William James once wrote, “When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.” Life is filled with choices. We make them every day, including as Mr James wrote, even when you are not, you are. Some choices we regret, some we’re glad we made. The choice is yours. You have one, and today is the day to make it.
When we talk of Christmas, there is nothing quite like reading the Christmas story itself. So here it is in 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.
You’ll notice in verses 1 through 5 that God will move heaven and earth to get His will accomplished. He will perform His promise every time! A lot of moving parts here: taxing by Rome; traveling from country to country; world economic changes in process; and even more that we don’t have time to deal with here in this setting. All of this for God to fulfill His will at bringing us the Savior at the perfect time and place. That is awesome. He chose to send Jesus, in this form, to save all those who would by faith chose Him.
Our focus for now is verses 8 through 20, so follow along as we search His will for us this Christmas…
Shepherds. Of all people God could have chose, He chose shepherds. At the time and even now they are some of the poorest and lowest trades in the world. Everyone needs them, but they don’t value them. God chose to send an angel to them in verses 9-14. God chose to give them a sign in verse 12. God chose to send a flock of His own… of angels to join the 1st angel in verses 9, and 13 and 14. The word “host” here is strat-ee-ah which is the greek word used in the New Testament as an ‘army group’. And the word “multitude” is the equivalent of an ‘innumerable crowd’. So there was an innumerable amount of angels from this army group. In the Roman army, where these words are taken from, this would be approximately 700,000 to an unheard of 1 million men. In this case angels. Let’s not get carried away and just break it down to innumerable. Amazing! What can just one angel do? What about 20? God chose to send a whole army of them. God chose to allow the shepherds to hear His choir. How amazing would that have been. I would imagine it would have been a little overwhelming.
The shepherds chose to go to Bethlehem and see. It actually says— “what the Lord has made known unto us” in verse 15. Why wouldn’t you want to participate in something God is doing? After all, God chose to make it known to you (15). The shepherds chose to hurry to see it in verse 16. We know this by the word “haste”, which means to ‘hurry with urgency’. If God made known something to you, why wouldn’t you hurry to it? Something to think about.
The shepherds chose to tell others, or “make known” as many as they could. The did so everywhere they went, or as it states “abroad”. What though? Not their version of the events, but the saying that was told to them. They chose to not make it about them. Did you see the word “saying”? In other words it’s not just a baby, but the “Savior” (verse 11). And clarified in verse 17 with— “the saying concerning this child”. So they saw it, then they had to tell others of it. I wonder if believers today fail to tell others of Christ because they haven’t seen Him work for themselves in such a long time they have nothing to talk about. Notice also how people responded, that didn’t personally experience it for themselves— “wonder” in verse 18, which is literally ‘awestruck’. I’ve noticed in my own life, when I’m not where I need to be with Christ, I hear a truth or an act of God and I’m more ‘shocked’ than anything. It’s an issue of disbelief for me at the moment and that isn’t good. How about you? Are we easily shocked by a God-level thing? Is faith becoming far fetched? When we hear of a truly faith-thing, a God-thing— does it make impact? Does it bring conviction? Or do we long to experience it for ourselves?
Mary chose to “keep” (guard) these things in her heart and she pondered on them. She did this again when they left Jesus at the temple and His response to her was— “I must be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2.49). Now, before you use that line as an excuse… How long have you been pondering on something God has told or shown you and not acted on it? Maybe it’s time to stop pondering and start acting. Jesus, in fact, used this as an indictment in Luke 24.25— “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken”. Act in obedience because there is no time left (2 Timothy 3).
Finally, the shepherds chose to go back to their own country, job, and way of life. But they went back changed! They went back to work on Monday but they did things differently. They “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (verse 20).
I purposely focused on a single word “chose”. The choice is your’s. God chose, the Shepherds chose, Mary chose, Now you choose. The shepherds were the first New Testament evangelists. They went to see this Jesus, in a hurry with urgency. Then they couldn’t help but speak about it. And then they went home changed… forever.
I believe it comes down to a simple choice. God chooses to bring us close and intimate to see HIs wonder. God then chooses us, to tell others. Now the choice is ours. Will we obey? God chose to send people my way to tell me the wonder of His salvation. People chose to obey Him. Without that, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be headed to heaven. They chose to share this wonderful truth from God’s word…
“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6.2)
C.S. Lewis wrote— “When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else comes crashing in? This time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. That will not be the time for choosing; It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.”