A Return to Wonder: Just a Footnote | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

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Well, it's good to be with you today.

We're kicking off a brand new series called A Return to Wonder.

And this year's been, as in many ways, a return, and we're our hearts longing is that as we hit the avent Christmas season, it would be a return to wonder.

Do you remember when you used to wonder?

And maybe you haven't stopped, and that's amazing.

But do you remember like wondering at maybe it was just an incredible sunset that just captivated your awe and attention?

Maybe it's the wonder of, you know, new young love or the wonder of that next adventure.

Or better yet, do you remember when you were a kid and you used to wonder?

Like things as a kid were magical, weren't they?

Mysterious.

Think about especially like Christmas itself was this incredibly just wonderful time of the year filled with anticipation and excitement and mystery.

You know, the word wonder means to be into awe, to be completely captivated, filled with this intense admiration for someone or something.

You know, um, my son, Ryder, when he was like younger, like five or six, he loved Legos.

In fact, this morning I was asking him if I could share this story with you.

And he's like, sure, Dad, because you won't have a story to share if I if you don't.

I'm like, no, I got other stories, but I think this is such a great story when it comes to wonder.

He loved Legos.

And so my in-laws decided for his birthday to um, you know, take him to Legoland, in fact, our whole family to Legoland.

He was thrilled out of his mind.

Just think about it, like you're five or six, and like you love Legos and Legoland, like a land of Legos.

How amazing is this?

He was so excited about it.

The night before, we're at one of those Himachi, you know, cook in front of you places for his birthday dinner, and he's talking nonstop to the chef all about Legoland, and so excited.

And as we're driving up, and I'm just thinking, like, oh, I wonder how he's experiencing this.

Has got to be the most magical moment of his young life at this uh time.

And you see these characters that are built out of Legos as you're driving in, and we're stuck in traffic trying to get into the parking lot.

And I look in my rear view mirror and can see what was filled with awe, kind of just turned.

And he says, We can go now.

Like, what do you mean?

No, no, no, we can go now.

Like, and here's what it was.

He's super literal, okay?

So when he heard Legoland, he envisioned a land made completely of Legos.

And so when we showed up and the streets weren't made of Legos and the ride wasn't made of Legos, and everything else wasn't made of Legos, it was a huge disappointment.

He's like, I'm done, I'm good.

I'm like, no, it's still pretty awesome, son.

It's just not everything is made of Legos.

And as we get older, we tend to lose our sense of wonder, don't we?

Maybe it's the reality of life sets in, or disappointment begins to rob us of wonder.

Worry tends to replace our wonder.

You know, A.W.

Tozer, in his classic uh knowledge of the holy, gets to a deeper root, though.

In it, he writes that secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our soul and turned us into a generation of zombies.

We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we're ashamed to wonder, we're afraid to whisper mystery.

What if there's a deeper, more wonderful reality to the Christmas season that we've actually been missing all along?

And how do we return to the reality of Christmas actually being this all-inspiring moment that it is supposed to be?

You know, in the um art world, there's this idea called visual lethargy.

If you look it up, it's really become a common uh idea just about um visual um fatigue.

But but in the art world, what it means is it's really the this idea that the more you see something, the less you tend to see.

Uh, that the more you take in.

And a lot of the masterpieces and the things that we see, many of us, we've seen it so many times, we just take it for granted.

Because we're not art experts and we don't understand the incredible, uh, masterful work behind it.

We just look at it and go, Yeah, that's the Mona Lisa, thank you very much, whatever, uh, and get on with it.

And visual lethargy has this idea that we begin to take things for granted.

We become so familiar with them.

Well, familiarity breeds what?

Apathy, contempt, complacency.

One person, I don't know who said this, but I think he was right or she was right, said that one of the greatest barriers to actually knowing something is thinking you already know.

Assuming I already have the story.

And I think when it comes to the Christmas season, when it comes to the Christmas story, we're so familiar with it, we think we actually already know.

And I believe we're missing the wonder.

In fact, I I took this from home.

This is um, oops.

This is a obviously a nativity set, and we see these around here.

There's the wise men.

How many wise men were at the birth of Jesus?

None.

You're all you're right, you were all wrong.

See, see, see, we're so familiar, we think we actually know there was no wise men at the birth of Jesus.

They came two years later.

Hello, and another fun fact for you.

Oh my gosh, your mind was just blown.

You can go home now, sermon over.

And by the way, we don't know how many wise men there were.

There are three gifts, but the text doesn't tell us.

The song says three wise men, we three kings of Orient are.

But we've become so familiar that we look at this, and this is set up maybe in your home.

You drive past it, and we look at it, and we see it, and we go, no, we think we know the story.

And we we we just hit repeat every single year, and as a result, I think we're missing it.

And so, what we want to do in our series, in our time together for the next few weeks is we want to take a fresh look at a very familiar story, the Christmas story, and return to wonder.

And let our hearts once more, or for the very first time, whisper mystery.

Now, the birth of Jesus gets wrapped up in all of our Christmas traditions, right?

Eggnog, which I had two cups last night, did not need that, but it was delicious.

The Christmas tree lighting, Santa Claus, um, peppermint mochas, elf on the shelf.

And because it gets wrapped up into all of these traditions, we actually forget that the Christmas story is firmly rooted in history.

Like the birth of Jesus is a historical event that took place a little over 2,000 years ago, and where we find what we're so familiar with, the Christmas story, is in the Gospel of Luke.

And Luke is a doctor and a historian, and he meticulously researched, went to eyewitnesses, and chronicled and documented and detailed the life of Jesus.

And this is how Dr.

Luke opens the birth of Jesus in these familiar words.

We find it in Luke chapter 2, verse 1.

Luke 2:1

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a creed that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

I can't help but hear Linus's voice as I read this in the Charlie Brown Christmas.

Some of you have never seen it.

That can be a new Christmas tradition for you.

This was the first census that took place while Cornerius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went to the town of Nat uh from the town of Nazareth to the Galilee of Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in the 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.

Familiar.

We're familiar with the story, aren't we?

Now here's what I find absolutely fascinating.

Is at the very beginning, Luke begins the story of Jesus' birth, the story of the long-awaited Messiah, the story of the anointed one, the one who is the King of Kings, who Isaiah prophesied that he would be the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of his greatness and peace there shall be no end.

He begins with Caesar Augustus.

Now, to the original audience, this would have acted like a hyperlink or a footnote to them.

When the minute that Luke says Caesar Augustus, the people and the census, they like immediately know who this is.

They live through this, they remember not only the historical event and the timing and the place, many who lived through it or were born around that same time, and parents told them about, hey, we all had to go to our heritage and birth homes.

But it would have acted as a comparison.

See, it would have, they would have immediately had this comparison or juxtaposition between Jesus, the King of Kings, and Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.

You see, at the birth of Jesus, there was no one greater than Caesar Augustus.

Caesar Augustus actually defeated Mark Antony, who was Cleopatra's husband, to become the first emperor of Rome.

Through his military exploits, he actually doubled the size of the Roman Empire.

And he was an incredible politician and strategist.

He built highways.

I mean, this was unheard of in the day.

He built highways through the entire Roman Empire.

This supported his military to move effortlessly throughout the entire Roman Empire.

And it also promoted a season of prosperity through trade and it brought about what was known as the Pax Romana or the peace of Rome.

And it was, he was able to uh gain unparalleled peace throughout the entire province.

Rome and their empire had traditionally had so many uprisings throughout the peoples that they had conquered, and through the military force and political prowess, he was able to bring about this peace.

And yet, I mean, you just think about it, Augustus wasn't his original name.

He began his original name's Octavian.

He named himself Augustus, which means exalted one.

I think he maybe had a big head or something there.

And when he died, he was ultimately deified and worshipped in the imperial cults.

Caesar Augustus was the most important, influential, and powerful person at the birth of Jesus.

Now don't miss this.

Today.

Today.

Caesar Augustus is simply a footnote in the birth story of Jesus.

See, I just shared a few facts about Caesar Augustus, and the reality is, is most of you didn't know those.

The most famous, powerful person in that day is now famous for being in the story of Jesus' birth.

Now think about this.

Jesus, who was born in an obscure part of the Roman Empire to a marginalized community, by the age of two-ish, he was then a refugee to Egypt.

Jesus, who, you know, grew up in a working class son of a carpenter, eventually went on to be this itinerate teacher or rabbi.

Jesus, who was ultimately executed on a Roman cross.

The sign of Rome's dominance and power and the public symbol upon which Augustus Caesar kept the peace throughout the empire.

Jesus, by the way, we have no image and no sculpture of.

Augustus Caesar, we actually have lots of statues and images and paintings of.

Jesus never wrote a book.

Augustus Caesar wrote many books and made sure to have his life story chronicled so it would be cemented in all of history, his legacy and importance.

Jesus only had a public career of three years, around 30 to 33-ish.

Augustus Caesar was emperor for 30 years.

And Augustus, exalted one, even named a month after himself.

It's the month of August, that's right.

And yet, Jesus' birth is literally divided history.

We are in the year twenty twenty one AD, Orano Domini, the year of our Lord.

The most powerful, the most influential, the most important person in the day of Jesus is now merely but a footnote in the story of Jesus.

And today, today, literally billions of people across the world will gather to tell this story and to celebrate Jesus.

And I'm not sure, but I'm confident there has to be like an Augustus Caesar fan page on Facebook somewhere.

And maybe there's a group that gathers.

I'm not sure about that.

Isn't it amazing?

Isn't it remarkable?

See, Luke, as he detailed the life of Jesus, said this was no ordinary baby born in a manger.

This is no ordinary moment.

In fact, this is Emmanuel, God with us, and history confirms, regardless of what you believe about Jesus, history confirms this was no ordinary child.

And I think this is where some of us have a problem or wrestle with the Christmas story and why it so easily gets wrapped up into our Christmas tradition, because we talk about Emmanuel, God with us, like God visiting the planet, and it just feels impossible.

And even for some Christians, right, you're just like, yeah, but I don't know.

And here's what's fascinating.

If you told anyone in the first century that this obscure rabbi who was executed by a Roman cross would one day be more famous, more well known than the emperor himself, they too would say it is impossible.

And so, as we begin this Christmas season, as we step into Advent, as we see nativity scenes being set up around.

Would you wrestle afresh this season?

Would you ask this question?

What if it's true?

What if it's true?

What if Jesus really is Emmanuel?

What if the best news the planet has ever heard is the arrival of Emmanuel?

And we celebrate it every single year, and maybe we've been overlooking the wonder of it.

What if Jesus really is the reason this is the most wonderful season of the year?

That this baby, think about this.

This baby born in a manger is the one who you long for to bring life and hope and peace and purpose.

Here's a question I I really want for a few of you to really wrestle with this season, to take time and to process.

Would you at least have the intellectual integrity to ask afresh this Christmas season, who is this child?

We can't help but look at history and his impact.

And not only did his birth divide time as we know it and talk about it, but his teaching and his way of life has reshaped history.

Or we ask with a level of intellectual integrity.

Okay, who is this child?

Who is this Jesus?

Visual lethargy.

The more we tend to see, the less we tend to see.

The more we see something, the less we tend to see.

And one of the greatest barriers to knowing something is thinking we already know.

And could it be that we actually have been missing out on the wonder of Christmas?

That the greatest barrier to truly experiencing the wonder of Christmas this season is thinking we already knew the story.

You know, H.

W.

Tozer yet again once wrote this that the complacency of Christians is the scandal of Christianity.

We said that familiarity breeds apathy or maybe we've just become too familiar.

Jesus follower Would you dare to whisper the mystery this Christmas season?

Would you dare afresh to say, Who is this child?

To let your heart return to wonder.

To let your heart be captivated with the one who Isaiah the prophet said.

To us, a child is born.

To us, a son is given.

And the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called your wonderful counselor, your mighty God, your prince of peace, your everlasting father.

And of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end.

Here's what I know Augustus Caesar's greatness and government, it eventually came to an end, and yet the greatness of Jesus continues to this day.

You know, when we wonder, when we wonder well, we worship.

Wonder or awe is the fuel of our worship.

When we recognize this is no ordinary story, this is no ordinary baby, and this is not just caught up in our traditions, then our hearts cannot help but be looking up and just going in awe of Jesus.

You are the one and only Jesus.

You love me, you came for me, you are God with us.

And so I want to invite us just simply to worship.

And we have a song called Wake Up to the Wonder.

And it's a song that was written for our series and in this season.

And would you make it your prayer that God, this season, that I just wouldn't hit repeat, the same old same thing going through the motions, but God, would you wake up my heart to the wonder and the reality of who you are?

Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment.

Thank you for the reality that you are so for us and you so love us that you did not leave us on our own, but you came to be with us.

Thank you for Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

And God, right now, and just in this moment, would you begin to spark a wonder, spark a curiosity, spark an awe, a hunger, and a thirst that would just grow and grow and grow through this season, where once more, or for the very first time, our hearts, our minds, our lives would be caught up in the wonder of who you are.

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