Written by: Mark Steele
Luke 2 v 1-3
At that time, Augustus Caesar sent an order that all people in the countries
under Roman rule must list their names in a register. This was the first registration;
it was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to their own
towns to be registered.
Notes
Let’s be honest, we all know this story so well. Primary school productions
of the nativity scene, shepherds in dressing gowns with an old towel on their
head, girls with a coat hanger and tinsel round their heads to make an ever
so cheap looking halo. Why has no one ever marketed a full professional outfit
of nativity scene clothes? The market is there!
Before you read, stop, ask God to show you something new. No I said STOP! Do it. You never know what may happen.
“And all went to their own towns to be registered.” Look what’s happening; Mary and Joseph have to go to their town of his birth. I wonder why? I think it was because their place of birth gave them loads of identity. It sounds a bit weird doesn’t it, but not really, we all go to places that we think give us a bit of an identity. When I was 15, it was the golf course; I was someone there, because I was good at it. But there are loads of other places, maybe it’s a certain street corner or late night shop, perhaps it’s a special place in school, maybe it’s because of your family. What gives you your identity?
God gave you your own identity. You are (insert your name here!)
That’s all you need to know. He has put everything inside us for “life
and godliness.” (2 Peter 1 v 5) That means all your identity is inside
you! Everything you are is there! We don’t need other people, places
or possessions to define us. God has given you an identity already!
Prayer/Challenge
• Draw a circle with you name in the middle and write down all your
gifts, qualities, skills, and personality. That’s your identity!
• Ask God to help you find the stuff he has put inside you.
Luke 2 v 4-7
So Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee, and went to the town of
Bethlehem in Judea, known as the town of David. Joseph went there because he
was from the family of David. Joseph registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged
and who was now pregnant. While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary
to have the baby, and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no
rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him
in a box where animals are fed.
Notes
Did you do all your traditions? Have you opened your presents? Eaten all your
turkey? Watched your mum slave all day making you a brilliant meal? Watched
your dad fall asleep with a party hat over his face? (Doesn’t that
always happen?) Did you watch the “Big Christmas Blockbuster”?
(That we all got on DVD four years ago!) We all watch it though, cos it’s
on normal TV. It just has a different feel doesn’t it? Or is it because
we watch it with our families and not in our rooms on our own?
Things always seem better in groups, don’t they? A rubbish party is bearable because of your mates being with you. A dire game of football can become fun, with your mates. I wonder why? Maybe because togetherness is really powerful. It’s a catalyst for a certain kind of magic normally only seen in Disney films. Well, it wasn’t Disney who invented it. God did! Family is one of his amazing plans to make the world a better place. This whole passage – today, yesterday and the next is all about family. The entire story is based around a family being together. Even God’s own son got put in a family. Ever wondered why he didn’t just grow up in the desert, practising how to do miracles? Turning the sand into cakes or something bonkers like that!
God knew that a family environment was the best place for his son to grow up. There are fun times, hard times, tensions, arguments, dislikes, squabbles, all these sort of things, but it’s a great place to grow, to develop an unselfish attitude, to learn about the “real” world, to find out about your own heart, about your reactions. It all happens in family. What a great plan by God!
Prayer/Challenge
• Be unselfish, pray for each person in your family today.
• Look for a thing to do that will serve your family, like helping out
or cleaning up. Don’t be selfish, think of them before you!
Luke 2 v 8-9
That night, some shepherds were in the fields nearby watching their sheep.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord was shining
around them, and they became very frightened.
Notes
Imagine it, if you were just minding your own business and chilling out, doing
what you do, maybe at the cinema with your mates or doing your job in the
supermarket and all of a sudden this great big angel turns up and starts
chatting to you! You just stop what you are doing, and have a chat with a
being that no one else can see!
You: “Hey, it’s an angel.”
Angel “Hey mate! I’m here from God to tell you something.”
You: “Cool!”
But what about the rest of the world? Do they just stop and wait for you to finish this holy moment? I am so glad that God doesn’t work like this so much now! I mean if anyone else was watching those shepherds, they would have thought they were mental! Off their heads! Quaking with fear, looking at this space in the sky or on the floor! Fruit loops! The cool thing is though that God spoke to these very normal shepherds, people just like me and you!
God says this in Proverbs 3 v 5: “Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track” (the Message). I am so glad that God is passionate about speaking to us. It’s brilliant, he really wants to help us to have a great life, and he will tell you how to do it. If you really believe the Bible, you have to take the words from this passage on board and see that God can speak to you anywhere. He doesn’t need to send massive angels. He can just whisper to you in a small voice (that probably sounds just like your own!) and change your life and maybe someone else’s!
Prayer/Challenge
• Ask God to really speak to you today, about little things, ask him to
help you hear, understand and do what he says.
• At the end of the day write down everything that God said to you and
ask yourself, “Did I do it?”
Luke 2 v 10-12
The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news
that will be a great joy to all the people. Today your Saviour was born in
the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. This is how you will know him: you
will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box.”
Notes
Names! Aren’t they funny? I bet you know people and you’re so glad
that you don’t have their name! I mean, honestly, how cruel are some
peoples parents?! I met a lad once who was called Frank Frank! Believe me,
he got ripped to pieces by people! Why was he called that? Don’t ask
me!
It’s funny though. Your names helps people to know you – it is yours forever. It helps people to identify you, to recognise you. It happens in this passage; the angel says to the shepherds, “This is how you will know him,” but Jesus doesn’t have a name yet. The shepherds are given a description of him. Wouldn’t it have been easier for the angel to say, “Go and look for the baby called Jesus whose mum and dad are called Mary and Joseph”?
In the olden days, your name often said a lot about your profession or what you did. Think about it: “Dave Butcher”, “Lisa Thatcher”, “Ronald McDonald” (the last one is to fool you, but you get what I mean?).
The same goes today, when people say your name, really quickly in their heads some thoughts run through their head about what you are like, about what you have done, what they think you are capable of. Even today your name can still open or close doors to opportunities because of what it means in people’s heads. It’s important to think about that. It’s not your name, but what it means in someone’s head that defines you. Basically it’s the reputation attached to your name that speaks to people. What does your name say about you?
Prayer/Challenge
• Pray that your name will open doors to opportunity.
• Ask three of your friends what you are known for, what your name means
to them. If you don’t like the answers, do something about it! If you do,
build on these strengths. They will open doors for you and God!
Luke 2 v 13-14
Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising
God and saying:
“Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the
people who please God.”
Notes
Can YOU imagine the scene? All of a sudden loads of angels turn up in the sky
absolutely going bonkers like a football crowd for their favourite striker.
(Imagine all those 20,000 Newcastle fans going crazy when they signed Michael
Owen) It would have been that passionate, that enthusiastic, and that fervent.
And who was it for?
God.
They were praising God for how awesome he is, for how amazing he is, for all the things that his character had led to him doing. Like being so in love with us all that he sent his son to this earth to live an amazing life to inspire us on how to live and then die for all the stupid things we do. It just blows my mind to imagine what this looked like. Better than any concert, or church service, completely untainted, pure worship!
Why should we “give glory to God in heaven”?
Well it’s more than singing songs. It’s a secret password to entering into a bigger life. It helps you in so many ways. It gives God the credit, stopping you thinking you’re the reason for everything. It helps you remember how great God is, as you declare his character. It changes your perspective on situations that you are in. It puts God in his rightful place in your life! Worship will change your life. Singing won’t!
Prayer/Challenge
• Pray that God will teach you how to worship better, how to enter his
presence.
• Write down a CV of all the awesome things you know God has done in your
life. Thank him for all of them, and then work out what it says about God! That’s
worship!
Luke 2 v 15-16
When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to
each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing
that has happened which the Lord has told us about.”
So the shepherds went quickly and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was
lying in a feeding box.
Notes
This is such a powerful statement. Perhaps you don’t realise what has
happened here. So let me help you out. God said, “There’s a baby
in a manger” (nice primary school nativity style eh?) and the shepherds
say, “Let’s go and see this”. They turn up, and it’s
exactly like the angel said! That is so cool! Can you see what happened? God
said IT, and IT happened!
This is a powerful principle that we need to remember and work through our lives. It can really change them. I imagine that the shepherds believed everything God said from then on. It would have changed their lives; because their faith level and their belief level would have sky-rocketed.
Think about it. How many times have you been let down by people? How many times has their word not been true? How many promises have been broken by the people who made them to you? That’s the amazing thing about God. When he makes a promise, he can’t break it, because if he did it would mean he had lied! He can’t lie! God is perfect!
When we get hold of this, it can really change our lives. Imagine we believed that within us really was the answer to all of the problems we face, because God had put it inside us like he promised in 2 Peter 1 v 5? Imagine if we really believed that when God speaks to us and says that we are brilliant, awesome, and he has a plan for us, instead of listening to the stupid comments of other people, who tell us we are not good and that we can’t do it, or that we are nobody? Don’t imagine? Just believe!
Prayer/Challenge
• Ask God to help you understand what promises he has given you.
• Have a look through the Bible and try to find some promises that God
has said to you.
• Make sure you become more like God by following through on all the things
that you say. That will change your world!
Luke 2 v 17-20
When they had seen him, they told what the angels had said about this child.
Everyone was amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured
these things and continued to think about them. Then the shepherds went back
to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen
and heard. It had been just as the angel had told them.
Notes
When I was in my maths exam, I treasured some words that my maths teacher said
to me: “You are careless, you are lazy.” Instead of spurring
me on to try harder, they became part of what I believed about myself, and
about my mathematical ability. I thought I couldn’t do it, that I would
never pass. Why? Because I “treasured” them, I “continued
to think about them” How do I know I treasured them? I think because
it’s what I thought about a lot, like something I really value.
You know like when you were younger and you really wanted something special for your Christmas like the latest games console. It was all you could think about, you would look at it on the Internet, and you knew everything about it. Things like the price, the games, the colour, where it would fit in your room, which friends had it already. That’s how you knew you treasured it. You thought and went on thinking about it.
Mary chose to dwell and think about what God had said to her about her son Jesus. Those words from God were what she valued. It changed her life. It helped her understand what Jesus’ life was going to be about and how she should act in that life.
What would happen if you treasured the words that God said to you? I have an idea it would change your life! It would help you! It would make stupid things understandable. God’s words are amazing, what God says will impact you, if you choose to believe them, treasure them and dwell in them.
Prayer/Challenge
• Think about thinking! Why don’t you write down some of the things
you think about and compare them to what God thinks about you?
• Pray and ask God to show you what he thinks about you.
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text
taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright
1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes