Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would fall upon us afresh, that your Holy Spirit
would fall upon our minds, our memories, our images, the wounds of our minds, the longings
of our minds, that your Holy Spirit, Father, would fall upon our bodies, our emotions,
our wills.
Father, may there not be any part of who we are that your Holy Spirit does not fall upon.
Father, may there not be any part of who we are that your Holy Spirit would fall upon
and he's been to some of the different Christians, I should talk to several people this week,
have been to some of the classical music concerts that go on during Christmas season.
And one fellow in particular was really struck by the fact that some of these performances
of classical music around the Christmas and Advent season, how they're completely packed.
And the different words of Isaiah and of the gospel texts are very, very powerfully sung.
And yet it seems to be that it's completely, nobody's moved by it.
I mean, people are moved emotionally by it.
But it doesn't seem as if it makes any type of a difference to them, as if hearing these
powerful things about God doing miracles and the birth of Jesus, and it seems as if for many
people when they're listening to it, it's just an aesthetic and emotional experience.
But it doesn't seem to change them spiritually.
And it was sort of puzzled as to how that can happen in a country like Canada.
I had a bit of an answer to it last night.
I did not attend, not that I'm opposed to it, a classical music concert.
I watched The Furious 7 with my son Tommy.
That's the seventh installment of the Fast and Furious movies.
And, you know, as I'm watching it, I kept laughing all the way through.
I know it's not a funny movie.
There are jokes.
But it's such an overwhelming young man's fantasy of powerful muscles with no working
out, fancy cars with no job.
And you can just do all of these things.
You can roll out of cars and have your car go all the way up so it can hit helicopters.
And nobody's ever hurt.
None of the good guys die.
It's such a young male fantasy, at least some young men.
And I would just keep laughing because, of course, it's completely and utterly unrealistic.
And, but, you know, it sort of fulfills the type of fantasy and emotional needs.
I'm not putting it down.
You know, it's fun.
But, you know, in some ways, how most Canadians hear the Christmas story is really the same
way people watch Furious 7.
It's, it maybe is more high class to go to watch, to be part of a classical music concert
or sing the Messiah.
But it's just really fulfilling different emotional needs for people.
And it doesn't really seem to be connected to history or reality, so to speak.
And I forgot to set my clock, which is not a good sign at the beginning.
So, so, so for many people, it's just sort of like the Christmas story or really hearing
Isaiah 9 or Isaiah 7 or Isaiah 53 and Matthew and Luke.
It's no different than watching Furious 7 or hearing stories of Santa.
So, so the question is, is this really what, is this sort of a fair way to hear it?
Or is, is, is there a deeper claim being made that if we recognize the deeper claim, it would
make us mad or maybe excited?
So, it'd be a great help to me if you could get out your Bibles and we're just going to
sort of look and see whether at least the original writers of the Gospels were thinking that they
were writing something that would merely be inspiring or give some type of enjoyment or
fun to people or whether they were making, in fact, some claim very, very, very different.
And if you don't have Bibles, there's always a few Bibles up here at the front that you can
come and take if you'd like to use them.
And actually, we're going to not just, you know, we're going to not look at Luke 2 at
first.
We're going to look at Luke chapter 1.
It's the beginning of the, of the Gospel.
And if you look at Luke 1, in this particular Gospel, it gives you an idea about what Luke
thinks he's doing when in a few verses on, a few lines on, he talks about the birth of Jesus.
Like, what does Luke think he's doing?
And by the way, there's very good reasons to believe that what we see here isn't written
by a person who was born a Christian, and he wasn't born Jewish.
He was born a pagan and Greek, probably from Syria, and he was a doctor.
And sometime after the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus, he became a Christian.
And he probably wrote this in the mid to late 60s.
That's the 060s, not the 1960s or the 1860s.
And here at least, listen, what Luke thinks he's doing or is trying to do, and we'll just
hear it in his own words.
And in his own words, he says this, Luke 1, 1.
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished
among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word
have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely
for some time past, to write an orderly account to you, for you, most excellent Theophilus,
that you may have certainty concerning the things that have been taught.
And if you just sort of go on later, if you actually turn to the book of Acts and look
at the first few verses of the book of Acts, that's Acts chapter 1.
If you don't have Bibles, you can just listen to it.
And when you hear this, you'll realize that Luke, when he was writing this, he actually
wrote sort of two books, what we now see of his two books, but they were linked.
And in the beginning of the book of Acts, chapter 1, the first few verses, he says this, Luke
says this, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do
and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands to the Holy Spirit,
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them
during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
So it's very interesting.
If you're just listening to it, you'll see that Luke believes that he's telling a story
of Jesus, things that have happened to Jesus and other people who came into contact with
Jesus, that it's based on eyewitness reports, and that things actually happened, that he's
not writing a fantasy novel or a fiction novel, that he's not like in many modern movies.
At the beginning of the movie, they'll say something like, inspired by true events, or say something
like, yeah, inspired by true events, or based on true events, which are Hollywood wiggle words,
which means that there might be one tiny little dollop of actual truth in it, in terms of what
happened, and the rest was just creative license.
No, Luke actually doesn't say anything like that.
He says that he's really saying that, you know, I've done a lot of research, and I've
talked to eyewitnesses, and I've looked at other documents, and I want to tell you about
the things that Jesus actually did, and that he actually said, and what people said when
they actually saw Jesus.
That's actually what he claims to be doing.
And so he's claiming that this is, in fact, historical events.
So when it comes to the text that we're going to really look at today, if you turn back in
your Bible to Luke chapter 2, verses 1 to 7, Luke is claiming that this happens in history.
And in fact, one of the things, as I start to read, is that he actually, he doesn't sort
of say, I'm going to talk about history, and then he sort of says, in a land long ago, in
a time far away, and as if it's just like a bit mythical, and he doesn't sort of give any
historical details.
Already, prior to this, he's referred to historical personages that other historians and documents
and monuments talk about, and then when he gets to the story of the birth of Jesus, he
specifically locates it by well-known historical figures, historical figures that we know existed
from historians like Josephus and Tacitus, and we know from coins that had been found and
other types of historical records.
And Luke begins his story by placing the birth of Jesus firmly in Roman and Jewish customs,
and the world.
He goes like this, in those days, not long ago or once upon a time, but in those days,
a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the world should be registered.
This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered,
each to his own town.
And Joseph also 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, to
be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
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.
And so Luke is claiming that he's writing what we would call history.
Now, at this point in time, we start to run into some trouble.
And people want to say, okay, George, listen, everybody knows.
And in fact, if you were probably to go to a local Starbucks, or a local Tim Hortons, or
a hipster coffee place, or no coffee place at all, and you were just to say, do you think
the things in the Gospels actually happened?
Do you think the things in the New Testament actually happened?
And that we can sort of know that they happened?
And people would say to you, probably all is one, we all know those things didn't happen.
We all know that you can't trust the documents.
We all know you can't trust the Bible.
We all know that it's just not historical.
That's one of those things the Canadians just know.
And it's basically told us when we read the National Post, or we read the Ottawa Citizen,
or we watch the CBC, or watch Hollywood, we just all know that, I mean, Luke might say
these things, but it can't, he can't, you can't take it, like, it's just, don't, don't,
like, don't believe him.
Like, just listen to it in a religious or spiritual way.
Don't actually listen to it like the way you would listen to instructions about how to,
how to, you know, install Netflix on your, you know, so you can watch Netflix.
Don't listen the same way.
That's what everybody would tell you.
So let's just look at this question for a second.
Andrew, could you put up screen one, please?
So, for instance, these are two significant ancient historians for New Testament times.
People, when they want to know about what was going on, they will refer to those.
If you take courses at University of Ottawa or Carleton in classics or antiquity, these
are two of the principal historians of the New Testament times that people would use so
that we could understand it.
And if you went there, people wouldn't say, oh, yeah, you know, Josephus doesn't know
anything, or Tacitus doesn't know anything.
We would just, you would just be taught who the different governors and emperors were and
all the different things, and they would be depending upon these two people.
So the question would arise, well, if this is the case, then obviously if you can't trust
the New Testament, if you can't trust Luke, it must be because Luke was born, like, way
after this, because Jesus was probably born in very late the year 5 BC or early in 4 BC,
and he died either in the year 30 or the year 33.
There's a bit of, it's not quite clear.
But so obviously if Luke can't be trusted, he must be far born a lot after that.
Andrew, could you put up the next slide?
That's when Luke was born and died.
You go, one moment.
You said Jesus died in 30 or 33, and the two other historians, some of whom mentioned Jesus
and Christians, they actually were born way later.
There's question marks because we don't know precisely when Luke was born or when he died.
What we do know is that he was already a medical doctor in the year 49, and we also know for
sure that he was still alive in the late 60s.
And so I just put a question mark beside it.
He might have been born a little bit earlier, a little bit later, died a bit earlier, a bit
later.
There's an old Christian story that he lived to the year 84.
But that's sort of a bit surprising for considering what all Canadians know.
So then maybe we could say, well, the problem is actually not that Luke wasn't at the right
time, but maybe what it is is that whatever Luke wrote, like whatever the real Luke wrote,
probably what is the case is that he must have written...
Sorry, I'm out of place in my thing.
Maybe the problem is that...
You know how they didn't...
So they wrote something at some point in time, but then maybe the...
Maybe there's not very many manuscripts around what, you know, these...
Because nobody has the original document they wrote.
So maybe what happens is that, you know, there's hardly any copies of ancient copies of Luke's
writings, and we have a lot more copies of Josephus and Tacitus.
Could you put up the next screen, Andrew?
I didn't sort of say that very well.
So, you know, when people want to figure out what Josephus actually wrote, there's...
You know, archaeologists have found copies of what Josephus and Tacitus have actually written.
And they're ancient manuscripts, like ancient copies.
And this is how many copies of Josephus, either all of his work or part.
Tacitus actually, even though nobody doubts Tacitus' writings, there's actually no complete
one finding in ancient copies of Tacitus.
It's all bits and pieces, and from the three different copies, we have what we understand
Tacitus to have written.
So the question must be, if gosh, if that's the case, then obviously it must be that there's
only like one or two copies of the New Testament.
That's why people can't trust it.
Next screen, Andrew.
That's not a typo.
5,700 ancient manuscript copies.
5,700.
What's not counted there, if you were to add copies of the New Testament that were translated
into Latin or Syrian or other languages, there would be over 10,000 extra ancient manuscripts.
And if you were to add writings of early Christians where they quote sometimes big passages of the
Bible, there would be over 100,000 extra.
100,000.
Compared to 3 and 133.
Well then, okay.
So we all know that Luke can't actually be trusted.
So it must be the case that the Josephus and Tacitus documents are written really close
to when they wrote.
And maybe those 5,700 New Testament documents are all like four or five, six hundred years
later and there's a big gap.
And that's why we can't trust them.
Andrew, could you put up the next screen, please?
That's the gap between the earliest copy of Josephus and when he would have written and
the gap for Tacitus.
And yet, remember I told you that if you take courses at University of Ottawa or Carleton,
you won't see professors saying you can't know anything about the ancient world from
Josephus or Tacitus.
They won't say anything like that.
So it must be, since every Canadian knows what's true, it must be then that, gosh, they
have all those extra manuscripts, but it must be a lot later than 1,000 years.
Could you put up for the New Testament?
It's not a typo.
Now, that's for the Gospel of John.
And depending on how you do the carbon dating, it could be as close as 20 years to when Gospel
of John was written.
20 years compared to those other figures.
And I'm sort of, you know, I'm using the New Testament because generally people just
don't focus on Luke, but the New Testament in general, at least the Gospels in general.
In fact, if you were to put there the gap between when Luke wrote and when the earliest part of
Luke has been found, the earliest copy, it's 100 years, about 105 years.
And that ancient document not only contains almost all of Luke, but very interestingly,
and very interesting, it actually has on one of the pages that they found, Luke comes to
an end, and then they start the Gospel of John. And then there's a large part of John.
It's actually quite stunning.
I'm just going to sort of stop with this for a second. If you could put up the last
screen, at least for this. If you're interested in getting more information on this, you can go to
that, and this will be on the webpage if you don't have time to write it down right now, but you can go to
Dig and Delve, or you can Google Dig and Delve YouTube, especially 2014,
and there's a whole range of talks. If you don't want to watch the videos, you can speak to our
sound guy afterwards. He has the audios of them, and he can give them to you if you'd like to listen
to them. And actually, before we go any further, this is for our Muslim friends. Our Muslim friends
often say that you can't trust the things in the New Testament that the Koran tells you, the true story.
And listen, even if you take for granted, and Christians aren't necessarily going to disagree,
that God can give somebody a prophetic vision, but the fact of the matter is that Luke isn't
equivalent to Muhammad. Muhammad wrote in the 600s. 600 years. Over 600 years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus. And so you can't, you have to compare what the Koran says with the historical
documents. And when you compare it with the historical documents, you realize that the Koran
is not correct. It's just not correct. It can't, you see, if Luke was writing at the same time as
Muhammad, you could just say they're battling visions or prophecies, but they're not equivalent.
Luke is writing eyewitness report that fits in with all of the known fact in the culture. And
if the Koran doesn't mesh with that, then the problem is with the Koran, not with the history.
And so some of you might say, George, go back to that text that you just read a moment ago.
Isn't it the case that Luke is wrong? He's not trustworthy. But isn't it the case that Quirinius
wasn't the governor at the same time that Augustus Caesar? Like it's a very, very common thing that
this sort of proves that Luke isn't trustworthy. I'll just read you the text again. Look at this
in verse chapter one. I mean, chapter two, verse one. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius
was governor of Syria. And George, isn't it true that the historical records show that Quirinius
was the governor of Syria in the year 6 AD and that Caesar Augustus died in, I think it's April of 4 BC?
That's a 10-year gap. Ha ha. Told you you shouldn't go the history route, George.
Well, that's a very, very interesting, it's a very, very common objection. And I don't have time to go
into all of it, but I'll just say a couple of things. If you go and look at some of these videos,
one of the things you'll see is that one of the archaeologists who speaks tells, quite frankly,
that in Israel, Jewish, not Christian, but Jewish archaeologists use gospels like Luke to make more
archaeological discoveries because they found Luke's and the other gospel writers' accuracy
helps them to know where to look to find things. And when they look, they often find things there.
In fact, in the Gospel of Luke, he mentions 32 different countries, like Luke and Acts, 54 different cities,
nine islands, and dozens of ancient officials. And in every case, archaeology has found him to be accurate.
So on one level, if he made only one mistake out of all of that, let me tell you,
Josephus and Tacitus make far more than Luke does. But in this particular case, it's not even obvious
that Luke has made a mistake. And I won't go into the technical answers, but it basically comes around
to two particular things. First of all, while we know that Quirinius was not the governor of Syria in 4 BC,
the word governor also can mean administrator. It's another completely valid way to understand it.
And the fact of the matter is, is that Quirinius is a historical figure. There's historical documents
that talk about his existence. Luke knows that Quirinius, if you go on and read the book of Acts,
Luke knows that Quirinius was the governor of Syria in the year 6 AD, and that his census caused a riot.
So he understands that. But when you actually go, there's a big gap in terms of what we know of
what Quirinius was doing. And during this time period of 5A BC and 4 BC, there's no historical record
separate that tells us what Quirinius was doing. In other words, if the word can also mean administrator,
there's no historical evidence that says that Quirinius wasn't the administrator in 5 BC or 4 BC.
It's not contradicting anything in history that we know of from any other source.
So here's the point. Andrew, if you could put up the...
I had to make Andrew run all the way back down. If you could put up this first point.
The other points will be briefer, by the way.
But I want to just see, Luke gives a true historical account
of the life, birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
That there is very, very good reason.
Not a mystical reason. Not an emotional reason.
Just there's actually good archaeological, historical reason to believe
that Luke gives a true historical account of the birth, life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, this is deeply troubling to Canadians.
Because, you see, for Canadians, religion and spirituality is not about truth.
Not a historical truth.
It's all about...
It's about emotions and having peace and having meaning.
It's about higher things and spiritual things.
And it's about...
You know, when I...
In Anglican churches, when I was part of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa,
and the kids would make a noise in the service,
people would complain about it, and they'd say,
You know, the kids are making a noise.
I just want to have that hour or hour quarter
on a Sunday morning of peace and quiet
where I can just have a moment of reflection
and some uplifting thoughts.
And these irksome children are irritating me.
And that's a very, very Canadian view.
It's, in fact, to talk about history and truth,
it's almost...
It's offensive.
It's like native spirituality.
Okay, like, are you...
If you start talking about this, George,
it's going to mean that you're going to start saying to native spirituality
that there can't...
The world wasn't made by turtles or bears
or, you know, ravens pooping
or whatever the...
You know, whatever the myths are.
And it's going to be deeply troubling
about hard questions about other types of faiths.
And so Canadians, part of us, on one hand,
want to recoil against it,
and part of us also want to have a bit of a...
Well, we're...
Well, here's a perfect example,
another perfect example.
Back when I was like this,
about 15 years ago,
and I was still in the Diocese of Ottawa,
we used to have these things called clergy days.
It would be like a continuing ed day.
And in one of the continuing ed days,
we had this guest speaker come,
and he was talking about demons.
And it was a very well-attended one,
and it was a very civil conversation
as he was going through different things
about possession and attack and all that.
And then about halfway,
two-thirds of the way through the presentation,
a person put up his hand and said,
one moment,
this has been really, really, really fascinating
and very helpful,
but what you just said,
are you actually saying that demons really exist?
Like, actual have ontological,
actual existence that can affect,
like, actual things that are real?
Is that what you're saying?
And the speaker said,
yeah, of course.
And then,
he wasn't able to fulfill
any of the rest of his talk.
The entire room erupted
in attacking him.
Because as long as demons
were just ways of talking about evil
or mental illness
or sociological
or political types of processes
the way theologians like Walter Wink
would talk about it,
as long as it was just talking
at a symbolic level,
you know,
then it was all fine.
But when it actually gets to be real,
it's actually deeply offensive
to many people in Canada.
And so the problem with this statement,
Luke gives a true historical account
of the birth, life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth,
is if you read past verse 7.
Because when you go past verse 7,
all of a sudden,
God appears in a way
which is deeply troubling.
God appears as non-tame,
authoritative,
planning,
powerful,
acting,
and intrusive.
And Canadians don't like it
when God shows up
not tame
and actually acting
and intrusive.
Let's read from verse 8 on.
So verse 7 is like
the actual Christmas story,
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.
Verse 8,
And in the same region
there were shepherds
out in the field
keeping watch over their flocks
by night.
And an angel of the Lord
appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord
shone around them,
and they were filled
with great fear.
And the angel spoke to them
in words,
in Aramaic.
He speaks in Aramaic,
Fear not,
for behold,
I bring you good news
of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby
wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host.
Lots of angels.
angels.
Praising God
and saying,
Glory to God
in the highest
and on earth
peace among those
with whom
He is pleased.
How dare
Him only be pleased
with some.
That's not Canadian.
When the angels
went away from them
into heaven,
the shepherds
said to one another,
Let's go over to Bethlehem
and see this thing
that has happened
which the Lord
has made known to us.
And they went with haste
and found Mary and Joseph
and the baby lying in a manger.
And when they saw it,
they made known the saying
that had been told them
concerning this child.
And all who heard it
wondered at what the shepherds
told them.
But Mary treasured up
all these things,
pondering them in her heart.
And the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen
as it had been told
to them.
the meaning of the birth
in the manger,
the birth and the baby
in the manger,
the meaning and significance
is given by God
to the angels.
Andrew, could you put up
the slide?
Luke gives a true historical account
of God communicating
the meaning and significance
of the birth, life, death
and resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth,
the Messiah.
Now just a very, very little
brief aside.
When people say that miracles
aren't historical,
what they're doing
is actually almost always
arguing in a circle.
They'll say history
is the study of things
that aren't miraculous,
in a sense.
And then when you study history,
you don't find any miracles
because historians say
if there's a miracle,
it can't be historical.
But that's just not actually,
that's not being open-minded
to inquire.
If you start off
by assuming that all miracles
are non-historical,
and then you go and look
historically to see
if miracles happen
and you don't find any,
all you've done is
you're just following
what you've assumed.
But if you just look,
and it's beyond the scope
of this because it's
an Easter sermon,
the evidence
for the resurrection
of Jesus
is quite strong
historically.
And it ultimately
is the reason why
I trust,
and Christian people
who've looked into it
trust Luke on everything.
But if you see this text,
it describes
a non-tame God,
a God who intrudes,
a God who is authoritative,
a God who plans,
a God who is powerful,
a God who is present,
a God who can act.
And this causes
a bit of a dilemma
for Canadians.
Because you see,
on one hand,
our understanding
of religion and spirituality
cloaks despair.
because it's really
just saying
that there's not,
you know,
in a sense,
history is,
and forgive me
for saying this,
I'm just quoting
how it's said,
history is just
one damn thing
after another.
It doesn't really
mean anything.
And, you know,
if a story about Santa
gives you some meaning
and some pleasure,
if listening to Bach
or listening to Handel
gives you some meaning
or pleasure,
if Jack Daniels
gives you meaning
or pleasure,
then it's all
sort of basically equal.
Because you just
have to grab
whatever will amuse you
until you die
and then that's the end.
But on the same time,
we're sort of,
we understand
at the same time
that there has to be
some type of meaning
to life.
We stop short
of the abyss.
On one hand,
we want to just
sort of have the meaning
that we can sort of
grasp or create
for ourselves.
But on the other hand,
we have some type
of sense
that there must be
some type of meaning
to our lives,
our real lives,
not just our emotional lives,
but our real lives,
our embodied lives.
It's why we're always
trying to find meaning
in human actions
when other people act.
We don't want to just say
it was just one thing
happening after another.
We want to understand,
well, why did they say that?
Why did they do that?
Why did they say that to me?
Why did that happen to me?
On one hand,
we want to ask
these types of why questions
about our real life
really lived.
But on the other hand,
on the other hand,
we basically have
an understanding
that if there is
true meaning,
not just meaning
that we've made
for ourselves,
that it not only
has to be in a sense
personal,
but it has to be
more than personal.
There has to be
something transcendent
about it.
In other words,
that real meaning,
if there's real meaning
in human life,
it not only has to be
part of human life,
but it has to be
in a sense outside
of or beyond human life.
So, you know,
on one hand,
we're stuck as Canadians,
as human beings,
that we're committed
to this project
of being like God.
And we don't like
anything that interrupts
or intrudes upon
being like God.
And if there really
is a God,
and He really can speak,
and He's really
authoritative,
and He really can intrude,
and He really can act,
then our whole project
of being like God
crumbles.
Yet at the same time,
there must be meaning.
And so on one hand,
to start to have
a glimmer that there's
actual historical evidence
of God speaking
and communicating
and giving meaning,
on one hand,
for some,
is an answer
to the longing
and yearning
of our hearts.
Yet at the same time,
there is great fear.
There is great fear.
In fact,
we worry,
we instantly go to
saying that it,
instantly,
thinking that this
actual story,
that this,
that there could be
a story like this
which is actually true,
that it's inherently
imperialistic,
that it's imperialistic
to spiritualities,
non-traditional
spiritualities.
It's imperialistic
to religion.
It's imperialistic
to atheists
and agnostics,
that it's somehow
imperialistic
and forceful
and not good.
But that's just,
that's just our fear,
that the true
and living God
also has our
God project
at work.
That the real God
is going to act
in a way that we would act
if we really had power
to be God.
I mean,
just be honest,
you know,
sometimes I get mad
at drivers.
If I had God's power,
there'd be a lot
of dead drivers.
And maybe driving's
not your thing,
maybe it's cutting
in a line.
How many people
would be dead today
if they cut in line
of you and you
had God's powers?
And that terrifies
us about God.
But listen to the story
again.
Look at verse 7.
Look at this.
If the things
in verses 10 to 14
are true,
look at it.
He doesn't come
with power.
He doesn't come
looking like
the furious seven.
He doesn't come
looking born
out of nowhere
like the rock,
like Dwayne Johnson
with unbelievably
bulging muscles
and a negative
body fat count,
who's able
to just flex
his muscle
and the cast
explodes off
his arms.
And then he can
pick up heavy
guns and have
ambulances,
knock predator
drones out of
the sky.
I mean,
this guy,
no,
verse 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.
The king and king
and lord of the
lord's first throne
was a feeding trough
for animals.
And look at
verse 10 and
following.
What the angels
say,
and the angels
said to them,
fear not,
for behold,
I bring you
good news
of great joy
that will be
for all the people,
for unto you,
ordinary people
like you in Ottawa
in 2015
is born this day
in the city of David,
a savior
who is Christ,
the Messiah,
the promised one
of God,
the Lord.
And this will be
a sign for you.
You will find a baby
wrapped in swaddling cloths
in line in a manger
and suddenly there was
with the angel
a multitude of the
heavenly host
praising God
and saying glory
to God in the highest
and on earth
shalom
among those
with whom he is pleased.
And he died.
So when we put our faith
and trust in him,
he is pleased
with ordinary people.
Ordinary people.
Here's the message.
Luke tells us
of the humble birth
of the humble Lord
who will save
ordinary people
that humble themselves
and humbly receive him
as savior
and then humbly
follow him as Lord.
The world is filled
with proud Christians
but God does not
call us to pride.
Come to me
all who are labor
and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me
for I am gentle
and lowly of heart
and you will find rest
for your souls.
For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.
The words of Jesus
as recorded in Matthew.
Luke tells us
of the humble birth
of the humble Lord
who will save
ordinary people
like you and me
that humble themselves
and humbly receive him
as savior
and then humbly
follow him
as Lord.
Just sort of
in closing,
when we realize
that this is actually
historically true,
it, it, it, it,
it, it, it,
as this grips us,
it revolutionizes
and revolutionizes
our lives.
Why do I pray?
When I pray
at the beginning
of the service
for the Holy Spirit
to fall,
I pray to a God
who does exist
who can listen
and who can do that.
When I pray
for somebody
to be healed,
I don't know
if God will say yes
or no
or how he will heal them,
but I pray to a God
who can do that.
How can it make a difference?
Why should anybody
like stand at the door
like Owen
and get cold
to serve people?
Why should anybody
look after snotty-nosed,
sniveling little kids
and not get any thanks?
It's because there's
a meaning and purpose
to life
and I'm humbly
following the Lord
and I'm following
a trajectory
that will lead
to an eternal life
in the new heaven
and the new earth.
Why is it that I should
take the risk
of forgiving people
while I,
Jesus, my Savior
and my Lord
has told me to do this.
He died
so that I might be forgiven.
He died
so my enemies
might be forgiven
and out of that
as I'm gripped
by the gospel
it makes sense
to try to forgive.
And why is it that,
I don't know,
we should take,
like why is it
that we have people
from our congregation
who decide
to leave
very profitable jobs
or careers
to go to
closed nations
to share the gospel
with them?
Why is it that
we take stands
and take risks
with budgets
and other types
of things?
Why is it that
we have people
going to places
like Turkey
and other places
like Asia?
Why is it,
well,
it's because
if you go to bed
every night
thinking that it's
just one damn thing
after another,
it's very hard
to have courage.
If you believe
there is a God
who actually exists
who's sovereign
and can act
in human history,
who has received
you as his own
when you put
your faith
and trust in him,
well,
why don't we
try something?
If God is leading,
if God is for us,
let's go for it.
Please stand.
You know,
there's,
this isn't a myth,
it's not a fable.
And,
on one hand,
to know that
there really is a God,
an untamed
but good God
who really exists,
who can really act,
who humbles himself
as a child,
this is the end
of our longings
and of our yearnings.
And it opens
a whole new life
of courage
and a whole new life
of prayer
when you put
your hand
in the hand
of the one
who came as a baby
but died on the cross
and rose triumphant
over sin and death.
Let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father,
may you know
that there might be
people here this morning
who have not yet
put their trust
in Jesus.
You know,
Father,
you know,
Father,
deeply the fears
that they have
about making
such a step
of faith in Jesus.
I ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would fall gently
but deeply upon them
and deliver them
from fear
and fan into flame
within them
a longing
and yearning
to call out
to Jesus
to be their Savior
and their Lord,
that they would do
that today.
And,
Father,
for those of us
who are followers
of Jesus,
you know how easy
it is that our culture
seeps away
our confidence
that you are sovereign
or that you hear
our prayers,
how our culture
seeps away
our life of prayer
or calling out
for you to move
and act.
Father,
may your Holy Spirit
fall upon us
with gentle
but deep power
that we might
once again
know how big
and awesome
and true
and real
you really are
and that you
are not
a distant God
but our Father
who loves us
and that Jesus
is not just
a fable
or a story
but that he
can be my Savior
and my friend
that he died
for me
to make me yours
and he rose
from the dead
and conquered
sin and hell
and all hostile
spiritual powers
in his resurrection
and that I can walk
with him
and in him
day by day
as I face my life.
Father,
build and grow
in me
a deep and humble
trusting confidence
in Jesus
and in you.
Pour out your Holy Spirit
this we pray
in Jesus name.
Amen.