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December 24, 2005
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God is With Us
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"CHRISTMAS EVE MESSAGE: The old, old Story"
- Here tonight we have read and sung again the great story, the account of the coming of Jesus. It is a story that began not on earth but in heaven, in the counsel of Almighty God, before anything existed. Even then, Scripture tells us, God the Son knew He would give his life to save a fallen humanity who then were yet to be created.
It is a story that we find reflected throughout the Bible not just in the passages we have read tonight, but from the opening pages of the Bible where at the very beginning, when the first man and woman chose sin over relationship with the Living God, even then, God said that from the woman's seed one would come who would crush the head of the deceiving serpent, the devil.
Again, when the first patriarch is called by God from his hometown to the place which God will show him, even then, God's plan was not just to set apart a single man but for the blessing poured forth onto that one to pour out onto many.
When in captivity in Egypt the then fledging nation of Israel were protected by God by the sacrificial offering of a lamb, foreshadowing the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Through every book of the Old Testament there is witness given to one who would come. Kings spoke of Him and prophets declared Him - the savior, the messiah would come. By the time Jesus was born in Bethlehem, born of the seed of that woman, more prophecies had been amassed about him. For all to be fulfilled in one man was more than a mathematical impossibility. Even for eight of them to be fulfilled was a probability of 10 to the 17th power, that is a 10 with 17 zeros following. That is a quite a number.
So, we have told the story but that story includes 1000's of years of history, hundreds of magnificently fulfilled prophecies, culminating in the birth of that child.
Jesus did not come to be born in a manger and end up starting a religion about a man who lived a long time ago. Rather, Jesus came into the womb of Mary and the manger in Bethlehem to begin a pattern of how God wants to work in people.
God does not want to work from a distance, with us seeking to keep a bunch of rules and somehow earn God's favor. No, instead, God wants to work from inside of each of us, uniting us into the Body of Christ, something bigger than we are when alone to transform us from the inside out.
As Mary received Christ in her womb, so we receive Jesus into our hearts. As God in the flesh was born through her body, so godlike character and lifestyle is birthed through how we live our lives. We too put flesh on who Jesus is.
Christianity is not taking a horse and teaching it to run faster and faster, no, that would be world religions with their attempts of people to reach God. Christianity is taking that horse and doing surgery to give it wings so that it may fly. (quote from CS Lewis)
- You and I are meant to be winged horses - we are meant to become people who when others encounter us, encounter Jesus who lives in and with us. We are meant to be changed from the inside out by the God who came to be with us, by being born among us, by coming to dwell in our hearts.
So tonight our motive is not just to add decoration to our lives by being here together, by retelling the Christmas story yet again. Our desire is not to just get the "god stuff" out of the way so we can go open our packages. But our reason for gathering is to worship, to praise, to honor this God who has gone to all lengths that we could have transformed, joy-filled lives.
For that is exactly what this God can do.
In High School I lacked direction and hope. I was the fulfillment of Scripture living without hope and without God in this world. I went to church but did not get it. I lived in a fog, unsure who I was or why. My actions betrayed my insecurities. I was prideful, boastful and rude. I lacked confidence and wisdom. I was trapped in confusion, doubt and fear. For me Jesus was just in the manger - I took him out when I could use him, I prayed occasionally about tests or difficulties, I went to church - then I put him back into the manger.
My real encounter with Jesus came after my first year in college.
That summer I had taken a job selling Bibles door to door in Newton, IA, and was being asked a question door after door for which I had no answer: "Are you saved?" People asked me, and then they'd say, "What was the date and what was the Time?"
I feared I could not survive a whole summer without knowing the answer to those questions. Now, I do not believe you need to be able to state emphatically the date and time of your salvation, in order to be saved from sin and death, however, I do know it is essential to know that you have turned from sin to God. It is important to be able to identify that you have changed directions in your life.
The questions baffled me. I phoned home and asked my mom if our pastor had ever talked about salvation. She was nonplussed: " Of course!" she told me, "Where were you?"
That was an accurate question. Lost, I think, was the answer.
On May 23, 1978 at 11:30 pm I knelt beside my bed and told God either I was saved and doubting this or I had never really been saved from my sins. On my knees there the great exchange took place. All I knew of me was exchanged for all I knew of Jesus. When I crawled into bed that night it was with a sense of peace and joy I had never previously known. I had my date and time, but more than that, God had my heart.
Now I have said that the purpose of God entering the heart was the same purpose of Him entering Mary's womb. It is to be born through our lives. God comes in, in order to come through. Jesus moved into my heart and life in a new way. Things changed. Most awesomely, my attitudes, my penchant for depression, my confusion, doubt and fear gave way to relationship with this God who knew my name and loved me enough to change me.
The cool thing is that Jesus does not just move in for a short time, no, for these 27 years since that time Jesus has continued to change, transform, renew, enlarge, grow my life and that my friends is exactly what He will do with yours. Make certain this Christmas to accept the gift of relationship He offers.
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