“Hey Tommy, check this out! I have the best news. You are never going to believe what just happened. It’s absolutely amazing. Your life will never be the same again,” exclaims Sue! Suddenly attentive, Tommy listens as Sue excitedly recounts all the day’s happenings and their life-changing meaning.

Wouldn’t it be silly for Tommy, after listening to Sue, to gently nod, put his head back down and go back to what he was doing before she rushed in with her story? If the news that she brought was so life-changing, would he really pretend like it never happened?

Yet, that is exactly how most of us live with regards to Christmas. At a time of year when we hear and rehear the Christmas story, we just shrug it off as our eyes survey the horizon looking for an open parking space or check the crumpled list in our pockets to make sure that nobody has been forgotten. It’s not the best news. It’s not amazing or life-changing news. It barely even registers on our radars in the midst of everything that remains to be done.

Not so with the shepherds in Luke 2. After receiving the angel’s announcement that “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord,” the shepherds take off for Bethlehem. I’m sure there was plenty of things the shepherds could have done: protect the sheep from intruders, find new places to graze, make sure all the sheep were present and accounted for and much more. But this news was too good to ignore. They needed to act. Verse 16 declares, “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” The power of Christmas moved them to act.

So what about you? Is the Christmas story – the amazing tale of God becoming a man – enough to move you to act? Or will you acknowledge it with just a nod before returning to the other stuff that was so important? For years, we’ve been inundated with ads for “the latest and greatest” and heard how this new gizmo will “change your life forever” or that gadget you “can’t live without.” We’ve heard these promises for so long that we just tune them out. This Christmas, don’t tune out the Christmas story. Be like the shepherds who heard the angels and immediately moved to act. Listen to it, and then let the power of Christmas move you to act.

Reflection: What keeps you from responding to the power of Christmas?
Application: To what action is the Christmas story calling you? Now, go do it!

From a final exam I am currently taking. The essay question to which I am responding is as follows…

Martin Luther’s high view of preaching closely linked the “Preached Word” with the “Written Word.” What is your view of the value, the power and the mandate of preaching? What about the authority of the Bible and its connection to preaching?

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Martin Luther linked the “Preached Word” with the “Written Word,” offering a high esteem and view of the role of preaching in the church. The Second Helvetic Confession (I, iv) states that “the preaching of the word of God is the word of God.” And John Frame, in his short book, Perspectives on the Word of God, claims, “Insofar as the preacher succeeds at presenting not his own ideas, but God’s, then surely there is a sense in which his sermon is the word of God… Indeed, we may say that preaching, when it is true preaching, when it is authentic preaching, is the word of God, nothing less” (29-30). Voddie Baucham, a pastor in Texas for whom I have great respect, has the motto, “Speakers come from Radio Shack; I come to Preach!”

Each of those demonstrate a tremendous respect for and view of preaching. And, indeed, I completely agree with them. The Bible is God’s written revelation to humanity that we might know him, his commands, his deeds and his powerful redemption through the cross. Those words, written long ago and preserved by saints throughout the centuries are God’s word to his people. Now, God’s word has been entrusted to faithful men to preach and proclaim to the nations.

I hold to a very high view of preaching: its value, it’s power and its mandate. Let me briefly discuss each of these three, in reverse order. The mandate to preach is clear from Scripture. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul tells Timothy, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” That same charge is made to pastors today. They are to preach the word of God.

The preached word of God is also a powerful thing. In Acts 2, Peter stands and preaches at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit used Peter’s words to “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37) of those who listened to him that day. Preaching carries with it the power of God to change lives. Few other tasks have been given the power that preaching has to accomplish the work of God in people’s lives.

Pastors have a mandate to preach. They also have the power of God to preach. But beyond those, there is great value in preaching. As we have seen, God uses preaching to draw hearts into intimate fellowship with the Son. He uses preaching to convict of sin and to dispense grace to cover that sin. Nowhere is the value of preaching more readily seen than in Romans 10:14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” People calls people to faith in Christ. I would submit that there is no more valuable task and should be a driving passion of the preachers heart.

This fall I served at the Teaching Assistant for Larry Kirk in his Communication 1 class. One day, during their small group activity time, I joined in the conversation of one of the groups. They were struggling to work through the task at hand and discussing the nature of the preaching office. As I began to share my thoughts on this holy task, I could feel myself starting to choke up and tears forming. I was filled with awe at the nature of God’s sovereignty that would call me to such an adventure. Preaching is a high and holy task. I pray that I would never cease to be overwhelmed with the presence of God so that when I preach, I would preach the very word of God.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Do you know anyone who would actually agree with that statement? Yeah, me neither. In fact, I’m much more inclined to agree with Weird Al when he sings, “My scars are all healing, but my heart never will.” We can get over a physical injury, but the pain of verbal injuries last a long time. There is great power in our words. They have the ability to kill and destroy (that is the very admonition of James 3). But our words also have the ability to bring life, peace, strength and joy as well.

In our Scripture passage, we see Mary given a task that no one before her or after her was ever given – to be the mother of God. No one else had been given that assignment before. And it wasn’t going to be an easy one either. During her pregnancy she would have to withstand the mocking of neighbors and the disappointment of her own parents. Joseph, to whom was engaged, was hurt. Sure, he was going to divorce her quietly so as not to disgrace her too much, but imagine his feelings of betrayal. And all that is before the baby is even born. Mary was warned that “a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 3:35) because of this baby. And one day she would watch her firstborn beaten and executed. No, this was no easy task Mary was given.

So how was it that she was able to humbly reply, “I am the Lord’s servant,” knowing this fate awaited her and her child? Consider the words of the angel, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Gabriel, the messenger of the Lord, offered hope and peace to Mary. He promised that God was with her and cared for her. He told her that she had great worth, value and dignity in the eyes of the Lord. Those words from the angel provided the strength Mary would need to obey.

For many, Christmas does not bring smiles, but depression. “There’s nothing like the festive season to force you to face the fact that life isn’t always as joyful and triumphant as we’re led to believe,” writes Dr. Trisha Macnair. Instead of cheer, Christmas is a time of loneliness and sorrow. There is the employee at the store who has been jaded by mobs fighting over the last toy that wonders how it ever became like this. There is the single person who has no one with whom to celebrate, the woman faking a smile in front of her kids but crying inside because her husband left her just weeks ago or the widow spending her first year without her husband.

Instead of joy, they feel heartache. Yet it is in the midst of their pain that we are sent as messengers as Gabriel was sent to Mary. We are messengers of God’s love. We are messengers of God’s presence. We are messengers of the dignity with which he esteems us each. We get to take words of life, peace, strength and joy to those who are without. And those are powerful words indeed.

Reflection: What words have powerfully influenced your life?
Application: Speak words of dignity and affirmation to someone who needs them this week.

Key Verse: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

When I teach tennis, we always remind the kids to bring something to drink with them.  Water, Gatorade, whatever.  It doesn’t matter.  But it gets so hot on the court that they need to be drinking or else they will get sick.  They will often, especially the really little kids, struggle to open the bottle.  They will try and try to turn to cap, but it won’t come off.  They know they should be drinking, but they don’t have the strength to open the cap.  The don’t have the power to accomplish the task.  So they come to me as the coach to open the bottle for them.

Last week we saw the task that we have been given: “to go and make disciples of all nations.”  But that is a really big task!  How can we ever accomplish it?  We are like the kids who can’t get the lid off the water bottle.  We know what we should be doing, but we just don’t have power to do it.

Herein lies the great promise of the Great Commission.  We don’t have to do it on our own.  God never expects us to be able to make disciples of all nations on our own strength.  Savor these words of Jesus, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  Jesus is promising His own power is available to us to do what He has asked us to do.  Like the kids coming to their coach to ask for help when the lid is stuck, so we can come to God to ask for His power to accomplish His passion.

Longing after God’s passion will move our hearts to yearning to see people to come to know Christ.  But all our effort is not enough.  We can’t change people’s lives.  Only Jesus can do that.  And so He has promised His power to work in and through us to reach the nations.

Reflection: When is a time that you have had a task before you that you just didn’t have the power to do on your own?
Were you willing to ask for help?
Application: Ask God for His power to be at work in you.  Then go and share the love of Christ.