Jack Graham - Tell the Story
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In your Bibles, Luke chapter 2. verses 17 through 20. This is in reference to the shepherds who find the Babe Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And verse 17: «And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them».
Now, how do you keep it going all year long? How can you celebrate Christmas first and foremost, by celebrating the Christ of Christmas. And first and foremost, by being a Christian. That’s how you can know and experience the love and the joy and the peace always in Christ that is Christmas, the real Christmas. Not magic but the miracle of Jesus' birth and His life and His death and His resurrection and His soon return. Yes, it is so very important that you be saved in order to experience Christmas all year long. Christ was born to save! I love the Christmas carol «Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice; that ye need not fear the grave; Jesus Christ was born to save. Calls you once and calls you all to gain His everlasting hall. Christ is born to save; Christ is born to save».
Are you saved? To be saved is to be a Christian. What it means to be a Christian is to be saved from our sin. And we’ve all sinned. It means to invite Christ into our lives; that we become a follower of Jesus; that we are trusting Jesus as our Savior and following Him as our Lord. Inviting Christ into our lives and knowing Him not religiously, but personally, individually that we know Christ, that we have been born again from above, that there’s been a spiritual birth. Christ was born so that we could be born again. And to be saved means that you know that you’re going to heaven because Jesus came to earth so that we could go to heaven and know that we’re going there!
What a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas every day. That’s where it starts and I’m just getting started on this message but I wanted to say it up front, how do you become a Christian? You recognize that you have messed up, that you have sinned against God, that you need a Savior. And you say I am a sinner and I need a Savior and I believe that Jesus is the Savior. And not only the Savior but you can say Jesus is my Savior. That’s where it all begins.
Are you a Christian? If you are, you’re forgiven of all your sins. If you are, you can live in confidence and certainty that when you die or when Christ comes again, you will be ready and you will be with Him. It means that His Spirit fills your life and you live in hope and joy. The God of all hope. May you abound in this hope, filled with the Holy Spirit. So let’s begin right there. We’re talking about celebrating Christmas all year long. It all begins and ends, it’s all about knowing Jesus, knowing Him in your life as your Savior and Lord. And then what happens we see in four specific ways that I’m going to mention right out of this text. If you’re new to Prestonwood, we’re always preaching the Bible and teaching the Bible. We’re going to be doing that today.
So there are four ways in which we celebrate like these Christmas all year long. Number one, proclaiming. Say that out loud. Proclaiming. Because it says in verse 17 that they saw it, they saw the wonderful miracles of the heavens when the angel spoke, and then they saw the Babe wrapped in the swaddling cloth lying in a manger, they believed it, and then «they made known this thing that had been told to them concerning this child». What was the saying that had been told to them? «For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord».
So believing that and then seeing that, they began to proclaim this good news. Shepherds were not the likely suspects to be attendants at the birth of Jesus. Shepherds were generally from the baser class of the society of that generation. They were considered frankly lowlifes and vagrants and con men and shysters. I know David was a shepherd and I don’t want to sell all the shepherds short, but I’m just saying to you the shepherds in this era were not powerful people. In fact, they were poor people; they were impoverished. And these shepherds, think about it, no doubt they were illiterate. They couldn’t read, they couldn’t write; they’d not been to school. And yet they saw and heard the angels speak that night when the heavens exploded with the glory of God. Remarkable that God would speak in this way to these lowly, humble shepherds.
And then these men went to Bethlehem and discovered Christ in a cradle, born in a barn; probably a cave. But when you walk into the Church of the Nativity, there is a low entry and it was a large door at one time at this church, built over the birthplace of Jesus, the cave where He would have been born perhaps. I believe it was so. But you have to stoop down to go in because the Christians who are leading that church, some soldiers were riding in on horses proudly and tromping around in the Church of the Nativity, so they cover up the entrance and made it a small entrance to this very day, you have to bend down and go in. And it just speaks of the humility of the stable.
It reminds us today that the way in to the presence of the Savior is in humility and even repentance. So consider these shepherds outside of Mary and Joseph, outside of Mary and Joseph, the only people in the world who knew about this Jesus and this story were those shepherds. Amazing! Just shepherds! After 400 years of so-called silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, there was no word from God, not to a prophet, not to a priest, not to a king. Silence! And when God broke the silence that night outside of Bethlehem, it was to shepherds. And with a shout, with the silence now broken, they began to tell the world. This is not a likely way to tell the world. To tell the world of the savior.
Here they are after being terrorized and traumatized out there in the shepherd’s field when those angels appeared. And I don’t blame them. That was an awe inspiring sight. They get themselves together and their fear turns to faith and now with ecstatic excitement they are telling this good news. What did they do? They told everybody! It’s the middle of the night but in the night, the next day they’re telling everybody! They couldn’t keep this good news of Christmas to themselves. And this is the challenge to us, isn’t it?
If you want to experience Christmas every day of your life, go tell somebody who Jesus is. If you want to experience and celebrate Christmas every day of your life speak this good news! Tell people what God has done for you! This is the call of Christ; this is the call of Christ to the Christian; it’s the call of Christ to the church. This is why we are focused always on Christ and the Bible and evangelizing, fulfilling the Great Commission. And the good news is that we don’t go alone, the Holy Spirit lives in us and Acts 1:8,7 Jesus gave this promise. Acts 1:8, pardon me, Acts 1:8. He says that «You will be my witnesses (when?) after the Holy Spirit has come upon you».
And when we are filled with God’s Spirit, we are speaking God’s truth. Simply tell people. You can do this. Tell people what Christ has done for you. What you’ve seen and heard. Like the apostles when they were threatened and told never to speak the name of Jesus again, they were beaten within an inch of their lives. They said, «You keep talking about Jesus it will be the end of you». And they said, «We cannot help but speak of those things we have seen and heard». We can’t help it because we have seen Him and we know Him in our hearts, in our lives. So it means share your faith. Share your story. Talk about Jesus. Invite people to come to Jesus. Good news is too good to keep! Amen? This is the first way to celebrate Christmas every day, by proclaiming.
The second way is not only proclaiming, but wondering. Look at verse 18 again. Verse 18 says: «And all who heard it», that is, the shepherds were sharing their faith and so all these people are hearing it and what did they do? «They wondered at what the shepherds told them». The word there wonder, pretty self-descriptive. It’s not the word questioning; they weren’t questioning what the shepherds were telling them, but they were in amazement. They were amazed; they were star-struck, if you will, by what they were told about the angels and what the angels said about Jesus. And Mary and Joseph and the Christ in the cradle. These shepherds just by their testimony and their presence somehow these smelly guys were affected.
They were convincing; they were just so filled with the Shekinah Glory of God that was upon them; the holy wonder and awe! God was moving in this little town of Bethlehem! Just a little place, but God was at work. History was changed, the world was changed! No wonder they are amazed! So let me ask you: Are you still amazed? It’s unexplainable. Inexplicable what God has done in my life, in your life. And God is still doing the inexplicable, the unexplainable through people who trust Him; miracles. Saving people that are far, far from God, restoring lives and marriages and homes and families. Delivering the addicted, comforting the grieving, healing the sick. God still does all of this, and more!
«God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us». Why? «Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever». I’m just telling you like these townspeople, let’s be awestruck, amazed at this story of Jesus! That’s how you have Christmas all year long. You know, the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation is filled with signs and wonders of the Last Days, amazing wonders. One of these days when Christ comes with awestruck wonder, we’ll see Him face to face, when He returns. And in Revelation 19, verse 16 we’re told that the wonder’s going to happen when Jesus comes back and there will be on His thigh and on His robe these words: «King of kings and Lord of lords»! What a day of wonders this is. So Christmas all year long. It is first proclaiming like the shepherds; and then it is wondering in amazement.
And then thirdly, it is pondering. Look again in chapter 2 and verse 19. Pondering, and this is what Mary did for it says: «Mary treasured up (or pondered up, or pondered) all these things, pondering them in her heart». Meaning that Mary was cherishing these moments. Not wanting to miss any of them. The word treasure or cherish, it actually describes counting, considering. I make lists. My life runs on my lists that I keep of all kinds. And so it’s like Mary was making a reminder list. She was reflecting and pondering; in many ways it’s deeper than wondering.
Wondering is one thing and it is so external and it’s a big part of it, but pondering is deep within, just as Mary is reflecting and remembering and resolving, no doubt, to be the best mother that Jesus needed, the kind of person that would mother the Son of God. She must have been asking herself… Have you ever considered what she was considering? She must have been asking herself, «Am I up to this? Can I do this? How about Joseph, is he ready for this? To be the adoptive father of the Heavenly Father’s Son? Why has God chosen me? How did this happen»? Can you imagine what she was thinking? She’s pondering. She’s saying, «God, why me»? So she’s pondering that. It’s so important to treasure God’s word in your heart and to meditate upon spiritual things in your life.
My friend Robert Morgan has written a wonderful book on biblical meditation. It’s a powerful book that will show you the value of meditation upon God’s Word, spiritual meditation. I’m not talking about transcendental, that thing where you know, you just, the goal of that is to empty your mind. That’s crazy. You empty your mind, all kinds of bad stuff is going to get in there! But biblical meditation is filling your mind! What we need, are Christian thinkers who know their Bibles, who know truth and who meditate on this and know this and learn this!
So the third way, after proclaiming and then wondering and then pondering or treasuring in your heart these things, to keep it going; the final thing is glorifying Him. Praising Him. Look in verse 20 once again, Luke 2, verse 20: «And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them». The shepherds would never be the same! What a difference just a day makes! Or a night in this case. Everything is changed. The world is now upside down because God is changing it. Wise men came later to worship. They were impacted, impowered to the degree rather than going back through Jerusalem to tell Herod what had happen, they were warned and they went back in a different direction! Their lives were changed. Christ takes us in a brand-new direction.
And these shepherds, what did they do? What did these shepherds do? They went back to their fields. Just back to what they were doing. They told all the townspeople and then they went back to smelly sheep. How mundane. But this is really it, isn’t it? Christmas everyday is the miraculous in the midst of the monotonous! The miraculous in the midst of the mundane! Glorifying God in whatever we do! Small or large or something in-between! The Scripture says, «Whatever you do (1 Corinthians 10:31) in word and deed, do it and glorify God» which means to magnify Him. That’s what they did. They went back to the same place where the angel spoke to them.
Maybe every night after that they kept looking for the angel. We’re not told the angels came back. That was a one-night thing. They just went back to doing what they were doing, but never the same because now they knew Jesus. Now Christ was reigning in their world. So many people want the magic of Christmas, the spirit of Christmas, the fun, the days off, whatever, to stay. But in just a few days we’ll take down the lights and the trees and the candles, pay the bills for the gifts, and Christmas as a holiday will be over for another year. But for the Christian not everything, not every day is a holiday, but every day is a holy day.
The great devotional writer, Oswald Chambers says «Every Christian should be supernaturally natural and naturally supernatural». You know what that means? In all things natural, our normal lives, we’re to live supernatural spiritual lives and in all things spiritual we are to live normal, natural lives. Being spiritual doesn’t make you weird but you’re full of Jesus and the miracles happen. Well, Christmas, what is it to you?
I love the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the story of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. I want to close with this because it’s such a powerful story about hearing the bells and hearing them every day is based on a poem by Henry Longfellow. In 1860 Longfellow was at the peak of success as a poet. He had overcome the death of his first wife and regained after a season of great grief his equilibrium and began to write the great works such as Hiawatha and his poems and all that. He was riding high. 1860 Abraham Lincoln had just been elected president, giving hope to the nation. And though his first wife was now gone he had been led to another woman and he was remarried but things soon turned dark for America, and for Henry himself.
The Civil War began to following year and Longfellow’s wife died of severe burns when she was lighting a candle in the house and her dress caught on fire and she burned to death. Longfellow himself had multiple burns all over his body trying to save his wife. He couldn’t even attend her funeral he was so badly burned. So in his diary on Christmas day, 1861, he wrote these words: How inexpressively sad are the holidays. In 1862 the Civil War escalated and the death toll from the war began mount and Henry hated the Civil War, hated it for what it was doing to people and tearing the country apart! And in his diary for that year, Longfellow wrote a Christmas, «a merry Christmas sang the children, but that is no more for me».
In 1863, Longfellow’s son who had run away to join the Union army to fight for freedom for the slaves, was severely wounded and returned home in December. And there is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for Christmas in 1863. There’s nothing, just blank. Yet on that Christmas day that year, he decided to take a walk, trying to lift his spirits. He wanted to pull out of his depression and despair and somehow capture the joy of Christmas. He began to listen as church bells began to chime on Christmas day and he wrote down these words: I heard the bells of Christmas Day; their old familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth and goodwill to men. He began to write more of this stanza. He stopped to think of the condition of his beloved country.
The battle of Gettysburg was not long passed. Days looked dark and he began to ask himself the question: How can there be peace on earth and goodwill toward man in this war-torn country where brother fights against brother, where people are oppressed, where father’s fight against sons? How can there be? But he kept writing and oh, did he write. He said: And in despair I bowed my head; There is no peace on earth I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. But then inspired, he wrote these words: Then peeled the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead; nor does He sleep. The wrong shall fail; the right prevail with peace on earth goodwill to men.