Upside Down Christmas: Luke 1

Upside Down Christmas: Luke 1Pastor Joseph

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Welcome to our Advent series called “Upside Down Christmas.” And what we’ll be doing is just working our way through the Gospel of Luke chapter by chapter—one chapter a day until Christmas; and we’ll be tracing this theme of the upside down kingdom. And what I’d love for you to do is to follow along by listening here, but also by reading just a chapter of Luke a day. If you do that, by the end of the month, we’ll have read the whole book together.

Now that way of talking about the kingdom of God—it’s really a way of getting at how all the expectations we have get turned on there heads when it comes to Jesus and how God develops this whole plan of salvation surrounding his life. What we think will be the way things will go end up getting reversed—or turned upside down.

And this really starts right away in the book of Luke.

Right away we come across Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah. And they’re faithful and righteous. Zechariah is one of the priests who serves in the temple. But they’re also barren. And I don’t know if you know this but barren people were looked at as cursed—or at least as tragic. Having children was considered a great blessing, and those who were unable to have children—well it would have been something they were ashamed of.

But God chooses to use this couple to advance his kingdom. He visits Zechariah by an angel and delivers him a word: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.” (Luke 1:13-15)

And I love that because God is not only taking away their reproach, he’s working this incredible miracle that launches them into this glorious position among all the people. Before, they were known for the shame of their barrenness; now, they will be known not just for having a child in their old age, but a child who will be “greater than all others born to women,” as Jesus describes their son, John.

God takes what is low and despised of this world and he writes a redemption story of triumph and glory. He uses the people you wouldn’t expect to prepare the way for a plan of salvation no one was expecting.

And that gives us hope, doesn’t it? Not necessarily hope that, say, if we’re poor that God will make us suddenly rich; or if we’re single God will suddenly give us a spouse. But instead, it gives us hope that no matter what our circumstances or afflictions, we are still useful to God in his mission of bringing salvation to the whole world. No difficulty or misfortune rules us out from contributing to God’s work in the world. And in fact, for those who are of low estate, we can be encouraged especially, because God seems to delight to use the “low things of this world” to forward his kingdom.

Let’s pray together: Lord, thank you that you use the weak to shame the strong, the fools of this world to shame the wise; that you use the small people to make huge impacts. We pray for humble hearts that would open the door for you to chart a course with our lives that would lead to real and lasting contributions to your kingdom. Use our afflictions and misfortunes for your glory and for our good. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Family Devotion:

This section gives you a few discussion questions for you to ask your children around the dinner table or in the car on the way to and from school. The goal for the younger children is to get them talking about things in the Bible and to help them know the stories. For the older children, the goal is to put themselves in the life of the Biblical characters, imagining what it feels like, and then to determine what applications they can make to their own lives. Feel free to use some or all of the questions, or even to make up your own!

Read or rehearse the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth from Luke 1.

Invite the children to imagine how they would feel meeting an angel. What do you imagine angels look like? What do you think the voice of an angel sounds like? What would you do if you met an angel? Would you be afraid?

Zechariah didn't believe right away that what the angel said was true. Do you think the angel making him unable to speak was fair?

When Zechariah finally was able to speak, he praised God. What are some of the things we can praise God for now?