The Questions of Christmas: Luke 2:1-20 - The Dawn of Redeeming Grace

So the holiday we call Christmas is upon us.

It's tomorrow.

Most of us enjoy all the lights, the gifts, all the warmth and good cheer that comes with them.

And though our cultural holiday warmth and good vibes will soon fade into winter darkness, the gifts of grace and faith and light and life and hope that have come from God drawing near to us in the person of Jesus will never fade.

Throughout Advent, we've been giving attention to these four themes.

I want to put them up on screen just to remind you in context what we have been looking at over the Advent season.

It's been the overall theme, the dawn of redeeming grace.

And with that dawn of redeeming grace, we've experienced, as we've studied, the unquenchable hope of God in Christ, the unwavering peace of God in Christ, the unshakable joy of God in Christ, and the unconditional love of God in Christ.

The last two words of all four lines are, please.

That's right.

And that's what is so important as we celebrate the incarnation, in addition to have all the fun that we can with the holiday that is before us.

So tonight, I do want to say it at least one more time publicly, as loud as I possibly can.

Merry Christmas! Shout it back! That's right, why not?

I think if it's going to be merry, it should be merry here for sure.

That's so true.

One of the most brilliant minds to ever have lived was a man named Albert Einstein.

He once said this the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the source of all true art and science.

He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead.

His eyes are closed.

That's from his 1930 essay called The World as I See It.

I have no knowledge whatsoever of Einstein's theology, and I don't have any information to say, oh, you know, he became a believer or anything like that.

But I know this.

He's right about mystery being important to us.

We were created with eternity in our hearts by a God who's eternal and transcendent.

And he wants us to know him.

And he designed us in such a way that we could be in relationship with him if that relationship were reconciled and set right.

And that's indeed what Jesus has come to do.

The historical reality of the incarnation of Christ is one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

That's right.

The infinite allness, as Kim referred to it in her poem, became an infinite humanness.

The infinite God, the God who created everything that exists out of nothing, that set this tiny little dust ball-sized planet that we call Earth on its axis, spinning at approximately 1,050 miles an hour, hurling through space at about 67,000 miles an hour in its journey around the sun to make one year, and we'll do it again, Lord willing, 585 million miles the journey is.

And God did all of that in addition to coming here so that you and I could be reconciled to his majestic holiness.

Jesus was conceived in a teenage virgin's womb and then delivered in a manger, an animal trough.

His parents named him Jesus as the angels had instructed them, because his name means the Lord saves.

Ah, that's good.

And Jesus came to offer God's salvation as a free gift to you and to me if we would simply repent and believe.

So what does it all mean, and why should it really matter to us so many years later?

I believe we can find some of the answers to those questions by looking at what we're going to call tonight the questions of Christmas.

Those questions were on the minds and in some cases actually on the lips, as we read the text in Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel of people like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and Herod and the religious leaders.

They all had questions.

I'll try to summarize them a little.

I will be speculating a little in a couple of cases, but Mary actually said, How can this be?

when Gabriel the angel came and told her that she was going to bear a child who would be God's Messiah, come to save.

She knew the facts and the science of what it would take to become pregnant.

And she knew that virgins don't become pregnant.

That's why she said, How could this be in the first place?

And yet after the angel's appearance and announcement to her, Mary's teenaged body began to change in unexplainable ways, day after day, week after week, month after month, and it became very clear that the angel Gabriel told the truth to her.

How can this be?

Joseph, what should I do?

Matthew 1.

All the plans they had made together as a couple that were betrothed, they were going to be married.

Perhaps they had talked about getting a nice little house in Nazareth with a picket fence and two dogs and his carpentry shop.

And I don't know what they talked about.

But he's at the point where she shows up pregnant, and he knows what that means culturally and societally for them.

And he's thinking, what should I do?

How should I respond?

What can I do here?

And he was an honorable man, a religious man, we were told, a righteous man.

And he intended to do everything he could to honor her and respect her, but he really was in a quandary, wasn't he?

The shepherds.

They had these, as Pastor Tommy read it to us from Luke chapter 2, they had this experience of literally being in their boring everyday job.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

One guy perhaps on watch that night, sheep snoring everywhere.

And one angel all of a sudden rips open the heaven and begins to talk to this one guy, and he's spoken the other guys, and they're all waking up, and all of a sudden the ripping heaven gets bigger and brighter, and there's an entire choir of angels that are singing glory to God in the highest.

And on earth, peace to men with whom God is pleased.

Did that really just happen?

Is their question in my mind's eye.

And they literally were told they ran to see whether or not those things were true.

If what the angels did say, they run to Bethlehem to see what had happened.

Almost two years later, the wise men, and yes, I know I've told you guys before, if you have a nativity scene with wise men in it, you need to take them out of there.

Wise men show up a year and a half or two years later, okay?

So just let's get that straight.

But the wise men, I think they're wondering where do we go to honor this sign of God we've seen in the starfields?

They couldn't be any more different from the shepherds, and I love this about the God of the Bible.

He reveals himself to a wide variety of people from a wide variety of different backgrounds and places.

And these pagans from the east, right, they're looking into the stars, and something just isn't quite as it should be.

And they start snooping around, probably in some ancient scrolls that had been left behind from some of the Jews who had been in captivity over in Babylon.

And they read that there's supposed to be some kind of a prince, a messiah, someone that God would send.

And they are curious about it all.

They go off on their journey, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, intending to honor whatever it is God is up to.

And they don't know with specificity which city, which village.

They didn't get that all quite figured out.

So they go to the biggest city, they go to the main city, to the palace, and they get there and they get an audience with Herod and the religious leaders, and they ask the question, where is it specifically supposed to take place?

And they're asking questions, in which town?

The wise men, assuming the baby king came from heaven, would be recognized.

And they knew that, good grief, if it's from heaven, those religious leaders ought to be for it.

And little knowing that no, they would not be for it.

Um, but their question, the wise men, is how do we how do we get there?

How do we honor this thing God is doing?

Herod and the religious leaders, their question is more, how can we stop this act of God?

Herod was paranoid.

He had killed some of his own family members, some of his own children, some of his own wives already, because he was paranoid.

He did not want to lose his throne.

And he thought people were vying for it, trying to get rid of him.

And so he will do a horrible and a violent, wretched act to try and stamp out what God is up to here in Bethlehem.

And this is because gatekeepers get really nervous when anyone comes along and makes progress or has some success without going through their gates.

Because their gates represent their power, their forms that are rigid, inflexible.

And so they don't like it when somebody comes along and suggests that there might be another king in this particular case.

And they want to shut it down.

This was definitely the case with Herod, and it would be the case for the religious leaders as the life of Jesus continues to unfold.

We religious folk tend to struggle with this.

Our religious traditions and forms become like gates or hoops that we want people to jump through.

Because the gospel is good news for sinners.

We, religious folk, need to constantly remind ourselves to think less like moral policemen and more like gospel paramedics.

Less like people handing out tickets, more like people carrying the help that people need to them, where they are.

Being that gracious, that helpful, if you will.

All of that said, I think it's worth asking too.

How did God respond to these questions?

And how does God respond to the questions that you might ask as well?

My last name is Thomas.

I ask a lot of questions.

Yeah.

And I think that's good, actually.

Sometimes the Bible is very clear on some of the things that I'm curious about.

But over the years I've also learned that God doesn't always give a direct answer to some of my questions, to some of your questions, probably.

Sometimes faith develops through the tenacity of inquiry.

Sometimes faith develops through the teachability that's found in waiting if we're teachable.

Sometimes faith develops through us walking through a difficulty, a darkness, or just a time where there's just nothing going on.

We're just waiting.

And yet we're walking in trusting obedience, knowing that God ultimately is in charge of all of the outcomes, large and small.

That's how wonder turns into worship.

And I think it's also how worship turns into witness, as we saw with the shepherds.

Well, as you read the text in Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel, I think you can see how heaven answers Mary's question.

How can this be?

The angel said, The Holy Spirit will do it.

See, the Holy Spirit, God can do anything.

What we think is impossible, God can do.

Okay?

Joseph, what should I do?

The angel's response, don't be afraid.

The Holy Spirit is the one that did it.

So go and marry Mary.

And then the shepherds, did that really just happen?

Well, then we watch, don't we?

As their wonder turns into action, they run to Bethlehem.

It turns into worship.

Worship then develops into witness.

And we find them as we read through Luke's gospel, chapter 2, there, they just are telling everybody.

They're shouting it from the housetops and the rooftops, and they've probably teaching their sheep to sing in unison together or something in praise of the Lord.

The wise men, where do we go to honor this act of God?

Wonder again turns into worship.

Their curiosity, their spiritual curiosity, turns into the drive that keeps them going, that wants them to give.

And then we're told also that they have a dream as they're as they're sitting there worship, standing there worshiping the baby.

They have a, they receive a dream from the Lord saying, go home by another way.

Don't go back to Herod.

Go home by another way.

And that happens to us, doesn't it?

Those of you that know an encounter with the God of the Bible.

He often sends us home another way.

He often sends us in a way that we did not plan to go.

But on the unbelieving side, Herod and the religious leaders, how do we stop this act of?

Well, guess what?

They wanted to stop what God was up to, and it leads to wreckage and ruin.

They resist God's plans, they reject God's Messiah, and people's lives are ruined.

These, then, were the questions and consequences of that first Christmas.

How many times have we asked questions and been waiting, wondering what's going on, and wasted our waiting time by not worshiping the Lord?

When we don't know the answer, we should fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who will grow us up in Him.

And in Christ is what we read each and every time we had one of our Advent studies this year.

Let me encourage you to take your honest questions directly to God.

Open your Bible and invite the Lord to speak to you.

And I think it's incredibly legit for us to ask, well, how do I do that?

How do I connect with God?

I feel far away from God.

I'm not even sure God exists.

Start there telling him exactly what's on your heart.

Be honest to God.

You've heard that phrase before.

Do it.

Be honest to God.

He's not afraid of your questions.

He's not offended by your honest questions.

Jesus over and over and over again is confronted with people who had questions and they were eager to learn, eager to hear from him.

But those who came with questions trying to entrap Jesus, trying to in some way discredit Jesus, they weren't honest seekers.

And so he excoriated them, he scolded them, he sent them away like whipped puppies every time they tried to catch him in something.

C.S.

Lewis put it this way when he's talking about how could we possibly connect with God.

And in surprise by joy, he said, I could no more meet him, meaning God, than Hamlet could meet Shakespeare.

Even if Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it has to be Shakespeare's doing.

Hamlet could initiate nothing.

You see, that's the same way it is with us and God.

God had to make the first move.

And the fact that you're here tonight, that I'm here tonight, we're here to remind each other of the fact he's made the first move.

Now, how will you respond?

How will I respond?

I'm happy to tell you that this is what we're celebrating tonight, that he has come.

We're also looking forward to the fact that he will return one day and set the world to rights.

But on that first Christmas day, the birth of a child became the invasion of a king, and he came to begin, to open up, to inaugurate his kingdom.

And you're invited to be a part of that by placing your faith and trust in Jesus.

So three things.

The incarnation of Jesus restores wonder to our disenchanted world.

And I don't know if you've noticed, but the world is quite disenchanted.

There's a lot of despair and confusion out there.

There's a lot of acrimony, a lot of anger.

But that doesn't have to, that it does not have to grip our hearts, you see.

He came to bring us his hope, his peace, his joy, and for us to know the love of God as we studied through Advent together.

I love the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it.

Only the humble will believe him and rejoice that God is so free, so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair.

He takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous.

And that's the story of this little baby born to a peasant couple and a passed-through nation.

In an oppressed nation, the Roman Empire just oppressing it like crazy.

And that's where he chooses to show up and bring salvation to us.

The questions of Christmas have indeed been answered as we look from our perspective now.

Wonder has been restored because Christ has come.

And wonder of wonders, God loves you and me.

Two.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ redirects our worship to the God who came near.

The problem with a lot of us, we are, we aren't aware of the fact that we are all worshipers.

We actually designed, it's in your software.

You are a worshiper.

You say, I don't even believe in God.

Yet you're still a worshiper.

Believe it or not, there's something at the center of your life.

There's something that you count on to validate you.

And you think that if you were to lose that one thing, your life would be over.

We all are worshiping something.

The question is, is it God we're worshiping?

And the incarnation is God saying, Here, you you can see me in this little child.

You can turn to him, you can place your hope, your confidence, and your trust in the God who came near, who welcomes your questions and my questions as well.

Whether you believe it or not, you're a worshiper.

The question is, are you worshiping God?

Mary Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men, they believed.

But Herod and the religious leaders indeed did not.

They rejected and resisted God and all that he wanted to do.

There's nothing more unsatisfying, though, than misdirected worship.

Some of you know this, actually.

You have worshiped some things that have let you down.

Or perhaps you've worshiped some people that have let you down.

Some relationship that you thought, if I hang everything on that, this is where I'm going to find it all.

And you found out, no, it doesn't satisfy.

It's not all you thought it was going to be.

And some of those things are good things.

Some of those things are things you aspired to for a long time.

You would have paid a lot of money for, whatever.

And they're just not in, they're letting you down in some way.

And that's because when we have misdirected worship, what we need is the Lord to help us redirect our worship toward Him.

And that's why He came.

He took the initiative to come so we would not have misdirected worship.

Eugene Peterson says that worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.

We seek to do that every single time we gather in this room.

We want to do that tonight.

We want to do that this coming Sunday when we're here on Sunday morning and welcome any and all of you who want to come back and be a part of our regular worship services anytime.

That's what we hope we are doing.

Not just showing up, looking in, you know, coming into the room and seeing who says hi to us or who serves us in some way.

No, no.

We're all here because God's really that important.

Christ has been that generous.

The Holy Spirit is that eager for you and for me.

And so we want to worship Him.

Thirdly, the incarnation of Christ compels us to witness about good news of great joy to all people.

Again, we see this more noticeably in the um between Matthew and Luke.

We see this in the lives of the shepherds, as we're literally told, they're telling everybody.

These guys cannot, they they won't shut up.

They're just telling everybody about what the angels had said, how they had sung, and then what they had seen when they went to Bethlehem, how they found it to be true.

You see.

The gospel is good news.

The Lord isn't wanting you and I to become Christians so we can go out and tell everybody, memorize the Ten Commandments or the Westminster Catechism.

The Lord doesn't want us to come to know Christ so that we can go out and be those moral policemen handing out tickets, making shaming people.

No.

The Lord wants us to point to Jesus, to say, look what he can do with a fool like me.

Look what he can do with a sinner like me.

There's nothing you've done that puts you out of reach of the grace of God.

You can't run that far.

You can't earn God's love in the first place.

He loves you sinner though you are.

So you can't lose God's love either.

Those of you who are sitting here and Christians and you've been Christians for a long time, but you know you've kind of slacked off and you've kind of veered off.

There's no better time than right now to turn around, turn back to Him.

Repentance means that, doesn't it?

It's I'm going this way, repentance simply means I turn around and go this way.

I turn away from my sin and my selfishness, and I turn toward the Lord who came for me.

Sinner though I am, he came for me into this world.

He came for you as well.

The gospel is great news about what God has done, not some kind of information about what you must do.

Keller put it this way: the gospel narratives are telling you not what you should do, but what God has done.

The birth of the Son of God into the world is a gospel.

It's good news.

An announcement.

You don't save yourself.

God has come to save you.

Somebody say amen.

Yeah.

He's come for you.

And if you're still kind of pondering it all, you're kind of thinking, I need to get some things sorted out first.

I need to get my life straight.

I need to stop this, or I want to wait till this.

No, now is the time.

You're hearing this now.

Respond to him now.

I love the way Justin Bri says in The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God.

He says, as we meet the incoming tide of refugees from the meaning crisis, the church needs both apologists in the academy and storytellers in the arts.

We need people in the mold of Lewis showing not only that a story is true, but why we have wanted to believe it all along.

Your deepest questions, my biggest questions, they all spring from our deepest longings.

You're longing to belong.

And so you wonder if this is all there is.

And the Bible's answer is resounding.

No, this is not all there is.

God has so much more for you.

And it's all wrapped up in Christ.

All the hope, all the peace, all the joy, and all of the love of God that you're eager for, that you're longing for, is to be found in Christ.

Let me pray.

Lord, thank you that you came.

You didn't have to.

You didn't owe it to us.

We weren't holding some kind of a receipt on you where you owed us and you had to do something for us.

You didn't have to save us.

But because you came near, Lord, our hearts are filled with wonder.

Give us the invitation to worship you, to direct our worship to you.

And Lord, give us a sense of joyful witness as we hear your voice calling us.

Like Mary, let's trust in you.

You can do what seems impossible.

Like Joseph, Lord, help us not to be afraid to obey what we do not fully understand.

Like the shepherds, Lord, may our wonder turn into worship and our worship into witness.

And like the wise men, Lord, may we travel through life, rejoicing, worshiping, and giving.

Giving away our lives, our resources for your glory and for the good of others.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.