Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends, and welcome to Christmas Eve 2020!
I wonder just how much this Christmas Eve will differ from past ones where you live? Are churches in your town open or closed or highly restricted this Christmas? Are restaurants and stores and theatres and concert halls open or closed? Are hotels and hospitals and retirement homes in ‘lock down’ mode, or wide open for business as in past years? In some ways, the original Christmas happened in times almost as unusual as 2020!
Bethlehem was normally a quiet village about 6 miles south of Jerusalem, but not that day! People had been streaming into town for several days, and as Joseph and Mary made their reluctant journey I suppose they wondered what they would find, where they would spend the night, who might help them if Mary’s baby decided to be born while they were in Bethlehem? Nazareth was about 80 miles away by the road they likely took, and evidently they knew no one in Bethlehem.
I know it’s very familiar, but today is the best day to read Luke 2:1-20, carefully, prayerfully and hopefully with family and friends as you put yourself into the story… walking along the rocky road with Joseph and Mary, or standing with Mary as Joseph comes back from the overcrowded Inn with the gut wrenching news that the only option was an animal stable! Do you suppose both Joseph and Mary wondered if maybe they had misunderstood Gabriel and these terrible circumstances were a painful distortion of God’s great plans?
And then out in the fields, where they belong of course, shepherds with sheep. It was just a normal night. Perhaps they had led their flocks near Bethlehem because some of them needed to go into town to register for the tax, just like many other people? Nothing could have shocked them more than what happened to them that night… angels in the night sky. Not only one or two but a huge choir of angles, maybe hundreds of them!
What those angels said is what I’d like us to focus on this Christmas Eve 2020…, this Coronavirus Pandemic year! It’s only one short sentence, but the words are among the most powerful ever heard, ever written, ever sung. The message the angels in the sky spoke to the shepherds is exactly what Joseph and Mary needed to hear as they tried to find a somewhat clean place in the stench of the stable, and some peace in their very anxious hearts. This news was what every frustrated, tax registering person in Bethlehem needed to hear. And this angelic statement is what EVERY person in the world, both then and now desperately needs to LIVE: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men (anyone) on whom God’s favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)
Would you agree that any word, any attitude, any decision, any action which brings Glory to God in the highest, should also bring peace here on earth to the people touched by that word or attitude or decision or action? Now ponder that my friends.
How elusive has PEACE been for you over the past 12 months or so? How much have you seen and heard this year that has been the antithesis of “glory to God in the highest”? How often have you wanted to cover your ears, to no longer listen to the bad news, the angry voices, of this year? And as humanity has responded to Covid and Elections and Terrorism and Economic chaos and so much else all around our world this year, have you sometimes winced, as you’ve watched our world shake their fists at God refusing to ask for His help, refusing to admit our sinful rebellion against God, refusing to admit every nation in the world has worked very hard to push God OUT of their society?
Do you remember what else the angel announced that night to the shepherds? “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 to you, He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)
Did you hear it my friends? “Good news of great joy for all people…” How often this year have you heard “Good News of Great Joy”? Probably not very often? And was there anytime this year that the good news you heard, was intended to bring great joy to every living person on our planet?
May I shock you with something? The “good news” the angel announced that night is the BEST NEWS any person in our world could hear then and now! Would you allow me to paraphrase what that good news is? You’ll find it in John 1:1-14. It is this. . .
Before anything else existed, one holy, majestic, eternal, all powerful being existed and had always been… The Almighty, Holy God. This all powerful God imagined the universe and spoke it into existence. This wonderful God imagined one planet which could support the survival of a species of beings that would be made in God’s image with a strong sense of moral right and wrong, and the ability to reason, think, make decisions, and especially a desire to love.
God carefully designed and created that planet, earth, and everything on it, especially for the purpose of sustaining this God designed race of human beings in which He placed the ability to know God, love God and honor God with our lives. And when we do that, there really is “glory to God in the highest and on earth peace…”. Life is really fun as we love each other and serve each other and respect each other. And everyday God joins with us to bring new generations of little people into our world. God desires that they will grow up in families who love God and then build God honoring societies.
But the reason the angels announced that a SAVIOR for ALL people was born that first Christmas, is because God’s wonderful plan has been destroyed, generation after generation... not by aliens from some far away galaxy, but by us, humanity made in God’s image, who have refused God’s glorious plan. That is why John wrote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son (Jesus) that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
John summarizes this miracle of Christmas this way:
“Through Him (Jesus) all things were made…in Him was life, and that life was the light of humanity. The light (Jesus) shines in the darkness of our world, and the darkness has not understood Him…
He (Jesus) came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to humanity, made in His image, but they did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to become children of God. God became flesh and made His dwelling among us in the person of Jesus. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.” (John 1:3-12)
Would you allow Jesus to overwhelm you once again this Christmas, with the GREATEST NEWS of all time. . .the incarnation of God, “Immanuel” (Matt. 1:23) which means “God with us”? The news that Jesus came, born in that stable, lived His life among the people of Nazareth and Jerusalem and many other places in Israel in those years, and then through His sacrificial death paid the full sin debt price so any and all people, even now, 2000 years later, who would believe in Jesus and the truth He taught, and trust that He really is the Savior of the world, will be saved from their sin and enter into the relationship with God for which He designed us. This is the greatest news, and it really should bring great joy to all people who receive it and understand it, and trust Jesus to be THEIR Savior!
Are you one of those people my “Walking with Jesus” friend? Do you know Jesus? Is Jesus your Savior, your friend, your daily guide in life? Do you have HIS peace in your life? Do you remember Jesus said to His close friends on the night before He went to the cross to become our Savior: “My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid…in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world…As God the Father has loved Me, so I love you. Now remain in My love. I have told you this so that My JOY may be in you and your joy may be complete…” (John 14:27 & 16:33 & 15:9-11)This is the miracle of Christmas peace! Ponder this all day today, and thank Jesus many times today, because it’s ONLY possible in Him!
Him, Jesus Christ, Immanuel…the great “I AM”!!
Here is a beautiful video version of one of my favorite Christmas songs… let’s join Mary looking at Jesus and considering WHO He is! “Mary did you know…”
If there’s anything about this that you don’t understand, please write me, I’d love to help you experience Christmas as Jesus intended it to be, the greatest News of all time… “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to YOU on whom God’s favor rests.”
Oh Lord Jesus Christ we praise YOU on this Christmas Eve 2020!!
Click to read today’s chapter: Luke 2:1-20. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of Luke 2.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp