Discipleship

I have been kind of blank lately on topics for a blog post. So I thought I'd share the devotion a wrote and shared at last year's Women's Retreat. Hope the Holy Spirit uses it to speak to someone!!! (My apologies if it doesn't read too smoothly--this is just the draft I used to speak from!)
 

I had a hard time deciding what I should talk about today for our devotion. Anything I could think of seemed like it would fall short considering the audience. My presumption was and is that any lady who would be committing her weekend to a women’s retreat probably knows the basics. I didn’t think there would probably be a topic simple enough for myself to grasp and talk about that would be the least bit challenging to the group of ladies that would be here. So I prayed God would lead me to exactly what He would want me to share and while I know what I will be sharing today will not be anything new for any of you, my prayer is the thru the Holy Spirit and in God’s perfect timing He will speak to each of you in a personal, relevant, and fresh way.

With that said, I will back up a bit to help you understand where I’m going with today’s devotion. I was a new believer and moved to Cape in 2003. Having not been raised in church, it was a very scary step for me to enter Cape Bible Chapel. For those of  you who were raised in church or have been going to church for many years, we can quickly forget the uncomfortable feeling the unchurched can feel when stepping foot in a church. As a new believer, I did not know God’s word. I did not know other Christians (except my 2 sisters) and I certainly did not know what the Christian life looked like. Fortunately for me, God used some very amazing Christians who reached out to me and helped me grow in my walk. I had many very amazing, mature Christians in the small group I joined who helped teach me God’s truth. In addition to that, there were a handful of ladies (some of you may know them—Holly Black/Philips, Teri Jones, Carrie Beth Smith) who opened their lives (and home) to me (as well as Robyn Martin) and walked beside me in my new Christian journey. This study and companionship went on for years and God used it to grow me in tremendous ways. Looking back I recognize there was something going on that was more than just friendship. I was being discipled.

After several years of Carrie opening her home and meeting with us ladies, her season had come to an end. I was so sad to see this group end and God led me to something very specific and important I’d like to share with you today. He led me to John 21:15-17 and I’d like to read that to you now:

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

¹⁶ Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷ The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

The Lord led me to read these verses in Anne Graham Lotz’s book, Just Give Me Jesus. (and to be sure to give credit, this next section is right from her book—not my original thoughts!!) As she describes Jesus’ intention in asking Peter “ do you love me more than these,” he was asking Peter if he loved him more than the other disciples?

Her question to us in application is how would we answer that question?

·         Do we love Jesus more than our friends?

·         More than our family?

·         More than anyone else?

·         More than our career?

·         More than our money & possessions?

·         More than our popularity?

·         Our comfort?

·         Our beauty and our body?

·         Our diet and exercise?

Could Peter honestly say, and can we honestly say, yes, we love you more than these?

If you, like Peter, can say today that you love Jesus even a little, then you were given a threefold mission plan. The first: “feed my lambs” John 21:15

In her book, Lotz goes on to explain that obviously Jesus wasn’t speaking of baby sheep. But in a spiritual sense, he was. We know the Bible tells us Jesus is the Good Shepherd, so believers are referred to as sheep. So the reference to lambs would be a reference to new believers. Anne Graham Lotz tells of a visit in Australia where she was helping in the kitchen. When asked what she could do to help, she was asked to get the owners lamb out of the kitchen and outside. The friend handed her a bottle and to her confusion, she was able to bottle feed the lamb. From this Lotz points out: “Lambs can’t eat on their own. They don’t graze or nibble. They have to be bottle-fed. New believers or young children are like that too. They can’t enter into theological debates or get involved in word studies or argue the value of lexicons or even interpret the parables. They have a difficult time digging out truth from Scripture for themselves because it is totally unfamiliar to them. So they need to be “bottle fed” or “spoon fed.” Someone needs to sit down with them and teach them the stories and simple truths of the Bible. They need someone like you, who gets involved in their lives for no reason other than you love Jesus, and He has given you “lambs” as your mission.

Here’s my own personal illustration. A few years back I was talking with my sister-in-law, Tessa on the phone and she said she was canning. She’d mentioned how someone had given her a ton of cucumbers. We continued on in the conversation and she later mentioned how many pickles she would soon have. I was quiet and let her talk a bit longer and then finally asked, “so are you telling me pickles are cucumbers?!” She was like, “oh please tell me you are kidding and knew that!” I was shocked. I could not believe I had lived 27/28 years (however old I was at the time) and no one had ever told me that pickles are cucumbers!!! Anyway, I use that illustration for our spiritual lives. I had no way of knowing this hidden truth about pickles, until someone told me! The same goes for the gospel and truths of scripture. Hannah Schultz said one time at a women’s event—it doesn’t matter where you are in your walk with Christ, you are always ahead of someone else and God can use you in their life. So as Anne Graham Lotz asks in her book, can you think of right now any lambs you could be feeding? Your children? Children at church? Teenagers/youth? College students trying to make their faith their own and not their parents?  New believers in a Bible study you are in where no one else wants to take the time to answer their many questions? Or even someone who is not yet a Christian and may seem resistant, but need the truth fed to them because they don’t even know they need the nutrition of it to unveil their eyes to God’s truth!

After Jesus said to feed His lambs, Jesus’ next command is to “take care of my sheep.”  Lotz describes it this way: “Sheep can get into all sorts of difficulty from wandering away from the flock and becoming lost, to getting brambles embedded in their wool, to suffering nose flies or attacks from wolves. They need constant attention and care from the shepherd.” So now we know we have lambs in our lives who need to be fed, let’s think about how we can live out Jesus’ command to take care of His sheep.

Examples she gives in the book of sheep who need taken care of might be believers you know from church, work, anyone who has needs. Think about individuals who are wandering away from church, drifting out of fellowship with other Christians, people who are being lured into worldliness, those who are lured by worldly popularity, prestige, position, power, or just things? These are other believers who could be struggling financially, or with marital problems, problems at work, physical illness or emotional stress. We all have struggles throughout our lives and Christ’s command to take care of His sheep gives us all the responsibility and commandment to take care of other believers and meet their needs. The convicting thing about this is we know we have people in need in our church body and we are being disobedient by ignoring their needs. We are being disobedient by thinking their problems and needs will be fixed by something or someone else. Jesus commanded us to take on the responsibility and to ignore His command would be to disobey Him.

Lotz gives suggestions on ways to take care of these sheep. She says, “Call him, write him, encourage him, pray for him, invite him to a ball game. Meet her for lunch, baby-sit her kids, make her dinner or just help in practical ways.” I think these are all great suggestions. I don’t know if you all do the same as me, but I tend to overwhelm myself with what I can do to help others. However, God has recently shown me that ministering to others can be a simple as just being a friend. Someone to talk with, spend time with…someone who just cares.

The last command Jesus gave Peter was to “feed His sheep.” While lambs must be bottle fed, more mature sheep just need to be provided with green pasture. Ways Lotz gives to do this is by opening your home for a Bible study, or helping lead a Sunday school class. I love how Lotz puts it: “just see what you can do to make sure each sheep is in a green pasture, grazing on the Word of God for himself or herself.”

It was this last command of Jesus’, to feed His sheep, that led me to continue Carrie’s study in my own home. I opened my home every Thursday night for whoever would want to come. This has been going on for the past several years and there were many times I questioned if God had really convicted me to do this because it would often end up being just me and one other person. I would think—should I even bother with this? No one wants to come!! But I felt God’s leading that I should always make it available, even if only one person came. In fact there were several occasion it ended up being only me and Sara Atkinson, who will share her testimony this morning. While in my mind I was thinking, man why am I doing this if only one person is coming—God was using it for much grander things because God used it to minister to Sara because in His perfect timing He was unveiling her eyes to His truth. It was nothing grand, nothing exciting (and to her probably boring) and from man’s perspective it didn’t seem like anything monumental, but in God’s perspective it was important because He used it among other things to lead Sara to His truth. I learned thru that experience that even though the things God tells me to do don’t always look the way I think they should, all I need to focus on is obeying what He has commanded me to do. And we all know now (if we didn’t already!) that He has commanded us to feed His lambs, take care of His sheep, and feed His sheep.

One other thing Lotz goes on to say that I want to make mention of is that there are hungry sheep everywhere. We don’t have to go on a search to find them—they are all around us!! We have neighbors, co-workers, friends, etc we are already in contact with. We live in a world where people are starving for the truth. The majority of people we live around in our culture are being fed on junk food. Many peoples’ main source of truth comes from or is focused on reality television, trivia of what celebrity couple is breaking up, consumed with sports, distracted by the state of our government and politics. The people around us need real food. As Lotz says, “Jesus offered Himself as the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven to satisfy the hungry soul.” Most people would not be able to distinguish lies from truth because they are never consuming the true Word of God to help them distinguish what the truth is.

A friend just shared a great analogy she had heard a speaker share a few weeks ago. The speaker told the story of a family. The family had met a man who began spending time with them. He would often hang out and while he did not share the same values as they did, they decided to continue opening their home to him. They enjoyed his companionship so they went ahead and overlooked the negative influence some of his values and ideas may have had on them. Before too long the man began spending more time with the youngest daughter. In fact they would spend hours together sometimes. Not long after this the mother and father began to have conflict in their marriage. The man’s influence in their lives had led them to compromise some of their beliefs and standards and they began to experience a rift in their home and marriage. The speaker went on to reveal who this man was…he was the television. I LOVED this analogy. In fact, it took me a few minutes to even process the magnitude of it. And I don’t share this to try and convince everyone they need to throw away their tvs.  The reason I share this example is to tie back to what I was saying about how we have people all around us who are not influenced by truth, but they are fed daily on lies of the world. They are fed on worldly standards of what is right and wrong. As believers, many of the basics seem obvious to us and we easily forget that those around us who have been fed on junk food don’t know these truths of God’s word. They need to be fed (either bottle fed or with a green pasture given to them) with the Bible.

In fact, I’d like to share some statistics I read about Bible literacy.

• Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels.
• Many professing Christians cannot identify more than 2 or 3 of the disciples.
• 60 percent of Americans cannot even name five of the Ten Commandments.
• 82 percent of Americans believe “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse
• 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife
• A survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that    Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
• A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that Billy Graham preached the Sermon on the Mount.
• Six out of ten Americans reject the existence of Satan
• Four out of ten Americans believe that when Jesus Christ was on earth He committed sins
• Five out of ten believe that anyone who is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life will earn a place in Heaven
• Four out of ten believe that the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths
• Seven out of ten born again Christians said they do not believe in moral absolutes
• Only one out of ten Christians base their moral decision making on the principles taught in the Bible
• 54 percent believe truth can be discovered only through logic, human reasoning and personal experience

Okay, so I share those statistics not to try and say Bible knowledge or trivia are equal to salvation, but just to make a point that as believers who are commanded to make disciplies—Matthew 28:19 Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” He didn’t just say you should try this, but He commanded us to make disciples…and judging from those statistics and what we see in our culture, it doesn’t look like we are doing the greatest job. As one article I read put it, “The goal of discipleship is our being formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Disciple-makers are to lead people to Christ and help them mature spiritually. Disciple-makers should have an intense love, concern and lifelong care for those to whom they are spiritual parents. When we lead people to Christ, we are to stand by them, helping them grow in Christ until they are fully trained.” So in order to help others grow and mature, we must be teaching them the truths of Gods word. 1 Peter 2:2-3 says this: “"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” That is what we do with discipling the lambs and sheep. We first give them the milk and then move them onto solid foods—or in other words the meat of truth. Hebrews 5:12-14 says, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" So we ourselves need to make sure we are moving on to solid foods and then we are commanded by Jesus to disciple others and help them move on to solid foods.

If you are like me, you probably often tell yourself, “can I really make a difference anyway?” I wanted to share a great story with you about that. There was a Christian gentleman named Edward Kimball. He had felt the Lord leading him to go and speak to one of his students employed as a shoe clerk. He recounts that day with this quote:

I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy, that when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was and when they learned might taunt him and ask if I was trying to make a good boy out of him. While I was pondering over it all I passed the store without noticing it. Then when I found I had gone by the door I determined to make a dash for it and have it over at once.

In spite of his hesitation and fear of sharing the gospel with this young man, Kimball found him in the shoe store and with tears in his eyes he shared the gospel of Christ’s love to this young man. Kimball says he does not even remember what he said—but this young clerk received Jesus Christ that very hour. Probably none of you here know or remember who Edward Kimball was, but many of you here probably have heard of the young shoe store clerk—DL Moody (for any who may not know, DL Moody went on to become a famour evangelist and founded the Moody Church and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

The author of “Down to Earth Disicpling” who wrote about this story said the following quote:

Though Moody attended church services, that is not where he came to Christ. It was not even in Sunday school class—though both the class and the church services prepared him. It was not a program that reached Moody, but rather the one-to-one personal attentiveness of a fearful Sunday school teacher.

And I think that is the most important thing we need to remember if we want to go and make disciples. Yes, ministering to others at church on Sunday mornings is necessary and great. But discipleship takes more than that (and many that need discipled won’t be found in church anyway). It requires, like he said, personal attentiveness. Meeting one on one with people or in smaller groups. Displing means going along side someone in their life and helping them see how to live according to God’s word. I will give you another example in my life.  Several years ago I had a curling iron that the on button broke off. So I would grab something to use that was small enough to stick in and power it on. Time after time, I noticed this painful sensation in my hand as I did it. I began to think, wow am I getting arthritis? It seems like every time I put my hand in this position to stick this thing in here to turn this curling iron on my hand hurts. Hmm..I couldn’t figure it out. Well eventually (and I’m obviously slow to clue into things) I realized that the tiny metal cuticle scissors I was using to power on my broken curling iron was electrocuting me. The reason my hand hurt was because I was shocking myself. Now—if I had had a person of more intelligence by my side while doing this—I could have learned much earlier that I was actually shocking myself and avoided doing the same, painful action over and over everyday. Isn’t that what discipling is? Walking daily in a relationship with someone and helping them see—God wants us to do this, or God’s word tells us to avoid that?

Something we have to remember about discipling is—it does require some sacrifice. It means sacrificing the time we’d rather use working extra hours at work, or the many hours we’d rather veg in front of the tv, or even that spare time you had reserved for yourself for some “me time.” So it can require the sacrifice of time, and second, the sacrifice of your standard. Notice I did not say it requires you to sacrifice your standards, but rather it requires you to sacrifice your standard. What I mean by this is that if you are going to reach out to the lost or to believers who aren’t walking in the truth, you will be exposed to ways that don’t meet your standard. Cursing, promiscuity, drunkenness, immorality, worldliness—all these things are not the way we as believers want to allow ourselves to behave, but in reaching others, instead of trying to project our Godly standard on them—we must meet them where they are by showing them God’s grace (the same grace we’ve been shown)—without behaving that way ourselves. And before we begin looking down on them for their outward sin, we must, first, quickly remind ourselves of our inward sin that isn’t as obvious.  And second, remember if we are any different from them—it is only by God’s grace because as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 4:7, “What do you have that you did not receive?” Jesus hung out with prostitutes, drunks, and the immoral. He met them where they were and so should we.

And third, the sacrifice of being comfortable. Doing this requires stepping out of your comfort zone. It requires not caring about what others may think about you and going out on a limb to reach out to that other person.

I don’t know about you, but I get uncomfortable doing things and saying things that someone may not agree with, something someone may not want to hear, or ministering to someone when I myself know I am not qualified. So I will share two areas of struggle in myself when it comes to discipling (or even in mentoring): 1. being self-obsessed; attack of the enemy.

1.       Being self-obsessed. If all I do is worry about saying the wrong thing, or worry about what so & so will think if I do this, or harp on anything negative about myself—I am still being self obsessed even if it is in a negative light instead of a positive, prideful light. A wonderful book I highly recommend by Tim Keller is “The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness.” Here is a great quote from the book which I believe sums it up: "...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less."

2.      The attack of the enemy. As you disciple or mentor someone, you will hear the enemy say to you—“who are you to try and help or advise another? Look at your life, you don’t have it all together!” As Jesus did we have to combat the enemy with scritpure, which says “God’s power is made perfect in my weakness.” 2 Cor. 12: 9. Our goal in discipling or mentoring someone is not to try and make ourselves look perfect, but rather to show that person we are sinners and to point them to the Savoir.

Below you will see the wheel illustration use by The Navigators. That is what our life should look like. We walk in faith with a vertical relationship of prayer and the word to hear God speak and to speak to Him; the natural result is the horizontal work of witnessing and fellowship. When we are moving in our walk, that wheel is turning. What people shouldn’t focus on is us, but rather when that wheel is moving we see Christ is the center. As a wheel turns the spokes are a blur, it should be Christ in the center that is seen by others.

 So jumping back to stepping out of our comfort zone for others, I will again use Sara as an example since she’ll be sharing her testimony today. She graduated school with my husband, so the only connection I had with her was the couple times I’d met her thru him. But when she became pregnant, I found a way to try and connect with her. I think that is another key in disicpling—is meeting people where they are at. If we wait to connect with them until they get saved or become a believer or start going to church, we will probably never have the opportunity to connect with them. When I found out she was pregnant, we were able to meet up for coffee or dessert and just talk about life; and in her instance the connection was pregnancy. Thru that we were able to connect and build a relationship. And at that point in time, Sara was a very different person. We didn’t have a lot in common, but the goal for me was to find at least one way to connect with her and fortunately pregnancy was a way we could relate. And when we look at the example of Jesus what he showed us was not the goal of trying to build a huge church, but he focused on personal attentiveness and relationships with a few men. Sometimes I think we question whether we can make a difference, or maybe we even question if just focusing on one person (or just a few) is of significance. We may ask ourselves, wouldn’t it be better to do something big. Something that would affect more people? I love this quote by Charles Spurgeon: “Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts and not on marble.”

Another challenge to discipling, I believe is authenticity. 1 Peter 2:12 says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Paul also says in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” So in order to disciple others you must 1. Have been born again and be a follower of Jesus Christ; and 2. Be living it out. As the author puts it in Down to Earth Discipling, “If the gospel has made no difference in our lives and if we are not attractive to nonbelievers, then our words about Christ are to no avail.”  Paul tells us that we are to be the “sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him. (2 Cor. 2:14). As Christ followers, do our lives reflect what we believe? Are we genuine? If we say we are a Christian and we have truly been born again—because we know there are plenty of people who claim to be Christians and are Christians in name only, they have not displayed a life that has changed and turned to follow Christ—do our lives show it? Because if we are going to tell others to follow Him and obey Him, the only way they will be convinced of such truth is if we stand out from the rest of the world. Is there something different about us? Do we do things differently? Do we handle situations differently? Do we react differently? To me—this is very convicting. Most importantly—when we don’t behave the way we should are we genuine in admitting our guilt and repenting openly for nonbelievers to understand the message of the gospel?? As I mentioned earlier, we can never be perfect—but are we genuine in that we are trying to practice what we preach, but when we fall short we confess it and repent.

A couple final thoughts. If you are like me, you may be thinking—I am not equipped to do this. I have too much to learn still. Or I need to be fed, I don’t have time to feed others. My response to that and what I have learned from experience is—you will learn more by trying to minister and disciple others than you would just trying to feed soley yourself. If you know you are going to lead a Bible study or you know you are going to meet with a friend to discuss a particular subject of the Bible, you have to prepare yourself. So you will feed and equip yourself as you walk along side that person. You can learn things together and be challenged by the same things. As one of the books I was reading put it, “A laborer can have the same struggles as a new believer.” I can tell you from experience that I get just as much or more from the Thursday night Bible study I lead. The ladies God brings to that group are more of a blessing to me than I ever could be to them. I am sure I learn more from them and by preparing for our study than I would on my own. As it says in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Sharpen others and they will do the same for you. And for that iron to sharpen iron—it must touch. I hope you all will be challenged like me to touch others lives, in a personal way. People matter. Relationships matter. Everything else is just fluff.

 APPLICATION: In the upcoming week, will you challenge yourself to do at least one of the following things to live out the command of discipling others?

1. Meet a friend one-on-one for coffee, dessert, walk in the park, etc. with intention of encouraging them in the faith.

2. Call someone (who would not be expecting a call from you) to intentionally ask them how they are doing, to minister to them, and to encourage them in their walk with Christ.

3. Mail a note or card to someone with words that direct their attention toward Christ, His love for them, and their need for Him.4. Pick a person you see weekly in Bible study, at work, school, church, etc. and regardless of whether they are a believer or not, be intentional in talking to them, praying for them, and building a relationship with them (with the ultimate goal being to encourage them in the faith).

I want to close with some words that were the confirmation to me to speak on this topic. A few months ago I went to the Joel Rosenburg simulcast where he was talking about the state of our country along with Bible prophecy. God in His perfect timing had Joel close we these thoughts:q

1.       Who is investing in me? (do you have a mentor or someone discipling you)

2.      Who am I investing in? (who are you discipling?)

He used the example of Paul and Timothy.  Ask yourself today, “who is my Paul and is helping me become a better woman of God? And who is my Timothy that I am investing in?

Lastly, we have to remember that it was a command by Jesus to go and make disciples. In his simulcast Joel said something so convicting. He said, when you get to heaven and you come face to face with God and He asks, “Where are your disciples? Show me your disciples” What will you say? It’s not a question of if we feel like it, but a command by Jesus Himself. When you see Him, will you be ready to show Him who your disciples were?

Born to Die

Born To Die

Many of us go through the Christmas season spouting out cute little phrases like, “Jesus is the reason for the season!” But how often do we reflect on the awesomeness and magnificence of Christ’s birth? We tend to easily brush off the significance of the virgin birth—not only that it happened, but even more amazingly that it was prophesied to happen hundreds of years before it came to pass. As we reflect on the account of Jesus’ birth this year, can we pause and be amazed at the wonder of God’s sovereignty, purpose, and plan in the birth of our Savior?

Put simply, God’s sovereignty means that He is in control of every big and little event in life. His sovereignty is magnified in the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth.  The Old Testament book of Micah foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. God in His amazing sovereignty and foreknowledge decreed the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, to order a census. In God’s providence, this census pulled Joseph and Mary out of Galilee, landing them in Bethlehem just in time for the birth of the Messiah. No coincidence, by any means.  It would also be no coincidence that this census made Bethlehem such a busy town that it provided no room in any inn for Mary to stay. God perfects each detail and we will see why having no room in an inn was so significant.

With no vacancies for travelers in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to the baby Jesus in a stable. Next, in the Book of Luke we are told of angels who visited shepherds in a nearby field announcing the birth of Jesus. Why shepherds in a field? Was this random? Of course not; we know nothing God ordains is random!  If we back up to the Old Testament, we see that the coming Messiah was described to be like a lamb being led to the slaughter (Jeremiah 11:19; Isaiah 53:7) and whose sufferings and sacrifice would provide redemption for Israel.  Law observing Jews were familiar with sacrificing lambs to God in the Temple. Bethlehem was nearby Jerusalem, and many of the sheep used in the temple sacrifices would have come from these very shepherds who saw the angelic hosts announcing Christ’s arrival. These sheep were born to die for the sins of the people; Jesus was born to die for us as a complete and perfect sacrifice. The shepherds raised lambs for sacrifice in the Temple, but now they were seeing angels above announcing the birth of THE Lamb of God.  

An interesting note about the angelic hosts who were praising God above the heads of these shepherds is seen in ancient tradition. Often when a firstborn son was born it was cause for great celebration in Israel. The firstborn son would be the heir and would assure the continuation of the family. Fathers who could afford to do so would often hire musicians to parade down the streets singing and dancing in celebration announcing the birth of their son. It sounds like God’s announcement was the biggest one to date.

A significant verse that I believe is easily overlooked in Luke is when an angel declares this: “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The sign: swaddling clothes and a manger.

I think it is significant to note that we aren’t told the baby would be simply wrapped in a blanket, but in swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes were long strips of material very similar to what a deceased person would be wrapped in for burial during this time. In fact, it is said that during long travels (which back then all trips were long), each person would take long strips of material and wrap it multiple times around their waste as the bottom layer of clothing.  Due to the fact that many of these long journeys would end in the death of some of the individuals, these long strips of material would then be used to wrap the deceased traveler from head to toe so they could complete their journey. It is very possible that the baby Jesus was wrapped in Joseph’s death cloth.  Could it be that the sign for the shepherds wasn’t that they’d find a baby wrapped in a blanket, but that they’d find a baby prepared for death? Again, like the sacrificial lambs previously mentioned, we see Jesus was born to die.

The swaddling clothes were a sign to the shepherds. The other sign was the manger, or trough. If Bethlehem had not been so overcrowded as a result of the census, Joseph and Mary would not have ended up in a barn where they would place the baby Jesus in a manger. This had to happen, because it was the sign God had given. God’s sovereignty again illustrated!

After Jesus’ birth (after Mary and Jesus were no longer in a stable, but settled in a house), the wise men from the East followed the star that God used to direct them to Jesus.  We are told in the Book of Matthew that they brought gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  As we can guess from the previous details that hold so much significance, these gifts were very significant, as well. The value of the gifts implied great honor and status; they were gifts fit for a king. That should be no surprise to us knowing that Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). But each gift was even more significant. Gold represents kingship, frankincense represents priestly royalty (Hebrews 4), and myrrh was used for embalming—again foretelling us the significance of how Jesus was born to die.

So what can we glean from these incredible insights from God’s Word? First—God’s sovereignty. His providential plan has purpose and is perfect. He told the shepherds it would be a sign to them to find a baby in swaddling clothes and in a manger. God worked every detail in accordance with His will to place Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and in a stable. What if Mary, like many of us, had been dissatisfied with the not-so-ideal circumstances God had provided her with? What if she had told Joseph, “No, I will NOT travel to Bethlehem this late in my pregnancy! Are you crazy?!” Or, “you want me to have my baby where? In a barn?!? No way!” How often do we argue with God about the circumstances He has placed us in, when in our finite minds we do not realize that He has us exactly where He wants us.  We tend to sweat the small stuff and forget that from God’s perspective—every detail is meaningful and unraveling in accordance with His perfect will, regardless of whether it looks the way we think it should.

The second insight is even more significant: Jesus was born to die. How often do we consider that? If you are like me, it is easier to think about how Jesus lived to be an example of a pure and sinless life. While His life is a great example for us to emulate, His life had a greater purpose. Jesus was the perfect lamb who was born to be led to the slaughter where He would take on our punishment of sin and impute His righteousness on us.  So what does that mean of us? Think of it this way—Jesus came from the spiritual realm and experienced a physical birth so that we could die to our physical self and be born spiritually. In John 3:3 Jesus tells us, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Jesus died so we could be born—spiritually. Sin made us dead in our transgressions (Ephesians 2:5), but Jesus was born to die so we could live. What a magnificent thing! If you have never come to the point in your life when you have been born again by dying to yourself and your desires, turning from your sin, and following Jesus, then the Christmas story won’t have much significance to you. The fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger for the providential purpose of dying will have no impact unless you have come to the Cross and been born into new life. Don’t let the nativity story casually pass you by this season. Stand back in awe of our Sovereign God and if you haven’t done so already, turn to follow the One who was born to die so you could live.