While most of the religions of the world believe that God is an impersonal being, some kind-of-cosmic energy or force, the God who is revealed in the Bible is a personal God. He is relational. He is approachable. You can know Him even as you are known by Him. Matthew 1:23 declares, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[a] (which means “God with us”). This name for Jesus, perhaps we will call it His “Christmas name,” this name, Immanuel, brings Jesus up close and personal. He is WITH us. He is with us in our struggle. He is with us in our frailty. He is with us in the difficulties of life. He is with us in the valleys. He is right here this morning. He is acquainted with any sense of awkwardness you feel. He has seen any tear that has come to your eye as we have sung and prayed. He has observed you with the burdens you carried in here. He knows how you struggled to make it today. He knows if you are feeling victorious or if you feel like you have been run over by a truck. He is with you.
That’s the thing about the relational reach of our God; it puts Him within our reach. If He hadn’t descended to earth in the form of a baby and became human, He would still be beyond our reach. Oh, we wouldn’t be beyond His reach, but there is a sense that we couldn’t know Him the way we can know Him because of His coming. The Psalmist, David, said, “The Lord is MY Shepherd.” You can’t read the 23rd Psalm without being struck by the relationship with God that David described. The whole Bible is about God’s desire for a relationship with us. God pursues us intentionally. He provides for us individually. He undergirds us specifically in the ways that each of us need Him. That is His desire, anyway. His, is a relational reach.
We see this relational reach on display in the Christmas story as He sends a message to the shepherds. Listen to the story in Luke 2:8-15 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly 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.” 15 When 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.”
The fact that the shepherds even made the Christmas story reveals that Jesus wants a relationship with everyone! What I mean by that is that Jesus came to a group of people that wouldn’t have been picked first by anyone for anything or even picked at all. They were outcasts. They had no influence or power. No one listened to a shepherd. They were all considered liars and thieves. They weren’t allowed to testify in court because no one would believe their story.
Why didn’t God choose the religious leaders to tell this Good News to? Wouldn’t they have been excited to get on the ground floor of the Messiah’s entrance? They had been teaching people about the Old Testament prophecies for hundreds of years. Why not reward them for that by announcing the news to them? Or why not share this epic announcement with a king or at least a well-known person of influence whose testimony would have actually carried some weight and credibility. The shepherds had little to nothing to offer in this situation. They didn’t have gold, frankincense or myrrh to bring to the infant-king like the wisemen did. In the world’s estimation, they would have been an unlikely choice for such a grand announcement.
Why did God choose the shepherds to be the recipients of the greatest news ever? Here’s a guess: God’s personal reach extends to those who are humble enough to receive it. The shepherds knew who and what they were. They knew what other people thought of them. No one admired a shepherd. They weren’t even allowed to go to the temple for worship. How would you feel if there were bouncers at the doors of the church and you were told you couldn’t come in? Oh, the irony of it all! The shepherds raised the sheep so that the people could buy them and sacrifice them as a way to express sorrow over their sin, so that they could have a sense of cleansing for their sin, but they considered the shepherds, the very ones who provided the means for them to seek atonement at the time, too dirty to worship God, too dirty to hear the Word of God.
Our personal, all-loving God showed the world what He thought of that viewpoint that starry night. Listen, the opinion of man means nothing when God has spoken, and He declared Jesus’ coming as “GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY for ALL people.” You get the sense that when the shepherds heard the angel’s words, they heard something tagged on at the end: “I bring you good news of great joy for all people, especially for you, shepherds.” Just guessing. This I know, the shepherds were forever changed. They would never again wonder if they mattered to God.
No matter how unworthy you feel, God is invested in you. You matter to Him. He has Good News for you personally today. Note that He met them where they were as they were. He visited them while they were at work. If an angel appears at Toyota or Thomas Hospital tomorrow, don’t be surprised. He did it once; He can do it again! Just sayin! He came to them in a way that made it easy for them to receive Him. I guess you would say God came to their territory.
God broke His amazing news to a group of simple, uneducated, uncool shepherds, people no one else wanted to be associated with, but God wanted to associate with them. He invited them to come and see the Christ-child for themselves, and they were never the same.
He could have sent His littlest angel to deliver the news. That angel could have suddenly appeared in the sheepfold and made its way to the shepherds and quietly said, “Pssst. I gotta a message for you guys,” so as to keep things on the downlow, not drawing attention to God’s reach to the lowly shepherds. But y’all! God sent the “heavenly host!” The word “host” means “an army of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand.” (Daniel 7:10 and Psalm 68:17) What an electric choir! Talk about lighting up the night! Seriously, that is like the finale of Randy Parsons’ fireworks each year here on this hill! It was like fireworks in the sky, baby! God sent the biggest display for the lowest group of people! He pulled out all of the stops, and gave them the news with great fanfare because that is what Good News of Great Joy for ALL people deserves! How special did those shepherds feel? No one ever did anything special for them. No one ever invited them to anything, and God invited them to be the first guests at Jesus’ baby shower!
You may not consider yourself to be anyone special. Maybe you feel like an unworthy, unimportant nobody. I tell you on the authority of the Word of God, our personal God is reaching for you. Jesus came and comes to those who feel unworthy.
How else can we see the relational, personal reach of God in the Christmas story?
Angels were also dispatched to Joseph and Mary, to send just the messages they needed to hear. Let’s look at Joseph’s personal encounter with God’s messenger.
Matthew 1:18-24. 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Joseph had a lot to take in. His first reaction was a very human one. No one would fault Joseph for feeling betrayed by Mary. She was pregnant. He knew how that happened. Virgins didn’t have babies.
When the angel of God visited Joseph, he had already been formulating a plan. When he looked ahead, he didn’t see a way he could follow through with marrying Mary. It would be too painful. He felt the sting of betrayal, and every day with her would be a reminder of that betrayal. He was making decisions based on his feelings. Aren’t you glad that God understands our feelings? He knows how we react when we get hurt. He knows how we might isolate ourselves when we feel someone has wronged us or how we might turn to something quick for comfort, something that won’t be good for us in the long-run. He knows how quickly we can abandon plans, even plans we have talked through and thought through for a long time. He knows how to dispel our doubts and ease our troubled minds.
God chose to send a personal messenger with a personal message to Joseph. I mean, if an angel appeared on your doorstep, you wouldn’t think it had been sent by a neighbor, right? You wouldn’t confuse an angel with the pizza delivery guy! You wouldn’t credit Amazon with this strange being on your porch. An angel, a supernatural being, would be a slight indicator that God was behind what was happening. And as a result of this encounter, Joseph threw his plan in the trash and put full confidence in the plan of God.
Listen, God knows what you need in order to have your doubts dispelled. He knows how to reassure you when life takes a turn and you are dealing with the unexpected and unwanted. He knows how to direct your next steps so that you stay walking in the will of God rather than in the way of your feelings. Ask Him to show up for you like He did for Joseph. He will give you what you need to take the next right steps.
We often talk about how Mary was chosen for her assignment as the Mother of the Son of God, but Joseph was also chosen for a special assignment. There was a lot placed on him when he agreed to step into the role of Jesus’ earthly father and all that would come with that responsibility and privilege. So many people were part of that first Christmas. They all had a special part to play. God has a plan for every one of us. It’s not a cookie cutter plan, either. He has a blueprint for each life and has created each of us with a special purpose in mind. What a personal God we have. He includes us in His plans. He chooses us for special assignments.
How does it make you feel this morning to know that God has chosen to be a in a relationship with you and has chosen to include you in His eternal plans? God is not some random person who doesn’t know you. He is well-acquainted with your ways and has a specific plan for your life. That is only possible because of the relationship He has with you as both your Creator and your Redeemer. God created you on purpose for a purpose, and when you submit yourself to God and fully receive Him, your purpose, though marred and scarred by sin, gets reignited and restored. It is in relationship with Jesus that you become who you were always meant to be!
Let me move to Mary’s story. Luke 1:26-38 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Let me just start by saying, when you have a love relationship with God, like Mary had, when He shows up to tell you about His specific plans for you, you are so humbled and honored at the same time, that being part of His plan is a delight. Mary wasn’t a reluctant participant in the Divine plan. I could understand why she would have been overwhelmed, why she might have responded with, “Hang on one second. I have plans and having a baby right now isn’t on my to-do list! Wedding, yes. Baby, no!” She wasn’t reluctant at all because of the relationship she had with God. She was fully invested before she was asked to mother the Messiah, and when you are fully invested in your relationship with God, you don’t view God’s plan as a duty, but as a delight.
How do I know it thrilled her to say, “Yes,” to God’s plan? Later in Luke 1 she burst into song and had her own praise and worship service. No one was telling her what song to sing. No one was instructing her. No one suggested it was time to stand and sing. Praise and worship were simply a spontaneous overflow of her heart of love for God. She couldn’t help herself.
The angel started out by declaring that Mary was blessed and highly favored. Church, Mary was in a relationship with the God who holds favor and blessing! That is the kind of relationship you can have with God this morning! You can know and walk with and receive from the One who has favor to pour out over your life! Maybe you grew up thinking that God just wanted something from you. I’ve come to tell you that God wants something FOR you, and it is greater than you ever imagined.
I mean, we all have hopes and dreams for our kids, but to be told that your kid will be great, will be called the Son of the Most High, will reign on the throne of David, and will reign forever and that His kingdom will never end, that had to knock Mary’s socks off!
Did you catch that Mary never questioned the angel’s words about her Son? She never said, “Are you kidding me? There’s no way? I’m just a simple Jewish girl. There is no way my Son could sit on the throne and reign forever.” How could she accept that was the destiny for her Son? She could accept it because God had her heart. There was a relationship by faith. Luke 1:45 tells us she believed what the Lord told her through the angel.
She had a question about the whole virgin thing, but she never questioned what was told to her about her Son. The angel willingly answered her questions because that is what happens inside a relationship with God. When we have questions, He has answers to give.
Maybe you recognize this morning that you don’t have the kind of connection, the kind of relationship with God that would enable you to believe Him for the impossible in your life, or maybe you just have some questions, and you haven’t been intentional about asking Him for answers. God’s reach is relational. Because He wants a relationship with you, He is willing to engage with you in a way that will ignite your faith and answer your questions.
Maybe you are like the shepherds who felt excluded, unworthy or insignificant, God wants a relationship with you. He invites you to come close. He has chosen you for salvation.
Maybe you are like Joseph and you are dealing with personal feelings of betrayal, rejection or some other kind of pain, God has a plan for your life. Don’t let your feelings cause you to make decisions that would keep you from taking the path God has in store for you. Let Him dispel your doubts and direct your steps today. Throw your plans in the trash, and receive God’s plan for your life today. God has chosen you for a special plan.
Maybe you are like Mary, and you have a question or two. God ahead and ask. After all, God is crazy about you, and nothing you could ask could catch Him by surprise or change His desire to pour out His favor on your life. Grow your relationship to the point that when He visits you with impossible possibilities, you believe Him fully and submit to His plans at the same level.
When God reached for us by sending Jesus, it was a relational reach. It’s still a relational reach. God hasn’t met His quota. He isn’t limited to 5000 friends like some people are on Facebook. He is waiting for YOU to say fully “Yes” to Him today.
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