Good News of Great Joy | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

Well, good evening. Welcome and merry

Christmas to you all. Every year at

Christmas, we retell the story. But we

love it, right? We sing about it. We

decorate it. We reenact it with bathroes

and cardboard crowns.

But over time, lots of details creep

into the story. And we've just seen a

bunch of them in the video. What we've

done here at Calvary this past month,

we've been trying to get rid of some of

the details that creep into the story

and we're looking at Christmas through

the eyes of some of the first

eyewitnesses.

Tonight, we're going to look at

Christmas through the eyes of the

shepherds and the angels. So, if you

have your Bibles or your phone or your

iPad, whatever you want, or you can just

sit and listen to me. I'm going to read

a few verses that were actually on the

screens earlier in the service, but I

know most of you didn't read them. I

know that because I didn't read them

either, and I've been through the

service twice already. So, follow along

as I read from Luke chapter 2, the

Luke 2 · chapter mention

account we have about the shepherds and

the angels. 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 claws and lying in a manger."

Suddenly, a great company of the

heavenly hosts 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

back into heaven, the shepherds said to

one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and

see this thing that has happened which

the Lord told us about." Now, that's a

familiar account. Most of you hear that

regularly, at least once a year. Um, but

do you realize that there's a context to

Christmas? Christmas has a context. It

doesn't just pop on the scene all at

once. There are roots to Christmas that

are long and deep. One of those roots is

actually found in an Old Testament

prophecy called Micah. Here's what Micah

writes. But you Bethlehem,

though you were small among the clans of

Judah, out of you will come for me one

who will be ruler over Israel, whose

origins are from of old, from ancient

times. Now, Micah wrote that about 700

years before the first Christmas. Well,

the roots run deep. But do you realize

the problem? Micah says, "Bthlehem,

though you're a small little town, kind

of a backwater place, you're going to be

the place where this king is born." Now,

Bethlehem wasn't like New York, Paris.

Bethlehem kind of like Sersville,

Hatfield, Serton, a little um town that

you only know about if you live in it or

near it. Bethlehem's like that. And so,

no one would have thought that Bethlehem

was going to be this great place where a

king's going to be born. But Micah said

one day a king will be born in

Bethlehem. And the wait began.

700 years worth of wait. And then we

read the story, the context of

Christmas. Now, we've got a little bit

of a problem. And I'm not sure if you

noticed the problem. You saw it in the

video. Here's the problem.

Joseph and Mary have to get to

Bethlehem,

but they're in Nazareth. That's about 60

or 70 miles away. Mary's pregnant. So,

what did he do? How how did Mary and

Joseph get from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

Do you know taxes? Do you believe it?

The emperor um he said, "I need more

money for my building projects, for my

expansion." And so he was taxing people.

And the way they were going to register

for the tax, you had to go back to the

town, back to the city of your

ancestors. So Joseph being of the line

of David, had to go to Bethlehem, the

city of David. And so Joseph takes Mary,

his fiance, and they travel those 60 or

70 miles.

Maybe uh maybe she rode a donkey, maybe

she didn't. We don't know. Maybe Mary

rode, Joseph walked. Maybe Joseph rode

and Mary walked. Maybe they carried the

donkey. We don't know how they did.

Maybe there was a cart. We don't know.

We do know the trip was 60 or 70 miles.

That's a long car ride for me. That's

like from Serton to Ocean City.

They go on this trip. Now, think about

it for a minute.

Mary is really pregnant.

All right, ladies. How would you feel

about going on a 60-mile hike or ride on

a donkey or even on a cart? Okay, men,

how would you feel about taking your

fiance on a 60-mile donkey ride or a

cart ride or a hike? Um, yeah, that's

going to be a really long journey,

right? With a whole lot of complaining

on the way. That's what I'm thinking.

And then when they get to Bethlehem,

who's going to The only person there to

help deliver the child is like the guy

that was working on the boardwalk

replacing some boards. He's a carpenter.

Um, crazy story, right? Taxes and

travel. Every time I I read that account

from Luke chapter 2, I always think to

Luke 2 · chapter mention

myself,

I know a guy wrote that, right?

If a woman wrote it, we would know how

long the baby was, how much the baby

weighed, whether the baby had a lot of

hair, whether the baby had a cone head,

whether the baby was whether the baby

was cute or it looked like ET. All those

a man, we don't get any details. We know

a baby was born, put him in a manger.

That's the context. The context of

Christmas is crazy, right? A journey

with two fiances traveling over 60 or 70

miles. They arrive in Bethlehem and have

this child in the exact place that Micah

said the king would be born. Well, we

don't just have the context. We also

have the contrast. Now, we're looking at

shepherds and angels tonight. They

always go together in the story, right?

That's because the angels show up and

give the announcement of the Christmas

to the shepherds. But you ever realize

how different they are? Shepherds and

angels are a study in contrast. For

example, shepherds were

not your um highly esteemed, respectable

group of people. Now, I know in our day,

little boys want to be shepherds in the

Christmas pageant, right? That's because

you get to carry a big stick around. Um

but a shepherd in the first century,

that was a terrible job. you lived out

in the fields with sheep and sheep are

very needy creatures, right? Um they

can't do anything for themselves.

They're like always complaining. You

have to do this. They can't take care of

themselves. And beside that, they stink,

right? And so shepherds live with the

sheep. They're out in the fields taking

care of them, not looking for their own

needs. They're not with other people,

maybe with a few other shepherds. You

ever notice um when little boys are

playing

and they want to be an animal in the

game? Little boys never choose to be a

sheep. Lion, tiger, bear. They make

their little cousin be the sheep, right?

And little you guys go be the sheep.

I'll be the LION AND I'LL ATTACK YOU.

And the little kids go and attack the

sheep. Studying contrast. Shepherds at

the bottom of the ladder, bottom of the

socioeconomic level, misfits,

disconnected from society. Shepherds not

an occupation lots of people aspired to.

Who gets married in the story to the

shepherds? Angels. Now, the word angel

just means messenger, but usually in the

Bible, it's a messenger for God. So, God

sends an angel. These angels are sent

from God to the shepherds. Now, angels

aren't at the highest part of the

ladder. That would be reserved for God.

But they're certainly a few rungs up

from shepherds, right? God sends angels,

those near the top of the ladder, to

shepherds at the bottom of the ladder,

not even on the ladder yet, to give the

announcement of the first Christmas. You

ever wonder why? Why would God send his

messengers to announce Christmas, the

coming of the Messiah, the King into the

world? Why would he send his messengers

to those at the lowest rung on the

ladder? Uh maybe it goes something like

this.

What if God sent the angels to the

emperor and the king?

What if God sent the messengers only to

the wealthy? What if God sent the

messengers only to the religious

leaders? What if God sent the messengers

only to those that were really moral,

only to those that didn't smell? Well,

it'd be easy to think then, oh, okay.

So, the good news of Christmas, God

wants to be with those higher up on the

ladder. God wants to be with and God's

come for those that are respectable,

those that are moral, those that are

religious, those that have their acts

together, those that have a really cool

resume, those that have built a life.

But by sending the messengers to those

at the lowest rung of the ladder, the

message of Christmas is for everybody.

It's not just for the shepherds. It's

not just for those at the low rungs of

the ladder. It's for those on every rung

of the ladder. those on the lowest rung,

those in the middle, and those at the

higher rungs. But isn't it true those

that are higher up the ladder

often have the most difficult time

coming? And we're going to learn about

that tonight. So the contrast, shepherds

at the bottom of the ladder, angels at

the top. God sends the Christmas

announcement first to those at the row,

lowest rungs of the ladder. So, we've

looked at the context,

the roots of Christmas. We looked at the

contrast, shepherds and angels. Well,

how about Christmas confession? Now,

here's what I mean by we're not going to

do confession here. Here's what I mean

by that. What do the angels actually

announce? And what do we have to confess

or profess in order to understand

Christmas? Well, here it is. Today in

the town of David,

a savior has been born to you. He is the

Messiah, the Lord. Now, I just want to

look at two words in that verse to you.

The first word I want to look at is

savior. And the second word is Messiah.

But before we do that, in order to

understand Christmas, you have to

understand something about gifts. You

know, kids know Christmas is all about

gifts, right? Do you know that there are

um three different kinds of gifter?

Three different gifters. Let me explain

them to you. First of all, there are

givers. Now, here's how givers operate.

Givers are always counting, tabulating

in their mind, right? They receive a

gift and then they give a gift. But

they're givers. They want to make sure

the gift that they give is more valuable

and the gift they give is superior to

the gift they receive. They want to be

able to say, "I gave a better gift."

Now, they don't say that out loud. That

would be too arrogant, right? But in

their mind, I want to give a more

valuable gift. I want to give a superior

gift. I'll take this gift. I'm going to

make sure I return something of greater

value to you. They're they're givers. On

the other end of the giving spectrum are

the gifters that are takers. Takers

calculate, too. Takers calculate and

they uh kind of count. Here's what they

do. I want to make sure I get more than

I give. I want to make sure that I come

out of this thing ahead. They're doing

this profit loss thing in their head,

right? So, if I'm going to lose the gift

I give, what am I going to get? I want

what I get. I want the profit that

returns to me to be greater than what

I'm giving away. They're takers. Now,

there probably some takers in a room.

You don't admit it, right? But there are

givers and takers. Now, here's the third

one. And my guess is this would be most

of you.

The third kind of gifter is a matcher.

They calculate, too. But here's how they

calculate. I want to make sure I give

something of equal value to what I get.

And so, you receive a gift, you

calculate, and it goes something like,

uhoh, they gave me a more valuable gift.

And matchers usually have a few extra

gifts in reserve just to make sure they

can match, right? They do the count. Uh

oh, I received a little more. What do

they do? A little I forgot to give you

this other gift. I had one. And yeah,

they're just giving it to match, right?

You've got givers, you've got takers,

you got mashers. Here's the Christmas

problem.

If you fit in any one of those three

categories,

you can't understand Christmas

because you can't give a gift more

valuable.

You can't take and give something in

return and you're never going to be able

to reciprocate and give something back

of equal value. Here's how that work.

Here's how Christmas giving works.

Have you ever received a gift that you

really need

but you don't want

or you don't want people to give it to

you, right? Uh let me give you a few

examples. Uh suppose and I'm not looking

at any of you. Suppose you need

and you receive a six-mon supply of

ompic.

NOW YOU DON'T WANT that but you may

need, right? to need, but you really

don't want it and you don't want people

to think you need it, right? Or how

about this one? A year's supply of

Listerine.

Now, you may need that and other people

may know you, but you don't want that,

right? That's an embarrassment to get

Listerine. Or how about this one? A nose

and ear hair trimmer. Like one of those,

right? I actually got one of those a few

years ago. I guess someone thought I I

didn't want it, though. I never asked

for a nose hair trimmer for Christmas,

ever.

Now, why do you have to know something

about gifts you need but don't want?

Well, that brings us back to our first

word, savior.

If Jesus is savior,

to accept that gift, you have to

acknowledge

you need saving.

You don't accept, you don't welcome

Jesus as savior if you don't think you

need saving. If you don't think you're

hopeless and helpless in need of rescue,

you'll never receive the gift of Jesus

as savior. You have to admit you have

this need. Now, it's hard to admit,

right? If you don't want a a nose hair

trimmer, you don't really want a savior

because you can't help yourself.

And here's where uh our world often

misunderstands.

A lot of people think of Jesus as kind

of like my life coach. They even book

Jesus my life co Jesus is not interested

in being your life coach. Jesus is not

interested in being your gym trainer.

What do coaches and trainer? Try harder.

Come on. PUSH THAT BAR. You can do it.

Pull that strength from within. Pull

that strength from within. Lift it. You

can do it. You've That's not what Jesus

comes to do. He's not a trainer. He's

not a life coach.

He's a rescuer.

So Christmas, the Christmas giving, the

Christmas gift is not about getting a

trainer.

It's not about being in ICU

and needing a physician.

Christmas is more like um being in a

funeral home

and you need life.

A life coach will do no good at all for

the person in the box.

A physical trainer from the gym can't

help that person in the funeral home at

all. You need life. Until you admit you

need life until you admit you have this

need that you can't meet, you'll never

accept Christmas. There's a gift we

need. God knows what it is. But you have

to acknowledge you need it in order to

receive it. Well, how about the second

word? See, Messiah. Now, we often think,

oh, Messiah, that means that Messiah

does not mean savior. Savior means

savior. We already did the savior word,

right? Messiah means anointed.

Now, who was anointed? Most often kings

were anointed. And the message, we read

it from Micah. Here we see it again.

Jesus comes as savior because we need

saving. And he comes as king because we

do a pretty wretched job organizing,

running our own lives. You ever realize

that Christmas is um like a major

interruption? Christmas uh kind of ruins

everybody's plans. Let me mention a few.

Um, do you think Christmas ruined Mary's

plans? I suspect they did. You know,

she's engaged to this really neat guy

named Joseph and every time she's

thinking about the wedding, making all

these plans, what I'm going to do, who

I'm inviting, who's going to be in my

bridal party, and she thinks of Joseph,

oo and doughy eyed te, right? You know,

well, that's interrupted, right? When an

angel comes and says, "Oh, Mary, by the

way, um, you're pregnant." What? That

kind of ruins the wedding, right? Oh,

yeah. How about Joseph? Do you think

Christmas ruined his plans? Talk about

an interruption. He thinks he's marrying

this cute little innocent Jewish girl

only to find out she's pregnant and he's

not the daddy. Interruption.

How about the shepherds minding their

own business, laying out in the fields,

taking care of the sheep, probably

dozing off. An angel shows up with the

Christmas announcement.

Oh, yeah.

One other interruption.

We read from Micah that Jesus is born

king of the Jews. Uh just a little

problem.

The Jews already had a king.

His name was Herod. His title was king

of the Jews.

Don't you think Christmas kind of

interrupted his plan a little bit?

The Magi show up and they say, "Hey,

where's this baby that was born king of

the Jews?" or what?

Here's why Jesus comes as Messiah.

There's a little bit of Herod in every

one of us, isn't there? You may not bear

the title king of the Jews. You may not

bear the title king of Serton, queen of

Sadderton,

but you do often live, and I often live

as king of my life, king of my house,

king of my family, king of my um how's

that working out for you? Not too well,

right? Jesus interrupts our reign in our

own lives and he said, um, I come as

king. Not just king of the Jews, not

just king of the world. I was born as

your king. In order to receive that

gift, you have to give up your reign and

follow Jesus. That's the confession of

Christmas.

Jesus is savior because we need to be

rescued. He's the king because we do a

lousy job of running and organizing our

own lives. Well, we got one last uh

point here. How about Christmas

consequences?

What what comes as a result of Christmas

or what gifts does Christmas bring?

Well, let me uh mention two and we'll

add a third at the end. Um we've sung

about the first um consequence I want to

mention. We've sung about it and it's

everywhere. The first consequence of

Christmas is peace. Christmas peace.

It's everywhere, right? If you still

send Christmas cards, you get peace on

it, right? Etsy is full of peace at

Christmas. You probably have pillows

with peace. Uh you you go online, it's

about peace. We sing about peace.

Christmas peace. But we misunderstand

what Christmas peace is. Let me give you

a couple examples. Maybe Christmas is

all about political peace. Christmas

means there's no more war, there's no

more violence, there's no more um

discord. Everybody gets all the world is

at peace. Is that the world we live in?

Let me tell you this. If Christmas is

about political peace, Christmas is a

failure.

Because we don't live in peace. We live

in polarization. Lots of wars, lots of

violence, lots of hatred, lots of Well,

it can't be political peace then. Oh,

here's one that we often mistake. It

means um inner peace, psychological

peace. I'm going to have peace. I'll be

able to navigate whatever difficulties

come on my way. I'll never have concern

again. I'll never be anxious, never

worried again. Yeah. How's that working

out? Um any anxiety about having to

spend time with your family this week?

Yeah. No anxiety. Any anxiety about h

being able to pay the bills when they

come in? Any Well, wait a minute. If

it's psychological peace that Christmas

brings, Christmas is a failure because

we live with anxiety. We live with

worry. It goes kind of up and down in

our life, doesn't it? Um, well, what in

the world is Christmas peace? Peace all

over. The angels announced peace. Um,

Charles Wesley knew.

We actually sung it tonight.

Here's the words to that hymn.

Peace on earth and mercy mild. I'm going

to say it again. You're going to help me

finish it. Peace on earth and mercy

mild. God and sinner reckon. That's

Christmas peace. The Christmas peace

that Jesus brings is God and sinners are

now reconciled. When we turn our back on

God, we're going to run our own life, go

our own way. We commit cosmic treason.

We rebel against him. Well, what

happens? Jesus comes to bring

reconciliation. God and sinners now

reconcile. That's Christmas peace. Now

out of that one day there will be a

growing sense of psychological peace.

And when this baby comes back again as

conquering king there will be political

peace. But the first Christmas

brings God and sinners reconciled.

That's Christmas peace. On the basis of

that there's a second consequence. And

that second consequence is joy. What do

the um angels announce? I bring good

news of joy. Good news of great joy. Now

out of that peace with God, out of that

reconciliation,

out of that eternal relationship that

now has been knitted together and can

never be severed, there's now a joy that

isn't based on circumstance. It isn't

based on situation. It isn't based on

stuff outside of us. That joy comes from

being accepted, reconciled to God, and

that joy cannot change.

If you have a joy that our culture

gives, joy that our world gives, it's

kind of like um always having to

recharge your iPhone, isn't it? Um if

you're looking for circumstantial joy,

you're looking for situational joy,

you're looking for happiness that comes

from circumstance, here's how it works.

Um my iPhone works really well when it's

100%. 80% still good. 60 good. All of a

sudden when it's 20% I get a red light.

10% it's beginning to slow down. 0% it's

not working. I have to charge that

sucker. Right? Well, if you're counting

on your joy being outside of you on

circumstance, you always need a joy fix.

Right? You need something else to happen

in your life that's going to ratchet up

your joy a little bit.

Christmas joy that comes from Christmas

peace isn't based on circumstance. It's

based on God and sinner reconciled.

Christmas joy is based on Christmas

peace. Well, there's one last Christmas

consequence. And I'm going to go back to

Luke and I'm going to read a section of

it that I didn't read.

When the angels had left them and gone

back 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." Listen. So

they hurried off. They found Mary and

Joseph and the baby who was lying in the

manger. When they had seen him, they

spread the word concerning what had been

told them about this child. And all who

heard it were amazed at what the

shepherd said.

Christmas peace,

Christmas joy,

Christmas mission.

They don't go to the manger and spend

the rest of their lives at the manger.

They go and tell others what they've

seen. They tell others what they've

heard. And then they go back to being

shepherd, back to the same job, back to

the same sheep, back to the same stink.

But they go back different. They go back

with Christmas peace. They go back with

Christmas joy. They go back on mission

now telling others what they've seen and

heard. Christmas makes a difference

forever. Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks that um we

don't need all of the uh added details

that somehow creep into our Christmas

story.

The story's enough. The context tells us

that the roots to Christmas are real

deep. The contrast reminds us that all

are welcome.

The confession reminds us that we have

to admit our need in order to accept the

gift.

And the consequences remind us that once

we've received that gift, we have a

peace from the inside that wells up

because we now have acceptance and

reconciliation with you. Now, we've got

a peace and a joy that's not based on

circumstance,

but we've got a mission, a

responsibility, and a privilege to tell

others what we've seen and what we've

heard. Thanks for Christmas, Jesus.

Thanks for delivering it to us. We pray

in your name. Amen. Merry Christmas.