The decorations emphasized simplicity and humility, in keeping with Jesus' first coming. The tables were covered in brown paper with the figures of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the center of each table with raffia around the figures and one candle at each end of this centerpiece. A wooden manger with a royal scepter laying in it was near the front of the room.
I have NEVER done something like this. I have given short devotional messages, but never something this long. These are my speaking notes, so it is not exactly what I said, but close enough:
Carlisle Barracks PWOC Christmas Program Talk
10 December 2009, Susan van Bebber
Comment on Decorations – Not what one would expect
When you first walked in the door, what did you think of our decorations?
They certainly are different from past Christmas programs.
What we consider to be humble circumstances is based on our perceptions of what is humble and what is lofty and praise-worthy.
The juxtaposition of a royal scepter in a manger may seem strange at first.
If this were a real manger in a real stable, we might want to remove the scepter to a more appropriate place, like a museum where it could stay clean and presentable, and be admired behind glass.
Our God chose to become human, being born as a baby and lying in a manger.
That baby was the King of kings and Lord of lords; Mighty God; Eternal Father; the Prince of Peace.
He was God's scepter extending to us—our way to come to the Father—our access into the presence of God.
Now I would like to talk to you about how various people in Jesus' time received Him.
The Jewish religious leaders did not recognize their Messiah, because He was not what they expected.
Isaiah 9:6-7 says,
For a child will be born to 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, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore….
This prophecy joins the birth of Messiah with the establishment of an earthly kingdom, without mentioning the lapse of time that would occur between them.
In Luke 4, Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah in a synagogue in Nazareth.
He read Isaiah 61:1-2, but stopped midway in verse 2 with the clause "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
That was where the description of his ministry during His first coming ended.
The next clause reads, "…and the day of vengeance of our God," which clearly refers to what will take place during His second coming.
Besides the confusion of time compression, some of the prophecies seem to conflict with each other if one does not understand that Christ would be coming two different times.
There are prophecies, like in Isaiah chapter 53, that describe in great detail the Messiah as a suffering servant.
But the Jewish people, while under a nominally Jewish king, felt the oppression of Rome.
Some Jews believed that the Roman presence in their land was defilement of the land.
They wanted a King and Savior who would cast off the Roman authority.
So those prophecies that focused on Messiah setting up an earthly kingdom and taking vengeance on His enemies are the ones they chose to focus upon.
Wise Men
Read Matt. 2:1-12
We do not know exactly where they had come from, but it must have been from quite a distance.
We don't know how many magi came. The idea of three men comes from the number of gifts they gave.
We do know that they were experts in what was then considered the science of astrology.
They saw a star appear over Palestine while they were in the east, which they interpreted as announcing the birth of a king.
Perhaps they had heard that the Jews believed their Messiah would one day rule the whole earth.
Perhaps they even understood that this Messiah was also divine, since their purpose was to worship Him.
Whatever the reason, it propelled them to make the journey to worship him.
But while they could interpret the appearance of a star as signaling the birth of a king, they did not know exactly where to go
If you are going to find a king, you might expect him to be in the capital.
You might also think He could be found among the sons of the current king, Herod the Great.
So they went to the capital city, Jerusalem.
They came to Herod the Great and asked him where they might find this recently-born King of the Jews.
The Bible said that when Herod heard this, he was "troubled."
This wasn't done in secret, since verse 3 says all of Jerusalem was troubled along with him.
So Herod brought all the Jews who knew the Scriptures, the scribes and priests, and asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
In answer, they quote scripture from Micah 5:2 that says that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.
After Herod found out where, he secretly sent for the magi and found out when the star had appeared.
Then he sent them to Bethlehem after telling them to report back to him what they found there.
He lied and said it was because he also wanted to worship Him.
The star then began to lead them to Bethlehem, to the very house where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were staying.
My translation of verse 10 says that they "rejoiced exceedingly with great joy" when they saw the star. They were really happy!
They were approaching their destination. They were about to see the King they had travelled so far to see.
Do you think they might have been a little surprised to find the King they came to worship living at that ordinary house in a small town?
They bowed down and worshipped Jesus, presenting their gifts to Him.
They did not report back to Herod, however, since God warned them in a dream to return home by another way.
Herod the Great
[Herod is not a personal name, but is a family name.]
He was half-Idumaean (Edom, from the line of Esau, brother of Jacob)
The Idumaeans had come into Palestine over a century earlier, and had embraced the Jewish religion.
The Jews looked down on them as being only "half-Jews."
His father had achieved a fairly high position in the royal household, and then had married into the Jewish royal family.
His father was appointed ruler of Judea by Julius Caesar.
Herod the Great had been made a tetrarch by Mark Antony. Mark Antony then convinced the Roman senate to make Herod a king.
Herod practiced Judaism, at least when he was in Judea.
[However, the historian Josephus wrote that when Herod the Great became ruler, he had the entire Sanhedran, the high Jewish council of justice, put to death.
He then filled the council with those he had chosen.]
Herod was called Herod the Great mainly due to all his building projects and improvements. He was thoroughly enamored with ostentatious architecture and grand monuments.
Herod rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem
It is suspected that he wanted to apprehend and destroy the priestly genealogies held in the temple in order to destroy the genealogy of the expected Messiah.
He was obviously concerned about loss of power and brutally put to death anyone who threatened his position.
On the merest suspicion of treachery, he had one of his favorite wives put to death, along with two of her brothers.
He also had his son, Antipater, put to death not long before he himself died.
It is no surprise, then, that he would go to such lengths to prevent another king from taking power—even an infant king.
He would do anything to retain power.
When he realized that the magi were not going to report back to him, verse 16 says he became "very enraged."
Using the time when the magi had said the star had appeared, he figured out how old the child would have to be.
He ordered all male children, from age two and under be killed. Not only those just in Bethlehem, but all those around in that area.
He was determined not to let anyone take away his power, not even God.
Although they were the first to learn of Jesus' birth, I want to end with the shepherds.
Read Luke 2:7-16
Why did God choose to reveal the glorious birth of His Son to simple shepherds?
Is that what you would have expected?
It certainly surprised the shepherds!
There are perhaps several reasons why God chose shepherds.
In the Old Testament, there are passages that refer to the Jewish religious leaders as shepherds of God's people.
And yet, He didn't choose to announce the birth to those who were supposed to be shepherding His people, but to literal shepherds.
He did not announce it to the important people in Jewish society, but to those who were considered lowly and humble.
Vincent's Word Studies said:
"This revelation to the shepherds acquires additional meaning as we remember that shepherds, as a class, were under the Rabbinic ban, because of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance well-nigh impossible."
I think that this revelation to the shepherds also foreshadows Jesus' teaching about humility and greatness.
That the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and that if you want to be great, in the true sense of greatness, you must become a servant.
And lastly, they were awake! They were watching. They were faithfully doing what they were supposed to be doing while everyone else slept.
How did the shepherds respond?
They were at first terrified of the angel who appeared, and of the glory of the Lord that shone around them.
But the angel reassured them that he was bringing good news.
He explained to them how they could find the baby.
And then a multitude of angels appeared, all praising God.
Can you imagine the light and the sound of the angels?
And when the angels had gone away from them, they hurried to find the baby lying in a manger, wrapped in cloths just as the angel had told them He would be.
And then they told many about what the angels had said about the baby Jesus.
In Conclusion
Jewish Religious Leaders
Even though the Jewish religious leaders knew of scriptures better than any in their day, and they knew of passages that supported the idea of a suffering servant, they would ultimately reject Jesus as their Messiah.
They perceived relief from the Romans as their greatest need, so they were looking for the solution to this problem, not for the solution to their greater need—that of spiritual salvation.
Sometimes God chooses to work on a problem that we don't even recognize as a problem.
I want to remain open to His leading in my life. I don't want to tell Him how I think He should lead.
Wise Men
I find it significant that they were not Jewish. From the start, God intended Jesus to be the bringer of salvation and peace for all people.
He never was just a Messiah for the Jews alone.
In the covenant promises to His chosen people, God promises that they would be a light to the Gentiles.
Isaiah 49:5-6 says of the Servant Messiah,
And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength),
He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Although during His earthly ministry, Jesus concentrated on bringing the good news to the Jewish people first, God's plan was always to bring salvation to all people groups.
I also find it interesting that God led the magi to Jesus in a way they would recognize and understand.
He called them from where they were, using a method we might not normally approve of, that is, through their study of astrology.
But it is also very clear that their way of discerning God's message through astrology was insufficient.
They had to come to the Jews, the keepers of God's Word to find out exactly where the King was to be born.
This illustrates the superiority of God's Word in discerning His plan.
We must always ensure that any leading we receive lines up with what He has revealed in His Word.
Herod the Great
He refused to seriously consider worshipping the child that God had clearly shown was the Messiah.
Doing so would have meant giving up all for which he had worked and even murdered.
Herod held onto his power and independence no matter what the cost.
I pray we are not so foolish.
Shepherds
God chose to reveal the glorious birth of His son to lowly shepherds.
They were awake, ready to hear what God had to say.
They immediately responded to God's call.
And once they had seen Jesus, they could not contain their wonder at what had been told them, and they began telling others.
"Expect the Unexpected" might be what I would entitle this talk.
Especially during this time of year, because of all the traditions surrounding Christmas time, we may have a tendency to keep God in a box.
But our God of the Holy Scriptures does not always do things in the way we might expect Him to.
He is greater than what we can conceive, more powerful than what we can imagine, and more creative than what we see in nature around us.
Let's keep our eyes open and expect to see the unexpected ways in which God is working in the lives of those around us, and in our own lives.
