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I know as a church family, we’ve been studying the book of Nehemiah. Take a short detour from the book of Nehemiah, and by short I mean long. Um, we’re down to the last few chapters of the book, and we’re going to use the remainder of the book. We’ll get to it a little bit later, but for the rest of this year, we’re going to focus on the advent, which is a clever word for saying the coming of Christ. And as we go through this series together this morning, we’re going to begin just to focus on the smallness. And I may have invented a new word with smallness, but pretend it’s a real word. Today, the lesson from the manger is we’re going to study together this morning is that God has a way of making big gifts and small packages when we talk about small gifts. So this morning, we’re not going to think about shopping at Jared’s. Or every kiss begins with Kay. We’re just going to talk about, Um, gift of Jesus. Christmas as a child to me meant a lot about presents. I can think at night, just swim in my in my head over all the presents of Saul under the tree. I was actually a bad kid. The anticipation of gifts when I got a little bit older became so bad that I would steal a razor blade from the garage and go under the Christmas tree and carefully slice open my Christmas tape and remove my gift from the present, and then put that back down and tape it.
And my mother wouldn’t even know. And then I would wear my Christmas gift for for days and she wouldn’t even notice. I was a horrible child. The anticipation of those gifts were too much for me to bear, and my mom probably should have punished me. She never did. I don’t. The spirit of Christmas overcame her. I thank God for that. Right? But when we think about the gift of Christmas, what it meant to the nation of Israel, it was a much anticipated gift and to their surprise, maybe even a shocking gift when they received it. To see such a small present laying in a manger that would lead the Jewish people. We go through a lot of pain sometimes to wrap gifts beautifully nowadays. I mean, some gifts that you might wrap this Christmas could probably cost more to wrap it than the gift itself did, especially to you who are registers. But it’s interesting when we see God’s gifts to us when he came to this world. His gift didn’t come with any adornment really whatsoever. Lying in a manger, wrapped in cloth next to animals. When I look at the story of Christmas, and I think about the small gift of Jesus God as a baby in this world. Um, God went through great lengths to prove to us how he can work through things so small.
God gives big gifts to us in small packages. And this morning, what I want to do is just examine the gift of Christmas as as that small package, looking at it in different angles and all the attempts that God had made to us to prove to us as people that God can do such big things through such small things. When we look in Isaiah chapter nine and verse six, we see in the passage of Scripture that God gives Israel a promise. And this promise is what their anticipation led to upon Christmas morning. Israel was waiting on a messiah. It says in chapter nine and verse six, for a child will be born unto us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and the Prince of Peace. The promise of the coming of the Messiah wasn’t just, in our view a coming. It was also a departing. It’s about what God gave up to come into this world, to give to us the freedom that we desire, that could only come through him. And this big God as he comes with us, it literally says in Isaiah chapter seven and verse 14 that his name would be Immanuel, meaning God with us tells us in this passage of Scripture that the government will rest upon his shoulders. You think about the wise men and the shepherds as they gathered around the manger.
To think that this small baby would give such large weight for not only the people of Israel, but as the promise was given to Abraham, the blessings to all nations would come through this Messiah. So much so that he’s given names to identify the the beauty for which he would carry into this world. Being a wonderful counselor, if you ever have a need in your life, Jesus is the great counselor to go to. He’s a mighty God capable of meeting our need. Interesting. Christ is quoted in the Old Testament as Eternal Father. Jesus referred to as the father three times in the Old Testament, the word father is used, and twice it refers to Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace and what he brought to this world. As we think about the coming of this Messiah. God went through great lengths to make this Christmas gift to us seem small, but capable of so much. We look at the life of Jesus. His entry into this world wouldn’t be one that we would expect of a king, or a governor, or a ruler of this world. If you were to read from Matthew chapter one and Matthew chapter two, or the first two chapters of Luke, what you’d find within those those four chapters of the Bible is the Christmas story. Both Matthew and Luke share different parts of this Christmas story in the coming of the Messiah, depending on who they were talking to.
But as each man writes in the books of the Bible according to their perspective of the Christmas story. Both of these men use important parts of this Christmas story to create, in our minds an image of a humble beginning for Jesus. It says in the Luke chapter two and verse four that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, says Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was the house and family of David. In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child. The birthplace of Jesus was an interesting pick for God, because it was the place of kings. It was the place of King David. But the city itself was nothing to brag about. It was a small suburb southwest of the place of Jerusalem, five miles southwest of where Jerusalem was located. You’d find Bethlehem, just a small town. As Jesus was born into this world, there was a small crowd that gathered to worship him. You would think the coming of the Messiah, the coming of a king, the coming of someone much anticipated in the eyes of the Jewish people alone, would be enough to draw large crowds as they would gather to worship. But it tells us, as we read in Luke chapter two and verse 15 and 16, that it was just a small crowd of people who gathered to worship him.
It says when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem and see the thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told by them by the shepherds. In verse 18 you see that the shepherds, when they found baby Jesus, went back to the groups of people around the area and began to share with them that the Messiah had come. But it never says that the people went to worship Jesus. They just stood in wonder and amazement at it. But the shepherds were the ones who gathered. Their shepherds weren’t people of much authority within any city during the time, especially Bethlehem. But it was the shepherds in which Jesus drew to his manger. The lives of the shepherds were very important to the city of Jerusalem. I find it quite unique that God selected the shepherds in order to declare to them that the Messiah had come. You think about Bethlehem being outside of the city of Jerusalem. One of the major events that was celebrated within the city of Jerusalem was the Passover, first began in Egypt, as the nation of Israel was set free to journey into Israel to establish themselves as a nation.
And God told the people of Israel when the Passover had come, that they needed to sacrifice a lamb, each family to sacrifice a lamb and apply the blood of the lamb to the doorposts, and whoever applied the blood of the lamb to their lives was saved from the death angel. And it would have been the role of these shepherds who gathered around the manger of Jesus to raise these sheep that would go to Jerusalem during the time of the Passover, to make the sacrifice of the lamb. And Jesus calls these shepherds, who have partaken in many Passover celebrations, to come and see the Messiah, the lamb that was chosen for the nation of Israel to be the sacrifice of all sins for all mankind, for all time. And there, in the humble beginnings in the small town of Bethlehem, as a small gift, lowly shepherds came to worship. I know you’re thinking, what about the wise men? But the wise men, as you read the story of Jesus, you’ll come to find that weren’t didn’t arrive to the manger until 40 days after Jesus had been born, but directly at the birth of Jesus. It was just the shepherds who gathered there. Not only do we see born in Bethlehem, not only do we see a little crowd gathered, but we also find that Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, is laid in a manger, a manger in a lot of our minds, we just picture a small shack that’s built with hay established around the sides of it.
But in biblical times, a manger would refer to something similar to a cave would have been the place that people who raised animals would have gathered their their livestock for the winter in order to place them in, to keep them warm. And Jesus was literally in a cave being used as a barn. It says in Luke chapter seven and verse two, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. You realize when Jesus came to this world that when this, this world, all that they gifted the King of Kings with was a manger to lay his head. A cross to bear sins on, and a borrowed grave in which to place his body. And here, in his humble beginnings, we see Mary the mother, desiring with her first born child, I’m sure, as all mothers should, to to give this child the best that they could possibly offer. And she’s left resorting to laying her child in a manger with animals. It says in verse 12, this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger, in which it shares with the shepherds in Luke chapter 12 or excuse me, chapter two, Jesus was laid in a manger.
He was worshiped by a little crowd. He was born in Bethlehem in Luke chapter two and verse 16, could you imagine the perspective of of either the wise men or the shepherds when they arrived upon the scene? I mean, they saw the prophecy of everything that Messiah would do, and they anticipated much, anticipated his coming. Many people missed the coming of the Messiah, because what they desired for the Messiah to do in the nation of Israel was to make it a world power to politically rule and dominate all other nations. And so when they saw Jesus and His manger form coming into this world, they they refused to accept him as the Messiah they read about in the Old Testament. It says in chapter two and verse 16, so they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as he lay in the manger. Goes on to tell us in chapter two and verse 19, along with the wise men that these men gathered and they worshiped. Could you imagine what it would have been like at the scene of the manger to worship a baby, to having been a wise man, and journeyed from the east, and come all the way to Israel, and to to stand before this child who lies in the manger, and think, I’ve traveled all this way to see this Messiah, this promised King, who’s coming for Israel.
And here I am, having come this far to worship a baby. God brings big gifts to us in small packages. Amen. The illustration that Jesus gives to us in his own life is a reminder to us of what God can even do through our own lives. It tells us not only did the Messiah have a humble beginning, but that later in Matthew chapter two, that he had to flee for his own life. It says now when they had gone. It’s talking about the wise men. Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night, and he left for Egypt. The King of kings and Lord of Lords, in this moment has a small gift, can even raise a finger to protect themselves from opposition. It tells us in this passage that not only is Jesus’s life in danger, but we know later in Scripture that Herod came into the town of Bethlehem and he killed all the small children around the age of Jesus. Lives were lost and the humble beginning of Jesus.
God brings small gifts into this world to teach us big lessons about themselves. God’s small gift to us in this passage brings large points to our lives. That said, God is capable of more than I can imagine when we reflect on what Jesus has done. In this passage of Scripture, there’s something about Christmas that’s just special, isn’t it? God is more capable than anything that we can imagine. I know when we started this sub for Santa’s ministry at the church, one of the things that Tom kept saying over and over, it seems too difficult to take on a ministry like this. I think Aubrey says she has like seven, 67 families that were trying to find homes for to provide for Christmas. When you come to find, as I’ve followed the Lord in my own life, is that when things seem too large and too difficult and for me to achieve, it’s the perfect place for God to step in to show us what he’s capable of. And Tom would continue to say as as they talked about taking on a ministry like this for Christmas, that this just seems too big, too, uh, unachievable for us as people. God takes small packages and does big things. I think when we started the church in Lehigh, how in the world is the church going to start here or is it going to come? We talked about moving to a facility like this.
How in the world are we going to be able to do this? Talking about buying a bar down the road now, how in the world are we going to be able to do that? I can take small packages and create big things. Not only do we learn what God is able to do through his small gift, but we learn that God can make the best out of any situation. Why? Because it’s not based on our own merit, but it’s based on everything that he’s capable of doing. I find as we serve the Lord and we see the coming of the Messiah, that even in the the humble beginnings that God can can take anyone that feels incapable and make them more than capable through Christ. You know, when you do ministry for Jesus, it’s okay to feel incapable. It’s okay to look at God and realize, as God may lay something on your heart, that God, you don’t feel equipped to handle that. Paul even even talked about that. His grace is sufficient for me because my strength is found or his strength is found in my weakness. When we look at our life’s journey with God and the places that God calls us to serve. Jesus uses his manger as an example to our lives. That God can take something small, something challenging, something difficult in our lives, and he can work it out for his good. God can take small All things make them big.
Second, this morning I just want to point out to us. That a small gift can become a big gift. Any small gift can become a big gift. Let me give you some reasons why. This morning, if you’re thinking about buying presents for your spouse and you’ve got a limited budget, how in the world do you make your small gifts big gifts, right? I mean, I, I never mind small gifts, big gifts. How in the world would become big gifts to us? Well, the first we see in the birth of Jesus is that small gifts can become big gifts simply because of their meaning. For us, the Christmas story means a lot as a church because we understand its meaning. God is with us. God cares enough about us to come to this world and give his life for us. People fail to see the the big gift of what Christmas is about, because they fail to see what Jesus is about. But what we can define the meaning of the purpose for which Christmas is established. That meaning breathes life to its purpose, and it makes that gift come, come to life for us as people. It adds purpose to us. When a gift has meaning, it becomes special. John 316. The word for gift is here. In here. For God so loved the world that he he gave. There’s the gift he gave to you, his only son. God loves you so much that the meaning of Christmas is seen in that.
That he’s given you his son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Small gift becomes a big gift, not only in its meaning, but in its need. Now, this is an embarrassing story, but as a child, I remember for Christmas, my mom would always use that as a time to give me gifts I wanted and then gifts I needed. And so sometimes it wasn’t out of the blue to see maybe a package of underwear or a package of socks lying under the Christmas tree. Right? I needed that. The rest of the world probably wanted me to have that right. But a big gift becomes a small gift becomes a big gift because of the need. The Bible tells us in Romans five eight that God demonstrates his love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you. He gave you his life. I like the way that Jesus referred to the reason that he came in John 1010. If we we ask the baby, the baby Jesus, why in the world are you coming to this world? What are you? What is it you’re offering to us as the Messiah? It says in John 1010, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. This verse has always struck me as shocking.
You think about the audience that Jesus is talking to. It doesn’t even matter who it is. Jesus is looking at people who are alive and he’s saying to people who are alive, you are not living. Interesting isn’t it? I came that you may have life, but you guys aren’t really living. But to have it abundantly. Do you understand the need for which I present to this world by coming to you? I came as a baby to show you, even in the small beginnings, what your glorious God is capable of. And that through me you can begin to live. God comes and he demonstrates to us the the meaning of Christmas. He demonstrates to us the need that we have for Christmas. Most importantly, it’s free and any small gift becomes a big gift when it’s free. Right now, think about Christmas for just a minute and it’s going to be harsh harsh example. But let me talk about people that give you gifts that you don’t really want to give. Get gifts from because you got to give them a gift back. You ever feel that guilt? Yeah. That’s different than Jesus, isn’t it? Because whether you accept him or not, he still gave his life for you. It’s free. It tells us in Ephesians chapter two and verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Faith meaning, trusting in what Jesus has done for you. It’s not of yourselves.
You don’t have to buy this gift back. In fact, you can’t. It’s the gift of God, he tells us. It’s not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. See, in the last verse we find one of the reasons for which God desires for us not to earn the gift if it were even capable, because all boasting belongs in the Lord. So everything about life is for his glory. When God presents to us such a loving gift, the response of his people is to return that with an attitude of praise. A small gift becomes a big gift when it’s free. As we think about Christmas as people, we should reflect on its meaning. We should reflect on the need that God met in our lives. We should reflect on the freedom that we’ve experienced in Jesus because it was free. God’s small gift made big points in our lives. God made his gift, his birth, so simple for us that we wouldn’t miss seeing his overall purpose. God always deals with sin and he’s not okay. That sin separates us. So much so that he came to this world to die for us. Don’t let sin tear you apart from what’s important to God, which is a relationship to him and a relationship to others, God has a plan that will bring the best for your life, and he demonstrated that to us by offering us the freedom that can only come through him.
God can make a change in you because he can overcome any adversity in this world. That’s the message of Christmas. God is a God who meets needs because he can meet the need of the broken. God is a God that can relate to the broken because he’s been broken himself, having walked in the shoes of the poor and the needy. Jesus can relate to us. God is a God who is simply accept me for who I am, no strings attached. You see that as Jesus brought both the wise men and the lowly shepherds to his manger in order to worship. Last, when you accept the gift, what it brings to our lives is our heartfelt response. This is what worship is all about. That’s what the meaning of Christmas is all about. God is with us. God came to this world to be with us. And what does that mean to us? Well, God, God met a need. God has defined for us the meaning. And God has offered his grace to us and freedom in him, that we may experience eternal life if we trust in him by faith, and we see the gift that God has brought into our lives, the way that God has demonstrated this small gift can do such big things not only for for the Lord as he demonstrated in his life, but it comes into our own lives. Because as we trust in Jesus, the Bible tells us, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
When you accept a big gift, it causes a heartfelt response. That’s worship. Christmas Story is a story about worship. The wise men came and they worshiped. It tells us in Matthew two, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. After coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshipped him. And opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Tells us in Luke chapter two, the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told to them, according to the Old Testament, when they saw Jesus for who he was. They saw the star over the top of the manger in Bethlehem, and they knew who the Messiah was according to the Old Testament. It tells us in this passage as a scripture that they gathered and they just worshiped. That’s what the Christmas season should represent to us, and the hustle and bustle of worrying about all these gifts and getting everything wrapped for the sub for Santa stuff, and even in your own personal lives as Christmas just seems to make us busier and busier every year, all that Jesus wants to do is grab your attention and just get with you and him, and just allow you the opportunity to to worship.
Jesus came to this world because he wasn’t okay with the sin that separated you. He wanted you to enter into that relationship with him, to have the opportunity to freely gather at his feet and just worship. And I love the response of these two groups of people as they gather before Christ, because it’s different. The worship is different. You see the the wise men, when they gather, they’re excited at the gathering before they even get to Jesus. And then when they get there, they offer him gifts out of worship. These these guys were wealthy. These guys had things to offer. And so knowing that Jesus was in Bethlehem, it’s probably a good idea in lowly Bethlehem that they bring some gifts to help him out, isn’t it? And so they they worshiped. The shepherds were people from the area we saw in earlier verses that when they they left, they were glorifying God. But they didn’t just glorify God in their own life. When they left the city that they were from, they went out and told other people. And it says that the people stood with amazement at what God was doing. Their worship was different, but it’s still worship because they took the time to gather at the feet of Jesus and recognize what God was doing. God’s small gift again to us plays a big part and makes a big point, as we see here in the lives of the wise men and the shepherds as shepherds, if we have nothing to give, we can simply just go out and share a mouth of praise.
As wise men, if we have something to give, we can give to God and still go out with a mouth of praise for the Lord. God’s small gift has made a big point. Christmas is about reminding me that when life seems hopeless, God works through my humble position for an incredible miracle. You don’t have to be the best to worship. Just willing to worship God accepts anyone, from wise men to shepherd shepherds if they’re just willing to worship God is not about our boasting and our merits and our achievements. He brought a small gift to show what he is capable of through him. God doesn’t need my help in this world, but God wants my heart. Let me just remind you this morning that when we talk about God taking small packages and making big gifts because we refer to God as a baby being a small package. One thing I don’t want us to walk away with today is thinking it’s also a cheap package. Because what Jesus did for us by any means was not cheap. God gave up his throne in heaven to come and live as a lowly man. But not only that, that he literally laid it all down for you and for I.
When we think about worshiping God and we think about following God, no matter how insignificant you may seem, or how big a ministry may seem to you that God has laid upon your heart. It’s not about how small the package, because God can take anything small and make it big for his glory. In fact, I would say the healthiest place to be when you minister for the Lord is a place where you sit and say to God, God, I’m looking at this circumstance just like I looked at you as a baby. And as I look at this God, it just seems like it’s impossible. So, God, I’m asking for your help. When we’re in those places as we serve the Lord, it’s finally at those points that God is able to begin to work within us because we’ve really, truly begun to surrender to what he wants to do within us as we serve him. This morning, as a church family, when we think about what God is able to do as a baby in this world, I want to think about what God is able to do as we consider ourselves, maybe babies and just serving him. The meaning of Christmas was an enormous message for the people of Israel and for all nations. God wasn’t interested in wrapping things up beautifully. He just wanted to present himself for who he was. That man could see him for who he was. In its most simplistic form, and in that simple form, proved to us as people how a mighty God can work through anything in our lives to to meet the need.
There’s all kinds of ways to take a message like that and be involved. If God can take a baby presenting himself to the world as just a meager baby and just work such a mighty miracle in the lives of for all people, of all nations and all times, um, he can do some mighty things through us too. As a church family. Christmas is about miracles, right? You ever watch the movie It’s a Wonderful Life? It’s on every year. It’s about miracles. If the people would just simply trust in him by faith. Let’s close in a word of prayer. God, I just want to thank you for your coming. God, how it teaches us that you are such a mighty God, capable of so much. If we could just learn to live in you, God, if we just trust in you and experience that abundant life. God, how much we would be blessed. And so this morning, I just pray that we as people, when we think about Christmas are thankful people. God, that you cared so much for us to come to this world and give of yourself that we may not experience just eternal life, but God really live now. Thank you for blessing us so much. May we continue to be a blessing to those around us. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.