Christmas: Miracle of Transformation

As Christians, we celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus, the promised Messiah.

Jesus came to bring hope and forgiveness and change of people's hearts at Christmas.

Christmas is about miracles of transformation.

So when we talk about Jesus changing the hearts of people, we're not talking

about physical hearts, we're talking about spiritual hearts that involves our

will and our total being as a person.

Heart transplants are increasingly more common today than they were many years ago.

In fact, the first heart transplant, as you may know, was performed successfully

by Dr. Christian Bernard.

He transplanted a human heart into Dr. Philip Blayberg.

It's interesting that he transplanted the first heart into another doctor,

actually another surgeon.

And after the surgery, Dr. Bernard carried the old heart in a plastic box and

showed it to his patient.

There they were two physicians who were sitting in a hospital room examining

the scars and thickening of the dead useless heart.

Dr. Barnard said, Dr. Blayberg, do you realize that you are the first man in

the history of humankind to be able to sit and look at and hold your own dead heart?

Dr. Blayberg received a new human heart to extend his life and Jesus has come

to transform in the lives of people to give us a new spiritual heart that will last for eternity.

When you understand the true meaning of Christmas, it brings about a change

in our hearts and a change in our outlook on life.

If we really look at the true love story that comes at Christmas,

we see a transformation that comes into our minds when we understand that the

God of this universe came to dwell among us and in us.

The birth of Jesus brought about many dramatic changes and we date our calendars

Anno Domini, or AD, or before Christ, BC.

And so this morning we're going to read from Luke chapter two, verses one through 20.

Luke chapter 2 and 1 to 20 the birth of Jesus.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken

of the entire Roman world.

This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria

and everyone went to their own town to register.

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.

He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest

room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around

them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid,

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising

God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.

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.

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby was lying in a manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told,

what had been told them about the child. And all who heard it were amazed at

what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorified and praising God for all the things they had

heard and seen which were just as they had been told.

I sometimes picture that with the shepherds returning, glorifying and praising

God. Who were they glorifying God to? But sheep.

Well, anyway, everybody as they went, I think. Anyway, people surrounding the

birth of Christ experienced different transformations.

From their experiences, we learn several life principles to live by.

The first one is this, don't give up on prayer.

From the experience of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we learn the first life principle,

don't give up on prayer. Zechariah, who was a priest, and his wife,

Elizabeth, were faithful followers of God.

They evidently had been praying all of their married life to have a baby.

Now, to not have children in the Old and New Testament times was to live in disgrace.

To have a child was a demonstration of being blessed by the Lord.

The more children you had, the more blessed you were. I'm not sure if it's that

way today, but it was then, the more children you had, the more blessed you were.

Nancy grew up in a household of eight kids.

Her dad grew up in a household of 12 kids.

And I don't think I wanna even go back into farther generations.

Susanna Wesley had 26 children, I think it was.

I can't imagine that. But anyway,

so they lived in a time where having children was a blessing of God.

Conversely, to not have children meant that something was wrong.

God was not blessing you for some reason.

Now Zechariah and Elizabeth were older and they were beyond childbearing years.

And down through the years, they

had faithfully prayed to have their own child, but so far no children.

They were about ready to give up on praying for a child. They may have thought

that it must not be God's will for them to have children. they often would ask,

why doesn't God hear our prayers?

Or why doesn't God answer our prayers? Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever felt like your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling and not going anywhere?

Luke chapter one, verses 11 through 25, gives us a story that God did hear their

prayer and God wanted to answer their prayer with a miraculous birth.

When Zechariah was in the temple, it was his time to offer the prayer at the altar.

When he was there, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that his

prayers had been heard and his wife Elizabeth would have a son and his name would be John.

Now that's unusual because usually the firstborn son was named by the father's name.

So Zechariah had been praying for years and now that an angel of the Lord announced

that his prayers were answered, he was doubtful to say the least.

He said, how is this possible? We are both too old to have children.

The angel answered, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.

And I've been sent to speak to you to tell this good news.

A few years ago, when I sent out a Christmas letter, now it's been 13 years ago now.

I sent out a Christmas letter and I said, we have good news.

We have a newborn in our house.

And you know, of course, at our age, you know, people are kind of afraid.

Well, we had gotten a puppy anyway, but we had to let people know that there was newborn.

But for Zechariah and Elizabeth, this was absolutely unheard of.

It could not be possible.

How is this possible, he says. And yet after nine months, Elizabeth did have

a baby and they named their son, John.

Imagine the family became the talk of the town.

Zechariah and Elizabeth proudly walked through their village with their newborn son.

Village people would comment, there goes a happy family, there goes a blessed family.

But can't you imagine the transformation of attitudes that happened in Zechariah

and Elizabeth's life in their hearts, when after all of these years,

they were not able to have children, but God said, I'm gonna bless you and give

you a child after all this time.

Can you imagine how much more powerful they felt about their own prayer life?

You know, God has answered our prayers after all of these years,

he has been faithful to us.

They had a glowing testimony. Praise God, our prayers were answered.

John is our miracle baby.

Principle number one from those involved in the Christmas story is don't give up on praying.

God does answer prayer. Sometimes it's wait.

Sometimes it's yes. Sometimes it's no.

Sometimes I've got something better for you. For Zechariah and Elizabeth, it was wait.

God answered them, their prayer with a miracle boy, John the baptizer,

as he's known in the scripture, the preacher that prepared the way for Jesus

the Messiah, who was his relative, second or third cousin, something like that.

Zechariah and Elizabeth reached the end of their rope and God responded with an answer.

They had thought that they were hopeless. They thought that life was over for them.

There wasn't any chance of them having a child, but they experienced the hope

that came with the birth of their child.

You need to realize that we are not self-made people.

We are God-made people. God has answers to all of our issues and all of our problems.

We may have struggles that we are praying about that we're not sure that God's

going to answer, but God will transform us into his image.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says this, therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he's a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.

Something new begins when we come to time of Christmas.

John D. Rockefeller Sr. is an example of a person that had to reach the end

of himself before he could get a proper perspective on life.

Rockefeller drove himself to achieve one ambition in life and that was to make money.

In fact, somebody asked him how much money is enough and his answer was more.

At the age of 33, he earned his first million. At the age of 43,

he controlled the biggest company in the world.

At the age of 53, he was the richest man on earth and the world's only billionaire at that time.

Then he developed a disease called alopecia that caused all of his hair to fall

out. His eyelashes and his eyebrows disappeared and he became skin and bones.

His weekly income was a million dollars, but he could digest only milk and crackers.

He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards day and night.

He did not sleep, he did not smile, he didn't enjoy anything in his life.

The doctors predicted that he had only one year to live, if that much.

One newspaper had written his obituary in advance in case of his sudden death.

Then one sleepless night, John D. Rockefeller came to his senses and realized

that he could not take one dime with him into the next world.

He learned and accepted the fact that money does not make one happy,

nor does it fix anything, and we can't take it with us.

So the next morning, he became a changed man with a death toll on his back.

He began to help churches with his amassed wealth and established the Rockefeller Foundation.

The foundation's funding of medical research led to the discovery of penicillin.

John D. Rockefeller began to sleep well, he began to eat well, he began to enjoy life.

He didn't die at age 54 like he was supposed to.

He lived to age 98.

He never gave up on prayer and he continued to serve wherever he needed to serve.

He felt, realized what I have here is worthless, might as well give it away

and take what's of eternal value.

The second principle to live by is this, build your life on the foundation of faith.

We see this principle lived out in the lives of Joseph and Mary.

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and greeted her with dramatic news.

Here's this virgin child.

And the angel said, you will be with child and give birth to a son and give him the name Jesus.

He will be great. It will be called the son of the most high.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign

over the house of Jacob forever.

His kingdom will never end.

Now, can you imagine being a young child, a young girl, and seeing this presence

in your room who is telling you that you're going to be with a child and this

child is going to be the Messiah.

Mary replied that this would never happen because she was still a virgin.

Like Zechariah, she doubted, how is this possible?

The angel Gabriel assured her that with God nothing is impossible.

God would give her a baby and that baby would be sent from God conceived by

the Holy Spirit, her son would be the incarnate son of God.

Now, we see this on this side of history.

And we will, well, yeah, that's been told to us for years and years and years,

but can you imagine being this child who's grown up in a Hebrew household,

looking for the Messiah,

not being particularly outgoing or anything like that of her own,

not being one of the rabbi's families or anything like that,

but here God appears to her by an angel and gives her this message that she's

going to be the mother of the Messiah.

I wonder how many times God speaks to us and we doubt him.

In Jesus, God would become a human person, all man, but also all God.

While on earth, he would live as a man, a hundred percent devoted to his heavenly father.

He would take upon himself the sin of the world and defeat the powers of Satan and darkness.

Mary responded with these words, I am the Lord's servant.

May it be to me as you have said. 13-year-old girl, probably somewhere around,

that, responding to God like this.

There's a maturity in that, that many of us even at our age don't have.

Mary didn't believe she was worthy of such an honor, but she was humble and

faithful, and she was willing to do whatever God wanted her to do.

She goes, I don't know how this is possible, but may it be as you have said.

From time to time, we need to join in with Mary and sing, only believe,

only believe, all things are possible, only believe.

God took a chance on Mary and Joseph, and they came through.

Joseph could have rejected Mary by being pregnant with somebody else's child,

but God told him to take the child and raise it as his own, and he did. He was faithful.

I don't think I've told this story before about transformation, not in this church.

I don't believe, but there was a fifth grade school teacher by the name of Jean

Thompson Who helped bring about change in one of her students named Teddy Stoddard?

Excuse me Teddy didn't play well with other children.

His clothes were always dirty and he constantly needed a bath Teddy was a sad

sullen little boy One day mrs.

Thompson reviewed his school records and was surprised at what she found His

first grade teacher wrote Teddy is a bright, inquisitive child with a ready laugh.

He does his work neatly and has good manners. He is a joy to be around.

His second grade teacher wrote Teddy is an excellent student,

well liked by his classmates, but his is troubled because his mother has a terminal

illness and life at home must be a struggle.

His third grade teacher wrote, Teddy continues to work hard,

but his mother's death has been hard, and his home life will soon affect him

if some steps are not taken.

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school.

He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. He is tardy and could become a problem.

It was nearly Christmas time and children brought their presents wrapped in

colorful paper, except for Teddy's, which was wrapped in heavy brown paper from a grocery sack.

Mrs. Thompson opened his presents and found a rhinestone bracelet with some

of the stones missing and a bottle that was one-fourth full of perfume.

The other children in the classroom snickered and began to laugh, but Mrs.

Thompson put the bracelet on and commented how pretty it was.

She also dabbed some of the perfume on her wrists.

After the party, Teddy Stoddard stayed behind just long enough to say, Mrs.

Thompson, today you smell just like my mama used to.

When the children left, the teacher cried. That very next day, Mrs.

Thompson took a new interest in teaching her children. She worked especially hard with Teddy.

As she worked with him, he seemed to come alive.

The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year,

he had become one of the best students in the class.

A year later, she found a note under her door at school from Teddy telling her

that of all the teachers, she was his favorite.

Six years went by and she got another note from Teddy.

He wrote that he had finished high school and was third in his class and she

was still his favorite teacher.

Four years later, she got another letter saying he had graduated from college

with the highest of honors and ensured Mrs.

Thompson that she was still his favorite teacher.

Several years later, she received another letter telling how much he had appreciated

her as his favorite teacher and she was still his favorite and the letter was

signed Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

A year later, Mrs. Thompson received a letter from Teddy saying that he was going to get married.

He explained that his father had died a few years earlier and wondered if she

would sit in the pew usually reserved for the mother of the groom.

Mrs. Thomas did attend that wedding on that day.

And she wore the bracelet and that perfume that she had many years before on the last day of school.

Transformation comes when you believe that with God, all things are possible.

Jesus came to earth as a baby. The very son of God humbled himself and became

a man because he believed you and I were worth it.

That's something hard to comprehend. to think that God would come to this world

to save us because we're worth it.

God believes you are of infinite value. Otherwise he wouldn't have come.

Oh, the difference we can make in people's lives when we are transformed by the newness of Christ.

The example of Zechariah and Elizabeth, give us the life principle.

Their lives were transformed because they didn't give up on prayer.

Your life principle should be, don't give up on prayer.

The example of Mary and Joseph teaches us another principle and that is where

they built their lives on the foundation of faith.

The third principle comes from the shepherds watching their flocks in Bethlehem.

And this is life's committed to the praise and principle.

The lowly shepherds experienced a transformation of their lives.

The song, Nothing Ever Happens to a Shepherd describes the life of a shepherd

watching their flocks at night. Now get this, shepherds were some of the lowliest

people in society at that time.

The song goes like this. It's cold out tonight in this God forsaken place and

we're stuck here with a thousand sheep.

While life is exciting everywhere else, the highlight of our day is sleep.

Shepherds are notorious for making little profit.

We garner just enough for room and board. While everyone else wallows in their

wealth, we're financially ignored. It's lonely out here in this isolated job.

Our position is without esteem.

We're socially challenged. We're society scourged. We're not exactly every woman's dream.

Shepherds have a humble purpose of our fate.

Few people really care. Sometimes I wonder if God knows we exist.

If he does, I'm certain he's forgotten where.

Nothing ever happens to a shepherd. While exciting things occur all over the

world, nothing ever happens to me.

Nothing ever happens to me. Back then, no one thought God would be interested

in shepherds, had no idea.

Shepherds were not religious. Rabbis ranked them on the same level as prostitutes and habitual sinners.

Shepherds were outcast, barred from the synagogue and not included in polite society.

Yet on that special night, an angel appeared not to the king,

not to the king's household, not to the religious elite, not to the rabbis,

but an angel appeared to the shepherds on a hill in Judea and glory of Lord

shone around them and the shepherds it says were terrified. I think so.

And the shepherd said, or the angel said, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born.

He is Christ the Lord, and this will be assigned to you. You will find a baby

wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

And it goes on, suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with

the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth,

peace to men on whom his favor rests.

The shepherds, then we hear, ran in the town and found the baby in a manger,

just as the angel said, and the spirit of the shepherds was changed from gloom,

to an insignificance to overarching joy.

Luke chapter two, verse 20 says, "'The angels returned, glorifying and praising

God for all the things they had heard and seen, which are just as they had been told.

The shepherds were transformed from humbug to hallelujah. They rejoiced and

said, now shepherds are notorious.

We are the first ones to see the Messiah, the newborn King.

What God gave to them, he made them the first witnesses of the light that was to come into this world.

Their fear was transformed into joy. Their bewilderment was transformed into wonderment.

The Christmas, this Christmas practice, the principles we learned from Zechariah

and Elizabeth and is don't give up on prayer.

The one we learned from Mary and Joseph is build your life on the foundation of faith.

The one we learned from the shepherds is this, live your life committed to the praise principle.

I wonder if during this Christmas season, if this might be a new time for us

to look at the transformation of heart and mind that comes from the newborn

Christ, the one who comes to save us from our sin, but more than that,

the one who comes to transform us into Christ likeness.

We were created in the image of God.

We walked away, but God is in the business of bringing us back to be his.

Heavenly Father, as we close this time of worship, we ask Father that you would touch this body.

We ask that you, your body and blood, would preserve us and use us as missionaries in your kingdom.

And now may the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

and the fellowship of his spirit be with you now and forevermore,

as you go and serve a world that desperately needs Christ.