The Birth of Jesus: Mission Impossible

Luke 2:1-20

A man walks slowly in the fog, or is it a cloud bank? He approaches a lone lamppost, casting a soft white glow in the midst of the mist. Reaching behind the post he retrieves a small package containing a scroll. Unrolling it, a message begins to play in his mind, a troubling yet irresistible message designed only for Him:

?Good morning. The planet called Earth and its inhabitants known as ?humans? have been taken prisoner by the tyrant Lucifer, whose aim is to steal, kill, and destroy them all. He managed to take them captive by their rebellion against you as the King of Kings.

?You will assemble your IMF team which will include Mary, a young teenage unwed mother; Joseph, her older betrothed who is employed as a general contractor; and a group of unnamed shepherds who will be summoned by special messenger. Transportation will be provided by a donkey to the dispatch point: one Bethlehem, a small village of about 2,000 humans just outside of Jerusalem, capitol of an occupied nation known as Israel.

?Your weapons will include the following: prayer and the Holy Spirit.

?Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to travel to Earth, rescue those among the humans that will come with You, and destroy the tyrant Lucifer and his servant ?Death?. To do this, You must survive plots against your life, grow up learning all of the Hebrew Scriptures, withstand constant verbal attacks, maneuver the entire socio/religious/political scene of Palestine so that you will arrive in Jerusalem on an exact day and hour, be arrested and then sentenced to death.

?If you or any of your IM team should be caught or killed, the Father will disavow any relationship with You.?. This scroll will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck.?

Jesus came in weakness ? on a dangerous mission with no weapons and no special skills. In the world there are few more vulnerable creatures than a human baby. When we are born we only know how to eat, poop, and sleep. And all that comes without any conscious effort on our part. We can cry but we can?t talk or walk or fend for ourselves. Considering the powerful creatures who were looking for and wanted to kill God?s Rescuer, it?s strange that the Father?s plan put Jesus at even more risk than that.

He was born to average people who were ostracized by their society for being pregnant out of wedlock. They were pulled from their home to travel the length of Israel for a Roman Emperor who wanted more money. They could find no safe place to birth a child and had to have the delivery in a stable with a bunch of animals.

Exposed, vulnerable, weak?a sitting duck. Yet what God had on his side was the secrecy. Looking for a Messiah one would think he would be born in a royal palace under strict guard. Yet the only guard Jesus had was a bunch of shepherds. If Lucifer knew He was to be born in Bethlehem (as the Scriptures said) then perhaps he was on the lookout. But this couple came in at the last minute?strangers who didn?t even stay in a regular place to have the baby. Seeing a bunch of rag tag shepherds walking through town at night would probably not have raised any demonic eyebrows either.

But make no mistake; Satan was looking for this Messiah:

Revelation 12:1-6 12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 His tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth he might devour her child. 5 But she gave birth to a Son?a male who is going to shepherd all nations with an iron scepter?

Even though Jesus managed to be born in secret and safety, his location was tipped off inadvertently by some visiting dignitaries from the east who told Herod they had come to worship the King of the Jews. Herod asked his men where the Messiah was to be born and they quoted Micah 5:2 that Bethlehem was the spot. If Joseph hadn?t up and run to Egypt, Herod would have snuffed his life out right then and there. As it is many innocent children lost their lives in the slaughter.

Jesus managed to grow up in obscurity and, as we know, He performed His mission flawlessly. He defeated Lucifer and rescued us captors by actually using His weakness and vulnerability.

In fact, (2 Corinthians 13:4) He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by God\'s power. For we also are weak in Him, yet toward you we will live with Him by God\'s power.

And that?s what I want to focus on today.

After Jesus? death, burial and resurrection, He spoke to those men and women that had pledged their lives to Him, and had joined His Impossible Mission Force.

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came near and said to them, \"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\"

This is our tape recording, hidden in behind a lamp post. Just like Jesus, we have been sent on what might appear as an impossible mission?to take the good news about what the Messiah has accomplished in His mission to the entire world?teaching and making followers of Jesus.

You might think to yourself??There is no way I can do this, and there are plenty of people who will give me grief and an enemy who is spoiling for a fight now that He lost the main battle.? And you?d be right. There is no way you can do this?on your own.

But you are not on your own. ?And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age?. You have Jesus every step of the way. And not do you have His presence, you also have His weaponry:

Weapons of our warfare

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 For although we are walking in the flesh, we do not wage war in a fleshly way, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

This means that we are engaged in a battle for the minds and hearts of every other captive to Lucifer?caught up in their own rebellion against the acknowledgement of Jesus as King of the universe. It is a battle waged in every word you say and everything you do. You are being transformed by the presence of the Spirit into someone who reflects the character of God?into a soldier bristling with spiritual weapons.

What are our weapons? (Ephesians 6)

Your salvation, Prayer, The Holy Spirit, The Word of God, fellowship of the saints, the word of our testimony about Jesus.

Revelation 12:10-11 The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out: the one who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.

Brothers and sisters, your mission is very similar to the one given to the Lord Jesus. The tyrant Lucifer has taken captive the human race through their rebellion against the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as ruler of the universe. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to go into hostile territory with no visible weaponry to share the completed mission of Jesus, who ?after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.? (Hebrews 1:3).

And He is praying for you to succeed in your mission to bring as many as you can along with you to His kingdom. (Hebrews 7:25) Therefore He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

The only difference is that when Jesus was caught and killed the Father disavowed His relationship with Jesus for a moment as all of our rebellion was placed upon His shoulders, but He will never forsake us: (Hebrews 13:5-6) I will never leave you nor forsake you.\" 6 So we can confidently say, \"The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?\" ESV

You may be caught, you may even be killed, but you need not fear the battle. Even the poor helpless baby had nothing to fear though armies were arrayed against him and though a war broke out around Him because He trusted Himself into the care of a loving Father who was more powerful than any enemy or circumstance.

So this Christmas if you feel helpless, you are in good company. But remember what Paul said:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ\'s power may reside in me. 10 So because of Christ, I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in catastrophes, in persecutions, and in pressures. For when I am weak, then I am strong.