"I'm in This" • Luke 2

24:41 Teaching begins

Notes

The times I have been tempted to give in to despair and quit and surrender is when I think, “This is so hard. God is not in this. I’m all by myself.”

That’s because my situation seems so un-supernatural. It looks normal, like God isn’t there and He’s not doing anything.

The devil is right there to say, “The reason it looks so normal is because you’re right: God is not in this.”

And that means I’m really done for.

The good news is that God communicates what we need to hear in our very normal situations.

He shows us how He works, here in the first Christmas, to say, “I’m in this. It’s going to be okay.”

Let’s read Luke 2.

1. Here is an exhausting and discouraging normal situation.

A. A far-away ruler has given an order that has to be obeyed. Everybody must be counted, everybody must be taxed. This is routine and normal.

B. People have to comply with the order. Especially law-abiding citizens like Joseph and Mary. They don’t look for exemptions, they don’t duck responsibility. They comply.

C. Especially difficult is that the deadline for this seems to come at the worst time if you’re pregnant, which Mary is. She’s in her ninth month and has to travel 60 or 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. They probably had to leave early. This would take longer than usual because Mary is so close to giving birth. Any day now.

D. They get to Bethlehem and try to get in at the inn. It’s not really a building but a caravansary, walls and a roof and that’s it. Shelter from the elements. Don’t think a breakfast bar and off-street parking with a concierge. The worst is there’s no real room, so the owners say, “Really, all we have is space in the cave where we keep the animals. Take it or don’t. It will be at least private, kind of.”

E. So while the couple are dealing with registration and taxes and accommodations and pregnancy they also have to deliver the baby. You can’t postpone and say, look, give me a week till the crunch has kind of blown over. The main thing is, get the baby!

F. There are Mary and Joseph, far from home, in with the animals, tired, drained, on their own. Put the baby in that manger, I love you sweetheart, collapse.

G. When you feel tired don’t you also tend to get discouraged? You face all these things and they exhaust you physically and emotionally. I think it would be natural for this couple to be at a low point just now.

2. What we are shown next is a shocking, surprising, unusual situation.

A. Shepherds nearby take care of sheep at night. You lose sheep under cover of darkness. These sheep are almost certainly intended for temple worship so they can’t lose any.

B. Suddenly an angel appears with great glory.

1. No warning. Jump scare, full strength. The air is tingling with electricity. It’s unnaturally bright at night. My eyes hurt, I can barely focus.

2. What does the angel say? “Don’t be afraid.” “Why, thank you for the comfort. I have six quarts of adrenaline in me just now. No problem.”

3. “Yeah, but I have good news which will be for all people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

4. Another jump scare: the host of heaven show up, POW! Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Are they in the sky, flying? Or are they on the ground with the shepherds? All these powerful, bright beings worshipping God, and then they’re gone.

C. These shepherds evidently recover quickly. They’re excited and thrilled because they did get what the angels are about. “They appeared to us to tell us the Messiah is born right now! He’s in Bethlehem. Let’s go there!”

3. They get to Bethlehem. Everything is normal, everything looks natural except for one detail.

A. I imagine these shepherds would be locals, and therefore, pretty familiar with Bethlehem. If you’re looking for a baby in a feeding trough that would be in a stable where you keep animals. I guess we ought to be looking in a stable somewhere. Was somebody born a local or a traveler? We know everyone here who might be pregnant and given birth, but there are so many people here for the census. It’s probably a traveler.

B. So they get to the caravansary and go to the stable. They go in slowly, look around. There’s people in there.

1. Again, animals, feed, ropes, smell. Everything is normal.

2. It’s a normal baby. Normal swaddling cloths. That’s what you do for a newborn. Makes them feel enclosed like the womb they just came from. It’s a transition to being outside and feeling freer.

C. There’s just one detail that sticks out: the baby is lying in a feeding trough like it was a crib.

1. It’s a normal feeding trough, it’s a normal baby. Nothing looks supernatural.

2. But that one detail confirms all that the angel spoke. Which means it all has to be true.

D. They tell Mary and Joseph, we came here because an angel of the Lord appeared to us and told us that the Messiah was born today in Bethlehem. He said we would find a baby wrapped and laid in a feeding trough—just like that.

E. What a gentle way to encourage a very tired, possibly discouraged, couple.

1. Put yourself in their shoes. You’re all tired out from travelling, from hassling, from delivery. You’re beat.

2. You have both seen angels, you both know that Mary became pregnant although she was a virgin because the angel said the power of the Most High would over shadow her. It would be a miraculous birth. You know this.

3. The last thing you would want is another jump scare.

4. So God gave the jump scare to others. These guys are shepherds, not known for being spiritual, in fact, just the opposite. They would be the last guys you would ever expect to come in quietly and say, “An angel told us that that baby would be in the manger.” And then you get to hear about angels announcing that that baby is the Lord of hosts, the promised Messiah.

5. Whaddya know? God is in this! It doesn’t take away the weariness or the hassles. It doesn’t change the fact we’re roughing it in a stable. But God is with us. He’s in this. That baby is God the Messiah. He’s here.

F. If you know that God is in what you’re doing, in your life, that changes your perception of things.

1. Remember Viktor Frankl’s famous formula? Suffering minus meaning equals despair, which is surrender to death.

2. You can also reverse that: suffering plus meaning equals hope, which means holding on to life indeed. When you have the certainty of good coming inside you, you can keep standing against opposition from outside.

3. This means: everything we have gone through has purpose and meaning. It’s not just about our little crises. This is the turning point of the ages. God has come to us.

G. That’s how God is encouraging Mary and Joseph right now. “I’m in this. It’s going to be okay.”

4. So what?

A. Has God ever let you know, gently, that He is in your situation?

1. You had that feeling, “I can’t go on. I must quit. I can’t do this anymore.”?

2. And then something happened, and you get the impression, you know, God is in this.

3. The situation isn’t resolved, you have to keep on going, but you CAN keep going. That’s the difference. If God is in this, you can wait for God to come through with help and resolve your situation.

4. God has done this with me. Many times it has come down to a word of God speaking clearly to me, impressed on my heart, just like Mary and Joseph hearing about an experience of angels. It’s enough. God is with me. That’s what I need to know.

B. You have some down time at Christmas. See if you can make a list. If you can’t remember, ask God to remind you: when have You ever let me know You were in my situation? I think you’ll find that God has let you know many times: I’m in this. It’s going to be okay. Not in an earth-shattering way, but quietly, like a baby lying in a manger.

C. Remember Elijah at the mountain of God. He’s discouraged and tired. Fire comes, earthquake splits the rocks, wind blows, but God isn’t in any of that. Then God speaks to Elijah in a still small voice. That’s how He spoke to Mary and Joseph: He sends the most unlikely people to say, in effect, “I’m in this. You’re going to be okay.”

D. Mary put this incident into her remembrance. She pondered it so she wouldn’t forget it. Right when she needed it, God let her know: I’m in this. That means He is in it to the end, even to when she watched her Son suffer unjustly and die. God showed her: “I’m still in this.” She saw Jesus raised from the dead.

E. If God has never done this for you it could be that He’s not in your life. You need to ask Jesus to come into your life and save you. Trust that He died for your sins. Depend that He rose from the dead. He will give evidence in your life that He is there.

F. Ponder this. Remember. Let God say to your heart: “I’m in this. It’s going to be okay.”

Let’s pray.