Pastor Sam Crosby
San Saba’s First Baptist Church
December 22, 2019
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph traveled approximately 100 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem in compliance with Roman law so Joseph could be included in the census in the city of his ancestors. Mary, though nearing the time of birth, traveled with him. The small city of Bethlehem was bustling with travelers and the inn was full. Mary and Joseph found refuge in a stable where the Christ child was born. Bethlehem today finds a surge of pilgrims who visit their city this time of year to honor Jesus Christ. Bethlehem was the place, you might say, where heaven touched earth.
Paul described the Christian life as Christ being born in us. He wrote in Galatians 4:19: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,…” The Christians had strayed from the truth of the gospel and Paul was calling them back to embrace the good news that they were saved by God’s grace alone and not by their good works. He wanted their trust to be in Christ alone. Every Christian is a life in which Christ dwells. Every Christian, you might say, is a heart where heaven has touched earth. Galatians 2:20 declares, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”
God’s will is to reveal His Son to the world through us. Paul wrote earlier in Galatians, “But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me,… (1:15,16). He could have been referring to the preaching of the gospel. He could have been thinking about his witness to the Gentiles. He could have been pondering the transformation of life that Jesus brings. He probably had all of this in mind. It was God’s will that through Paul’s words, witness and life that Jesus be revealed to others. The apostle saw himself as a channel through which God was bringing Christ into the world every day.
What a privilege! God has chosen us to be the people through which He reveals His Son to the world. They feel His touch through the works of our hands. They hear His truth through the words of our voice. They sense His love through the compassion of our heart. Jesus is being fleshed out to the world through you and I. He lives in us and He is seen through us. As Mary brought Christ into the world at Bethlehem, so you and I bring Christ into the world through our lives each day. The Christmas carol declares, “Oh holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today…” (O Little Town of Bethlehem). May heaven touch others through you!