Today, we’re going to be looking at a number of scriptures, but I will go through them as I go through the sermon, so you don’t need to follow along with all of them, but I would like to start with just a few short verses from Psalm 71. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn with me there: Psalm 71:14-18.
I am going to get into a Christmas message but start with an odd set of verses. Now the verses themselves are not odd, but they’re a bit odd for a Christmas message. But as we go along, I think you’ll understand the connection.
They’re not connected with any sort of Christmas prophecy or anything like that. These verses are just simply verses of praise.
So let’s take a look at them:
Psalm 71:14-18
14 But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
I know many of us have some great Christmas memories, probably both from our childhood and our adulthood. For some, it’s one Christmas. For others, such as myself, it’s a conglomeration of little bits and pieces of Christmases throughout the years.
We all have Christmas stories in common.
In fact, you’ve probably seen the movie, A Christmas Story. In fact, after almost 49 years, they’ve come out with a sequel, but it’s on a streaming service that we don’t have so hopefully it’ll come around on other streaming stations in the future.
If you’ve ever seen the movie, you’ll remember it’s all about how the narrator is telling us the story of one particular Christmas memory he had of his childhood. Of course, it’s probably mostly fictitious. That year, sometime in probably post-war 1940s, all he wanted was a Red Ryder carbon-actioned, two-hundred-shot range model air rifle. With a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.
Like that movie, we all probably have a story about receiving a particular Christmas gift we begged for. But we also share the story of receiving the same particular Christmas gift. Each and every one of us. In fact, all over the world this Christmas season––and every Christmas season––we have all shared receiving the gift of Christ. You might have heard someone who was arrogant being referred to as thinking he’s God’s gift to the world. Well, Jesus really was God’s gift to the world.
In Romans Chapter 5, Paul calls salvation God’s gift five times.
He said: 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
And in John’s Gospel. John was one of the writers who did not give us the Christmas story. As I mentioned last week, he began his gospel by proclaiming Jesus as “The Word” or in the Greek, “Logos” which also in the English means “reason” or “plan.” It’s that certain something that connects or bridges God with man.
But soon after that, in his first chapter, John also called Christ our gift from God. He said,
“16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.”
What I want to talk to you about today is not only receiving the gift of Christ but also about those who shared their Christmas story with the world. You’re probably wondering how all of this ties in with our Psalm scripture this morning. There are thousands, if not millions of people who have shared their personal story about their personal encounter with Christ with others over the course of the past 2,000 years. David shared this praise 1,000 years prior to Christ.
But in particular, I want to focus today not so much on David but on Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and the Shepherds. How did they tell their Christmas memories? And how did the Gospel writers tell the story of Mary, Joseph, the three Wise Men, and the Shepherds?
According to Luke, and as dramatized so wonderfully in The Chosen video we watched in Sunday School last week, we know the shepherds just couldn’t keep it to themselves.
Luke 2:17-18
“17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
I mean, an experience like that? If you’ve seen it dramatized, you can understand. How could you keep it to yourself? One night, just like any other night, you are out tending sheep, and suddenly there appeared a multitude of angels. How amazing would that have been?
And maybe after their long journey, the wise men told everyone where they had been and why and what it was like finally reaching their destination and seeing this Christ child. Imagine the shock on the faces of Mary and Joseph when these three wise men appeared unexpectedly at their door two years later.
Then, imagine their story of what happened regarding Herod.
Think about this, once Herod got involved, the birth of Christ became real news. It must have spread all over the place. What Herod did was public. The reason why Herod ordered every male child two years old and younger to be slaughtered must have been well-known. People probably talked about that for decades.
There’s been a new king born? Who? Where? Who could it have been?
And you can find it documented historically. When you look at Herod’s life historically, at that time, he had a habit of becoming paranoid about keeping his throne. This was not the only slaughter Herod made in order to keep his throne. Just a few short years before Jesus was born, he executed 300 of his own troops and a number of Pharisees who prophesied his throne would be taken from him.
Biblearcheology.org said this:
“Macrobius (ca. AD 400), one of the last pagan writers in Rome, in his book Saturnalia, wrote: “When it was heard that, as part of the slaughter of boys up to two years old, Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered his own son to be killed, he [the Emperor Augustus] remarked, ‘It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son’ ”
So Herod must have really believed this king was truly born. Why did he believe it? Where did he hear this story? He was told by the Magi, and the Magi must have believed that Jesus was the Christ. Do you see the chain connection?
Each person in the Christmas story has their own personal story to tell. Each with their own unique personal perspective of the same event. Of the same Christ.
We know that the Christmas story must have gotten around quite a bit in order for it to have been told with such personal detail from our gospel writers. Most theologians believe that the gospel writers had either interviewed eyewitnesses or eyewitness stories were already written down for posterity, and the gospel writers gleaned from that source material like biographers today do.
Remember, Matthew wasn’t there when Christ was born. Neither was Mark or Luke, or John.
So even though the writers were not all witnesses, there were witnesses who spoke about what they saw and experienced. They wrote it down. They verbally expressed it. When we share the love of God, we are sharing our personal story that we personally experienced. And like the Gospel writers, they were careful and deliberate to share personal detail and consistency of Christ’s story of love to the world.
What does that mean–personal detail and consistency? And why is it important?
Just like with the gospel writers–Matthew and Luke, each told the story in their own unique way and still told basically the same story that had already been around. The stories were a little bit different from each other. The stories matched their own writing style and their own personalities. Luke, who was a physician and more likely had a more detailed way of thinking, said more than Matthew, but Matthew said more about the Wise Men than Luke; yet Matthew skipped over the whole Bethlehem event entirely.
Yet, even though each one did not tell the entire story exactly like the other, what they did say was considered accurate and truthful. Their stories complimented each other, not contradicted. If their stories were not true or accurate, they would not have withstood the scrutiny of those who knew it already, who would have lived at the time of Christ and would have heard it.
It would not have withstood the scrutiny of Mary and Jesus’ brothers and sisters. It would not have withstood the scrutiny of history as known throughout the land of what Herod did and why.
Let’s take a look at how Luke begins his gospel:
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
So what does this have to do with us? How does this tie in with the psalm?
As we tell our own story of the gift of Christ and what He did for us and through us. As we tell the story of Christ’s love, of what we have witnessed and experienced like David, our stories are going to be, as the saying goes, “the same thing, only different.”
It is going to withstand scrutiny. It is going to complement each other’s stories. Maybe more detailed than one, maybe less detailed than another. Your story of God’s love and salvation might be different from mine. I was born and raised in a Christian home. You might not have been. You might have had a rough life. But His saving grace on my life is going to be the same saving grace, the same experience of sensing that cleansing forgiveness as yours, but the testimony of what he has done for me is going to be a different circumstance than what he might have done for you.
Your audience might need to hear a different story than mine.
Remember when I talked about John and how he skipped over the Christmas story altogether? It’s because his Greek audience needed to hear who or what this LogLike I said last week, their Logos, their certain something that bridged the gap between God and man that they knew existed but couldn’t put their finger on, that is Jesus, who came to us. And here’s his story.
John’s gospel or Mark’s gospel, even though they don’t tell the Bethlehem story, still tells the overall story of Christ nonetheless. And does an effective job with it.
Our testimony is going to be one among many from other believers from around the globe from all throughout time. It’s not going to be the exact same story. But it’s going to have the same consistency of love, redemption, and saving grace. The same Spirit, the same power, the same sweet cleansing feeling in our Spirit. The same rejoicing when it comes to God’s great love and His great power to bring us through something that only He can bring us through.
And no matter who they are, where they live, how old they are, or what they have done. They, too, can receive this same love of God through His gift to us that came on Christmas morning.
What is your Christmas story that you can share with someone?
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
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