The Pull Home For Christmas Luke 2:1-7

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The pull to be home, with loved ones, is strong. Why not let that pull, pull us closer to the Lord?

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I’d like to thank Greg for stepping in and preaching for me last Sunday. And I’d like to thank Greg’s oldest daughter for giving me our sermon introduction this morning. Because a couple of weeks ago Shara had flown in for Thanksgiving. And upon landing at Port Columbus she posted this on her FaceBook page:

“Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays!”

And I don’t know if you can see where Shara had flown in from, “Orlando International Airport,” because Shara works at, wait for it, wait for it; where does Shara work Greg? Walt Disney World, just outside Orlando Florida! And yet, when Shara landed at Port Columbus, what did she post?

Dog gone it, have to leave the happiest place on earth to go see the folks?

No! Shara posted…

“Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays!”

Because there is no place like home for the holidays. Especially when you’ve been away.

That’s why over 54 million folks in this country were travelling home for the holidays this Thanksgiving. And who knows how many more will be travelling home for Christmas. Some who were just home for Thanksgiving will be back on the road fighting through whatever obstacle gets in their way to get back home.! Because “The Pull” to go home is still there.

● To sit in your favorite chair! ● To see your stocking hung by the chimney with care! ● And to be surrounded by family and friends there!

For most of us, there’s just no other feeling like it.

Now, I do need to say this morning, as we begin our Christmas series, not everyone feels like that. Because some people did not have a good home experience.AND YOU JUST THANK GOD YOU LIVED TO ESCAPE FROM YOUR HOME LIFE! And the last place on earth you want to go back to is home! And if that’s you, the rest of us want to apologize to you. Because

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we are sorry that we are even bringing up bad memories for you. But we also want to welcome you into a great Church family here WHERE YOU CAN EXPERIENCE FAMILY AS FAMILY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LIVED! Amen? And we will have folks waiting in the back of this room at our “Beginning Point Table” with open arms to receive you. And show you how you can…

● BEGIN to know Jesus in this Church family. ● And come to BELIEVE in Him. ● And choose to BECOME a follower of His. ● And join the rest of us in BUILDING His Kingdom.

How you can really look forward to calling this place… HOME.

That’s why we put what we did on our sign board this Christmas. So everybody driving up and down Dayton Rd could know that Licking Valley is a place they can call…

“A Home for the Holidays!”

And don’t let that word “Holiday” throw you. “Holiday” is from an old English word that simply meant “Holy Day.”1 And what better place to spend your “Holy Day” than in Church? And the holy day that is fast approaching is Christmas. Just nine days away!

I hope that doesn’t take anyone’s breath away. We just have one more Sunday until Christmas! A week from tomorrow night we will be meeting right here, at 7 PM, for our Christmas Eve Service! Are you ready? I don’t know about you but I decided I didn’t need the pressure and I did all my shopping online this year, on Cyber Monday.

● No lines, ● no driving around, ● No traffic to fight, ● just point and click ● and wait for everything to be delivered to my door!

And it was great. And now all I have to do is wait for the holidays. And look forward to “Coming Home for Christmas!” There’s a real “pull” toward that if you will let it.

Joseph and Mary experienced it. Joseph and Mary were “pulled” from Nazareth to their ancestral home that first Christmas. Not by choice, by by edict. By “dogma” is the Greek word. By law. By a civil decree.

Luke 2:1 In those days (the Bible says) a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Probably for tax purposes. Now there’s a real motivator to get you up and going! To pay your taxes! At least the I.R.S. waits until after Christmas to begin sending all their tax forms. Caesar didn’t wait. Probably had a boat payment to make. Whatever the reason, Joseph and Mary had no choice. Caesar decrees. So Joseph and Mary go. As well as the rest of the Roman world!

1 https://www.etymonline.com/word/holiday

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Think about that. How many times have we seen Joseph and Mary pictured as travelling down dark and dusty and deserted roads? Joseph leading the donkey. And Mary riding on the donkey’s back. A donkey that the Bible says nothing about. And a lonely and deserted road that probably couldn’t have been found with all the known world trying to get home. Verse three of our text says…

Luke 2:3 And ALL went to be registered, each to his own town.

It wasn’t just Joseph and Mary out trying to get home. It was…

Luke 2:4 And Joseph ALSO (who) went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,

Luke 2:5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

“Being great with child,” is the way the old KJV of the Bible puts it. Why were Joseph and Mary out enduring such a difficult trek of more than 70 miles and at least 3 or 4 days through mountainous terrain—a particularly grueling journey for Mary, on the verge of delivery? Because they were being “Pulled.” And I wonder if Joseph & Mary’s weary arrival looked more like this...

(VIDEO: The Chosen Christmas Pilot - We Are From Nazareth - WingClips HD)

What was it that drew Joseph and Mary along, pulled them all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem? Only to receive such a reception? Caesar’s decree? Yes. But I’m wondering if there might not have been more.

I’m wondering if it might not have also been the Hand of the Lord. I’m wondering if Joseph and Mary might not have discovered Micah’s prophecy of where this Christ-child of which the angel had spoken was to be born. I wonder if Joseph and Mary had asked the same question down in Nazareth that King Herod asked up in Jerusalem. Assembling...

Matthew 2:4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

Matthew 2:5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

Matthew 2:6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

I’m wondering if that wasn’t part of “The Pull” that drew Joseph and Mary along such a difficult journey.

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I’m also wondering if Joseph and Mary didn’t look forward to introducing each other to members of their ancestral families.

● Mary looking forward to introducing Joseph to a near kinsman named Elizabeth, and her husband Zechariah, and their newly born son John!

● And Joseph looking forward to introducing Mary to ancestral family of his own.

I don’t know. I only know that sometimes in this life, especially during the special times of this life, there can be a strong, strong “pull” that draws us home.

● That’s why Jacob made his sons promise that that they would bury him beside his wife back in Canaan before he died down in Egypt. Because he wanted to be buried at home.

● That’s why Daniel opened his window towards Jerusalem before he got down on his knees and prayed three times a day, every day, in Babylon.2

● It’s why the Israelite captives sat by the rivers in Babylon and wept when they remembered Zion.3 Because they didn’t need a little girl from Kansas wearing ruby slippers to remind them that…

There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.

● It’s also why Israelites all around the world are even today asked to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”4

Because Jerusalem, to them, is home! And home has a strong, strong “PULL.”

Just as the “New Jerusalem” is home to NT believers. And has that same strong “PULL!”! Because heaven is our home.

● The place Jesus has gone on to prepare. ● The place where our loved ones wait for us to come join them there.

And when we think of heaven, and what awaits us there, and WHO waits for us there, in the New Jerusalem, we can’t help but join those NT saints in saying, “Maranatha, O Lord, come!”5 Because there truly is no place like home.

Amen? Amen.

And we truly don’t want anyone to miss out. Because it truly is a “Big, Big House.” That’s a song I first heard back in the ‘90’s. And I can tell you exactly where I was when I first heard it. I was sitting outside, on the ground, with my back leaned up against the wall of our Round Lake

2 Daniel 6:10 3 Psalms 137:1 4 Psalms 122:6 5 1 Corinthians 16:22

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Christian Camp lodge surrounded by about a hundred little day campers. And Jamie Stafford was there with me trying to keep order as this young teenager tried to teach us a new song. And as I sat and listened there, and smiled, and pretended this was something I was really excited about, I thought…

“I don’t know where this young whipper-snapper found this tune but this song’s going nowhere.”

And that’s when I began to see the song “PULLING” on heartstrings those kids, and creating a desire within those kids to one day go to that kind of a home. The song simply said...

Come and go with me To my Father's house Come and go with me To my Father's house

It's a big big house With lots and lots a room A big big table With lots and lots of food A big big yard Where we can play football A big big house Its my Father's house6

And I don’t know about you but that brings back memories! Memories of family dinner on picnic benches around a picnic table in the family kitchen with the family all around. Siblings squabbling over who prayed last and whose turn it was to pray next. And hustling up the hill after Sunday dinner to play touch football! Man, those were the days! And if heaven is anything like that… The “PULL” Is Strong From There!

➢ And I want to go! ➢ And I want you to go! ➢ But as badly as I want to go, and I want you to go, God wants you home more!

And that’s why…

Luke 2:6 And while (Joseph and Mary) they were there (after God had “PULLED” Joseph and Mary there), the time came for her to give birth.

Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

6 Artist: Audio Adrenaline, Album: Don't Censor Me, Released: 1993, Genre: Christian/Gospel, Songwriter(s): Barry Blair, Bob Herdman, Will McGinniss, Mark Stuart

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And that happened because God wasn’t through drawing.

John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So God sent His Son into this world, to say to this world…

John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will DRAW all people to myself.”

And…

John 12:33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

And “THE PULL” of that death is so strong... that it continues to DRAW people to Him today… it has drawn us all here today...

● to remember that death, ● and thank God for that death, ● and allow that death to one day, draw all of us home.

And God’s people said? Amen.

Let’s thank God together...

(Prayer)

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