CHRISTMAS EVE INTERLUDE
"Pondering God's Christmas Signs Of Encouragement"
(Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-20)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

As we look around the sanctuary and appreciate its Christmas decorations, knowing that our homes are also similarly trimmed, our expectations for a happy Christmas run high! The children are excited and our kitchens are full of goods both baked and received as we plan to celebrate Christ's birth!

But, that expectation of fulfilling happiness can often run so HIGH that, if not met, even we Christians can struggle with sadness:

(1) While sitting in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit of the Connecticut Children's Hospital last Wednesday, I witnessed a two month old baby being administered a very painful injection! After all the commotion was over, and the baby lay heaving heavy, exhausted sobs, the young mother turned her head away and started wiping tears from her own face. The young father who had nervoulyy watched the whole event looked completely ashen! It reminded me of the many people in our world who will find this Christmas very challenging!

(2) While caroling last Sunday, as we came to the "We Wish You A Merry Christmas!" song that we habitually use to conclude our singing at a given house, the party to whom we were singing stopped singing! They had lost a close relative this year, and didn't have the strength to sing that final song! Christmas was not going to be easy!

(3) People in our church body are either facing are have faced stiff challenges to their being happy this Christmas:

(a) Last Sunday, I received a call from a party who was temporarily distraught over a water-logged situation in their home that had developed with the storm. Though the matter turned out to be a temporary problem, the police officers thought the structural integrity of the house itself might be jeopardized, and ordered evacuation. The believer was understandably upset, and asked me to pray about it!

(b) Another party in our Church body is facing a potentially deteriorating physical condition that will have lifelong effects on her lifestyle. Again, this month, my wife received a call from the party requesting encouragement and prayer.



How do we handle disillusionment with Christmas expectations this year?!

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "At times our EXPECTATIONS for being filled with great joy peak higher at CHRISTMAS than at other times so that IF things aren't all that UP, we can struggle with depression! How may we EFFECTIVELY deal with such discouragement?!"
  1. Mary had her expectations for happiness that first Christmas RAISED HIGH by God's declarations of Her firstborn's arrival:
    1. God's messenger, the Angel Gabriel, announced to Mary that she would bear the Messiah, the Son of God, Luke 1:26-35.
    2. As Gabriel then relayed how Mary's elderly cousin, Elizabeth who had been childless would also bear a child, Mary took this added joyful news to heart and rushed to visit this cousin, Luke 1:36-39.
    3. The meeting of these expectant mothers sparked mutual outbursts of joy upon their expectations of the birth of Mary's child, Lk. 1:40-55.
    4. Their mutual encouragement extended nearly three months, deepening their expectations of fulfillment upon the birth of Jesus, Luke 1:56.
  2. Yet, Christ's BIRTH at FIRST seemed very DISCOURAGING:
    1. In contrast to Luke 1, Christ's birth at first was a disheartening event:
      1. Mary had to heed a government census edict and travel with her espoused husband 75 miles just before giving birth to Jesus, Luke 2:1-5; The Macmillan Bible Atlas, p. 142, maps #225 and #226.
      2. Then, while in Bethlehem, though close to her delivery date, the couple still could not obtain a room in the town's inn, Luke 2:7c.
      3. Since the only shelter available was a public stable, Mary was left with no alternative but to deliver her son before strangers, wrap her baby in cloth strips and lay him in a lowly manger, Luke 2:6-7.
    2. If anything, such a delivery itself at first seemed a dispiriting contrast to all the blessing that Luke 1 promised it should be.
  3. As though offsetting any chance for Mary to become depressed, God gave an ENCOURAGING SIGN at Christ's BIRTH:
    1. God prepared an event to incorporate the MANGER as a sign that would have encouraged MARY HERSELF, Luke 2:8-18:
      1. In the nearby fields were shepherds keeping their sheep by night, those who knew well the location of any Bethlehem manger, 2:8.
      2. God then sent His heavenly angels to announce to these men the grand event of Messiah's birth in Bethlehem, Luke 2:9-11.
      3. Now, in announcing Jesus' birth, God's angel gave the shepherds a sign to identify WHICH Bethlehem newborn was the Messiah: they would identify Him as the only Bethlehem newborn wrapped in cloth strips and lying in a manger, Luke 2:12:
        1. The shepherds knew that finding a newborn infant in a manger was very unusual, for even then a mother would use such a bed only as a matter of "last resort," T.D.N.T., v. VII, p. 231.
        2. Hence, Jesus' makeshift crib itself acted as the verifying signal to the shepherds that Messiah, the Lord had actually arrived among lowly men from heaven's glory!
      4. This sign following the angelic announcement set the shepherds in motion toward encountering Mary and her infant, Luke 2:13-16a:
        1. Having announced this sign, the angel was joined by a host of the heavenly host, glorifying God for Messiah's birth, 2:13-14.
        2. Well, deeply moved by the angelic encounter, the shepherds in short order naturally followed up on the news as to the baby's location, and hurried to the manger to greet Him, Lk. 2:15-16a.
    2. The shepherds' news to Mary of their angelic encounter, especially regarding the manger itself, became in turn a sign to Mary of God's encouragement in her current situation, Ibid., T.D.N.T., VII, p. 231.
      1. Once the shepherds had met Mary and her infant son, they heralded abroad the angelic message, including the news of the sign of Mary's son being the Messiah by way of the manger scene, 2:17.
      2. All who heard the shepherds marveled at their words, something that would have greatly astounded and encouraged Mary, Lk. 2:18.
      3. Indeed, we read Mary "treasured" (NIV) (suntayreo = "treasure up in one's memory", Arndt & Ging., Grk.-Engl. Lex. of N.T., p. 800) and pondered the significance of all these events, Lk. 1:19.
      4. So great was her encouragement that Mary reported these things to Luke for his Gospel that she knew would go to the world, 1:2!
Application: If facing a disillusioning Christmas, (1) like Mary was, become related to God by putting our faith in Christ as Savior from sin, Jn. 1:12; Lk. 1:35, 38. (2) Then, as did Mary, (a) do the BEST we can in the circumstances faced (putting her baby in the manger) and (b) see GOD signal His encouragement IN those very circumstances! (c) We will have a testimony to share to all as did Mary through Luke, the Gospel writer!

Lesson: As Mary made the MOST of the discouraging circumstances she faced in placing her newborn in the MANGER, GOD ENCOURAGED her IN her work that first Christmas to make the event a HUGE blessing!



Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 After delivering the December 10th message where I testified how God had always granted us enough sweet breads for use in Christmas caroling here at Nepaug, I remember announcing with some apprehension the possibility of canceling our Christmas caroling ministry set for the next Sunday, December 17th. You will recall how windy and rainy it was that morning, and how I warned that we might have to call of the caroling effort and just meet in Fellowship Hall.

While making that announcement, I remember wondering IF I had stepped over my bounds in sharing with you how the Lord had always encouraged us with the sweet breads in 18 years of Christmas caroling. I remember wondering if the weather was going to keep us from delivering these breads, and what a discouragement it might be if we could NOT do so for the first time in 19 tries!

Well, your pastor's faith had to be stretched. Maggie Mischak had prayed that the Lord would provide spring like weather so she could read her Braille Christmas caroling book. When the weather is in the twenties, her fingers get cold, and so she can't "read" to sing many of the carol choruses with us.

God answered Maggie's prayer and my concern. Apparently, the big low pressure area came right over us just as we were about to go caroling, and the weather, around 45 degrees beginning at 6 p.m., stayed balmy and still without any precipitation or wind until even we drivers had returned at 7:45 p.m. Then, the thunder and lightning started up with the second-half of the storm, and we ended up driving home in sleety-snowy weather!

The Lord had encouraged us for the nineteenth time of caroling here at Nepaug! Accordingly, we can put the year, 2000 in the books as another testimony of God's triumph over trying circumstances!

God asks that we put our faith in Him, and do the BEST that we can with the "hand" we have been dealt this Christmas! All we then do is WATCH how HE signals His encouragement for us that supplies us a testimony of His great grace, the same thing Mary, the mother of Jesus also experienced that first Christmas!