Transcript

One pastor said this, “Giving presents is always a problem. If you love someone, you want to make sure you give them something they really want.

“Ideally, you want to see that look of joyous surprise when they open the gift and even before they say a word, you know it was perfect…

“You work so hard to find just the right gift, and then it doesn’t fit…or it isn’t the right color…or it was broken in the box…or they already had one…or the design doesn’t match what they already have…worst of all, it wasn’t what they really wanted…

“They unwrap the gift and then there is a short pause—just a microsecond—but in that moment you already know the truth. ‘Why, it’s beautiful,’ they say.

“But you can see the look in their eyes. You put on a brave front and try again. ‘Do you really like it?’ ‘Like it? I love it.’ But you aren’t fooled. It’s not what they wanted.”

It’s like a husband who can tell by his wife’s reaction that she had not been dreaming of getting an auto emergency kit, even though it was the deluxe model with booster cables and an air compressor!

Yes, stores will open early the day after Christmas, and return lines will be long, filled with people bringing back gifts that weren’t quite perfect.

But there was a perfect Gift given 2,000 years ago. No gift can surpass the Gift God gave to the world of His Son and our Savior. The Gift of God’s Son is, as the Apostle Paul says, an “unspeakable Gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).

He is a Gift too wonderful for words. And our reaction to that Gift is one of awe, wonder, gratitude, and praise. You see these kinds of reactions to Christ’s coming into the world in Luke 2.

Luke 2:13-16 reads, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

“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.

“And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.”

Just as suddenly as the heavenly host had filled the skies to announce the Savior’s birth and praise God for it, the angelic celebrants retreated to the invisible realm of heaven, leaving the shepherds in the dark of night again.

After witnessing this spectacular, supernatural revelation about the birth of the Christ, the shepherds knew they could not just file this information away. They had to act.

They spontaneously, unanimously, and collectively “said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.” There was the same response from everybody. They were in full agreement.

That can be difficult to do: to get a group of men to agree unanimously on something! I’ve served on enough ministry board of directors to know that this is the case.

This group of shepherds also knew they needed to journey to Bethlehem immediately. They weren’t about to wait until it was daybreak. “Let us now go,” they all said.

They had received the greatest news humanity had ever heard, and responded immediately to it by faith. They didn’t even worry about the sheep! They just left their flocks in the care of God and set out to find the Savior and Messiah of Israel.

They wanted to see with their own eyes “this thing which is come to pass”—the Christ being born, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (v. 12).

And it says of the shepherds that “they came with haste.” “Haste” means speed. As a result of their enthusiasm and excitement, they were moving! This has been appropriately called “the first Christmas rush.”

We see in the shepherds a Christmas reaction of faith, enthusiasm, and joy, which resulted in an irresistible urge to hurry up and search Him out to see for themselves.

So God would have the truth of Christmas result in excitement, joy, and a desire for you to see it for yourself from God’s Word and believe it: Christ, the eternal Son of God, was born as a human Baby in order to be our Savior.

The shepherds rushed from the fields to Bethlehem, and verse 16 says that they “found Mary, and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.” The Greek word translated as “found” in verse 16 means to find by searching.

They searched for Him high and low, running and looking all over and around Bethlehem, perhaps knocking on doors, waking people up, probably finding some newborns, but they were looking for one particular Newborn who was lying in a feed trough.

So they kept running around looking at every manger they could find until, eventually, after their thorough search, they found Him.

And they found that everything was just as the angel said it would be: “the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

Luke 2:17 says, “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”

What’s striking is that the shepherds didn’t pull up a bale of hay, kick back, make themselves comfortable, and hang around the manger for a while. It does not seem like they stayed long at all!

They saw, perceived, and understood what they were looking at—and then they knew that they were messengers with the single greatest message of all to share.

They came to see Him, they saw Him, and they knew it was true, that the Messiah really had come and was born. So they headed out to spread the good news “abroad,” or widely, all around Bethlehem and beyond.

Nobody got much sleep that night with these shepherds around! They couldn’t keep quiet in their excitement. The shepherds were so excited about what they had seen and heard that they just had to tell everybody what they’d seen and heard.

Notice that the message they shared was not about seeing angels or Mary, it was about “this Child” (v. 17). After they had seen Him, they spread the word abroad concerning what had been told them about “this Child.”

They shared with everyone they could about what the angel had told them about Him, that His coming was good tidings of great joy for all people, and that “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

They told of His being wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. They told of how the sky exploded with angels, praising God, and how this Child’s coming was cause for them to say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Good news is for sharing. That’s what the shepherds did. That’s what we’re called to do as ambassadors for Christ.

Another Christmas reaction is that, in realizing the significance of the One born in Bethlehem’s manger, we tell others about Him, about Who He is and what He came to do.

Christmas creates opportunities for sharing the gospel and telling others about the Savior.

Like the shepherds, our faith and joy in Christ can motivate us to tell others about Him, and the message we share is the greatest message of all “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

It is good tidings of great joy that we have a saving God. It is glory to God in the highest that He sent His Son to die for our sins and rise again as the provision for our salvation.

God didn’t deliver the good news of His Son’s birth to prophets, priests, or kings. He sent His angels to a group of humble, nameless shepherds, common men, everyday workers, and He used their joy to spread the good news.

All they did was tell what they had seen and heard. It shows that we don’t need formal training to tell others about Christ. We just share, out of an overflow of joy, what we have seen through the eye of faith and what we know to be true from God’s Word.

Luke 2:18 says: “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.”

Last Christmas, grandpa was feeling his age, and found that shopping for Christmas gifts had become too difficult. So he decided to send gift cards in Christmas cards to everyone instead. In each card he wrote, “Buy your own present!” and mailed them early.

He enjoyed the usual flurry of family festivities and get-togethers, but noticed a little bit of a coldness from everyone toward him. And after the holiday he noticed that he had received very few Christmas cards in return. Puzzled over this, he went into his study intending to write a couple of his relatives to ask what might be wrong.

And as he cleared off his cluttered desk and moved a stack of papers, he was horrified to find all the gift cards that he had forgotten to enclose in the Christmas cards.

I’m sure grandpa’s family members were “wondering” after receiving a card that said “Buy your own present” with no gift card inside.

You see the Christmas reaction of “wonder” in verse 18. The people “wondered” at the shepherds’ story. The shepherds created a stir by sharing the good news.

“Wondered” speaks of a sense of astonishment and awe. People marveled and were amazed by what they heard from the excited shepherds.

Christmas is cause for wonder. God became a man for me to be my Savior? The Son of God was born as a baby and laid in a feed trough? The Lord, the Creator of all things, came to this speck of a planet to humbly take on flesh and die the death of the cross for my sins?

The love of Christ causes wonder. But notice the contrast to the shepherds. The shepherds received the revelation, believed it, and ran to see the Christ child.

It would have been good if verse 18 said something like, “And all they that heard it wondered…and went immediately with haste to the manger.” But it doesn’t say that. They just “wondered” and went on with their lives.

In December of 2007, MSNBC reported, “A major British hotel chain [Travelodge] is getting into the Christmas spirit with a promotion that gives a free night’s stay to couples named Mary and Joseph…

Travelodge’s British corporate office said that the ‘gift’ of a free night’s accommodation was to make up for the fact that the hotel industry had no accommodations for Mary and Joseph over 2,000 years ago when they had to stay in a stable….The marketing ploy also includes a free parking spot for the ‘donkey.’”

Like the inn that had no room for the Savior 2,000 years ago, many make no room for the Savior at Christmas today.

Those who heard the message from the shepherds reacted with wonder, but they had no commitment and no desire to see Him for themselves.

Many react to Christmas like this, with wonder at it all, but not fully understanding its meaning, doing nothing about it, and going on with their lives.

Many will sing the carols, watch the children’s Christmas programs at church, put up a nativity set, but they will keep its meaning at arm’s length, not wanting to see the Christ child for themselves by faith or accept the reason for His coming to this world.

You see the Christmas reaction of joy with faith by the shepherds, but the Christmas reaction from those who heard their testimony was one of wonder without belief or action. And it’s still the same way today.

Luke 2:19 reads, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

In verse 19, it says that Mary “kept all these things,” or treasured them with the idea of protecting or preserving them in her mind—counting things up, like making a mental list so that nothing is forgotten.

Mary also “pondered them in her heart.” “Pondered” means Mary went much deeper than the people who “wondered” in verse 18. “Pondered” means to take all the recollected events as laid out in the mind and think over them again and again to try to understand what it all means and why it happened the way it did.

It means to gather all the facts and fit them together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

No doubt she thought about Gabriel’s appearance and what he told her about this Child when he said: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David” (Luke 1:32).

She might have recalled the babe, or John the Baptist, leaping for joy in Elisabeth’s womb when Mary came to visit her and how Elisabeth told her, “Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb” and called her “the mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:42,43).

She might have thought about God’s providence in the terms and timing of the taxation that brought them from Nazareth to Bethlehem for His birth.

She surely thought about the surprise visit of the shepherds that night and their joy and excitement at His birth.

She then looks into a feed trough and she sees there a Baby Who is the Son of the Most High. This Baby is the King of Israel, the rightful Heir to the throne of David. This Baby is the Savior. This Baby is Israel’s Messiah. This Baby is God and Lord over all.

Mary had plenty to think about! And she had to put all these facts and events together in her mind. They were all pieces of a giant, complex puzzle which went ’round and ’round in her mind as she hoped to arrange them into some kind of understandable order.

And you really can’t blame her! Two thousand years later, we’re still pondering and marveling at the miracle of God’s Son coming to this world.

Pondering is a good reaction to Christmas. We should think deeply about Christmas and what we are remembering. We need to take the time to ponder and study the accounts about Christ’s birth, and also consider the significance of the eternal, infinite God becoming a man forever to be the one Mediator between us and God.

We benefit from thinking deeply about the reason the Son of God came to this world, how He came for the Cross to die for our sins so that “we should live together with Him” (1 Thes. 5:10). We are blessed to ponder it all and fit it together in our minds.

Luke 2:20: “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

After some time, “the shepherds returned” with hearts filled with gratitude, “glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen,” which were all exactly as the angel told them.

You glorify something when you express its value and worth. To say that the shepherds returned “glorifying” God meant that, having seen Christ in the manger, they recognized and expressed the true value of the Child as Lord and Messiah.

They saw God’s infinite love, good will, and mercy in the Person of His Son. Thus their reaction was to thank and praise God for “all the things that they had heard and seen.”

The shepherds went back to where they were when the angels appeared to them in the first place. It was time to go back to work. By all outward appearances, everything was the same as before. But for the shepherds, life would never be the same. They went back with new zeal, new joy, and new praise for God in their hearts.

Life goes on, doesn’t it? After Christmas is over, we’ll go back to the office, back to the classroom, back to the field or the factory, back to your family duties, back to the ordinary daily routine. But we can go back changed like the shepherds did.

The first Christmas didn’t change the shepherd’s circumstances, but it changed them profoundly. Christmas can cause us to react like the shepherds: glorifying and praising God for all the things we’ve seen and heard about His Son and His coming to this world.

2 Corinthians 9:15: “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”

There are gift ideas out there that might leave us at a loss for words. For example, there is a $24,000 white gold computer mouse inlaid with diamonds you could buy for someone, or a jeweled fishing lure for 1 million dollars.

A crystal chess set is selling for $15,000. Or you can buy a teddy bear whose fur is made from gold thread for $84,000. You could pay the low price of $27,000 for one pair of sunglasses, and for the proud grandparent wondering what to buy the new grandbaby, there is a $28,000 pacifier out there for sale.

Gifts with these kind of price tags stagger the imagination. But these are not indescribable gifts. In fact, when it comes to the gifts offered in advertisements on TV, the radio or the internet, manufacturers spend lots of money describing possible gifts very thoroughly.

They describe them in such appealing ways as to entice you into believing that you simply can’t live without them. What you find in life is that every material gift is describable.

Why does the Apostle Paul call the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ “indescribable?” The answer is twofold: because of Who He is and because of His purpose in coming to this world.

At this time of the year, man has done his very best to depict the greatness of God’s gift of His Son to us.

Musicians have composed some of their greatest music on this theme: Handel’s “Messiah,” Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” and the beautiful hymns and carols, “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” etc.

Some of the greatest music our ears will ever hear in this world are written about God’s indescribable gift. And poets, painters, and sculptors have taken up the tools of their trade to pay tribute to Christ, the gift of God’s love.

But how do you describe God the Son? What words would you or could you choose? How do you describe One born of a virgin? How do you describe “God with us,” One who is 100% God, 100% man in one Person?

How do you describe One who is God who has all knowledge when we have limited knowledge? How do you describe Him who is all-powerful, when we are weak?

How do describe Him who is all-present, when we can only be one place at a time? How do you explain One who is eternal, when we have a beginning? How do you explain One who is perfect, when we are imperfect?

How can we explain Him? How do we describe the indescribable? Paul says that we can’t. Words aren’t adequate. Many of the greatest minds in the world have tried to describe Christ. Libraries of the world are filled with volumes about Him.

But Jesus Christ is beyond description. He is greater than even the greatest words we can use to attempt to describe Him.

Equally indescribable in trying to explain His Person is trying to describe His purpose in coming to this world.

How do you adequately express God’s Son leaving His throne in heaven’s glory, to humble Himself, become a man, live a perfect, sinless life, and be obedient to death, even the death of the cross? How do we describe Him willingly doing this for us?

Most every gift we give this Christmas will be given because the recipient of that gift is one who is near and dear to us or is an important part of our lives. We buy gifts for our spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, friends, co-workers, and so on.

What makes God’s gift of His own Son so special and indescribable is that He gave His Son for sinners, for His enemies.

Paul says in Romans 5:8,10: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

We were enemies of God, sinners in rebellion against Him, yet God still gave His Son for us to die for our sins.

God gave the gift of His Son, not because we were His friends, or were good, or deserved it, or earned it, or because He was obligated to do so or owed us anything, God gave His Son, simply because He loves us, unconditionally.

When we look at the manger by faith, we realize that we are looking at a gift of grace. He came for the Cross. He came to die for us and provide us with the free gift of salvation.

And there are no words adequate enough to describe God’s grace and love towards us in Jesus Christ. The gift of God’s Son to us who are sinners is unspeakable and beyond describing.

The Apostle Paul looked at Jesus Christ and said, “I can’t describe this Gift. All I can do is fall on my knees and thank God for His unspeakable gift.”

And that should be our Christmas reaction as well: thanksgiving. We should thank God for the indescribable gift of His Son, that He gave Him so that we might be saved from our sins and have eternal life. That’s true cause for having a merry Christmas.