Sermons

 "Christmas-Miracles of Transformations"   

Luke 2:1-20

Good morning, Turn with me to Luke 2 and read along with me the Christmas story as told by Luke. 

Luke 2:1-20 1  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5  To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7  And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8  And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15  And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17  And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19  But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. 

Father, thank You for Your Christmas Gift to us simply because we’re important to You and You Love so, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

The above is a story that is under attack today in America and all around the world. Good will toward men? Peace on earth? What happened? Separation of church and state! Atheist sign beside the nativity scene in our capitol.

A Christian employee in Panama City, Florida, fired because she refused to greet the customers with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." A school in the Midwest was sued because they put up Christmas decorations and failed to include the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

A group in our nation’s Capital wanted to put up a sign celebrating "Festivus" which was a made up holiday from the old Seinfeld show. Atheists want to totally do away with Christmas as a national holiday; I think it is a poor reflection on this once great "Christian" nation.

I don’t mind people celebrating whatever they want to celebrate but it is the elimination of Christmas that irks me. With all the hoopla going around I wanted to take a look at what life would be like without Christmas.

If Christmas had never happened there would be…no winter family gathering...nothing to look forward to as days get shorter and thermometers fall, no Christmas gifts, no holiday traditions, Christmas carols, decorations, Christmas trees, Charlie Brown Christmas specials, no Grinch who stole Christmas, no Jimmy Stewart and “It’s a Wonderful Life” and children would have to go to school the entire month of December.

If there had never been a Christmas, the world would be far different than it is today – in ways you may never have imagined. For instance, when Jesus came, He taught His followers to love God, but also their neighbors! (Luke 10:27). To live out this idea, His followers invented the idea of organized charity.

It was the early Christian communities that stressed support for widows, orphans, the sick and disabled. They organized efforts to help those who were dying. They built, staffed, and paid for hospitals.

In recent times, Christ’s followers have founded virtually every charitable organization on earth, including the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, World Relief, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Food for the Hungry, and Compassion International.

Without the birth of Christ, education would be very different today. Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and almost every one of the first 123 American colleges and universities were founded by Christians.

Hard to imagine those schools now teach evolution and deny the very existence of God were started as Christian universities.

If there had never been a Christmas, much of the good in this world would be missing. Much of the good we’ve experienced would be missing. None of our great Christmas memories would have happened.

But without Christmas, something far worse wouldn’t have happened: Christ would not have come. I don’t even want to think about life without the birth of Jesus. He came as one of us.

Think about it for a minute. JOHN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Here was the Creator, there from the beginning of time, the One that everything was made for and nothing was made without Him, the light on man, and He chose to come to earth as a fragile, vulnerable human.

Why would such a sovereign being do that for us? What possible motive could He have had to come and endure such scorn and ridicule? To go through the pain of the cross, only to be rejected by the very people He died for.

Only one reason that I can think of and it’s found in JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

It was purely the love of God that birthed that baby to earth 2,000 years ago. It was His desire to have His creation dwell with Him and worship Him.

We cannot understand the depth of God’s love for us. It is incomprehensible to our little minds that ANYONE...much less our creator...could love us that much. Especially when mankind treats Him the way we do.

EPHESIANS 3:14 “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

It is so ironic to me to watch children open their presents on Christmas morning. The joy in their faces, the anticipation of what’s in those brightly wrapped gifts. It makes us feel good to give good gifts. What kind of feeling do you think God gets whenever one of His children opens up the gift He gave especially for them?

Do you think that any child would leave a gift

unopened if they knew it was theirs? Yet, to this day there remains for some an unopened gift from our heavenly Father. A very special one-of-a-kind gift, fellowship with Jesus!

God wants us all to have communion with Him. He doesn’t want anyone to be without this gift of salvation. LUKE 15:7 “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”

As Christians we celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus the promised Messiah. Jesus came to bring hope, forgiveness and to change the hearts of people. Christmas is about miracles of transformation.

When we talk about Jesus changing the hearts of people we are not talking about physical hearts. We’re talking about spiritual hearts—that involves our total being as a person, our will, mind and emotions.

When you understand the true meaning of Christmas it brings about a change in our heart and outlook on life. 

In the “Christmas Carol,” Scrooge lived a miserable life of greed, but when he awoke from his sobering encounter with the ghosts of Christmas: past, present and future, Scrooge sees his empty, bitter life for what it is. He wants his life to change, so he humbled himself and retraced the steps of his offenses committed on Christmas Eve. As he did, he revealed a remarkable change of heart.

Scrooge declares: “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.

Scrooge’s life changes: instead of grasping now he is giving. Instead of being bitter, he now loves. Instead of being indifferent to the needs of others, now he is caring. Scrooge’s life is transformed from humbug to hallelujah.

The birth of Jesus brought about many dramatic changes. We date our calendars AD and BC. - After the birth of Christ and before the birth of Christ.

People surrounding the birth of Christ experienced different transformations. From their experiences we learn several life principles to live by.

From the experience of Zechariah and Elizabeth we learn the first life principle: “Don’t Give Up on Prayer.”

Zechariah a Priest and his wife Elizabeth were faithful followers of the Lord. They had been

praying all their married life to have a baby. To not have children in Old and New Testament times was to live in disgrace. To have a child was a demonstration of being blessed of the Lord. The more children the more blessed.

Now Zechariah and Elizabeth were older and beyond child bearing years. Down through the years they had faithfully prayed to have their own child, but so far, no children. 

They were ready to give up on praying for a child. They may have thought that it must not be God’s will for us to have children. I imagine they often would ask: “Why doesn’t’ God hear our prayer?”

Luke 1:11-25 gives the story that God did hear their prayer. God wanted to answer their prayer with a miracle birth.

When Zechariah was in the temple offering prayer at the altar an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that his prayers had been heard and his wife Elizabeth would have a son and his name would be John.

Zechariah had been praying for years and now that an Angel of the Lord announced that his prayers were answered he doubted. He said, “How is this possible, we are both too old to have children?” 

The Angel answered, “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you to tell you this good news.”

Elizabeth did have a baby and they named their son, John. I imagine this family became the talk of their town. Zechariah and Elizabeth proudly walked through their village with their newborn son. Village people would comment: “There goes a happy family. There goes a blessed family.”

Can’t you imagine the transformation of attitudes in Zechariah and Elizabeth? They had a glowing testimony, “Praise God our prayers were answered.” John is our miracle baby.

Principle one from those involved in the Christmas story: “Don’t Give Up Praying.” God does answer prayer—it may be “wait,” it may be “yes” and it may be “no.” For Zechariah and Elizabeth it was “wait.” God answered with a miracle boy – John the Baptizer- the preacher that prepared the way for Jesus the Messiah.

Zechariah and Elizabeth reached the end of themselves and God responded with an answer.

We need to realize that we are not a self-made person. We are a God-made person. II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come?”

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. is an example of a person that had to reach the end of himself before he could get a proper perspective on life.

Rockefeller drove himself to achieve one ambition in life, to make money. At the age of 33 he earned his first million. At the age of 43, he controlled the biggest company in the world. At age 53 he was the richest man on earth and the world’s only billionaire.

Then he developed a disease (alopecia) that caused all his hair to fall out, his eyelashes and his eyebrows disappeared, and he became skin and bones. His weekly income was one million dollars, but he could digest only milk and crackers. He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards’ day and night. He did not sleep, did not smile, and did not enjoy anything in life.

The doctors predicted that he had one year to live. One newspaper had written his obituary in advance in case of his sudden death. Then one sleepless night John D. Rockefeller came to his senses and realized that he could not take one dime with him into the next world. He learned and accepted the fact that money is not everything.

The next morning, he was a changed man. He began to help churches with his amassed wealth. He established the Rockefeller Foundation. The foundation’s funding of medical research led to the discovery of penicillin. John D. Rockefeller began to sleep well, eat and enjoy life. He did not die at 54 but lived to 98.

A second principle to live by is – “Build Your Life on the foundation of faith.”

We see this principle lived out in the lives of Joseph and Mary. The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and greeted her with dramatic news: “You will be with child and give birth to a son and give him the name Jesus. 

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33)

Mary replied that this could never happen because she was still a virgin. The Angel Gabriel assured her that with God nothing is impossible. God would give her a baby sent from God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Her son would be the incarnate Son of God. 

In Jesus God would become a human person, all man but also all God. While on earth He would live as a man, 100% devoted to His Heavenly Father. He would take upon Himself the sins of the world and defeat the powers of Satan and darkness.

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.” Mary responded in faith. Mary did not believe she was worthy of such an honor, but because she was humble and faithful she was worthy.

Mary responded with miracle faith – “I don’t know how this is possible, but may it be as you have said.”

From time to time we need to join in with Mary and sing: “Only believe, only believe, all things are possible, only believe.”

God took a chance on Mary and Joseph and they came through. They accepted God’s mission and responded in faith.

When you expect the best out of people you encourage them to make changes for the better.

An elementary school teacher, Jean Thompson, a fifth-grade school teacher, helped bring about change in one of her students named Teddy Stoddard. Teddy didn’t play well with other children, his clothes were always dirty, and he constantly needed a bath. Teddy was a sad, angry little boy.

One day Mrs. Thompson reviewed his school records and was surprised at what she found. His first-grade teacher wrote: “Teddy is a bright, inquisitive child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners; he is a joy to be around.” 

His second grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is an excellent student well-liked by his classmates, but is troubled because his mother has terminal illness, and life at home must be a struggle.” 

His third grade teacher wrote, “Teddy continues to work hard but his mother’s death has been hard, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps are not taken.” 

Teddy’s fourth-grade teacher wrote: “Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. He is tardy and could become a problem.”

It was nearly Christmas time and children brought her presents wrapped in colorful paper, except for Teddy’s, which was wrapped in heavy brown paper from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson opened his present and found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was ¼ full of cologne. The other children in the classroom began to laugh but Mrs. Thompson put the bracelet on and commented on how pretty it was. She also dabbed some of the perfume on her wrist. After the party Teddy Stoddard stayed behind just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to.” When the children left, the teacher cried.

That very next day Mrs. Thompson took a new interest in teaching her children. She worked especially hard with Teddy. As she worked with him he seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him the faster he responded. By the end of the year he had become one of the smartest children in the class.

A year later she found a note under her door at school from Teddy telling her that of all the teachers she was his favorite. 

Six years went by and she got another note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school and was third in his class and she was still his favorite teacher. 

Four years later she got another letter saying he had graduated from college with the highest of honors and assured Mrs. Thompson she was still his favorite teacher. 

Several years later she received another letter telling how much he had appreciated her as his teacher and she was still his favorite. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

A year later Mrs. Thompson received a letter stating Teddy was getting married. He explained

his father had died a few years earlier and wondered if she would sit in the pew usually reserved for the mother of the groom. 

Mrs. Thompson did attend the wedding on that day; she smelled just like she had smelled many years before, on that last day of school before the Christmas holiday began. 

I love that story but God has done that and even greater for us.

Transformations come when you believe that “With God all things are possible.”

Jesus came to earth as a baby; the very Son of God humbled Himself and became a man, because He believed you and I were worth it. God believes in us. The coming of Jesus proved that fact. God believes we are of infinite value.

The example of Zechariah and Elizabeth give us the life principle: Their lives were transformed because they didn’t give up on prayer. Our life principle: “Don’t Give up on Prayer.”

The example of Joseph and Mary teach another life principle: Joseph and Mary had their lives transformed because they “Built their Lives on the Foundation of Faith.” and on the “Foundation of Prayer.”

Third Principle comes from the Shepherds watching their flocks near Bethlehem.

The lowly shepherds experienced a transformation of their lives. The song “Nothing ever Happens to a Shepherd” describes the life of a Shepherd watching their flocks at night.

The song reads, “It’s cold out tonight in this God forsaken place and we’re stuck here with a thousand sheep. While life is exciting everywhere else the highlight of our day is sleep.

Shepherds are notorious for making little profit. We garner just enough for room and board. While everyone else wallows in their wealth we’re financially ignored.

It’s lonely out there in this isolated job, our position is without esteem. We’re socially challenged; we’re societies scourged, we’re not exactly every woman’s dream. Shepherds have a humble purpose. Of our fate few people really care; sometimes I wonder if God knows we exist. If He does, I’m certain He’s forgotten where.

Nothing ever happens to a shepherd; Life is as boring as boring can be. While exciting things occur all over the world, nothing ever happens to me. Nothing ever happens to me.”

Back then no one thought God would be interested in Shepherds. Shepherds were not religious. Rabbis ranked them on the same level with Prostitutes and “habitual sinners.” Shepherds were outcasts, barred from the Synagogue and not included in “Polite Society.”

On that special night an Angel appeared to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shone around 
them and the shepherds were terrified. 

The angel said: “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 on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

The shepherds found the baby in a manger just as the angels said and the spirit of the shepherds was changed from gloom and insignificance to joy. 

Luke 2:20: “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” 

The shepherds were transformed from humbug to hallelujah. They rejoiced and said, “Now shepherds are famous. We are the first to see the Messiah, the newborn King.”

Their fear was transformed into joy. Their bewilderment was transformed into wonderment.

This Christmas practice the principles we learn from Zechariah and Elizabeth, “Don’t give up on prayer.” From Joseph and Mary, “Build your Life on the Foundation of Faith. From the Shepherds- Live Committed to the Praise Principle.” And watch God turn your humbugs into hallelujah this Christmas. 

I believe that we are in for a rough time as Christians. We will be asked to compromise the truths of God’s word, to accept things that are ungodly and unholy in the name of tolerance. There is one thing that God is not tolerant of, and that is unrepentant sin in the believer’s life. We must stand strong for God now more than ever. 

Be Holy as He is Holy...that’s our call. Listen, He knows when you’ve been bad or good.....so be good, for goodness sake!

"How can I be good? It’s too hard. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t control my temper. I can’t resist temptation. I can’t stand to be around some of my in-laws."

It is impossible in yourself to live as God wants you to.....but I have good news! 1 PETER 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

We must have God’s Spirit living within us; diminishing our flesh and increasing Christ in us. Here then, we see the gift of God to the sinner and the gift from God to the believer....LUKE 11:13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

Have you asked the Holy Spirit into your life? Do you live in a manner that is yielding to His Spirit? Have you put your flesh to death? Are you led by the Spirit? 

ROMANS 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

So then, if you have never opened God’s free gift of salvation, He invites you to do so today. Don’t delay, do it now.

None of us are promised tomorrow. And if you haven’t received His gift of salvation by way of the Holy Ghost, He invites you to unwrap that present this morning. Without the power of the Holy Ghost, life will be harder than it has to be. Christmas will be over, but His gift of love for you will never end.

I pray everyone is going to have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I pray that every day of the New Year will be filled with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in your life and that you will experience the Miracles of Transformation daily. 

 

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!