Focus on Jesus?
Luke 2:1-35
Why is God showing you this lesson now?
Christmas is a special celebration of Jesus’ birth. I say “special,” because, like Easter, we don’t have to wait for holidays to remember things that matter. Every day can, and should, be a celebration of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection for the Christian who is continuously grateful for who Jesus is and for what He has done.
Would you agree that a “miracle” is a spectacular event? Verses 17-20 remind us that the basis of an authentic witness (testimony) is personal experience. The person born and raised in church is just as helpless to save himself as is the drug addict. Since we are all helpless to save ourselves, every personal conversion testimony is a miracle!
But here is the sobering truth. Notice in verses 33-35 that Simeon prophesied that not all people would embrace the Savior. The salvation that Jesus came to provide is “offered” to all, but is not “received” by all. This fact should create in us a desire to throw away our excuses and verbally (and in every other way) give witness to what we have experienced ourselves.
How does this lesson connect to what God is doing in and around you?
After 50 years of listening to sermons, only recently did I hear a sermon where a well-known Baptist preacher just came out and plainly made this statement: “There will be more people in hell than there will be in heaven.” Like some of you, my immediate reaction was, “How do you know?”
Then he asked the congregation to turn to Matthew 7:13-23. Here is what Jesus said. He said “many” (verse 13) will pass through the gate and the way leading to “destruction.” Then He said “few” (verse 14) will pass through the gate and the way leading to “life.” Which represents more people, “many” or “few”? Then Jesus uses the word “many” again (verse 22), referring to the number of people to whom He will say “in that day”: “I never knew you; depart from me.”
Now I expect that there are brothers and sisters who will offer a more comfortable and optimistic commentary on these verses, but one thing seems pretty clear to me: With each tick of the clock, with every passing second, we are losing time during which we can do all we can to increase the number of “few” people who will trust the Savior. So may our birthday gift to Jesus be our testimony to someone who is lost!
Rick Astle– Lessons by Rick Astle, director of missions for Waccamaw Baptist Association. Astle is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and Southern Seminary. He is the author of two books and lives in Conway.