The Greatest Story Ever Told

The following was posted with permission by my brother and Pastor Mike Cassara. It is his sermon for this Sunday at Nesconset Christian Church. Services are 9:00AM and 10:45AM. I hope you can attend. You can click the link for my home church at the right for directions and more information about Nesconset Christian Church.

Christmas- A Gift for All People

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 1:57 – 2:21

Without a doubt, the story of Jesus’ birth is in fact the greatest story ever told in whatever language it is spoken. And over the past two weeks we have examined exactly how God prepared the world for the entrance of His only Son into this world. First, he informed an aged Jewish priest that his wife who was beyond child bearing years would give birth to a son and they were to name him John. At first Zechariah doubted the angel’s words but just as the angel had said, his wife Elizabeth got pregnant. Then the same angel, Gabriel visited a young cousin of Elizabeth. Her name was Mary. She was engaged to a man but had not yet had sexual relations with him. Yet the angel informs this virgin she will conceive a child. In confusion she asks the angel, “How can this be when I have never been with a man?” The angel tells her the Holy Spirit will come upon her and will overshadow her and a son will be born to her. And then the angel tells us the most shocking news. This child is the promised Messiah that the nation of Israel has been awaiting for literally thousands of years. He shall be called the Son of God for he has come to save men from their sins. Wow!

I am not a big fan of reality Television but there are a few of them that are heartwarming. One is Extreme House Makeover. The best part of the show is at the end when Ty Pennington yells, Move That Bus. To see the reaction of the once broken and hurting families see their new house, to watch how they respond to what has been built just for them often brings tears. There is a new show called The Secret Millionaire. A multi-millionaire will for one week assume the role of a poor and impoverished person. They are placed in an environment where they meet many hurting and struggling people. At the end of the week the millionaire decides who he is going to give substantial amounts of money to. He then cleans up, dresses up in his millionaire digs and finds the folks he has chosen to be a recipient of his benevolence. He reveals to them that he has lied to them all week. He in fact is not poor, he is a millionaire. And then he hands them a check. On one episode, $100,000 was given to a lady in a poor section of San Diego who takes in foster kids. She has a dozen or so kids in her house all at her own expense. Another family received $125,000 to assist with the medical bills they have accumulated since their daughter was diagnosed with cancer. To watch the reactions and responses of these folks brings tears to my eyes. It is always a joy to watch the response to unbelievably good news.

Well if the story of Jesus’ birth is in fact the greatest story ever told, how should we respond to it? What should our reaction be? Well before I answer that question, allow me to make a case as to why this is referred to as The Greatest Story Ever Told.

When God created the universe he subsequently created living creatures, last of all humans. He brought us into existence for the very specific purpose of having a relationship with us. He would be our daddy and we would be his children. He would provide for all of our needs and care for us in a perfect and loving way. We would live under his care and guidelines for our lives and enjoy the rich blessings of being the creator’s child. But the history of mankind has been marked by deliberate and willful choices not to live under God’s care and guidelines. In fact for most of known history, humans have chosen to reject God’s care and guidelines for our lives. When those choices are made, the Bible calls it sin. And those choices have led to a broken relationship with God. Our sins and rejection of God’s involvement in our lives have separated us from God and in fact made us enemies of God. And this is true of the worst of sinners as it is true for the least of sinners. We are all sinners. We have all chosen to reject God’s care for our lives and his guidelines for our lives, thus we can all be spoken of as separated from God and an enemy of God.

But God is driven by two character traits that define who He is. He is a God of Love and also is a God of Justice. As a God of love he could not stand to have his creation separated from Him and in a situation where they are called His enemies. But as a God of Justice, our choices to reject His care and provisions for our life and our choice to reject his guidelines for how we live our lives has to be punished. He wouldn’t be true to who He is if he didn’t enact the punishment we deserve. But He wouldn’t be true to His nature of a loving God if he didn’t do something that would give us a second chance at having the relationship with Him he originally intended when he created mankind.

So because He is God and the sovereign creator of the universe He came up with a plan. He would send His own Son, who dwelt with Him in all the majesty and glory of heaven to this earth. And He would send him to be born of virgin who was engaged to a relatively poor carpenter from a very humble and obscure town in the middle of nowhere. His son would be born and for the first thirty years of his life live a very normal life for a carpenter’s son. And then he would begin to reveal himself for who in fact he was. The son of God sent to this earth to become the substitute punishment for the sins and disobedience of God’s children. After three years of teaching people about God and authenticating his claim to be God in the flesh through incredible and undeniable miracles, Jesus was falsely arrested, put through a trial that was a mockery and sentenced to death, accused of nothing worthy of dying, much less being executed through the extremely agonizing experience of crucifixion. As Jesus hung on that cross, nailed at his wrists and feet with large spikes driven through his flesh, dark clouds began to roll in across Jerusalem where this scene was playing out. The clouds were so dark that the sun was hidden. The ground began to shake violently. In the holy temple, a curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple suddenly was torn in two all on its own. At that moment, Jesus, the son of God who left heaven and all its glory to come to this earth was taking on the full wrath and fury of the Father. Jesus was assuming the sins of mankind on himself and was experiencing the full force of God’s punishment. He cried out, “My God, My God, why are you forsaking me.” The Father in fact had withdrawn his presence from his son and in a realm you and I cannot relate to, Jesus who had no sin in his life became sin and was punished in our place. The wrath and fury that we deserve for our deliberate choices to disobey God and reject His care for our lives was now placed on Jesus, billions of times over.

After six hours of enduring excruciating physical and spiritual torment, Jesus died. But less than 48 hours later, Jesus sprung back to life, bursting forth back on the scene to the amazement of not only his followers but those who had put him to death. He dwelt among his followers for forty more days and then returned to the glory and majesty of heaven. Before He returned to heaven he told his followers to go and tell all the world that if they put their faith and trust in Him and His work on the cross, they would be forgiven of all their sins and be welcomed back into the very relationship that God intended to have with them when He originally created the universe and mankind. Because Jesus died in their place they could receive the gift of salvation. And when people accept the gift of salvation, several things are promised to them.

1. They would become children of God, instead of being enemies of God. Those who choose to accept the gift of salvation would have the relationship with God He originally intended to have with His children.

2. They would be able to stand before God holy and blameless without sin, because Jesus nailed their sins to the cross and left them there forevermore.

3. God would once again care for and provide for them and in turn, they would do their best to live lives that honored God through obedience to His guidelines and plans for their life.

4. And they would not have to fear physical death for no longer would God’s children die. When their physical life on this earth ended they would immediately join the rest of God’s children in all the glory and majesty of heaven, to live forever in place where there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more evil, no more tears. Only joy and the presence of God and His children.

Now you tell me, is that not the greatest story ever told? Is this not the most incredible thing you have ever heard?

Now, that you have heard the great story, the bus has been moved, what is going to be your reaction, your response to this great news? Are you going to walk out of here and say, O that’s a nice, heartwarming story? Or will this story affect your life, change you in some way or manner?

Well I want to go to scripture to see how various people responded to Jesus’ birth and perhaps see how we ought to respond to it.

1. Believe

Simple enough, huh? A couple of weeks ago, we saw how Zechariah failed to believe that God would do what the angel promised him. That’s why he’s silent until his son is born. Then we saw how Mary, in contrast to that, believed that what the angel said really would take place. But here with these shepherds we see another example of faith. After the angels leave, they look at each other and say: What are we waiting for? Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.

There is no debate. There is no procrastination. They don’t decide to sleep on it. They don’t go to the local library for research. They just figure that it’s all true. That’s faith. Scripture says that without faith it’s impossible to please God. The angel says, “Peace on earth among people with whom he is pleased.” Who is that? It’s those who respond to God’s gift through faith. Scripture says, “For by grace you are saved, through faith....”

Faith means you say yes to all that God was doing through Christ. Yes, he is the Savior of the world. Yes, he came to die for my sins. Yes, through him I find forgiveness and new life. Yes, I want to follow Christ as Lord. Faith isn’t a spectator sport; it’s an active embracing of all that God has promised in Christ. God brings you to a point, and it’s not a time for debate; it’s not a time for sleeping on it; it’s not even a time to do more research; it’s a time act in faith upon what the Lord has said.

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross.

So if you have yet to put your faith in Christ, stop delaying, stop researching, stop thinking about it and just do it. Believe.

2. Obedience

When the angel Gabriel visited Joseph to let him know that his fiancé Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, he was told that the child’s name was to be Jesus. That is found in Matthew 1:21. In Luke 2:21, we read, eight days later, when the baby was circumcised he was named Jesus. Now you may think that is a small detail. Not a breathtaking example of obedience. But in fact it was because in those days, Jewish custom pretty much demanded that the first born son is named after the father. I can imagine all the pressure Joseph and Mary would have been under to name their son Joseph. But they were told to name him Jesus and that is what they did.

We see a similar situation with Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were told to name their son John. Luke 1:59-63 (NLT) When the baby was eight days old, they all came for the circumcision ceremony. They wanted to name him Zechariah, after his father. But Elizabeth said, “No! His name is John!” “What?” they exclaimed. “There is no one in all your family by that name.” So they used gestures to ask the baby’s father what he wanted to name him. He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is John.”

There is a time to break with family tradition. Maybe the hardest time to do that is at Christmas. There is a time to say: “No. This is what God has told us to do. I know that’s different than how it has always been done in our family, but I must obey him.” Zechariah has learned that he doesn’t call the shots, but neither does their family; God does.

How do we respond to the greatest story ever told? We are committed to learning God’s way for us to live. It’s all here in the Bible so it means we start reading the Bible and learning how to do life God’s way. And then we start doing our best to be obedient. We strive as best as we can to choose God’s ways over our own ways. We admit that He knows what is best and we deliberately choose to follow what He wants us to do, even when those around us don’t understand our choice or pressure us to do otherwise. Jesus said, if you love me you will obey me. Obedience.

3. Tell Others

Luke tells us that after the Shepherds arrived in Bethlehem and saw Jesus lying in the barn in a feeding trough (not a great place for the Son of God to be born), they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about the child. Luke 2:17

When you embrace Christ—or should I say, he embraces you—something happens to you. You know it. Paul says, “The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). If you, like the shepherds, have experienced that, you have to tell others about it.

By the way, they weren’t preachers, they weren’t missionaries; but that didn’t matter. They had heard something. They had seen something. That something meant salvation for the whole world. I bet the recipients of The Secret Millionaire’s benevolence immediately got on the phone and called their family and friends and told them the great news. I bet the families on Extreme House Makeover told everyone they knew they had been chosen to be on the show. You see when something great happens to you, you just have to tell others. And when you are born again, and God does this awesome work of salvation and new birth, you just have to tell others.

I’m not one of those Christians who thinks we should get rid of the Christmas trees and eggnog and exchanging of gifts. I like all that stuff. I like Christmas shopping...a little bit. But, do you know what? If we do all that stuff, but don’t talk about Jesus—if we fail to speak of the real meaning of it all; if we neglect to tell someone that this child was born as Savior and Lord, that he was sent by God to die on the cross to dies as our substitute punishment; if we neglect to tell others, we’ve failed to do Christmas right.

The angel said that this is good news of great joy which shall be for all the people. All the people. Did you hear that? Not just religious people, not just Western people, not just poor people or rich people or smart people or not-so-smart people—for all people. So don’t let Christmas go by without telling some people about Jesus.

4. Meditate on All of This

Luke 2:19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.

Amidst all the activity, I need to just stop and treasure all these things. I need to ponder them in my heart. I need to engage in some holy wonder.

How do you do that? Maybe that means you stop in the middle of your shopping and sit down and pull out your Bible and just read the Christmas story. Maybe that means you gather your children around a nativity scene each night this week and unwrap a different piece and talk about the role it plays in the Christmas story. Maybe that means you wake up really early one morning this week and find a place you can watch the sunrise and meditate on Zechariah’s words: “The Sunrise on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.” Maybe that means you write the words of the angel on a 3x5 card and pull it out every time you eat: “Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people....”

Luke tells us that the reaction of those who heard the shepherd’s story was astonishment. When you treasure these things in our heart and think about them often, you can’t keep from being astonished by it all. Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is."

When you do that, when you really let it sink in, you’ll find yourself doing exactly what the shepherds did next. Verse 20 said they went back, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Go back! Where? To your everyday life. Just because you have seen the Christ doesn’t mean you stay in the manger. You go back to where you came from, but you go back glorifying and praising God. You don’t just wait until Sunday to do that. You go back and do that. You do that in the everyday places of life.

John McCain wrote an article for Time Magazine this past August that spoke of his personal journey of faith. In his article McCain shared a powerful story of something that occurred while he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam:

When I was a prisoner of war in Vietnam…my captors would tie my arms behind my back and then loop the rope around my neck and ankles so that my head was pulled down between my knees. I was often left like that throughout the night. One night a guard came into my cell. He put his finger to his lips signaling for me to be quiet and then loosened my ropes to relieve my pain. The next morning, when his shift ended, the guard returned and retightened the ropes, never saying a word to me.

A month or so later, on Christmas Day, I was standing in the dirt courtyard when I saw that same guard approach me. He walked up and stood silently next to me, not looking or smiling at me. Then he used his sandaled foot to draw a cross in the dirt. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas, even in the darkness of a Vietnamese prison camp.