DECEMBER 24, 2020 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US LIVE AT 10 AM ON SUNDAYS!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
SAVE THE DATE: The 2020 Marriage Retreat is scheduled to be Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and November 8!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
Coty Miller’s own “Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
SERMON TRANSCRIPTION:
During this season, we see lots of nativity scenes.
Down the street, Stolen Baby J
Growing up we had a classic nativity scene made of wooden pieces. I can remember seeing it on a mantle, sitting on top of something called angel hair. I looked it up and realized they discontinued it because it was spun glass meant to represent snow or clouds...they banned it cause it was dangerous!
I remember the first time I realized Joseph, Mary’s husband, was probably a carpenter (that’s why Jesus was) but, in most nativities, he has a Shepherds staff with the crook on it.
Don’t worry, in our culture, we have all kinds of biblical representations that aren’t looking for accuracy but symbolic representation.
Many, like the staff, are harmless but it is true that our western traditions take over and replace the ones that are already built into the Jewish narrative and we forget them!
Some of the traditions of Jesus’ birth go centuries deep - found the Old Testament. They work like time released revelations (or prophecies) telling us of the magnitude of this moment on earth.
So, very briefly tonight, I want to read from Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth in chapter 2 (you can turn there now if you have a bible) and point out ONE incredible symbol that we often overlook.
Tonight, we focus on...the MANGER as we read LUKE 2:1-14
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
Our stage is beginning to set:
Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem, a place identified as “the town of David”
...and this is where Joseph’s lineage was found - where he was raised - and where he and Mary travelled for the census.
Mary did NOT actually HAVE to go according to the law, BUT she goes anyway, likely because they want Joseph present at the birth of their child...this is how close they were to the birth.
Rather than risking Joseph’s absence during the birth, when the King ordered a census, they all decided to go together.
They were right about the birth because, it says in verse 6...
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, (what did she do?) She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger - She WRAPPED HIM IN CLOTHS AND PLACED HIM IN A MANGER (hold onto that...and they tell us this detail for a reason), because there was no guest room available for them.
This clues us in on some things in this scene, we tend to think “guest room”
...like an INN - a single structure with multiple rooms
In modern times, the equivalent to a hotel with many rooms but since there’s a RED, NEON “No Vacancy” sign buzzing in the window to communicate there are “no rooms available!”
But in a jewish context, it MOST LIKELY would have communicated a type of guest room attached to the traditional Jewish houses during this era where people would stay BUT since there were no rooms available, they are in a place where a manger would have been found.
Switching scenes the shepherds fields in VERSE 8, Luke says:
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
In the outlying areas of this small town called Bethlehem, were the Shepherd’s Fields,
The SAME fields where:
Rachel was buried,
Ruth and Boaz gleaned wheat for bread, and,
YES, where David was born, tended his fathers flock, and where he was ANOINTED to be the King…
...and so these fields are rich with the soil of YHWHs activity, these hills have recorded many important moments in the history of God’s people!!
...we are about to witness another one in VERSE 9.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them (the shepherds), and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news (say outloud: GOOD NEWS!!) I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a SIGN TO YOU: You will find a baby (Listen, here it is again) wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
How would they IDENTIFY the baby?
...wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
If you’re a shepherd during this time, you are VERY familiar with a manger - you know exactly what it was used for - AND you would be thinking “that’s an incredibly weird place to put a human baby? Just as you were about to ask the Angel: “WHY would you put the BABY...in a mang…”
Perhaps the angel, knowing how DENSE we humans can be, decides to break in with a cosmic praise choir and shut the place down!!!
13 SUDDENLY a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
No matter what questions or concerns the shepherds MAY have had, they are overwhelmed by the site and consumed by the praise of angels and you forgot every question you may have had...
For those listening to me tonight....
With all that may be going on in the world,
with all that is going on in our country
with all that could possibly be going on in your households and
with all that could possibly be going on in your heart and mind…
I am asking you to let it fade and, for just the next few moments, focus ALL YOUR ATTENTION on...the baby wrapped in cloth and laying in a manger.
THIS is a part of our church’s nativity scene. It’s an artistic depiction of a manger (fine craftsmanship) and
it is possible the manger looked similar to this BUT...
the most common type of manger was simply a bowl-like groove, dug into the ground at the higher level of the house while the animals stood in the lower.
This wasn’t fit for a child of any means, let alone a child of royalty, or one whose origins are divine! God himself wasn’t even afforded a proper birth story in his arrival to earth so, we have to ask “what’s going on?”
Did God, the Father, forget to do his christmas shopping and at the last minute thought: “I was GOING to prepare a throne room, with a grand processional, and a royal announcement - full Lion King - but I forgot to do my christmas shopping so instead...there’s a manger, let’s just use that!”
God doesn’t forget ANYTHING!
SO, “Why a manger?”
1) First, we all tend to know this is a representation of the humblest King whose beginnings are a humble birth - we get part to some extent!
...BUT, a theologian named Alfred Edersheim who was an Austrian man who convert from Judaism to christianity in the 1800’s! He was an incredible scholar utilizing Jewish and Hebrew culture and he made some powerful observations about this scene that help us to see more behind the story!
He says that, in a Jewish imagination some of the pieces connect in a profound way that are LOST on us today:
In Bethlehem, there were lots and lots of flocks of sheep being raised on the hills.
Many were used for sacrificial purposes (twice a day) and during the passover, thousands of sacrifices needed!
so you do the math...there were A LOT OF SHEEP being raised on these hills.
So, the best sheep of the purest lines were raised just on the fringe of Bethlehem by a special set of shepherd-priests at a location called Migdal Eder. In this place there:
Was a former military watchtower that was repurposed for the shepherds to get to higher ground when “keeping watch over their flocks” -- Hence the name MIGDAL EDER, which translates to “the tower of the flock”
When the lambs were born, they were inspected by these special shepherds, and if they were found without any imperfections, they needed to be protected - they couldn’t risk the danger of it getting scraped, scratched, broken bones, or any blemish in any way so, at the bottom of the tower in then stall of MIGDAL EDER, they would be:
WRAPPED IT IN CLOTHS to protect them
AND PLACED THEM WITHIN THE SMALL PROTECTIVE WALLS of the MANGER -
In this context, a manger makes a perfect crib to protect a newborn sacrifice.
Edersheim even makes a case for the idea that
Mary and Joseph may have gone here when there was no room elsewhere!
The shepherd-priests out on the hills were the ones who saw the angel and given the “sign” and they would know EXACTLY where they would find the baby!
SO, if you aren’t making the connections yet, let me put some things together for you,
The very cloths wrapped around Jesus and
The very manger he was laid in
...is proclaiming the extraordinary truth that He, like these perfect lambs of Migdal Eder will, one day, serve as “the umblemished sacrificial Lamb of God whose blood will take away the sins of the entire world!”
You see God, the Father, doesn’t FORGET anything. From the very beginning God had a plan!
But, if that isn’t enough for you tonight, buried deep within the soil of hills was Four CENTURY OLD time-released message from the prophet Malachi who wrote “From you, MIGDAL EDER will come a king who will have dominion over his people.”
We have ultimate humility and ultimate power RESIDING in one single child!!
From the very beginning God has a plan,
From the manger to the grave, God has a plan
From Malachi to Luke God had a plan
From Genesis to Revelation God has a plan
God had a plan of REDEMPTION all along!!
IF YOU LEAVE TONIGHT WITHOUT KNOWING THAT YOU FIT INTO THAT PLAN, I will have failed in conveying what the CLOTH and MANGER powerfully proclaim!!
No matter where you are
No matter who you are
No matter what you’ve done or what has happened to you
No matter how far you may feel you’ve gone from God, He is so much CLOSER THAN YOU REALIZE!
His plan and His sacrifice mean redemption for your life, and he calls out to you tonight!
I’m not boing to belabor this, but IF you do NOT know the one that we are celebrating tonight, I want you to hear, that He can be known!
If you did not know, God has a plan for you life too and
IF you would like to know him, we would love to aid you in that process.
Please reach out to us and
It is LITERALLY the MOST important thing you can do in your life.
Let me close with this - There is still a lot of mystery yet to be discovered...
maybe Joseph and Mary literally took refuge at Migdal Eder when nobody else had room, OR
maybe these were the shepherds to whom the angel appeared!
We don’t know but...
...what we do know, is that the Angel told the shepherds:
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. THIS WILL BE A SIGN TO YOU: You will find a baby WRAPPED in CLOTHS and lying in A MANGER.”
...AND THIS is when all of it just breaks loose! AT THE TELLING OF THIS NEWS the SILENT NIGHT on the fringe hills of Bethlehem SUDDENLY erupt with celestial brilliance and sound-shattering praise as the ANGELS SANG OUT:
“Glory to God in the
highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on
whom his favor rests!!!!”
Tonight, as we continue, may we be overwhelmed by...
the glory & wonder of angels singing
By the mystery & truth of the Gospel Story
And by the humility and power of the GOOD NEWS that the Savior has been born!!
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.