Dave spoke this morning from Isaiah 9:6-7. Christmas is highly commercialised nowadays, but we need to recapture the reason for the season. The birth of Jesus was not an unexpected event, but was the fulfilment of God’s promises throughout the ages. Isaiah spoke about the One to come as ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’, and in Jesus we see the beginning of God’s reign on earth which will be fully seen on His second coming. We live in the times between His first and second Advent, but Christmas becomes a time of hope and reminds us also of the challenge to be ready for when Jesus comes again.
We long for hope, living as we do in times of suffering, trials, disappointments and wars. God still has a good plan for our lives (Jer 29:11) and this includes hope and a future. Sacred truth such as this is always lived out in a secular realm. At Christmas, we remember how Jesus was born in a place ordered by the Roman emperor, but also realise that this was foreordained by God, long before it happened. (Micah 5:2) The two realities of God’s rule and Roman rule were brought together as God orchestrated every aspect of life to serve His purposes. Jesus being born in a stable in Bethlehem may not have been Mary’s ideal birth plan, but this was all part of God’s plan. Jesus was born at ‘just the right time’ (Gal 4:4) and despite the tensions of the day (with Herod trying to kill all those baby boys whom he saw as potential rivals to his throne), God’s will prevailed.
The shepherds were the first visitors to the stable (see Luke 2). Shepherds were not held in high esteem at this time (they were not even allowed to testify in court), but these were the people chosen by God to visit Jesus and to tell others about the miracle they had witnessed. God broke into their mundane world in spectacular fashion, and they remind us that simple obedience to God brings blessing and joy. They were blessed as they went to visit Jesus as commanded; they were essential to the Christmas story, for they remind us that we must celebrate the King.
As we prepare for both Christmas celebrations and the return of our King, we too can be blessed if we obey Jesus’s commands (see John 13:17). We must not just hear the word; we must live it!
