WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.880 Well, we read this story of Christmas from Luke chapter 2 tonight and at the very end 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:17.280 of the story in verse 20 it says that the shepherds praised God for all that they had 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:19.920 heard and all that they had seen. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:26.879 And there's really an emphasis in Luke's Gospel on the eyewitness testimony of all 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:30.199 that happened in Jesus' life. 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.920 And the same thing happens over and over again in the New Testament. 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:37.719 And the book of the letter of 1 John written by one of Jesus' earliest followers, the 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:43.719 Apostle John, John, opens the letter and he says, let me tell you about the Word of life. 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:44.719 That's his name for Jesus. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:51.320 And he says, all that we have heard, seen, and touched concerning him. 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:55.039 And I just want to share tonight two brief things about that. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:01:00.640 The first is the reality of Christmas and then secondly, the meaning of Christmas. 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.280 So first, the reality of Christmas. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:10.719 It is very important for us as 21st century modern people to feel the weight of empirical 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:11.719 evidence. 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:19.000 We want to have eyewitness testimony for the public truth claims that are made for things 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:20.799 that are especially important. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:27.000 And even in a time in the Greco-Roman world in the first century when the expectations 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:32.640 of evidence were so different than today, the genres were so different than the scientific 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:39.400 age we live in today, the ancient text of the Bible goes out of its way to talk over 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:44.679 and over again about the weight of the empirical reality of all that happened in Jesus' life 00:01:44.679 --> 00:01:46.079 in the first century. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:51.200 There's testimony after testimony and mention after mention of how significant it is, how 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:52.679 many witnesses there were. 00:01:52.679 --> 00:01:59.560 In John's letter, he even puts the form of all we have seen, heard, and touched concerning 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:04.680 the Word of life into the framework of an early first century judicial oath. 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:09.240 It reads to an original reader like he was making a vow in the public court. 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:15.159 I'm telling you, all I saw, I even touched him the Word of life when he came into the 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:16.159 world. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:21.359 And Luke, the writer from the passage that we read, he was a physician, he was a doctor, 00:02:21.359 --> 00:02:27.079 and he tells us from the very beginning that he's very concerned to record testimony, eyewitness 00:02:27.079 --> 00:02:28.879 testimony of all that took place. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:33.719 And if you think back, if you have the passage or think back to what we read at the beginning, 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:37.400 just listen to how he frames the details in the first seven verses. 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:42.240 He says, in those days there was a Caesar and a decree went out and there was a registration 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.199 for tax purposes. 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:45.719 And it was the first registration. 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:47.000 He adds that detail. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.639 And also Quirinius was the governor of Syria, and Joseph had to travel because his lineage 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:55.199 was Bethlehemite, and he had to register with his betrothed Mary. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:02.079 And three times the census is mentioned, and there is one sentence in the Christmas story 00:03:02.079 --> 00:03:05.479 in Luke given to Jesus' birth. 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:10.679 Ten sentences of the political scene, of all that was happening at the exact moment that 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:15.280 Jesus came into the world, and only one moment, one sentence that's given to the night of 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:21.439 the birth, nothing about Mary's labor pains and all that happened there in the animal 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:23.960 feed trough that they laid Jesus in and what it was like. 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:24.960 There's nothing. 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:31.240 Instead, he's painting the picture and saying, some of you were little children and remember 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:33.800 who was the governor when this happened. 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:35.400 And we know who it was. 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:40.640 We know that the Caesar at the time was Gaius Octavius, and the governor of Syria at the 00:03:40.640 --> 00:03:42.920 time was Quirinius Walrus. 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:44.319 Luke was right about this. 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:46.960 This has been corroborated by historians. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:48.719 And that leads me to the first point. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:54.280 I want to say this, that the unique thing about Christianity and what makes it different 00:03:54.280 --> 00:04:00.040 from all the other religions and philosophies of world history is that the history of Jesus 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:03.599 Christ is Christianity. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:08.199 The main rational argument, one of the main rational arguments for why follow Jesus Christ 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:14.959 in a modern world like we live in is because the writers are saying this really happened. 00:04:14.959 --> 00:04:19.079 The center of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is history. 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:22.319 The historical man is the man of the Gospels. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:23.319 They are the same thing. 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:26.000 And John says here, what I write is real. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:27.240 I found God. 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:28.480 I touched him. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:29.719 I saw him. 00:04:29.719 --> 00:04:30.719 I heard him. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:37.800 See, as Lewis in the middle of the 20th century, the great English author, he once responded 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:44.520 to a quote from the Russian astronauts when they had gone into space and come back. 00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:45.800 You probably know this. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:50.600 The Russian astronauts had gone to the moon and they said, we went to the moon and we 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.560 didn't find God. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:55.760 And Lewis wrote a public essay to respond to that statement. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:01.319 And this is what he says, looking for God by exploring space is like reading or seeing 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:08.599 all of Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters. 00:05:08.599 --> 00:05:13.519 Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play, but he is never present 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:16.480 in the same way as Lady Macbeth is present. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:20.159 Nor is he diffused through the play like a gas. 00:05:20.159 --> 00:05:25.639 Finding God is not like a man on the first floor, walking up the steps to find a man 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:27.199 on the second floor. 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:33.079 My point is that if God does exist, he is related to the universe more as an author 00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:38.560 is related to a play than as one object in the universe is related to another object. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:44.079 Now Lewis is saying here that the Bible teaches over and over again that God is the author 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:45.319 of all of human history. 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.560 And so we don't go to find God in the world in the same way that we find things in the 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:50.839 claims of science. 00:05:50.839 --> 00:05:57.759 And yet Luke and John and Paul say, but oh, you can. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:03.719 Because the Christmas story is that in this baby, God has written himself into the drama 00:06:03.719 --> 00:06:06.959 of human history to play the role of savior. 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:12.399 The Christian claim, the Christian claim is this, that this is a great story precisely 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:14.839 because it is a true story. 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:17.120 It is the real drama of human history. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:24.000 Now there are all sorts of questions that people have today about Christianity. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.519 What do we do with the relationship between faith and science? 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:28.079 What about the problem of evil? 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:32.000 What about the questions today concerning human sexuality? 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.399 But what I want to say is that the first order of business and really the first question 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:42.040 that has to be asked is, is the Jesus of the Gospels the Jesus of history? 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:46.000 And that's the question that you have to say yes or no to. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:50.439 Because if you say yes to that question, then yes, there are secondary questions to deal 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:51.720 with, but it changes everything. 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:52.879 It means everything. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:54.519 It means that you have to change your life. 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:59.759 You have to completely center your entire existence around the man who died and rose 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.319 from the dead. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:03.319 That's the question. 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:09.079 The Gospels are written as eyewitness testimonies and Christianity swept the Greco-Roman Empire 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:10.720 in the first couple of centuries. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:11.720 Why? 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:17.080 The claim, the claim from the historians is because there were so many people who saw 00:07:17.080 --> 00:07:19.160 him rise from the dead. 00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:25.640 Now secondly and finally, if the Christian claim about Jesus is real, then it also means 00:07:25.640 --> 00:07:26.640 something. 00:07:26.640 --> 00:07:30.680 And I just want to close by saying something about this. 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.520 Christmas means, we could put it in one phrase, God with us. 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:41.600 And in Matthew chapter one, a corresponding text to the Luke 2 chapter that we read, that's 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.720 the word that Matthew uses to wrap up all of what Christmas is. 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:50.960 He says, it's Emmanuel, which is a Hebrew word that means God with us. 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:57.360 But when you see a phrase like that, we sang it a moment ago, you've got to ask the question, 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.120 what is the nature of the with? 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:01.720 God with us. 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:07.520 Because we will talk about that preposition with all sorts of human relationships. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.000 People say that when there are two people romantically involved, that man is with that 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.879 woman, that guy is with that girl, or that child is with that parent, or that lawyer 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:20.279 is with that defendant. 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:26.719 There are all sorts of things, types of relationships that the word with could mean. 00:08:26.719 --> 00:08:30.159 And when we read the word Emmanuel, God with us, I think there's multiple ways to answer 00:08:30.159 --> 00:08:31.359 the nature of the with. 00:08:31.359 --> 00:08:35.439 But one of the ways is this, when you read the rest of the book of Luke, one of the most 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:42.040 prominent features is that Jesus Christ comes and he sits down at the table and he breaks 00:08:42.040 --> 00:08:44.320 bread with anybody. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.760 He eats with the lowly in the first century. 00:08:47.760 --> 00:08:49.680 He breaks bread with sinners. 00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:54.520 He comes to the disciples at the end of his life and says, I do not only call you servant, 00:08:54.520 --> 00:08:57.560 I have actually come to call you friend. 00:08:57.560 --> 00:09:03.200 And so one of the significant meanings of Christianity is that God in Christ has come, 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:06.840 God with us to say to you, I want to know you. 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:08.080 I want to be your friend. 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:09.360 I want to have a relationship with you. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:11.840 I want to sit down and break bread with you. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:16.320 I want to share common life with you. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:21.759 Christianity says that the living God has come into the world by way of this Christmas child 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:25.400 so that he could know you, so that he could be in a relationship with you. 00:09:25.400 --> 00:09:31.720 And so as we close, the question pops up, if Christianity, if Christmas is about being 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:39.600 near to God, you could ask a question like, am I moving in my life right now toward God 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.560 or away from God? 00:09:42.560 --> 00:09:48.240 And there's a temptation in that question to then ask a second question. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:52.160 And I think it might be this, if it's true, if it's true that Christmas is about God coming 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:57.560 to get me, God coming to be friends with me, God coming to know me in this Christmas child, 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:01.959 then what do I need to do today to abide with him, to know him? 00:10:01.959 --> 00:10:11.039 And central to this story, central to the Christian claim is actually the question, what am I 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:16.159 doing to get near to God is the wrong first question. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:18.879 What do I need to do today to get to him? 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:22.039 That's not the right first question. 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:25.039 And that's central to the Luke and story that we just read. 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:29.599 And let me just show you a couple of details and we'll wrap up. 00:10:29.599 --> 00:10:34.599 In that story, at the very beginning or toward the middle, we're told that he was wrapped 00:10:34.599 --> 00:10:41.240 as he was born in strips of cloth, swaddling clothes as this translation put it. 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:47.399 And then it says that he was laid in a manger and we can't trivialize what that means. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:53.120 That is saying he was put in an animal feed trough in the muck and the mud near the manure 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.519 where he was there. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:01.000 One biblical scholar puts it like this, the point of this story is that at his birth, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:07.039 Jesus had to be content with the habitation of animals because there was no room for him 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:09.200 in human society. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:13.080 The first announcement that got made that we read was to the shepherds and the shepherds 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:18.080 in that time were low in the Greco-Roman order of public hierarchy. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:21.440 They were not allowed to be witnesses in a judicial court. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:23.480 And this is what the same scholar says. 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:28.840 He says, God's grace has now been revealed to a group of people held in low regard in 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.040 the midst of the Greco-Roman world. 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:35.760 The angels come and they say, glory to God in the highest. 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:41.520 God has been born this day and we read in the accent of the story that the highest has 00:11:41.520 --> 00:11:45.200 now come into the world as the lowest. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:52.680 And let me say that the details of this Christmas birth, the poverty of this Christmas birth 00:11:52.680 --> 00:11:57.560 is actually the sign of his mission. 00:11:57.560 --> 00:12:01.960 This poverty and lowliness from the very beginning is the mark of his entire life. 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:03.520 It's the mark of his mission. 00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:07.000 He came, we see in this moment, to be made low. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:12.600 He came as God in the highest to identify with the weak. 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:17.040 He came for people who do not have it all together. 00:12:17.040 --> 00:12:22.279 And he came to identify, as we say in Christianity, with sinners. 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:27.639 And the Christian tradition calls this the humiliation of Jesus Christ. 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:30.920 And humiliation there doesn't mean embarrassment. 00:12:30.920 --> 00:12:37.560 It means being brought low by suffering that he did not deserve. 00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:42.560 And God in the highest, he was brought all the way not only to the manger, but to ultimately 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:43.559 suffer. 00:12:43.559 --> 00:12:48.679 He died on the cross at the hands of murdered by his own creation, treason committed against 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:53.639 him by his closest followers and why. 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:59.839 And over and over again, the scriptures testify he came to so identify himself with us, to 00:12:59.839 --> 00:13:01.039 be united with us. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:07.519 Covenantally, he who knew no sin became like we are sinners. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:11.759 God came in Christ to be humiliated to suffer, to take our place. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:18.720 He took the injustice that we committed, the injustice that the world has committed, the 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.200 great sin of all of human existence into himself. 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:28.200 He ate it at the cross so that we might know reconciliation and justice before the living 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:29.200 God. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:35.319 And so at the heart of Christianity, Christianity says this, G.K. Chesterton, the Roman Catholic 00:13:35.319 --> 00:13:39.759 and the English scholar, there's an apocryphal story about him. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:42.360 I hope it's true, but many people aren't sure. 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:48.559 A famous story where the times asked him to write an essay answering the question, what 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:50.799 is wrong with the world? 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:57.480 And he wrote back and said, dear sirs, I am your truly G.K. Chesterton. 00:13:57.480 --> 00:14:01.399 And that is at the heart of the Christmas message. 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:06.279 The Christmas message and its first judgment, it's God coming into the world and saying, 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:08.000 we are not what we ought to be. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:09.000 Humanity is not what it ought to be. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:10.000 The world is not what it ought to be. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:11.759 We need Messiah. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:12.759 We need Savior. 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:19.639 And then justice and reconciliation with the living God is on offer in the Christmas child. 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.759 He got what I deserve so I could possess his resurrection life. 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:30.679 And so the question tonight is not first, what do I do to get him, but look up and see what 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:32.679 he did to get me. 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:35.120 Look up and see his condescension. 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:36.879 We call it Advent, his coming. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.120 Look and see how he has come for us. 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:47.799 Now the Christian call then is this, to pray to him tonight and to confess with your mouth 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:53.399 that this Christ is God and that he is the hope of forgiveness and he will come and he 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:58.159 will commune with you and he will give to you eternal life. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:59.960 And that's an invitation. 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:00.960 Let's pray together. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:07.440 Father, we ask now that the spirit of the living Christ would move upon many hearts 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:11.360 here and in this city, that there would be a movement of the gospel and that you would 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:18.120 wake us up to see the reality and power of Emmanuel God with us, our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:19.639 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:15:19.639 --> 00:15:31.840 Amen.