8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
(Luke 2: 8-15)
Pastor Jonny brought us the first message in our Christmas series all about expectation.
When we look through the first 3 chapters of Luke, we can see that the Christmas story is full of anticipation and expectation. All through the Old Testament, there are prophecies and shadows that point towards a Jewish Messiah, a Saviour, coming to redeem His people. The actual expectations were quite different to reality! The Jews were expecting a political or military saviour, someone like King David, to ride in on horseback and lead Israel to military victory. What they got was so different, but so much better.
It starts in Luke 1, where Mary and Elizabeth were both expecting babies. Once the babies were born, there was so much expectation placed on each baby: John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ, because so much had been prophesied about each one.
In chapter 2, people were expectant and excited to meet the baby Jesus. In our lives today, expectation drives excitement. We get excited for Christmas because of the expectations it holds. We get to spend time with our families and friends. As adults, we can relax from work, and as children, we get to play with lots of new toys.
In chapter 3, people’s expectations were a little misplaced. They began suspecting that John was the Messiah. John had to explain that he wasn’t, but that he was preparing the way for the ministry of the Messiah.
People’s expectations were heightened because there had been no revelation for 400 years! From the end of the writing of Malachi (the last book in the Old Testament) and the beginning of the Gospels, there had been no prophecies from God, or miracles taking place. The Jewish people were expectant that at some point in the future, the Messiah would arrive, so as soon as they heard that prophecies were being made again (to Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah), the excitement must have been uncontainable!
At the birth of Jesus, God revealed Himself through angels to shepherds, and a star to some Wise Men. God could have chosen to reveal the Messiah’s birth to anyone, but He chose random groups of people from the working and upper classes. God can save people from all race and class in society. Jesus is not just for the elite, neither is He for the working class alone. He is for everyone!
Because of God fulfilling His great promises in the Messiah, we can come to the Saviour with expectation. As Christians, we have an expectation for a future brighter than any of our earthly circumstances, and this can help us endure difficult time when we’re waiting for God to bring an end to such times in our lives. We can come to God today in expectation, knowing that if we repent and believe the Gospel, He will be faithful to meet us where we are at. We can read stories of God’s faithfulness as we read through the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament. Noah believed God’s warning of judgement in the form of a global flood, and was faithful to build an ark. Moses believed God’s promise to liberate the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, and was propelled to keep going in efforts to demand freedom from Pharaoh. Moses’ faith and obedience to God’s commands and expectations of God’s promises was so great that they got to the point where God parted the Red Sea for them to escape! We see Joshua, another hero, expectantly believing God’s promise and following God’s call to march around Jericho in a very specific way. He knew that God was going to be faithful. King David had a life marred by sin, yet he was always obedient to God’s promises in his life, resulting in being known as a “man after God’s own heart”.
As Christians, we should have that same expectation and obedience. When we get older, we often lose the magic of Christmas, and sadly the same can be said about our relationship with Jesus. It can become stale and we can start taking things for granted, failing to praise God for the many blessings in life that we don’t even deserve. We should seek to recapture the excitement of the Gospel when we focus our mind on how incredible God’s promises are for us as Christians, and the reality of the death of Jesus on the cross for us.
Let’s focus this week on how expectant people were to receive Jesus throughout the Gospels, and come to Him in prayer with that same level of expectation and excitement, both for the great future He has planned in eternity for us, as well as being expectant that He is going to bless us in so many ways and grow us in our faith and relationship with Him in too many ways to count!