#262

The Twelve People Of Christmas

A Common Man

I enjoy speaking about Christmas because the Christmas story says so much to people of all walks of life. Luke, the great physician, wrote primarily to the Gentile or unchurched mind set. He also talked to the common man. Just look at the genealogy. Instead of going back to Abraham as does Matthew, he goes back to Adam, the first man.

Reaching Everyman

In the gospel of Luke's account of Christ's birth, we see how God intervenes and changes the lives of the rich and the poor; the Jew and the Gentile; the old and the young; the priest and the common laborer; the newly married and the widowed; those who are newly pregnant and those who have never been pregnant; the wise and the unwise; those who are with child and those who are childless.

Twelve Special People

We will be looking at the lives of twelve people who were affected by the great miracle of God becoming man and how we can learn from their example. Just as all humanity was changed in some way by Christ's coming nearly 2000 years ago, so we can change by seeing ourselves in some way in those twelve individuals I call "THE TWELVE PEOPLE OF CHRISTMAS."

The Individuals: Zechariah - The Minister Who Doubted God

Zechariah was on duty with his division of priests. As he served in God’s presence, 9 he was chosen by priestly custom to go into the Lord’s temple to burn incense. 10 All the people were praying outside while he was burning incense. (Luke 1:8-10, GW)

The priests who would go into the Holy of Holies had to be from a descendant of Aaron. According to the Torah the high priest is the one who is “the greatest from amongst his brethren.” What defines his greatness? This has been interpreted as greatness in piety (“awe of God”), wisdom, handsomeness, wealth (which, if necessary, is supplied to him), and strength. At this occasion, Zechariah had all these qualities. But according to scripture, he had one more characteristic: doubt.

Doubt Does Not Have To Be Total To Be Deadly

Zechariah said to the angel, “What proof is there for this? I’m an old man, and my wife is beyond her childbearing years.” (Luke 1:18, GW)

This priest was only asking an obvious question, but he was seeing things through human eyes and this would be a problem, albeit a temporary one. Understand that seeing an angel in the Holy of Holies was unusual so he was caught off guard, but his doubt was serious. Losing his voice basically put him out of a job during the pregnancy.

God Will Withhold His Voice But Only For A Season

And now, because you haven’t believed me, you are to be stricken silent, unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly come true at the proper time.” (Luke 1:20, TLB)

God, when He administers judgment does not forget his mercy and the angel tells Zechariah that his punishment was temporary. The lesson to be learned is that when you doubt, God can’t work through you. However, when you don’t doubt God can speak through you in small and great ways.

The Individuals: Elisabeth - Barren Without Purpose Or Promise In Her Life

Yet, they never had any children because Elizabeth couldn’t become pregnant. Both of them were too old to have children. (Luke 1:7, GW)

We don’t know exactly how old she was, but the important thing is that God does not forget His people no matter how long they wait for His promise to be fulfilled within them. In this case God turned her barrenness into blessing! We read it in Luke 1: 57-58:

When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very kind to her, and they shared her joy. (God’s Word)

Elisabeth Only Wanted A Child - God Gave Her A Prophet!

I can guarantee that of all the people ever born, no one is greater than John. (Luke 7:28, GW)

Here is an example of God's math - He subtracts and then multiplies. He never takes anything away from you that He doesn't replace with something better!

The Individuals: Joseph - Having Faith Even When It Looked Like God Wasn't Moving

Mary was pregnant with an unbelievable promise, but not everyone would see it that way. Joseph could not explain to others what happened. He heard people saying, "Why is your espoused wife pregnant now?" He had to face the ridicule of friends and relatives because God intervened in his life. They thought he had made a bad choice. To those around him he was told that he was faithful to a woman who wasn't apparently faithful to him and that he was foolish to believe her story.

Joseph Heard From God In A Dream And Trusted God More Than Men.

He trusted when it wasn't easy. His faith was strong when the circumstances apparently didn't support that faith. The key here is that faith is believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse. That’s an easy thing to say but it is hard to live out.

The Individuals: The Three Wise Men - They Followed A Promise And Financed A Miracle

While we could spend a lot of time on these individuals, including that we really don’t know how many of them actually came, we do know that they were used by God to meet a need through their worship. Their worship cost them but their worship paid for God's plan. You see in the big scheme of things Mary and Joseph were poor and couldn’t pay for a trip to Egypt let alone their stay there. God provides - but for His purposes and their gift protected God's plan and financed the trip to Egypt, and some believe it financed their stay and their return.

The Individuals: The Shepherds - Ordinary Men Interrupted By The Unordinary

Shepherds were in the fields near Bethlehem. They were taking turns watching their flock during the night. (Luke 2:8, GW)

We are assuming there were at least three of them, but the point is that God often interrupts our routine life to bring us news of the eternal. These men were just going through their nightly tasks and in this seemingly normal night, God showed up in a big way.

God Is Personal“Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone! 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem! (Luke 2:10-11, TLB)

Notice that God said, “I bring you,” which was important because these shepherds were a low part of society. God went to them first, not to the priests or the wealthy.

God Is A "TODAY" God

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11, KJV)

It is hard to comprehend but God was making this very personal to them, men who weren’t used to being in the proverbial loop and not accustomed to being given special privileges. But tonight that changed. “Right now” God is all of these things the angels told the Shepherds He would be immediately: Forgiver, Healer, Redeemer, Deliverer and Savior. Not tomorrow - but today; right now!

The Individuals: Simeon - He Saw God's Plan At Its Humble Beginnings And Embraced The Promise

When Simeon came to the temple he saw God's promise in a form he did not expect. He wasn’t told that the messiah would be a baby, he most likely was expecting to speak to a full grown man. Yet he rejoiced at seeing the beginning of the promise. We must remember to rejoice at the beginning of God's work much as you do in its fulfillment. Simeon embraced God's plan when no one else saw its earthly fulfillment. He didn’t despise the day of small beginnings (see Zech. 4:10)

The Individuals: Anna – Rejoicing And Not Bitter

And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. (Lk 2:37-38, KJV)

She was humble and took the bitter in her life and made it better. You see she was twice barren - widowed and childless and in her culture both were signs of being cursed. But in this case, these were choices for this woman of God. Anna was faithful to do God's will although it would have been easy to doubt Him. And remember that when Mary brought Jesus she could have been bitter or jealous of Mary's blessing - but instead she rejoiced and served God even more diligently.

The Individuals: Mary The Mother Of Jesus - Obedience Under Trying Circumstances

Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” (Luke 1:38, TLB)

Mary is example of what God wants to do in and through all of us. Like Mary, God wants to bring His plan to earth through us. He wants to birth in us the eternal. And if there was any time when the world needed deliverance, it was at this point in history. And yet in this time the world still needs a deliverer – if we let Him, He will birth in us the answer and the deliverance to others just like He did with this teenage girl who said yes to a difficult decision.

"Taxing" Worlds

If there is something this poor couple didn’t need it was to have to pay more money to the Roman government. And on top of that, they had to travel four days to give it. Travel to pay taxes with an 8-month pregnant wife. And if you know anything about traveling, when you get into a country you go through customs. At the place of customs they restrict where you can come or go. Another piece of this story is that they had no choice but to obey. It is my duty to do this was their response. These were the circumstances of their time.

There Was An Appointed Time

While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have her child. (Luke 2:6, GW)

God was saying through Mary – “Enough!! I will intervene! I will deliver you! There is a set time for your deliverance.” This delivery of her child was also a symbolic way for God to tell everyone in trying circumstances that no matter what you are going through, there will be time when it will end. The taxing of your strength will end, the time of people controlling your destiny and hindering your moves for God will end. And the birth of God’s plans for your life will begin.

Mary Could Have Easily Doubted God

She knew becoming pregnant at that time would be costly to her marriage, to her husband and to her reputation. She knew she would be called harlot when she was really a virgin. She knew her husband would be called foolish instead of faithful. She could have easily said on the journey to Bethlehem - "If God is living inside of me why is all of this happening?" But when the journey wasn't timely or comfortable (she was 8 months pregnant) Mary said nothing. She knew that God was not a liar and that the time of her deliverance and joy was set: God would do His part when He said He would!

Lessons Learned

In Zechariah we learned that doubt is deadly, but the judgment is temporary if we trust God. In Elisabeth we learned that God will bring blessings in place of barrenness if we trust Him. In Joseph we learned to trust God more than men. In the Wiseman we see that giving to God’s plan will change us and change the world. In the Shepherds we see that God’s care is personal and it comes to everyone from all walks of life and that now is that time. In Simeon we see that we need to accept God’s plan even if it comes in a way we didn’t expect. In Anna we see that being faithful and putting God above your desires for even a very long time will be rewarded with the best news of all. And in Mary we see that saying “yes” to a difficult task will allow His plans to be birthed in us even if it isn’t an easy path to follow.