Sermon Cloud

How many of you have what’s commonly known as the Christmas Spirit? You know, that mystical magical feeling that accompanies the Christmas season? This unexplainable sense of goodness fills your heart. You feel lighter, more considerate and you find yourself going out of your way to be kind and generous to others. Do you have the Christmas Spirit?

Now I think we know when we don’t have it. When we don’t have it, we’re kind of like Scrooge. We go around the Christmas season with a bah humbug personality – we don’t want to be bothered, we look at the giddiness of others and we want to smack them with a sense of reality, we’re irritable, impatient and inconsiderate. We know if we don’t have it…

So, I’m going give us a little test to see how we’re doing today. I’m going to focus on three essential ingredients of the Christmas Spirit. And as you grade yourself, I want you to give yourself a grade of E for “I’m on Empty” (nothing in the tank) or give your self an S if you’re just kind of “Stuck in neutral,” or give yourself an O for “overflowing,” ‘cause that’s where God wants your heart to be today. Ok, ready, lets go.

How’s your Christmas Spirit when it comes to being joyful? What is your current "irritability factor?" Are you more inclined to speak words of complaint or gratitude? How often did you laugh this week? How much fun did you have?

How’s Your Christmas Spirit when it comes to being kind? How inclined are you to lend someone a helping hand even though you're busy, or you know you won't get credit? How are you doing at encouraging and affirming people? Do you consistently take the time to actually notice people and listen to them?

How’s Your Christmas Spirit when it comes to being generous? What portion of your time and material resources are you actually giving—not just thinking about giving—to God, to the poor, to other people? Do you ever find yourself wanting to give just the least amount acceptable? Is your heart to give growing or shrinking?

My guess is that if you’re anything like me, you probably scored an E in one or two areas, or maybe you realized you’re stuck in neutral in all 3 areas, or maybe you’re doing ok with the whole Christmas spirit thing, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to say you’re overflowing. And if my guess is correct, I figure all of us could use a little help “Unwrapping the Spirit of Christmas.”

So that’s what we’re going to do this morning. Let me invite you to open your Bible to Luke 2:8-14. If you don’t have a Bible with you, you’re welcome to use one of our pew Bibles. You can find Luke 2 on page 781. But what we’re going to try to unwrap this morning is this: How the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ is meant to birth in us the true spirit of Christmas

This is a great story. Why don’t you read it with me?
And there were shepherds living
out in the fields nearby,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
And they were terrified.
But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid!
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.”

Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel
praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and peace on earth to men
on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:8-14

There’s much going on in this encounter between heaven and earth, but the first reality of the Christmas Spirit I'd like to unwrap for us is this:

1. Christ’s birth is profoundly personal! The story really begins innocent enough. You’ve got a bunch of ordinary shepherds doing their 9 to 5. Nothing spectacular about their job. Their just watching their sheep at night while everyone else is having dinner and telling stories to their little ones as they are tucking them in for the night. Then wham - God’s unnamed angel explodes on the scene and nearly gives these guys a heart attack! They are terrified. But give them credit. They don’t run. They stand their guard. But what I love about this picture is that when God is ready to announce the greatest news to all the world, He brings it to the most ordinary of people in the world, shepherds. Out of all the people who have been waiting for the Messiah to come - who would have thought that God would choose these guys on the graveyard shift on the backside of Bethlehem?

The first thing I want us to see here today is the personal touch of God’s grace. If the good news of great joy is to be for all people, then God proved it by announcing it to people at the lowest level of the pecking order. He came to a bunch of no accounts. Even Luke, who was the most detailed recorder of Gospel accounts, failed to get their names. But the God knew their names and chose them to be the first to hear the good news. And what I love about the shepherd’s story is that their story is our story.

Think about this. If God brought the good news of Christ’s birth to some forgettable shepherds that means this gospel really is for anyone: it’s avaliable to motel maids, burger flippers and mushroom pickers – its for truck drivers, janitors and shift workers – its available to drop-outs, the drugged out and the left out. If God came to shepherds, no one is left out. The fact that God came to the shepherds proves how truly personal is the birth of Christ.

But what makes it profoundly personal is that this child in the manger is the Savior of the world. When Christ was born, hope became a reality for every person. Hope became a reality for you and for me. Because Jesus is the Savior, any person can be rescued from the consequences of sin. Anyone can be restored to peace with God. Anyone can have his or her shame removed be made whole again. Anyone can be set free from fear. And anyone can experience the love and acceptance their heart craves: All because Jesus was born to die for the sins of the world. Hebrews 2:14-15 spells out how profoundly personal a Savior we have: Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. You cannot get more personal than that. Jesus was born to die for you, to be your Savior, to restore you to God. And if that doesn’t start to take your joy out of neutral, else is will? Christ’s birth is profoundly personal. He came for you!

2. Christ’s birth is boldly historical! The angel announces that the Savior is born …in Bethlehem, the city of David! The Savior’s birth is a historical fact. Jesus was born in a real city. Right there in Israel, God entered space and time. He had a real mother and earthly father. Eight days later they presented him at the Temple. While there, Simeon held him and gave God praise; Anna saw him and did the same. Much of this was in fulfillment of the prophecy given by God to Micah who wrote, "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrata, too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity." Micah 5:2

If Jesus’ coming was not grounded in history, it could not be true. But it is true. Luke took his account from eyewitnesses to his birth. Jesus was a historical figure who was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, revealed himself as the Messiah throughout Israel, died a cruel death outside Jerusalem, and then rose from the grave after three days, appearing first to Peter and then to the twelve and then to more than 500 of his followers. Jesus birth is not just some imaginary fairy tale or some mythical children’s story, but historical fact. I don’t know if that gives you joy, but I know it does for me.

I remember the first Christmas I celebrated after I received Christ. I remember singing “God and sinners reconciled.” All of a sudden, these words made singing, “Hark the Herald” make sense. This was the good news of the angel. That baby born in Bethlehem is the Savior. If he had never been born in history - this song and every other song and celebration about Jesus would be a lie, they’d be a joke. But now it’s true. Christ’s birth is boldly historical. That means His salvation is undeniably reliable. There’s a certainty in the Savior – there’s a security in the salvation He brings. That is good news of great joy! Let this good news stir your heart – fill your heart. Christ’s birth is profoundly personal; it’s boldly historical, but also,

3. Christ’s birth is uniquely relational! The angel said, “You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Have you ever stopped to ponder what you would find if you unwrapped those swaddling cloths? What you’d find is something that all of us are quite familiar with: that this child born to be Savior was a person just like you and me. His mother needed to feed him, diaper him, hold him and burp him, just like your mother had to do for you. And being born in a manger is just not the same as being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. He came into the world in a muddy, messy, stinky and stank stable.

His first life experience was as a homeless person. His next experience was as a refugee on the run. Finally, when he made it back to Nazareth, He’d soon hear the accusations of being an illegitimate child. Growing up he'd get calloused hands from sweeping his father’s carpenter shop, laugh and play with his siblings, but he’d also begin to witness the injustices and sufferings of life. And as He would begin his ministry as the Messiah, He know what it was like to be tempted, would experience what it was like to be applauded and adored, but also what was like to be rejected and hated. But the good news is that because Jesus came into the world as a baby, He knows what your life is like. Which prompted the writer of Hebrews tells us that This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses; for he faced all of the same testing we do, yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15

Christ’s birth is uniquely relational. He came to our turf, moved into our neighborhood, experienced life on our terms. And because of that, He now understands the trials you face, the fears that cripple you, and the sorrows that crush your spirit. He knows what it’s like to be disappointed, he’s felt the sting of prejudice, and He knows the struggle of temptation and your longing for love. Because Jesus was fully human He knows you completely. And that should not just give you hope, but joy. Christ’s birth is uniquely relational. Not only is He for us, but He is like us! Finally,

4. Christ’s birth is intrinsically joyful! Intrinsically joyful – what’s that mean? Joy is not something we can conjure up, or make happen. There is no recipe to make joy. Joy is a by-product, a fruit, a result. It comes from within. You can’t buy it. No one can give it to you… that is until now: Because the Bible tells us that God gives joy. That’s what happened when the angel announced the good news. He said that it is new of great joy. For joy is found in the Savior. And one of the best illustrations of this joy is found in the angels themselves. You see, only one angel announced the good news. But after, after he had done it, all heaven exploded with joy, and we read, Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

For ages the angels of heaven had been waiting for the day when God’s plan of salvation would come to man. Here were those who knew God, who were with God, creations of heaven that had never known separation from God – beings that had seen the plight of mankind. They knew what we were missing: the presence of Christ. And the day Christ was born they could not contain their joy, because now we would know God like they knew God. But not only that, for the first time they saw a side of God they had never fully experienced before – they saw the mercy and grace of God for mankind, and this filled them with such joy, they could not contain themselves.

This inexpressible enthusiasm of the goodness of God can only be experienced when God touches your heart with His mercy and grace. This is what the birth of Christ was meant to produce in us. This is the true Spirit of Christmas. May this joy, this presence of Christ, this goodness of God renew your Christmas spirit this year as you celebrate the birth of your Savior. Let’s pray.