Finding God in the Ordinary: The True Christmas Story

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 went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, to 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. [00:00:18]

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 clothes 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. [00:00:49]

Jesus took 12 men, a random ragtag group of fishermen and tax collectors, and sparked the biggest global movement our world has ever seen, with 2.6 billion people professing to be a Christian. You know, everybody believes in Jesus. They believe that he exists or existed as a person in history. Even non-Christians will testify to this. We even have first century writings from people like Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny the Younger. [00:07:08] (34 seconds)


The Bible says that God works all things together for good. It talks about beauty for ashes, joy for mourning. And just because God can meet you in something and cause the best to come out of it doesn't mean God intended or wanted that to happen in the first place. [00:16:23] (17 seconds)


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. [00:17:25] (0 seconds)


This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. So the very first people that God chooses to announce this historic event to is shepherds. Why is that significant? Well, shepherds were people of very low status. Even in Jewish culture, they were constantly ritually unclean. From touching dead animals or blood. So they would not have been probably most of the time ritually clean. [00:17:49] (31 seconds)


And this is something that as Jesus got older, he encouraged his followers to do. He said this, he declared it in Matthew 4. His primary message was this, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. I think that word repent is one of the most misunderstood words in the entire Bible. The first time I ever remember hearing the word repent was someone out on the street corner yelling at a big crowd, repent, you all suck. [00:21:45] (28 seconds)


And I literally thought repent meant you should feel really, really terrible about yourself. You should feel awful. You should feel like crud. I thought that's what repent meant. But feeling bad about yourself, there's a difference thing. Guilt is feeling bad about something you've done. Shame is feeling bad about who you are. And so that's not repentance, that's shame. And shame is not good. That's not of God. To repent literally means to change, to change direction. [00:22:26] (27 seconds)


Verse 19, it says, but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying God and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. So they worshiped. The angels were worshiping Jesus. The shepherds worshiped Jesus. The Bible tells us that even all of creation worshiped Jesus. In Luke 19, Jesus says, I tell you, if these people keep silent, the stones will cry out in praise. [00:26:14] (33 seconds)


The Bible says that, Seek first his kingdom. kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. When you and I worship Jesus, when we put him first in our life, every single thing in our life will start to come into order. If you and I do not put God first in our life, if we do not worship him, if we worship money or ourselves or anything else in this entire world, our entire life will come out of order because it's outside of God's original design and intent for us. [00:27:56] (34 seconds)


It's possible to attend church and not know Jesus, but you cannot be all in for Jesus and not be an active part of his church. That's the response. So the goal is not church attendance. It's all in heart for Jesus. And the response to that will be engagement within the local church. [00:30:32] (17 seconds)