Christmas means a lot of different things to people. For many Christmas is about going home.
The song l’ll be home for Christmas can bring tears to your eyes and fill you with gratitude and joy or it can bring pain and sadness. Most of us have a longing for a place called home. We all want to have a home. But home can be a place of great joy or more pain. Home is kind of hard to define. You can stay in a place, but you don’t call it home. You can go back home and feel like you’re not home.
Home is a place where it’s supposed to be safe and where love is supposed to prevail. Where you’re supposed to belong and be loved, but we live in a world where people don’t feel they belong and where love doesn’t prevail. Homesickness is something this world cannot satisfy because were made for a different home. Jesus came to talk about this.
“In my Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a home for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am… I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:2-3, 18,23
You and I were made to dwell in place called home, for you and I to be at home in Him and Him to be home in you and I. Jesus invites others to come home to him. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20
The prodigal son wasted his life and his father’s money and was under enormous pain thinking, ‘If I go home I will not be welcomed.’ What he didn’t know was that his father was waiting for him with outstretched arms. That’s your heavenly father saying to you, ‘just come on home, I just want you come home.’
His invitation to come home is for you and He wants you to spread the good news that there’s room in your Fathers’ house. “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my home will be full.” Luke 14:23
Many think, I’m not trained or articulate enough or feel inadequate to spread the good news. It’s encouraging to know that God interrupted a lowly group of shepherds with the good news. It had nothing to do with who they were. The shepherds were the bottom rung of Jesus’ day.
In Israel, shepherds had what the rabbis called a ‘despised occupation.’ They were assumed to be dishonest and jokes were common about their occupation. They were not even allowed to testify in court. You didn’t want your daughter to marry a shepherd.
They had no position, no good reputation or respect and didn’t even own the sheep. Don’t you love it? God came to those who others sized up as insignificant, but not God!
“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord…”
Luke 2:10-11
Since the shepherds were witnesses of the birth of Jesus anybody can be a witness for Jesus. It’s not about the credibility of the witness it’s about the person of Jesus. Notice the angel said for ALL THE PEOPLE, not for only a few.
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.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. Luke 2:15-17
It is not about the credibility of the witness it’s about the person of Jesus. Perhaps like the shepherds you might think, I’m not smartest in the world or I’m not all that convincing, I can’t even testify, but they did it anyway. You know what? It’s your time to spread the good news too. If the shepherds did you can too!
Maybe we are not aware of it, but we’re the shepherds. Yes, you and I.
Years later, the Apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthians about God’s utterly amazing grace that was given freely to those who responded to God’s call.
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth…He chose the lowly things of this world to confound the wise. I Corinthians 1:26, 28
Here’s the deal. There are two reasons to spread the good news.
The Who – Everyone matters to God. Your family, friends and those you work with who have yet to embrace the savior. Any of one of them could be the next follower of Christ.
The Why – Everyone is made for eternity. The question is where will that be spent? The prospects are sobering and real. Jesus is in the life changing business. There is nobody you know who doesn’t need God’s grace. There is nobody too successful, too powerful, too smart or too well known that they don’t need to kneel before the cross and experience God’s unfathomable love.
Will you partner with God to reach out to those don’t have a real home that will last forever? Share what God means to you. Invite them to a Christmas event or service or for a meal. Now, go out and share the ‘good news’ to a world that really needs it!
Merry Christmas
