Luke 2:8-20; Revelation 1:4-8 - Jesus is coming and will be recognized

Two thousand and seven years ago, the world shifted. It moved. It tilted. Just a little. There was a little tremor, a little ripple that hardly anyone noticed. A baby was born. But babies are always being born. This is not so extraordinary. Sure, the family is thrilled when the baby arrives, but the world continues to spin and move as it did before.

Except this time. This birth, this baby sent that little quiver through the world, and instead of fading away, the ripple started to grow and it turned into waves which turned into breakers crashing through the world with the good news that Jesus was born to save this world.

That little tremor that started in a stable in a tiny backwater town of in the Middle East grew and spread until we are here celebrating Christmas in Minnesota in 2007. And those ripples and effects have reach every corner of this world. There is not a place that has not been affected by the birth of this baby, the arrival that hardly anyone noticed.

Just a few shepherds caught it, a few shepherds who had nothing better to do than stare at sheep all night. And suddenly, they had plenty to look at. Verse 9:

When you’ve been sitting in the dark for so long, a light suddenly turning on can be a little startling. And when we’ve been sitting in the dark, and I don’t mean night dark, when we’ve been sitting in the darkness of sin, the glory of the Lord suddenly shining is a little startling. The shepherds aren’t so much terrified of actual light, and they’re not really that frightened of the angel that was suddenly there.

It’s the glory of the Lord that blasted into their existence that sent them back staggering. Their lives can’t be the same anymore. They can’t look at the world in the same way. The glory of the Lord changed their eyes and moved their feet and stirred their hearts. The glory of the Lord exposed their own inadequacy, their own sinful filth. The glory of the Lord gripped them and began to transform them.

But that’s okay. Verse 10:

The ripple. The tremor. It started in the town of David, and the shepherds were one of the first to feel it. The world had shifted. The world, that had fallen out of God’s favor, now was being welcomed back. The millions of people who were being kept out of God’s presence, kept from getting back to the Garden of Eden, suddenly, with the birth of this child, suddenly, God is welcoming them back. The angels know this, and so they sing, verse 14:

Up until now, God’s favor has not rested on human beings. God’s wrath has fallen on them. God’s anger at their sin has blasted towards them. Not anymore. At least for some, in God’s love, God’s wrath has been turned away and directed somewhere else. Onto that little baby.

But hardly anyone noticed. And when the glare of the glory of the Lord faded away and their eyes had adjusted to the dark again, well, the world seemed to go back to normal. God had become human, a human being was divine, but it hardly made a ripple.

And then look what happened. Jesus grows up and He’s mocked. He speaks and He’s ignored. He’s betrayed and then finally He’s killed. Did anything really happen when He entered the world? Did it really make a difference? Had the world shifted or was it just the same old ordinary nasty sinful world?

And look at what’s happened ever since. Wars and massacres, corrupt governments. Science replacing God with knowledge. The image of God getting cheaper until we throw away babies and the sick and elderly. Did the coming of that baby really do anything? Did the world shake for a moment and then settle into it’s filth once again. It looks dark. The world looks the same.

And yet, if you look, the ripples have gone on, and they’ve touched people and changed them and then moved on to others. In an ever widening circle stretching out from that little town, the effect of that night has not stopped. While He was being mocked by the religious leaders, a little girl, a little boy and a man named Lazarus were brought back from the dead. While Jesus was being ignored by many, a woman caught in adultery was being forgiven, a leper, an outcast from society was being healed, a crooked tax collector named Zachaeus was getting a whole new outlook on life.

And while Jesus was being killed, a soldier witnessed and said, "Surely, He was the Son of God." And that’s not all. The temple curtain was torn in half, allowing people back into the presence of God. Only this time it wasn’t just a few shepherds on the side of a hill, it was everyone. People were raised from the dead, just a deposit for the millions who will rise again and live eternally.

Think that the ripples of that quiet night in Bethlehem ended? Just look at what’s happened ever since. People have felt the sting of death, but they have received a peace that goes beyond understanding, that comes in through the tears and holds on to them tight and assures them it’s going to be okay. Those are the ripples of Christmas. Marriages that should have come apart at the seams were held together by the Lord and healed and restored better than ever. Twenty years ago, communism and the Soviet Union were the biggest threat our country faced. Now, communism has crumbled and kids today don’t even know what the Soviet Union was. The ripples of Jesus’ coming beat against the walls of communism until it fell down. People’s lives have been changed. Alcoholism has been beat. Drug addiction has been defeated. Baby’s have been adopted into loving Christian families. Wave after wave after waves of effects from that quiet little birth in the tiny little town in the Middle East.

And those ripples will continue. They won’t stop. They will meet resistance. There are many who would love to remove the effects of Jesus’ arrival from this world, and just forget that it ever happened. But have you ever tried to stop ripples in a pond? What happens when you try to stop waves from crashing in. If you put your hand in to stop the ripples, you just create more ripples. The waves go right around you and continue on as before, now even stronger.

This is what happens when the enemies of Jesus try to stop Him, when people make movies that cheapen our Lord, or when people try to convince us that God is irrelevant, that He’s dead, and that we should just ignore Him. It’s laughable, because Jesus can’t be stopped, and the effects of Jesus just keep going, entering people’s lives, changing hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, healing, restoring, resurrecting.

The ripples will continue right up until the day when Jesus arrives again. The grace, the care, the protection, the love, He keeps giving and giving until we see Him face to face. Revelation 1:4:

Grace for when we really mess up, when we knew better and we sinned anyway, when we know the right thing to do, and we just can’t seem to figure out how to get it done. Grace to you when you want to be a better Christian but you’re afraid to step out. Grace to you when you’re feeling inadequate, when you know how far you fall short of God’s expectations. Grace to you from the One who came.

And peace to you, peace when the questions seem to big and the answers seem too small. Peace when you’re not sure what’s going to happen next, what new pain, what new sorrow is going to hit. Peace when the whole world seems against you. Peace when you want the relationship restored, but the other person doesn’t. Peace when you’re up late at night balancing the books in your mind, again, and again. Peace.

Grace and peace from, verse 5:

He came to that little stable in Bethlehem, because He loves us and because He was going to save us from our sins by His blood. He taught, He performed miracles, because He loves us and because He was heading to the cross to free us from our sins. He died, He came back to life, because He loves us and because He was freeing us from our sin. And He sticks around, working in our lives, because He loves us, and because, even as we sit here, He is freeing us from our sins by His blood.

And He’s coming back, again, because He loves us and because He is freeing us from our sins by His blood. The first time He came, just a few people saw Him. Just a plunk in a pond. This time, when Jesus comes to this earth, He’s coming with a splash. Verse 7:

When He touches down, when His foot touches the earth, the shock waves will go out and the world will be transformed. Everything that is evil, everything that is broke, everything that is not right is flipped over and repaired and put back right. Tears are dried up. Want is filled. Breath is taken away. Life overflows. When Jesus comes again.

And don’t think that the effects of His coming again just stop there. Just like the ripples of Jesus’ birth continued to spread, growing and widening, the ripples and effects of Jesus’ second coming will continue for an eternity, with waves of blessing and swells of joy and surges of wonder.

This is the effect of Jesus coming. When He came at Christmas, He changed the world. If you look, you’ll see how. If you expect to see that shifts, the ripples, you will be able to see them. If you don’t expect to see any difference, if you forget that His had any effect, then you’ll go through life missing miracles left and right. They will be right there in front of you, and you’ll walk right on by. The Light will have come into the darkness and you’ll think it’s as dark as it ever was, as it ever will be.

But if you look, you’ll see. You’ll see Jesus holding back evil and ushering in good. You’ll see the Lord encouraging and protecting and providing. You’ll be surprised when you see them. You’ll hear yourself saying things like, "Wow, look at what God did there." You’ll be watching the changes until you watch Him arrive. He’s coming. He has come. He’s coming again. The Lord who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God who is the first to speak and who has the last word. Who is. Who was. And Who is to come.