the shepherds in Luke 2:10, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Christ is the answer to our sin and alienation.

Mary kept all these things. But where? In her heart Luke 2:19, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” To deposit them in her heart was to put them at the very center of life. Mary had been personally involved. She had given birth to Jesus and she had held Him in her arms. She had known the pain and joy of childbirth. It must be something that happens to us. Christmas must be something that happened not only then but happens now; not just something that happens to others, but something that happens to us. And once it has happened to us, it has become one of our most priceless possessions. What is it this Christmas that the Lord had put on your heart? What is it that you can personally be involved with this Christmas to be a blessing to someone?

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