Apostles Church

Good News of Great Joy. Luke 2:1-20. 

Mary is 9 months pregnant. During that time, Caesar Augustus issues an edict for a census. This census is for taxation purposes. So, Mary and Joseph have to travel to Bethlehem because of this oppressive Roman government and their census and taxation policies. But, here is the wonder of it. God has promised over 700 years earlier through the prophet Micah that the Messiah, His Appointed and Anointed Shepherd King that would rule over the nations and bring peace to the earth would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. Micah 5:2. But Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth, a town 90 miles north of Bethlehem. So, God puts in the heart of Caesar Augustus to issue a decree that would put Mary and Joseph right in the city where He foretold the Messiah would be born. God wields an empire to accomplish is purposes for his people. God is ordering History to bring about his good and saving purposes. Without even knowing it the Roman Emperor, the most powerful man on the planet, is being guided by God to bring about God's saving purposes for his people. What an encouragement. Do not think that when the events of your life bring discomfort, pain, sorrow, loss, risk God is somehow absent, unaware or uncaring; do not think his arm is too short to save. The Scriptures are clear in Romans 8:28 - God is sovereign over all the affairs of your life and is arranging them to bring about his good and saving purposes in the lives of those who belong to him. View your circumstances through who God is, do not form of view of who God is through your circumstances. Don't let your circumstances shape your response to God; let your vision of God shape your response to your circumstance. You experience suffering, loss, trial, and you begin to question and blame God. But, What if behind the scenes there was a God who was orchestrating every scene to bring about your good; to write a story with your life that resolved perfectly in the end. Illus: Joseph suffered unimaginably, yet in the end God was orchestrating his story to put him in the right place at the right time to save an entire nation and preserve the people from whom the Savior would eventually come. Joseph says to his brothers, "What you intended for evil, God intended for good." Advent tells us God is in control and bringing about his saving and good purposes for his people.

With great simplicity the text tells us that Jesus is born. In a very humble obscure setting, God the Son, clothed in flesh, arrived. At the fullness of time, The Father sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law, that we might be adopted as Sons and Daughters (Gal 4:4-5). The first ones that God announces this great event to are some Shepherds in a Field just outside of town. Shepherds, common, humble, disregarded, and generally having a bad reputation. These are the ones that God announces the birth to. They are keeping their flocks at night when the sky lit up and an angel appears to them. They are terrified, but the Angel gives them this message: Fear Not, for I bring you good news of a great joy. And, what is this news: God has given his Son to Reconcile the world to himself. God has given us the Messiah, The Christ, the Lord, the Savior and now it is possible for us to have Peace with God. This is the message of Christmas - God has given us His Son to bring us Peace with Himself. This is the Good News. 2Corinthians 5:18-21. Sin has put us at odds with God and made us objects of his just displeasure. But God makes peace with us - by not counting our sins against us. He counts them against his Son, making him sin for us, that we might be right with him. If we put our faith in his work and not ours, our sins are counted against Christ and his righteousness is counted toward us. Isaiah saw this day, "The punishment that brought us peace fell upon him..." NOTE: These shepherds kept the sheep that would most likely be used for the temple sacrifices. Ironic that they would be most familiar with the idea of substitution would be the recipients of this message. The one that the sheep your are watching points to, has arrived.

Notice the humble beginnings of Jesus. God can move human history and the Roman Empire to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem but he can't get them a room in the local motel. He has to be born in a cave or a stable? God's will. Why? The way of Jesus is one of humble and sacrificial love. It is from beginning to end. He will become worse than nothing - will become our sin - so that we might be made right with the Father. From cradle to grave, his life will be marked by humble and sacrificial love.
    This has to move from Historical to Personal. Unto you...For all people. It cannot be less than historical but it must be more than historical. Open and responsive to Christ. When it moves from historical to personal that is when it becomes Good News of Great Joy. This Gospel message causes Great Joy and Abolishes all Fear. Joy: God is not going to scrap this world or my life. He does not hate us; he loves us. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world...Joy because God is for us. Abolishes Fear: Fear dies in the face of Joy. Romans 8:31-32. God is for me, who can stand against me. He did not spare his own Son, I can trust him for every good thing and trust Him through every bad thing. God is for me; all His intentions to me are good and saving. I can have great joy in all he is for me and all He has promised me. When you fear (when the job is cut or the threat is pending, when the loved one gets sick or succumbs to death, when the test comes back positive, when evil is committed against you, when good is withheld from you) when fear raises its head, preach yourself into Joy. Take hold of yourself and say, "God has reconciled me to himself. He has bruised his Son so he could have me for his own. He has separated my sins from me as far as the east is from the west. He has made me his child, given me his spirit, promised me glorious things, he has plans for me to prosper me to give me a future and a hope. He rules over the affairs of this world and works all things together for my good. Any evil unleashed against me will ultimately crash upon the rocks of this reality - God is For Me. The Scriptures say, "The Joy of the Lord is your strength." Where the Lord's Joy is, fear cannot flourish. His Joy Abolishes Fear. Fear Not, for I bring you Good news of Great Joy. Why are you afraid?

How is a Believing Community to Respond to This Good News. How does Luke want his reader to respond? Wonder, Worship, and Witness.
Wonder. Mary is an example of the response of faith, but notice that her response is one of pondering. She treasures these things in her heart and ponders their meaning. The word ponder means to think deeply about them and to try to put them together in an understandable whole. Mary does not understand everything that is happening. There is mystery involved. She is faithful and obedient, but doesn't fully get it all. There is no doubt or disbelief, but an amazement and wonder and desire to understand more fully all the realities that God is unfolding here. What is God doing here? What does it mean for me? Even in Mark 3 when Jesus has begun his public ministry, Mary still does not fully understand the nature of his mission. Not until after his resurrection do we see Mary truly understand who her Son is and what He came to do. And so it is with us. There is Mystery in the Gospel and there are depths to it that we have not plunged. We need to ponder these Gospel realities and ask more and more, What does this mean for me? What does Christ birth, death, resurrection, ascension and soon return mean for me today? For some of us it will result in crossing the line of faith and putting our hopes fully in Jesus for our life and salvation. For others of us who have crossed that line, it will mean a deeper understanding of what these Gospel realities mean for us and what they require of us. As you ponder and let them make their way deeper into your heart, certain fears will subside and hopes will rise; certain affections will have to die and other affections come alive. Certain patterns will have to cease and new patterns begin. Certain relationships will have to lose priority and new relationships become more prominent. Self-focused ways of living will have to be put to death before the self-less Christ of the Gospel and compassion and radical generosity will have to emerge even in the face of a recession. Because we do not ponder the markets and the state of the economy to determine the level of our generosity and sacrificial love, we ponder the Gospel and when we consider the grace of our Lord Jesus, we cannot persists in self-focused and self-gratifying patterns when it comes to our time and treasures. Our first response is Wonder, pondering the significance of these things for our lives. Illustration: Forgiving others.

Worship. We join the Angels and the Shepherds. Glory to God in the Highest. All of our lives would be leveraged to make much of this God in the Highest who is incomparable, unsurpassed, unrivaled. Make much of this incomparable God who has given us a Savior. Make much of this Savior who has given us his life. Worship with your lips and your life. When we wonder over these things and ponder them, we are moved to offer all that we are and all that we have for his renown and fame.

Witness. The Shepherds are the first to spread the news about this Christ serving as an example to all of us. As we wonder and ponder the Gospel and experience its power, as we respond to God in worship, we cannot but help to speak of it to others. Who has God placed in your life that He is asking you to share this story with. He has entrusted us with His Gospel. As a community, we must become a story-telling community - telling others what God has done in for us in Christ and what He is doing in our lives. Apostles Church - those who hare sent with a message. Apostles: Those people have some great stories of God's work for them and among them and they don't hesitate to share them. 2009 needs to be a year of story telling, where we as a community become more faithful to telling the story of Christ to our city and sharing our stories of God's continued work among us.

This is How a Believing Community Responds to the Message of Advent. Wonder, Worship, and Witness.