Come and See, Go and Tell – Luke 2:15-20

What’s the last great movie or TV show you’ve watched? After viewing it, what did you do about it? Did you tell someone about it?

Of course, we all do that right? When we enjoy something, we want to bring others into our joy. Joy is never complete until it is shared.

Two seasons ago, Matt Vargo and I went to see the Browns play the Jets. It was the game that Tyrod Tayler got hurt and Baker Mayfield entered the game. The place was electric. It felt like a playoff atmosphere, everyone was curious to see what would happen. As the half began, Baker was slinging the ball and making plays to bring them to a victory! Even catching a pass for a 2-PT conversion!

As a Browns fan, it was a great moment! It’s a moment that brought strangers together. We high fived or hugged everyone in our section (pre-covid of course). It was big Browns family party. 

Why is that exciting to talk about? We saw the beginning of a QBs career, we saw our team come from behind and win, and we loved every minute of it. 

The amazing thing about Christmas, is that it is the event that proclaimed to the world that God wanted to bring us into His joy! He sent messengers, angels, to the lowly shepherds in the field with the message, “Come and See the new born King”! 

Could you imagine being one of those shepherds on a dark and lonely hillside. It was a night like any other night. Watching the sheep, talking with fellow shepherds. Maybe a night where you would be complaining about the mundane nature of your job, when all of sudden the sky burst forth in song, a host of angels singing and a message of “Fear Not!” (Check last weeks blog for more on this)

Right! Like that wouldn’t freak anyone out. But it would grab your attention. “Hey guys, you need to go check out the event in human history that will alter everything. The son of God was born this night in the stable. God wants you to come and see his Son!”

The divine birth announcement came to those shepherds and they went running to see if it was true. Sure enough, they found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes as they were told. What a sight to behold!

Have you ever held a new born baby? It’s something else, isn’t it! What a precious experience and something to marvel at when a new life is born. I’ve had the privilege of holding all 9 of my nieces and nephews as newborns, and so many other precious children from church. The marvel never goes away. 

To take something so basic, so human and so beautiful as holding a new born babe, but then be told that the babe you are holding is the Creator of the Universe? Now that would be something! And it was for the shepherds!

That invitation, Come and See, is the invitation of Christmas. God called the shepherds and God is calling you. As an adult, Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 11:28–30

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Or the Psalmist said it this way:

Psalm 34:8

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

Come and see the goodness of God, take the risk and try, what do you have to lose? Lay your burdens down, recognize that God is inviting you into his rest, his joy, his family. 

Look to the manger of Christmas and see the Savior who was willing to bear your sins on the cross. Pause and see with your heart and soul, the goodness and the kindness of God presented in the Christ child. 

John 3:16–17

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Wow, now that is exciting! This is what the shepherds saw that night. What did they do about it? They went and told everyone they could about the birth of the Savior!

That’s the natural response when we see or experience something special. We have a desire to share it. This Christmas, come and see Jesus for the first time, or be refreshed by the beauty of the scene. Look deeply and find the joy, the hope and the excitement of the moment, then go and tell others like the shepherds did. 

Christmas is about receiving and about giving. It is about God sending His Son to be the Savior of the world, and it is about telling the world about that gift. Don’t lose the opportunity to proclaim His name to the world this year.

Come and see the new born King, go and tell of the risen Lord!

Do Not Be Afraid

 

What are you afraid of? What fears plague your thoughts? 

All of us are dealing with our first pandemic Christmas and everyone is processing it differently. Fear of the unknown, fear of partial or incomplete knowledge, fear of making the wrong choice and so many more fears just pop up along the way. 

In preparation for our family Christmas, we had a zoom call to discuss how COVID will affect our Christmas gatherings. Sure there is some fear of getting COVID, but the bigger fear is passing COVID on to the more vulnerable members of our family. COVID is a virus we still know very little about, while most who get it will recover fully, we have to acknowledge there is a small percent who won’t. We don’t want our Christmas celebration to compromise anyone. 

I know many of you are asking the same questions and have similar fears. Should we cancel? Should we gather? Thankfully we have a place that is large enough to gather, and though it will be a little different, we will still be together.

Perhaps more than any other year, we need the message that was proclaimed leading up to the birth of Christ that first Christmas, “Do not be afraid!”  

We are continuing on in our Advent series and looking at Christmas through a different lens. Two weeks ago we reflected on how Jesus is the God-Man (John 1:1-5, 14). Jesus being the “only begotten of the Father,” the unique Son of God who is 100% God and 100% man, truly one worth celebrating! 

Last week we looked at Mary and Martha and were reminded that Immanuel means “God with us,” shouldn’t we strive to be like Mary during Christmas and spend time with Jesus, the God-Man?

Today, I want us to consider four encounters that happened in preparation for the first Christmas, that declare “Do not be afraid!” 

Read Luke 1:5-19 – Zechariah

Zechariah was a faithful man. He was faithful to his wife, Elizabeth, of many years. He was faithful to his God, and was selected to be the priest to go in an offer incense before the Lord. Zechariah and Elizabeth were in their advance years, and they were childless because Elizabeth could not conceive. What fears do you think they had? 

As Zechariah went about his priestly duties, an angel appeared to him with a message from God! “Do not be afraid, Zechariah! Your prayer has been heard and you and Elizabeth will have a son, and you shall call him John!” 

Try to imagine what it would have been like to be Zechariah going into the Temple to offer incense, and encountering an angel of the Lord. What would that have been like?

Today, Cindy was loading her car to take the gifts the ladies of our church put together for Lydia’s Home. I saw she went out to load them in the trunk, so I thought I’d help. I grabbed one of the gifts and headed outside. Well, Cindy wasn’t expecting the help and as she turned to enter the church she encountered me exiting the church and I startled her. I apologized for the start, but have to admit that something like this happened on a few occasions. I am no angel, but I guess I should start saying “don’t be afraid Cindy”. 

Surely Zechariah would have been frightened by the angel, and so an appropriate message. But raising a child in his advance years, watching his wife go through a pregnancy, trying to explain to everyone what was happening, there was a lot to fear. But this was God’s plan, and the angel said “do not fear.”

Luke 1:26-38 – Mary 

Unlike her cousin’s husband who was old, Mary was very young, probably 13-17 years old. She was just making plans for her life. She met a boy she loved and they were engaged. They had plans for their life, dreams to fulfill. But that was all about to change.

Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, visited Mary and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But that startled Mary and she was troubled by that.

Gabe continued, “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor of the Lord and you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus.” 

If it was strange for Zechariah to hear his message, though old, he was married. Mary on the other hand was young, not married and had never been with a man. You can appreciate her surprise. She was to be the mother of the Son of God. God had a plan, and he wanted Mary to know that nothing was impossible with Him, so he gave her a sign that her cousin, Elizabeth, was already pregnant. 

Mary had a lot to be afraid of with this news. What would Joseph think? What would her parents think? What would the community think? Would she have a husband to help her? Would she be cast out? Yet, she was willing to be the servant of the Lord!

Matthew 1:18-25 – Joseph 

Joseph was a just and righteous man. He was a working man. He had his pride and his dreams. He was engaged to the woman he loved and was preparing to take her as his bride. Then he received word from Mary that she was pregnant. Talk about a lot to be afraid of!

He was preparing to break off the engagement quietly, because he loved her, when Gabriel paid him a visit. What did Gabe say? You guessed it, “Do not be afraid!” 

“Joseph, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for God has a plan and the baby Mary is carrying is the Son of God,” Gabe said. 

If Joseph had a lot to be afraid of before, it was only more magnified. You will take care of the Son of God, don’t mess up! Yet he received the word of the Lord and obeyed. He took Mary to be his wife, but didn’t consummate the marriage until after the birth of Jesus. 

Luke 2:8-14 – Shepherds

Have you ever been on the outside looking in? You have responsibilities that are keeping you from what you really want to be doing? I think of the shepherds that way. Sitting off on a distant hillside overlooking the city. They can see the lights, and maybe even hear the hustle and bustle going on. However, they can’t join in because they have to tend the sheep. 

A thankless job, but one that must be done. What do shepherds have to fear?

Of all the groups of people, it was this group that God chose to send His angels to with the announcement of the birth of His Son. This appearing was quite the spectacle and the shepherds were afraid. The message came, “Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy! Jesus is born!” 

Do not be afraid because God has a plan and He is working that plan out! This message is weaved throughout the Bible, Do not be afraid, for God is at work, He is with you, He has not forgotten you, and He will keep His promises! 

What are you afraid of this Christmas? Remember the original greetings of the season, “Don’t be afraid!” 

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 

How to have a "Mary" Christmas - Luke 10:38-40

 

What’s the point of Christmas? Decorations? Gifts? Parties? Shopping? Lights? Trees? The birth of Christ? 

The prophet Isaiah gave us the answer hundreds of years before the first Christmas.

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The Messiah will come, born of a virgin and His name will literally mean “God with us” for Jesus came in the flesh. 

Yes, of course the point of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior, but how much of our season is filled with greeting the Savior? 

How much time do we spend with Jesus during Christmas? Only you can answer that for yourself, but I want to look at a story of two sisters who both loved Jesus and were friends of Jesus, but one missed the whole point and the other chose the better option. 

In the Gospel of Luke, we encounter this story of two sisters who invited Jesus to their house. You may have heard of these two sisters, Mary and Martha. They had a brother Lazarus, the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead, but that’s another story. 

A little context for our story, Jesus has been in his public ministry for a couple of years and is beginning his final journey into Jerusalem. Jesus knew that his time was limited and that he must go to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the world. On his way, he continued to teach, heal and perform other miracles. 

As he crossed through Bethany, he stopped in at the house of his friends, Mary and Martha. At first, this seems pretty straight forward, until you are the one inviting people over. Now inviting Jesus over was not just inviting one single guy to dinner, he came with a crowd. At minimum there were the 12 disciples and possibly other followers. 

If I host anything at my house, I want to clean the house from top to bottom before my guests arrive. So it’s an all-day affair to have people over for dinner. There’s cleaning and prepping to do, then hosting, and more cleaning. 

Consider all that as you read Luke 10:38-42.

[38] Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. [40] But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” [41] But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, [42] but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (ESV)

Martha gets a bad rap, but she was just trying to be a good host. A crowd shows up at your door, what are you going to do? I got to get more chairs, I have to get more plates out, I need more… you name it. It’s party time and you enter in full host mode. 

But then you look over and see your sister just relaxing with your guest of honor. She’s just sitting there listening. She doing what you want to do, but you are too busy to do it. What’s the point of having a guest over if you can’t enjoy his company? But how can you enjoy the company when there is so much to do?

Tasks become so important and can prevent us from the relationship.

A few years ago, I took the youth group on a Spring Retreat. I started a practice on our retreats to actually encourage the students to “retreat,” by taking an hour of quiet and solitude to spend time with Jesus. I would prepare a Psalm and a few guided questions for those who needed it, but encouraged them to go off alone for an hour, with their Bible and just enjoy the presence of Jesus, whatever that might look like fore each student.

At the end, we would all come back and share what we learned or experienced in our time. Students talked about how fast an hour went and how precious their time with Jesus was. They shared creative prayers, new insights in Scripture, and appreciation of God’s creation.

One young lady was so stressed and frustrated. So after our gathering, I pulled her aside and asked her what was wrong. She was so upset that everyone had a good time and she didn’t even get through all the questions. (Do you hear a Martha here?) She said she was so tired that she couldn’t concentrate and was troubled that she didn’t finish the task.

I responded to her, “Did you ever consider that you could just admit to Jesus your weakness and that you were tired and needed a nap, and just enjoyed sleeping in his presence? The questions were not the assignment. Enjoying the presence of Jesus was the assignment, the questions were an aid, but not the assignment.”

Not that I want all the students to sleep in that hour, but learning the exercise of resting in Jesus is huge. Jesus wasn’t disappointed in her not completing the paper, He was sad that she missed time with him because of her task driven mentality. 

What is the point of Christmas? Spending time with Jesus, “God with us.” 

Then why do we get so task driven with decorating, baking, shopping, gift giving and the such?

Mary, now she got it. She recognized that time with Jesus was precious and she enjoyed every moment she had with the Rabbi. The fact that Jesus recognize Mary and Martha and invited them into his community was huge in their culture. Women rarely were given the opportunity to learn from the Rabbis, and here the Rabbi came to their house and taught them. Jesus saw the value of women and elevated women throughout his ministry. 

Perhaps Mary thought of Psalm 46:10  “Be still, and know that I am God.” She sat with the other disciples, at the feet of Jesus, and listened to him. Listening is key to discipleship. Hearing his voice and following his lead is the most basic form of discipleship. Mary understood this and joyfully learned from the Master.

Martha got caught up with service, Mary with worship. Service is important and there are times to serve, and there are times to just be with God. 

I came to this understanding a few years ago as I reflected on this passage. I too easily fall into the Martha model. I realized that I find it easy and comforting to identify as a servant of God. With this outlook, it is easy to get busy doing good things, and not realize when doing things for God became a distraction from being with God.

I had to recognize that in Christ, I am not just a servant of God, but a son of God (John 1:12). How does my relationship with God change when I perceive it through the lens of sonship? As a servant, I just need to focus on how I serve. As son, I have to deal with my insecurities, shame and feelings of underserving of this position and accept the love and forgiveness of our Heavenly Father. 

The place of a son or daughter is to be with the Father. Mary chose this good portion, the necessary thing, to be with the Savior. God’s plan of redemption was set in place to give us the opportunity of experiencing his presence in Immanuel, God with us. The highest form or worship, the best present we can offer him is to seek his presence. 

C.S. Lewis claims, “I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest degree, and unmistakably real.”

I don’t want to get down on Martha, things do need to get done. We just have to check our priorities and make sure we put spending time with Jesus at the top of our list. In our decorating, our baking, our shopping, our festivities and gift giving, we need to carve out space to stop, sit and listen to our Savior, to be with Immanuel. 

How can you spend more time with Jesus this week?

This week, I want to challenge you to take a few minutes with Jesus each day and read from the Sermon on the Mount, the longest recorded sermon we have that Jesus gave. To be clear, I believe the whole Bible is the Word of God and that we are spending time with Jesus whenever we read from it, but in the spirit that Mary displayed, I thought we could sit and listen to the teachings of Jesus this week. 

Thursday 12/10 – Matthew 5:1-16

Friday 12/11 – Matthew 5:17-30

Saturday 12/13 – Matthew 5:31-48

Sunday 12/14 – Matthew 6:1-15

Monday 12/15 – Matthew 6:16-34

Tuesday 12/16 – Matthew 7:1-14

Wednesday 12/17 – Matthew 7:15-29

I look forward to hearing how your time with Jesus goes this week!

Fully God Fully Man, it matters

 

Hebrews 1:3

Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…

I love the Christmas season! However, I do like to celebrate Thanksgiving first and then focus on Christmas.  As we enter this Advent Season, I have been thinking about the meaning and purpose of Christmas. It is so easy to lose focus on the true meaning and get caught up with trivial things. 

Consider our Thanksgiving practice, set aside a day to be thankful for what you have, followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday that try to get you to buy everything you don’t have. How did we get two of the most materialistic days of the year to follow the one day we set aside to be content and grateful? 

Similarly, Christmas has become a materialistic holiday for many, but for the Christian it is to be a time where we remember the first coming of our Savior. Over the next few weeks, I want to pause and consider the importance of the first coming of our Lord.

What are your thoughts about Jesus? What concepts do you have about him? 

We don’t often pause to consider our thoughts about Jesus and the implications of those thoughts. Do you believe Jesus is God? Do you believe that Jesus is human? What does that look like? Is He 50% God and 50% man? Why is that important anyway? 

There have been many misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Jesus over the years. Some have taught that Jesus was God but not man. Some have taught that Jesus was a man but not God. Others have taught that Jesus was a mystic phantom and neither God nor man. But what does the Bible say? 

Jesus is 100% Man 100% God, or fully God and fully man.

This is the theological teaching called the Hypostatic Union. How Jesus can be both fully God and fully man and yet be one person. It is a mystery for sure, something that can only be fully understood by God. You and I are only one nature and one person. Jesus is one person with two complete natures. 

Read John 1:1-5, 14; Hebrews 2:14-18; Hebrews 4:14-16 for a few passages that refer to his humanity. Jesus is fully human like us, in every respect – human body, heart and mind – except for sin.

Read John 1:1-5, 14; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-4 for a few passages that refer to his divinity. Because Jesus is also fully God, He is the perfect sacrifice for sin and is able to save us.

Why does Jesus have to be 100% God and 100% man with no division? So he can fulfill all that is necessary to provide forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with the Father. If he was not fully God and fully man, he would not have been able to fulfill all that was required of him. 

Watch this brief video to remember what Jesus, the God-Man accomplished for us.