Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends all around the world,
With Christmas Eve now 12 days away, I think it’s time we shift our daily “Walking with Jesus” focus from our journey with Moses, in the exciting book of Exodus, to a fresh look at one of the most unusual and most significant events in human history. Here’s an important question I’d like you to ponder for a moment: In your opinion, what would be the 10 most significant events in all of human history, anywhere in the world, from the beginning of our planet, and the first two people Adam and Eve, to this present day, December 13, 2021?
Now don’t rush with your answer. Think for a moment about what you know of the great civilizations of the past. Think of powerful kingdoms or empires that ruled much of the world. Egypt, Babylon, the Roman Empire. Think about some of the most important people that have ever lived, as measured by their impact and influence on humanity. Think about some of the greatest human achievements which have actually changed the course of human history. Now, where in your top 10 events would you place what we know as ‘the Christmas story’?
A baby boy, born in an animal stable, because the baby’s poor parents could not find accommodations in an overcrowded village, in southern Israel, during a tense period of time in the Roman Empire era. The Roman Caesar, arguably the most powerful man in the world at that time, had called for a tax census, sending everyone to their ancestral home town for tax registration. For this insignificant young couple, pregnant with their first child, there was no reason for anyone in the world to notice… except for these amazing, miraculous realities:
1. Both this young man (Joseph) and his fiancé (Mary), had received personal visitations from angels.
Angels sent from God in heaven directly to them, informing them that Almighty God was accomplishing with them a miraculous pregnancy, despite their careful attention to purity during their engagement.
They were an honorable Jewish couple. Even though simple folks, with little financial means and nothing that would call our attention to them, they were both deeply committed to honoring God with every aspect of their daily lives. And they were invited INTO a miracle!
2. Their angelic messengers had told them that this miraculous pregnancy was unlike any which had ever happened in all of human history. Mary would be pregnant as a virgin, with no sexual relations with any man.
Simply, suddenly, she would be pregnant by a quiet but powerful work of the Holy Spirit of God, and within her womb would begin to grow a baby boy, yet she would still be a virgin. But not just any boy. This boy was to be known as the Son of God. He was to be fully human and fully divine at the same time. He was the second person of the Godhead, come to earth, experiencing life as a fetus, an infant, a toddler, a teenager, a young man, and an adult man… just like any other male, except two things: He would also be divine and He would be sinless in thought, word and deed, because He would NOT have a sin nature inherited from any human daddy. It was beyond human understanding. So neither of this young couple had dared mention a word to any except an old religious couple they trusted to help them understand. They were named Zechariah and Elizabeth.
3. And that’s the third amazing, miraculous, reality about this quiet, unsensational event happening, which would end up being one of the most important events in all of human history.
That old priest, named Zechariah, had also received an angelic visitation, telling him that God had heard his prayer. He and his wife Elizabeth would become pregnant, even though well beyond child bearing years, and the son they would miraculously bear and raise would be known as John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-17) and he would be the long anticipated fore-runner or announcer of a man the Jews had anticipated for over 1000 years, whom they called ‘the Messiah’.
4. Of course there are many other reasons why this simple couple, giving birth to their firstborn baby in an animal stable, and using an animal feeding trough as their baby crib, is an event which the entire world has celebrated every year since, for over 2000 years… It’s the IDENTITY of that baby, and WHY that baby was born where He was born, and WHAT that baby accomplished in His short life time.
It’s also what God inspired human prophets said about this baby, beginning several hundred of years BEFORE this miraculous night which we call Christmas. And it’s also what God sent angels have said years before, that very night, and years since that event.
You see my friends, it’s important that we human beings, who are normally so resistant to God’s intrusions into our world, must learn all that God wants us to understand about this baby. WHO God says this Baby is. WHY God says this Baby was born. WHAT God says this Baby’s life on earth was to accomplish. And the DANGER God says exists for every and any human being who disregards what God says about this Baby! Now ponder that for a moment friends. You may need to pause and re-read that.
That night we call Christmas, something dramatic happened in the sky over fields outside the small, insignificant village of Bethlehem, in southern Israel. Almighty, Holy God made an historic announcement which called the world to attention… even though only a small handful of people experienced it. God filled the night sky with messengers from His heaven. Angels. What language they spoke, I do not know, but the few shepherds who saw and heard this amazing appearance fully understood.
If you’ve been on the journey with us in “Walking with Jesus” you’ll recall the last few days we’ve been with Moses on Mount Sinai as he had a life changing encounter with the “Glory of the LORD”. It changed his life forever and when he came down from Sinai he didn’t know it but his face shown! Here’s how Moses recorded it: “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.” (Ex. 34:29)
Now look at what Dr. Luke reports from that Christmas night, about 1450 years AFTER Moses encountered the Glory of God on Sinai: “An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified! But the angel said to them, ‘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. [Messiah] This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying:
‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men [all humanity] on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:9-14)
Now because you’ve probably heard those words spoken or sung or read or even written in a Christmas card, perhaps the remarkable, amazing, stunning, miraculous power of those words didn’t hit you like it did those shepherds sitting around a simple campfire on a normal chilly night, out in the middle of a nowhere field. We’ve spent several days looking at the Moses & ‘Glory of God’ encounter on mount Sinai in the desert, recorded in Exodus 34. In the Christmas story the same phrase is used, ‘the Glory of the Lord’ describing this manifestation of God’s glory in the sky over the Bethlehem fields.
But the witnesses are not anything like the well educated, powerful leader Moses who had been up Sinai 8 times to meet with God in the cloud of His Presence. These were simple, probably uneducated sheep herders. Perhaps they weren’t even Jewish guys! Just simple folks trying to eke out a living sitting out in the fields watching sheep all day and all night. But they mattered to God… just like those Hebrew slaves in the Egyptian mud pits mattered to God! Do you know something my friend… YOU matter to God. Do you believe that?
And I think it’s safe to say YOU are the reason for the season! You and every other person on this planet. I’ve seen a poster which reads “HE is the Reason for the Season” and that’s true, but it’s also true God sent that baby for only one reason… this time it wasn’t 1 million Hebrew slaves in mud pits, it was and is an entire human race living in inescapable sin bondage to Satan! We are the Reason for this Season because: “For God so loved the entire world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish [in their sin] but will have everlasting life [in relationship with God]. (John 3:16)
So as we start the journey TO and BEYOND Christmas this year, will you allow your heart and mind to be overwhelmed with this thought: the very same reason God met Moses at the burning bush is the reason God sent angels to Zechariah and Joseph and Mary the Shepherds… to announce His love based rescue plan: “I have seen the misery of My people, I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned, and I have come down to rescue them…”(Ex. 3:7,8 & Luke 1:30-33 & Matt. 1:20,21 & Luke 2:9-14)
I invite you to spend a moment or two thanking God that His love for us, and His hatred of our sin bondage, continues to motivate Him today to reach to our world calling us once again to celebrate the greatest event of all time, and personalize it. . . Christmas. Here’s a song that seems to really fit right here…
Today’s Scripture is Luke 2:9-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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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)
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