Christmas Is INCLUSIVE

July 20 of this year, 2023, Australia's women's football team, the Matildas, beat Ireland 1-0 in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Was anyone at that game, Ireland v Australia?

No one.

Well, apparently, it was the most highly watched and highly attended women's football game in Australian history when it happened, with 75,784 attendees.

It was a, I wasn't there, but I watched it from home, and it was a great match.

They call football the world game, don't they?

It is the world game.

By many counts, it's probably the most popular sport in the world.

And I think that's because football is inclusive.

Football is inclusive because, and it's called the world game, because anyone, anywhere in any part of the world, can find something roughly spherical and kick it back and forth into a goal.

It's a dead easy game to play, and that's why it's the world game.

Football is inclusive because no one misses out.

Now, don't worry, this message is not about football.

It's about the Bible.

But it does remind me that Christmas too is inclusive because no one misses out.

Today, Christmas brings people together from many different walks of life, different parts of the country, even parts of the world.

Christmas brings people together, and many of us will experience that in the next couple weeks as we have our big family get-togethers.

But not only today does Christmas bring people together, the Christmas story that we read in the Gospels is inclusive because it brings people together.

Does anyone have a Nativity scene at home set up?

Who do we have in the Nativity?

Classic, shout it out.

Who do we have?

Mary, Jesus, Joseph, maybe a donkey, a sheep, maybe wise men, shepherds, the star.

Yep, classic characters from the Christmas story.

But when we trace the Christmas story through the Gospel of Matthew and Luke, who were the only two Gospels to actually tell the Christmas story, there's a much bigger cast of characters who are a part of the Christmas story.

This is, by my count, all of the characters involved in the Christmas story.

There's Jesus, obviously, Mary, Joseph, God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, the Angel Gabriel, King Herod, the three wise men, the shepherds, the heavenly host, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, even Caesar Augustus, because he issued the decree, he's sort of a character, Governor Quirinius, the chief priest and the teachers of the law, and even more, more obscure characters.

This is how big the cast of the Christmas story is.

Christmas is inclusive, because no one misses out.

In this message, we're going to zoom in on the story of one of these characters and explore this theme that Christmas is inclusive, and that character is the shepherds.

Davin's going to come up and give us our Bible reading now from Luke chapter two.

Thanks, Dav.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, Don't be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a saviour has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.

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.

And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told.

Christmas is inclusive.

The word inclusive means not excluding anyone, obviously.

But when I looked it up in one dictionary, it had it set in a slightly different way which I thought was nice.

It means aiming to provide equal access to opportunities and resources for people who otherwise might be excluded or marginalized.

That's what inclusive means, and at the most basic level, Christmas is inclusive because of this list that we saw earlier.

That's how many characters get to be a part of the Christmas story.

And when you look at this list, it covers virtually the full gamut of human society from top to bottom.

You have kings, governors, carpenters, babies, shepherds, emperors, and God himself.

This list is good news.

It is good news that Christmas is inclusive because those who otherwise may have been marginalized or excluded get to be a part of the story.

And I think that's the position that we find the shepherds in, in Luke 2 verse 8 that Davin read for us.

There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

As you can imagine, in the first century, being a shepherd was not a glamorous job.

It was not a highly esteemed job.

In fact, it was the opposite.

It was not a very nice job.

Shepherds were kind of grotty and smelly.

They smelled like sheep all the time.

And they hung out with sheep more than people as well.

Their job required them to be separate and away from people in the fields for a lot of time.

And so shepherds missed out on a lot of things.

Maybe they related to the excluded and the marginalised part of that quote.

That was the position the shepherds were in.

Off, away from people, hanging out with their sheep, until the angel appeared to them in verse 9.

An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.

Once again, every time angels show up, people are terrified.

I just underline that in my Bible.

I think it's funny.

Verse 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.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.

Christmas is inclusive, and the first thing that I think that means is it's an invitation.

Christmas is an invitation.

There is in the Christmas story, to the shepherds, an invitation which is extended.

In verse 10, the angel gives the invitation to the shepherds that in Bethlehem a savior has been born.

Now that is not in itself an invitation.

That's a statement of fact.

Something has happened is not an invitation.

But in verse 12, when the angel goes on to say, this will be a sign to you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

The angels extending an invitation.

The angel is expecting that the shepherds will go and find this baby.

The shepherds are invited to go to Bethlehem and to find this one who is called the savior, the Messiah and the Lord.

And the angel says, you will know you found him when you find a baby in a manger.

A manger is where donkeys ate their food from.

Babies don't hang out in mangers.

So if you find a baby in a manger, it's this baby and he is the savior, is what the angel says.

I've never had a child before, so that's the caveat here.

But I know that of all the times in a person's life, having a child allows you to be a little bit selective about who you let into the hospital room.

Someone who's had kids, can you confirm?

Is that true?

Okay.

Of all the times in your life when you can be picky about who comes and visits the baby, it's when you've just given birth to a child.

I think probably you're only having close family, close friends come and visit in the hospital.

Even in this context, probably the wise men will welcome visitors as soon as they brought out the gold and the frankincense and the myrrh.

But imagine the scene in history that actually happened when a bunch of shepherds, shepherds plural, by the way, not one, multiple shepherds, dirty, grotty and smelling like sheep, rock up to Bethlehem to where the baby has just been born and they want to see this Lord Jesus who has just been born.

Imagine what Mary and Joseph are feeling in that moment.

Imagine what Mary is feeling.

To have these shepherds rock up and want to visit Jesus.

It's overwhelming, it's insane.

But it's also beautiful, I think.

This boy Jesus will grow up and he will be called a friend of sinners.

He was criticized because Jesus ate and associated with tax collectors and sinners.

And even right now, before he can say a word, the person of Jesus is inclusive.

He draws people to himself who otherwise would have been marginalized and excluded.

I think it's kind of beautiful that the shepherds and the wise men, all these different kind of characters get to be a part of the Christmas story.

Christmas is inclusive because no one misses out on the invitation.

And maybe you're sitting here, maybe feeling like God doesn't want anything to do with you.

Like the invitation to come to Jesus never came to you.

You wouldn't be welcome before the Father.

But I encourage you to look at this Christmas story and see the types of people who the angel invites to come and see Jesus.

No one misses out and you have not missed out.

Christmas is inclusive.

It's an invitation and it's open to all.

But it requires a response.

The invitation requires a response.

We know that today.

We respond to invitations with an RSVP.

But the invitation, the response that the Christmas invitation requires is not an RSVP.

It's something I think a bit different.

Christmas is inclusive.

It's an invitation for the inquisitive.

That's the response.

Verse 15, we read, 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.

There is a response required to the invitation to come to Jesus.

And the response is, simply, being inquisitive enough, caring enough to go.

That's the response.

The angels didn't bring a statement of fact only, or a declaration, or an announcement, but they brought an invitation that required the response of being inquisitive enough to go and see this thing that has happened.

Think about this for a moment.

What if the shepherds did not respond to the invitation?

If the angel had extended the invitation, what would that have looked like?

I imagine the angel would have appeared gloriously, as the angels do, and say, I bring you shepherds good news.

A savior has been born to you.

The shepherds would have said, what do we need saving from?

The angel would say, it's good news.

This baby is the messiah, the lord.

And the shepherds would have said, the lord of who?

What's a messiah?

If you don't respond to the invitation, that's what you and I like.

We don't respond to the invitation, and we find ourselves in the position of the shepherds.

But in the story of Jesus, there is this invitation that requires a response of being inquisitive.

And as I think about this and read the passage, I think the determining factor for how inquisitive you and I will be to respond to the invitation of Christmas comes down to two questions.

Number one, do you think you need saving?

And number two, do you think he could be the saviour?

The degree to which you respond to these questions is how inquisitive you are.

If you don't think you need saving, then there's no need for a saviour.

And there is no need for saving.

But if, like the shepherds, you know in your heart that you need saving and that he just might be the saviour, what that equals, one plus two, equals an inquisitive drive to go and see this thing that has happened.

When the angel brings the good news that a saviour has been born, the shepherds are looking to be saved by God.

And they believe that this Jesus just might be the saviour.

And what it does is it makes them inquisitive.

And they go and see this thing that has happened.

So if you and I don't have any awareness of our need to be saved, no need for a saviour, we will not be inquisitive.

We will not respond to the invitation of God.

And if our answer to the two questions, one, do you think you need saving?

And do you think he could be the saviour?

If our answer to both questions is no, then it's not good news to us, it's neutral news.

It's just a thing that happened, which doesn't impact us in any way.

But like the shepherds, if we know we need saving and we think he might be the saviour, it's the best news of all, that a saviour has been born to us.

Christmas is inclusive.

It's an invitation for the inquisitive.

And that inquisitive drive that the shepherds had, because they knew they need saving, and they knew that he could be the saviour, that inquisitive drive took the shepherds somewhere, and it took them to see Jesus, who is God himself, lying in the manger, clothed in the flesh of a human.

The Incarnation.

That's where the invitation took the shepherds to.

That's where the invitation takes you and I.

It takes us to the Incarnation.

Luke 2 verse 16 says, So the shepherds hurried off, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

The baby is God, Incarnate.

God in human flesh.

That's what Incarnation means.

In flesh, like our flesh.

It means that the God who is Spirit, in essence, took on flesh in that baby Jesus.

And so the scene that the Christmas story paints for us is smelly, dirty shepherds who've just been out in the fields, standing over a manger, looking into the eyes of God, in the form of a baby.

That's what the Christmas story is.

Christmas is inclusive.

It's an invitation for the inquisitive to the incarnation.

It all leads to the incarnation, to the point where heaven and earth meet in the person of Jesus, where God and humanity meet.

The incarnation is the moment when heaven came down, when heaven and earth came together.

That's what the invitation takes us to.

It takes us to the point where the God that Two Kings says even the highest heaven cannot contain, nonetheless became audibly, tangibly real to us in Jesus.

He became flesh.

That's what incarnation means.

And in the incarnation, God entered our world so that we could come and see him.

We could come and actually encounter him, come before him, worship him, experience him, know him, love him.

He entered our world so that we could come and see.

And that's exactly what the shepherds did.

They did come and see.

Verse 15 says, the shepherds say, let's go to Bethlehem and see.

If I can flip that around, come and see is what the shepherds said.

We have to, driven by this inquisitive desire to find out if this might be the saviour, we have to come and see.

The shepherds heard this news from the angel that the God who is spirit and occupying all places at all times can find himself in time, space and matter in the frame of a baby.

They heard that good news, and they had to come and see if it was true.

And that's what they did.

Luke 2, verse 17.

When the shepherds had seen him, the Lord Jesus, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.

And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

That is the shepherds' reaction to the incarnation.

In Luke's Gospel, this is the first human response to the birth of Jesus that we see.

The first one is this shepherds' reaction.

It says, they were amazed, they praised and glorified God.

And that's because having encountered God himself in flesh, in the incarnation, all the shepherds can say is, come and see.

You have to see this.

God became one of us.

Come and see.

Come and see God enter into our world.

And what I think is awesome, to use the true sense of that word, is that as the story of the Gospels goes on, this boy Jesus grows up into a man.

And time after time after time in the Gospels, we see people encounter Jesus and are thoroughly changed.

And what they are left saying is, come and see.

That's what they share.

They say, come and see.

You have to see this man, Jesus.

It happened so many times.

People have an encounter with Jesus.

And all they can say afterwards is, come and see.

Come and see for yourself.

It happened in John 1, verse 45.

Philip had an encounter with Jesus.

And then verse 45 says, Philip found Nathaniel and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Nazareth, said Nathaniel, asked, can anything good come from there?

Come and see, said Philip.

It happened again.

The woman at the well had an encounter with Jesus that changed her life.

John four, verse 28.

Leaving her water jar, the Samaritan woman went back to the town and said to the people, come and see.

A man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Messiah?

When people encounter Jesus, what they want to say, what they have to say is, come and see him.

Come and see God in the flesh of a human and what he can do for you.

And so I put that question to you.

Have you encountered Jesus?

Have you come and seen him?

Be held him.

Christmas is inclusive.

It's an invitation to all people.

No one misses out on the invitation to come and see.

It's an invitation for the inquisitive, for those who know that they need saving and that he might be the saviour.

It's an invitation for the inquisitive to the incarnation, to the place where God entered our world, became like us, took on our flesh.

And the Gospels say that Jesus took our flesh all the way to the cross, where he poured out his perfect life to save us.

That's where Jesus went.

Have you encountered Jesus?

If not, all I can say to you is come and see.

Come and see him.

Read this thing, especially the latter half, that talks about him more clearly.

Come and see for yourself.

Encounter Jesus.

Come and see his life, which is full of the most remarkable, incredible signs and words and teachings, the most incredible grace and mercy that the world has ever seen.

Come and see him.

And you know, if you come and see and you read this, what you'll find is there's one extraordinary thing which rises above the rest.

Matthew 28 verse one.

After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

That's Jesus' tomb.

There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, because people are always afraid when angels appear.

For I know that you were looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here.

He has risen just as he said.

Come and see the place where he lay.

Isn't that insane?

Come and see that the Lord Jesus is not a baby anymore.

He is a man who died and rose again, and he is alive today.

He has resurrection life and forgiveness and mercy for anyone who will come to him, who will accept the invitation that he puts out.

And that is the invitation that we receive today.

Christmas Is inclusive.

It's an invitation that no one misses out on.

An invitation for the inquisitive, driven by the knowledge that they need saving and that he might be the Savior.

And where that takes you is to the incarnation, to the place where God became a man.

It takes us to the cross where the God-man Jesus died for us, and it takes us to the empty tomb, where he rose again.

Come and see.

Come and see.

Many of us have come and seen him, and some of us have not yet come and seen him.

But wherever you're at in the faith journey, at Christmas, the invitation is extended to you, come and see him again.

Come and see again that a Savior has been born to us, who is the Messiah and the Lord.

Will we receive him?

Believe in him?

I pray that we will.

And I invite you to do that now as I pray for us.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for this story of Christmas that we have before us.

Many of us are very familiar with it.

And yet, as we look at it again this morning, I'm struck by the fact that this is the best news in the world, that God became like us.

We thank you for Jesus, we thank you that He did not stay in heaven, but He crossed heaven and earth to become like us, to die for us, and to rise again.

And so now, we want to come and see Him, to encounter Him, to worship Him like the shepherds did, to praise you and glorify you, God, for the gift that is our Lord Jesus.

And for those in this room and online who have not encountered you, Jesus, who have not yet come and seen, I pray that you would draw them now through this Christmas story, draw them by the power of your incredible love and amazing grace, that they would explore the Lord Jesus and what He did for them and that they would be saved.

You are our Savior, Lord, and it is our joy and our honor to glorify you and praise you.

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