Stumbling to Bethlehem
Luke 2:1-7
*Ill.—According to The Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest Christmas party ever held was held in Seattle, Washington on December 15, 1979. On that date the Boeing aircraft company invited all of its employees, its suppliers, and all of their families to come to a Christmas party that was being given by the company.
On that day, 103,152 people showed up for the Christmas party.
That is a big Christmas party.
That’s a lot more people than the number who showed up for the first Christmas party that was held in a stable in Bethlehem.
The number that gathered there that night was small.
It was not easy for them to get there.
*Ill.—I may be the only person in the world that likes the singing of Bruce Springsteen’s wife more than the singing of Bruce Springsteen himself.
Springsteen is married to Patti Scialfa. She is primarily an instrumentalist in his E-Street band, but she has made a few albums on her own. The songs on the albums are ones that, for the most part, she has written.
One of the songs that she recorded is called “Stumbling to Bethlehem.”
The song is about a general feeling that she has that she does not measure up to what happened at Bethlehem.
In the song, she says,
“Just when I thought I was so special
I thought I had it all
You take a wrong step before you fall,
And you’re Stumbling to Bethlehem.
So you try to do right
But it gets so rough
There’s always someone
To remind you
That you’re just
Not good enough
And you’re Stumbling to Bethlehem.”
And those who showed up at Bethlehem that first Christmas did not have an easy time getting there.
When you look at their stories, to some degree, all of them were “Stumbling to Bethlehem.”
There were things they had to overcome in order to make it.
They held out, they raised objections, they stumbled over things in their path.
They were “Stumbling to Bethlehem.”
That’s the way it is with all of us.
Jesus was born at Bethlehem—the perfect Son of God.
But we are not perfect. We have many imperfections.
We do not go marching proudly to Bethlehem.
It would be more accurate to say that we are “Stumbling to Bethlehem.”
Christmas is next Sunday.
We are on our way to Bethlehem at this season of the year, but we have to be careful. I’ll tell you why.
I. Our Feelings of Unworthiness Can Cause Us to Stumble on Our Way to Bethlehem
We are not the only ones ever to face that stumbling block on the way to Bethlehem.
A. Mary faced that same stumbling block on her way to Bethlehem
1. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Nazareth to tell her that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God into the world, Gabriel said to her in
Luke 1:28-29: “‘Greetings, you who are high favored! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”
2. Mary was a student of the Old Testament, as the song that she sang later in this chapter shows.
a. She probably heard in these words of Gabriel an echo of the words spoken by the angel to Gideon in the Old Testament when the angel appeared to call Gideon to take on his great work of deliverance for the nation of Israel.
b. In Judges 6:12, it is recorded: “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
3. Here, Gabriel said to Mary, “The Lord is with you.”
a. No wonder, she was “greatly troubled.” The angel Gabriel stood before her and there was this message.
b. Was the Lord about to call her to do some great act of deliverance like the one to which He had called Gideon?
c. Who was she to take on such an awesome responsibility?
d. She was “greatly troubled” at the very thought of it.
B. We too are often “greatly troubled” when we are confronted by such a calling.
1. Who are we to be involved in such a sacred enterprise? Who are we to do the Lord’s work?
2. When we look at our own weaknesses, sins, and failures, we are often overwhelmed by a sense of unworthiness.
In the words of Patti Scialfa:
“You try to do right
But it gets so rough
There’s always someone
To remind you
That you’re just not good enough.”
3. Make no mistake about it--humility is a good thing
a. God cannot use people in his work who are proud and self-sufficient.
b. A sense of unworthiness ought to be second nature with us.
4. But here is the distinction.
a. We are unworthy, but we are not worthless.
b. In spite of our sins and our failures, God still cares about us and wants to use us in His service.
C. Do you know why there is hope for us? It is because of the grace of God.
1. Grace is God’s unmerited favor.
2. That is what Gabriel said to Mary.
Luke 1:30—“But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”
3. She was not chosen because she deserved to be chosen.
4. She was chosen because of the “favor” of God—because of His grace.
5. Grace is the unmerited favor of God.
6. That is what Bethlehem is all about.
7. We don’t come to Bethlehem because we deserve what God did for us there. We come because of His grace.
*Ill.—In his autobiography, Brother to a Dragonfly, Will Campbell told about his friend P. D. East. P. D. was far from being a Christian. He was a foul-talking skeptic. One day as they were riding in the car together, P. D. said to Will, “I’m not too bright. But tell me what this Jesus guy is. I don’t want a big, long explanation. Tell me all about Him in ten words or less.” Will thought for a little and then said, “We’re all bums, but God loves us anyway.”
P. D. then swung his car to the side of the road, stopped, and asked Will to repeat his definition. He did—“We’re all bums, but God loves us anyway.” Then P. D. counted the words on his fingers and said, “I gave you ten words. That’s just eight. If you want to try again, you have two words left.”
Will thought for a minute and said, “I don’t need two more words. That’s as good as I can do.”
It’s hard to improve on that definition.
It’s what the gospel and Bethlehem are all about.
“We’re all bums, sinners, but God loves us anyway.”
We don’t deserve Bethlehem. We have Bethlehem because of the love and grace of God—because of His favor.
Don’t let your feelings of unworthiness keep you from coming to Bethlehem. Don’t stumble over that.
Of course you’re unworthy. Bethlehem is about the love and grace of God, and you’re invited to come.
Stumbling to Bethlehem—we all do it.
II. Our Skepticism Causes Us to Stumble on the Way to Bethlehem
*Ill.—I know a lot about skepticism because I was raised by a skeptic. My mother was a believer, but my father was a skeptic.
He was not a skeptic in the intellectual sense. He was a skeptic in the practical sense. He was always suspicious of people. It was hard for him to believe that someone was acting honorably, lovingly, and honestly. He was always questioning their motives. He figured they had some angle they were working on. He figured that they were up to something.
A. That’s the way Joseph was.
1. When Mary came to him with the story that she was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was skeptical.
2. He was suspicious.
3. In short, he did not believe her.
4. He was ready to put an end to their pledge to be married.
5. He was ready to dismiss her and move on with his life.
B. How about you? Are you suspicious? Are you skeptical?
1. I guess all of us have been hurt enough in life to develop some suspicion and skepticism.
2. Sometimes we even move beyond skepticism to cynicism.
*Ill.—It’s been said that an optimist is a man who will let his teenage son drive his brand new car. A pessimist is a man who won’t let his son drive the new car. And a cynic is a man who did let his son drive the new car.
3. Life has dished out some tough lessons for us all, and the danger is that those tough lessons can make us cynical about all of life.
C. Joseph almost did not make it to Bethlehem because of his skepticism. He didn’t believe Mary. He wanted no part of it.
1. It was not until the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and confirmed Mary’s story that Joseph was willing to take Mary as his wife and carry her to Bethlehem—to believe that God was doing a miraculous work in her.
2. Bethlehem is a powerful witness to the wonder-working power of God.
*Ill—“Pistol Pete” Maravich was a tremendous basketball player. But his life was unsettled and empty until he met Jesus Christ. Shortly before his untimely death, he gave this testimony: “I told God and everyone else, I don’t need you. But when I retired from playing, I could not face reality. I kept trying to live in the past, and I used alcohol and other escapes to do so. Then in 1982 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. Giving my life to Christ has changed me dramatically. I wouldn’t trade my life in Him for 1,000 NBA championships, 1,000 Hall of Fame rings, or one hundred billion dollars.”
3. God is a God who does works wonders. He changes and transforms life.
4. Do not surrender your life to skepticism about the wonder-working power of God.
5 Bethlehem is about the greatest miracle that God ever performed on this earth.
6 Come to Bethlehem with faith. Don’t let your skepticism cause you to stumble and miss it.
I’ll tell you something else that will cause us to be stumbling to Bethlehem.
III. Criticism by Others Causes Us to Stumble on Our Way to Bethlehem
A. Some others who showed up at Bethlehem were the shepherds.
1. It was a wonder that they made it.
2. By the very nature of their work, shepherds were criticized by the religious elite as being ceremonially unclean and were barred from worship in the Temple.
3. The reputation of shepherds as a group was so widely disrespected that their testimony was not accepted in a court of law.
B. That kind of criticism can leave its mark on you.
*Ill.—I saw a cartoon in which a man was in a doctor’s office. The doctor had his light and was looking into the man’s ear. As he did so, the doctor was saying, “You must be a football coach. You have an ear full of criticisms.”
1. Coaches, shepherds, and a lot of other people as well, catch a lot of criticism. Maybe you have experienced a lot of criticism.
2. It can make you feel down and discouraged.
C. Did you know that Bethlehem is for folks like you?
1. The Lord sent His angel to the shepherds in the field to invite them to come to Bethlehem.
2. In fact, they were the only ones in the region who were invited to come.
3. And so they came, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
*Ill.—Do you remember the fairy tale about Rapunzel? Rapunzel was a beautiful girl who lived with a wicked witch in a drab and dingy tower. The witch removed all the mirrors from the tower so Rapunzel could not see what she looked like. And then the old witch told Rapunzel repeatedly that she was ugly. In fact, the witch said to her, “You look just like me.”
Although she was beautiful, since there were no mirrors in the tower, Rapunzel believed what the ugly witch said. But then one bright day, a prince came riding by on his white horse. Rapunzel was leaning out of the tower for a breath of fresh air. Their eyes met, and it was love at first sight. The prince saw her long, beautiful hair and shouted to her, “Rapunzel, let down your hair.” So she let down her long, flowing hair, and the prince climbed up those long, flowing locks of hair into the tower. As Rapunzel looked into the glistening eyes of her prince, she saw a clear reflection of her face. She saw that she was a person of beauty and worth.
4. It was at Bethlehem that the shepherds discovered that about themselves. They saw their worth and their value at Bethlehem.
5. They were important to God, and so are you!
Don’t miss out on that. Don’t stumble over that. You are invited to come to Bethlehem.
There is also the danger that
IV. Our Reluctance to Sacrifice May Cause Us to Stumble on the Way to Bethlehem
A. God not only announced the coming of His Son to the shepherds, but, with a miraculous star, He announced the coming of His Son to wise men who lived hundreds of miles to the east.
1. There was great distance between these wise men and Bethlehem.
2. If they went to Bethlehem, it would take several weeks.
3. What would their response be? Would they come? Would they make the journey?
B. Making difficult journeys does not appeal to us.
1. We are allergic to sacrifice and self-denial.
2. Coming to Bethlehem now, as then, may require time and discipline on our part.
3. It requires dedication and commitment.
4. It will involve your seeking the face of God in your life.
5. It will involve your turning from your sins and placing this child upon the throne of your life?
6. Are you willing to make the journey, or do you stumble over sacrifice and self-denial?
C. I am grateful that in a distant country in the East, the wise men packed their bags and began the journey.
1. They went first to Herod in Jerusalem inquiring about a new-born king.
Matt. 2:7-11: “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”
2. After great sacrifice and commitment, they arrived in Bethlehem and worshiped him.
3. They did not stumble over a reluctance to sacrifice. They came all the way to Bethlehem to worship him.
And that’s what we need to do.
*Ill.—When Blake was small, we would set up the video camera in the living room on Christmas morning, turn on the camera, and then go get Blake. He would come into that room and would be overwhelmed by what he saw. Then, referring to Santa Claus, he would say over and over, “Did he come? Did he come? Did he come?”
I want to say to you today, “Yes, my friend, he has come. Not Santa Claus, but Jesus Christ.”
He has come to our world. He was born in Bethlehem.
Make your way to Bethlehem.
Watch your step there. Don’t stumble. Don’t fall.
Come to Bethlehem and worship him today!
