WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 Our scripture reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:13.120 chapter 2 pages 1 to 20, pages versus, not pages, 20 pages, that would be a lot, 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:21.160 20 verses, Luke chapter 2. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:26.120 that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:32.120 Quirinius was governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own 00:00:32.120 --> 00:00:37.120 town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:41.320 Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:45.960 house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:50.040 with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And 00:00:50.040 --> 00:00:55.520 she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:01.280 laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:05.320 same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:09.560 by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:13.960 Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said 00:01:13.960 --> 00:01:19.200 to them, fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:24.920 all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:29.960 Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in 00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:34.920 swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:40.040 multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:46.280 highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:50.560 went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us go 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.599 over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:58.679 known to us. And they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby 00:01:58.679 --> 00:02:03.560 lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying that had been 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:08.560 told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:15.000 shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.319 her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:27.039 had heard and seen as it had been told them. This is God's holy word. We're in a 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:32.879 Christmas series on Sunday mornings in December looking at four episodes in the 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:37.959 life of Mary. We've called it Jesus the Son of Mary where we look at what happens 00:02:37.959 --> 00:02:41.519 in her life to understand something more about the son that she gave birth to 00:02:41.519 --> 00:02:46.120 Jesus. And this we just read is the Christmas story itself, the very birth 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:51.159 of Jesus. So the department stores, all the stores are playing jingle bell rock. 00:02:51.159 --> 00:02:56.960 That's the vibe of Christmas in the city. But this is the real Christmas story, the 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:01.520 one that we just read about. And the shepherds at the, in the second half of 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.080 the story, the shepherds come to Mary, Joseph and the baby and it says there 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:10.920 were others there. And they tell them what they had seen and what they had heard 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:16.199 from the angels out at the night when they were tending their sheep. They heard 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:21.119 from the angels this song we now call it in Latin, the Gloria and exchelsis deo. 00:03:21.119 --> 00:03:26.000 Gloria got in the highest peace on earth. That's the song they heard. And they come 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.479 and they tell the people and it says in verse 17, 18 that when they had told 00:03:31.479 --> 00:03:36.319 them verse 18 everybody who heard it wondered at what they had heard. So the 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:42.840 people that are there at the birth scene, they wonder meaning they are amazed, but 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:46.239 they don't quite understand. That's what that word there means. But then in the 00:03:46.239 --> 00:03:51.199 very next verse, verse 19, it says, but Mary treasured these things in her heart 00:03:51.199 --> 00:04:00.400 and she pondered. Now the word ponder there means to take all the pieces and 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:06.680 put them together like a puzzle. So when Mary heard the shepherd's experience, 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:11.200 she thought about her own experience and she remembers Elizabeth and Zechariah's 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:16.280 experience and she's putting pieces together. And then it says when she did 00:04:16.280 --> 00:04:22.399 that she treasured these things in her heart. That's what happened to her. She 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:27.480 treasured all that had happened. And when you look at that word treasure to 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:33.120 treasure, it means that it's a verb there. The Greek verb means something like when 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:39.520 you realize there is something in your heart that is safe that can't be taken 00:04:39.520 --> 00:04:43.879 away from you no matter what. So it says when she pondered everything that had 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:48.600 happened and she heard the shepherd's testimony, she realized in her heart she 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:55.800 had something, a treasure, something in her life that no matter what could not be 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.680 taken away from her. And that's what happened. What is that thing that she 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:04.840 treasured that couldn't be taken away? And we're told verse 14, it's right there 00:05:04.840 --> 00:05:10.480 in the midst of the song, it's peace. The angels sang it. They said, glory to God 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:16.600 in the highest, peace on earth. That's the central idea of the incarnation. The 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:22.280 central theme of Christmas, peace, peace on earth. She realized she had it, peace, 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:27.519 and she treasured it. And that's exactly what is on offer in the real Christmas 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:34.159 story. You can have it too. You can have peace today. So let's think about it. The 00:05:34.159 --> 00:05:38.719 real Christmas offers you peace. First, peace on earth, secondly, how you get it. 00:05:38.719 --> 00:05:44.159 Okay? So first, peace, this peace we're learning about here. All right, the song 00:05:44.159 --> 00:05:48.719 Gloria and ex-chelsea's dayo, it's got a vertical dimension and a horizontal 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:52.240 dimension. You know, they said that the myriad of angels appear before the 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:56.960 shepherds and they sing, glory to God. They look up and they say, thank you, God, 00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:01.440 for what you've done this night. That's the vertical dimension. Bless your name, 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:06.960 God, for this plan that you've enacted. And then the horizontal dimension. And now 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:13.320 that the baby has come, there is peace on earth. That's what they say. Meaning 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:19.519 what? Okay, so you might think peace on earth. 2,000 years ago this happened. And 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:27.920 if there's one thing that's on earth, it's conflict, not peace. So you know, we 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:34.039 think about the idea of peace. And peace is the opposite of conflict. And you can 00:06:34.039 --> 00:06:38.399 have conflict in marriage. You can have conflict in the family. You can have 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:41.759 conflict amongst friends. You can have conflict in your workplace. You can have 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:46.599 conflict amongst your siblings. If you have a relationship, there is 00:06:46.599 --> 00:06:52.319 conflict or it's coming. And then conflict gets more and more and more. And we 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.759 talk about war. And there's conflict right now. There's war in Gaza. There's war 00:06:56.759 --> 00:07:01.599 in Ukraine. And we pray for peace. And we long for peace. And you say, there's 2,000 00:07:01.599 --> 00:07:06.240 years since the angels sang peace on earth. And I don't see a lot of peace in 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:13.879 the world. What kind of peace is being talked about here? Then there's inner 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:21.199 peace. Is this inner peace? Inner peace is emotional well-being. And it's the 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:25.560 type of peace that we're all desperate for. It is the secret of life. The secret 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:30.199 of life is that if you can find yourself in a place emotionally where you have 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.000 inner peace, you will be safe. You will be secure. You can handle anything. And it's 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:40.199 elusive. So people are selling peace, emotional peace. Right? There's podcast. 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:44.800 There's therapy. There's counselors. There's bookscalore. And people sell it. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:48.079 There's a market for it because we desperately need it. We desperately want 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:51.399 it. Inner peace. If we could have it, we could have everything. And it's 00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:56.560 incredibly elusive. You know, you can have great circumstances in your life and 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.759 no peace at all. You can feel terrible. And you can be in the worst of 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:06.039 circumstances, stepping into the brink of hell and earth, hell itself right here 00:08:06.039 --> 00:08:12.199 on earth, and yet have peace. Peace is mysterious. It's elusive. How does it 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:17.279 happen? And people want it so badly. Is that the peace that the angels are 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:22.439 singing about here? We long for peace in the midst of conflict. We long for inner 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:27.120 peace, emotional peace. Jesus Christ, it was born in the middle of history to 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:31.959 bring both, but that's a different discussion and a very nuanced discussion. 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:36.879 And that is not, that's not what the angels were singing about on this night. 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:43.919 What is it? The department stores Jingle Bell Rock, Mariah Carey, every other 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:49.360 song, All I Want For Christmas is You. That's the vibe. But when you come to the 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:53.639 real Christmas story, this is, this is the real Christmas story. Look at it with 00:08:53.639 --> 00:08:59.759 me to find out what the peace is. It's verse eight. The shepherds are out in the 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:05.439 fields and it's nighttime. They're out watching over the flocks at night. They 00:09:05.439 --> 00:09:10.519 are in the dark. There is no electricity. The stars are out. The moon is out, but 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:15.919 they are in the dark. And then all of a sudden, verse nine, it says, the glory of 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:21.600 the Lord shone around them. It's a verb there that means to encircle in golf. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:28.560 And the word shone, it means light, luminosity. And so it says they're out in 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:33.000 the middle of the dark darkness. And there's a real reason for that. And all 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.320 of a sudden, the glory of the Lord appears and it's light. It's luminosity. It 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:42.360 engulfs them. It captures them. It surrounds them. The light pierces the 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:45.800 darkness. And then at the end of verse nine, the very next thing we're told is 00:09:45.800 --> 00:09:51.399 that they were terrified. Now that's, that's the short way of putting it. The 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:55.959 literal way of putting it is something more like they having been frightened 00:09:55.959 --> 00:10:01.600 were mega afraid. That's what it says. Meaning they were absolutely terrified. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:05.600 Now, do you remember that in the Christmas story? That the shepherds are in the 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:10.240 darkness. And when the glory of the Lord appears to them, they're absolutely 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:17.279 terrified by it. It exposes them. The light of the glory of God shines into 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:21.159 their life in the middle of the nighttime. And they, the only thing they can do is 00:10:21.159 --> 00:10:26.399 be afraid. They know, they realize what's happening to them. Now remember the 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:30.719 angel of the Lord, the glory of the Lord came to Mary and it says she was 00:10:30.719 --> 00:10:35.679 afraid and troubled. That was her first experience. The angel of the Lord came to 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:41.120 Zechariah and it says he was afraid and he was silenced. He couldn't speak. What 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.839 is happening here? This is the same thing that happens all throughout the Old 00:10:44.839 --> 00:10:50.120 Testament. And that's when the glory of the Lord comes into a person's life. When 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:55.600 you have an encounter with a living God, when the light comes into your life, 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:01.399 there's terror. There's fear. That's the kind of encounter that we read about on 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:07.399 the Christmas night. And remember in the Old Testament, Uzziah touched the ark of 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:13.919 the presence of God and he died. And God's glory came down to Mount Sinai and 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:20.080 God said, tell the people, do not touch the mountain. Do not get near. Cover your 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:26.080 faces. You cannot look at the light or you will die. This is the shekinah glory 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:29.800 of God and that's exactly what the shepherds are experiencing here. The 00:11:29.800 --> 00:11:34.240 glory of the Lord has come into their lives and they're undone by it. Genesis 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:40.600 chapter 3, Adam had sinned against the Lord and when the glory of the Lord comes 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:45.160 into the garden, what does he do? He shakes in his boots. You know, he was 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:50.639 dead afraid and he hid and he was silent. He wouldn't answer because he was so 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.719 afraid. And that's exactly what's taking place here. The shepherds are here at 00:11:54.719 --> 00:12:00.000 night. They're not looking for God. The light engulfs them and they are terrified. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.639 They're shocked and Mary hears this and she's putting the pieces together and 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:09.360 realizing this is what happens when you have an encounter with the living God. 00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:14.679 When the light comes into your life, the very first thing, this is the very first 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:18.679 thing that Christmas is all about. The incarnation takes place. The light comes 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:23.679 into the world because we are in the darkness. The light comes in the world 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:29.599 and we're exposed. We're dark. Our hearts are dark. The 00:12:29.599 --> 00:12:33.239 shepherds' hearts were dark. That's why they're here standing in the night and 00:12:33.239 --> 00:12:39.199 that means the very meaning of peace on earth that Mary realizes that the angels 00:12:39.199 --> 00:12:43.639 sing about is what kind of peace. Christmas is all about one type of peace 00:12:43.639 --> 00:12:50.199 and that's that you are an enemy of the living God. You're at war with a living 00:12:50.199 --> 00:12:53.799 God. You're in the darkness and when Jesus comes, he comes to pronounce that 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:59.199 there is a way to be at peace with God. That's the meaning of Christmas. It is the 00:12:59.199 --> 00:13:06.480 hope of reconciliation with the living God, the God you are made for. That you 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:12.200 are made for the light of God to be engulfed by it. That's actually home. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:18.560 But as soon as you draw near to it, you have to be terrified because of the 00:13:18.560 --> 00:13:24.440 darkness that is within your soul, within your heart. Now, C.S. Lewis in 1941 gave a 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:29.400 sermon about this during the war. He talked about the weight of glory. It's 00:13:29.400 --> 00:13:33.520 now an essay and a book with that title, the weight of glory and he talks about it 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:37.879 like this. He says, the vision of God, he says, being in the presence of God's 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:44.720 glory, being in the presence of God's glory, the light, is the secret ache for a 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:49.840 far-off country we've never been to. He says it's the desire for something that 00:13:49.840 --> 00:13:54.879 we have never actually experienced. It is what we really desire. We get traces of 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:59.600 it when we experience beauty. But the thing itself, the glory of the Lord, is 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:06.279 the scent of a flower we have yet to find. It's the echo of a tune we have yet to 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:13.399 hear. It's news from a country we have not yet visited. It's the reality that can 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:18.919 break the evil spell of the worldly enchantment. Every human, every single 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:24.439 one of us, remains conscious deep down of a desire which no natural happiness 00:14:24.439 --> 00:14:31.039 will ever satisfy. What is it? The ache for the far-off country that is to stand 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:38.360 in the light of the glory of God. And yet, when God's luminosity appears, when God 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:45.519 comes and stands in the presence of a sinner, it's blinding. It's impenetrable. 00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:52.319 It's inapproachable, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 6. It is, it gives us chills, you 00:14:52.319 --> 00:14:56.439 know. When it came to Moses, he had to step back. He wanted to step forward, but 00:14:56.440 --> 00:15:01.880 he had to back up. And God said, take your shoes off, because this is a holy 00:15:01.880 --> 00:15:06.600 space. We're pushed back, but we want to go forward. Now, this is the one thing we 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:11.040 must all do today. And we're gonna move on to the second point from here. But 00:15:11.040 --> 00:15:17.280 here's what we all must do today. We must all today then understand ourselves in 00:15:17.280 --> 00:15:25.480 two ways. On the one hand, why is it that you're not satisfied in this life? Not 00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:29.279 deeply, not truly, that you have a far-off ache for something that you have 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:34.720 yet to experience. And it is because you're made for this moment, for the 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:39.560 light of the glory of God to shine into your life, and for you to see the glory 00:15:39.560 --> 00:15:42.960 of God, to see the curtain pulled back, and to see the myriad of angels all 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:46.720 singing glory to God in the highest, peace to you. This is what you were made 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:51.759 for. It's the far-off ache. We've got to understand that this is ultimately who we 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:57.200 are, who we really are. And yet at the same time, we can attain it. We cannot 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:01.759 approach it. We can't have it that we're standing in the night in the middle of 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:07.879 the darkness. And one of the biggest dangers, I think, that we all face as 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:14.759 mostly, mostly middle-class people in this room, one of the big dangers is to 00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:20.600 think that darkness, the darkness, is the person's condition that's sitting 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:24.800 next to me. Darkness is everybody else's condition. Darkness is the 00:16:24.800 --> 00:16:29.840 condition of the people I hear about on the news, but not me. That's the 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:33.040 danger we face. And we've got to be serious. We've got to know ourselves. We've got to 00:16:33.040 --> 00:16:38.360 understand ourselves. You might say that when you watch the news, but you 00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:43.120 say, that's darkness. I'm a decent person. I'm a good person. But if you were to stand 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:49.680 in the light of the glory of God, you would quickly find out. You would quickly 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:54.639 find out the darkness that's deep within. What's really going on? The light 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:58.120 exposes us. And that's what happened here to the shepherds. 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:02.599 Saint Augustine said, said it well, he said, you will never find rest. 00:17:02.599 --> 00:17:06.679 You'll never find rest in your heart until you realize that you've got to rest 00:17:06.679 --> 00:17:13.919 in God, in the glory of God. Now, secondly, finally, Christmas is about peace, 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:21.360 reconciliation between us and God then. How do you get it? Charles Wesley, he 00:17:21.360 --> 00:17:25.000 understood this really well in Hark the Herald Angel Singh. What did he say? He 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.000 said, peace on earth, mercy mild, God and center reconciled, the meaning of 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:35.920 Christmas. The Apostle Paul, he understood it in Colossians 121. He said, 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:41.880 once you were alienated from God and you were his enemy, but now God has 00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:46.880 reconciled you to himself by Jesus Christ, the meaning of Christmas right 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:54.880 there. Mary in verse 18, 19, realized that and that was the treasure that she 00:17:54.880 --> 00:18:03.520 had found. So if you today come to Jesus and you have peace with God, 00:18:03.520 --> 00:18:07.520 you've been reconciled with God, understand that you have a treasure that 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.839 can never be taken away from you. You have the very thing you were made for and 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:17.480 it's yours by a gift and it cannot be taken away. Never. That's what she 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:21.279 realized. That's the treasure she experienced. Now, here's three things 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:26.079 you need in order to get that today and to grow into that today. It's always 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:31.400 three, right? That's how God designed it and there's three right here and here 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:34.759 they are. First, we have to do them quickly. First, you've got to see the 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:42.160 reasonableness of believing in the real Christmas. Now, if you were looking with 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:46.519 me, reading with me, you'll have noticed that the first half of this passage, 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:52.160 which is about the very birth of Jesus, the virgin birth, the birth actually 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:57.519 only gets one sentence. So the very birth of Jesus Christ in the Bible gets 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:01.240 a sentence and you see what Luke did instead. 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:08.120 Chapter 2 verses 1 to 6, the sentence about the birth is in verse 7. The 00:19:08.120 --> 00:19:13.559 first six verses is nothing but things like Caesar Augustus issued a 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:18.240 decree and Quirinius was governor in that season and this was the first census, 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:21.559 but there were more registrations after that and everybody had to go to the 00:19:21.559 --> 00:19:25.680 town that their family lineage was from and fact, fact, fact, all these facts. You 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:31.880 see, Luke is time stamping everything and if you were to go to chapter 3, chapter 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:36.799 3 says, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:40.480 governor of Judea, Herod being the tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:45.240 tetrarch of the region of Iteria and Trachonitus and Lysantius, tetrarch of 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:48.799 Abilene, during the high priest of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the Lord came 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:55.000 to John. Now, you see what's happening? Luke is time stamping everything and he's 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.599 saying, I can tell you the entire political scene and that's how they did 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:04.119 dates back then. They didn't have the dating system we now have and that means 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:07.400 that the very first thing Luke is trying to get you to see is the 00:20:07.400 --> 00:20:13.079 reasonableness of Christmas. He's trying to say, this is history. This is not a 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:18.240 legend. This is not a myth. The virgin birth is not a mere story. It really 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:22.039 happened. If they would have had an iPhone this night, the shepherds, the 00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:26.000 shepherds could have filmed the whole thing. And you see the very first thing 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.279 you need to see to come and experience the peace of Christ is to know that the 00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:37.480 Christian claim is that this is history, not legend. That this really happened, 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:42.119 that the virgin birth is real. It happened in space and time. It's not a 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:49.879 mythos. It didn't happen as a legend. Some of us have come into the faith and 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:53.520 received Christ if you're a Christian today or you are coming. You're in the 00:20:53.520 --> 00:20:59.320 process maybe a few of you maybe of exploring and you've come in by way of 00:20:59.320 --> 00:21:04.960 the emotions. So you've felt a need. That's been largely the aspect 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:09.960 of your soul by which you've encountered Christianity. Some of us based on our 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:13.520 personalities have come into Christianity primarily through the will. 00:21:13.520 --> 00:21:18.240 So we've felt the brokenness of our desires and it's brought us to a place 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:23.039 of guilt and we've realized how empty and broken sometimes the things we want 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:28.920 to are and that's brought us close to Christ. But what Luke's doing here is 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:34.200 saying you've got to come to Christianity with your whole self. That you've got to 00:21:34.200 --> 00:21:40.920 bring your emotional need for a Savior. The need for a broken will to be 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:45.200 reshaped and reformed. Your desires for a Savior have to be there. But also your 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:52.240 mind that this is history, this is reasonable. It really did happen. And so 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:55.960 you've got to bring all of who you are today to really experience the peace of 00:21:55.960 --> 00:22:00.319 Christ all the way to the bottom that it affects your intellect too because it's 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.519 incredibly reasonable. It's not a legend that's fundamental to the claim and 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:08.120 that's one of the big things Luke wants us to see here. Now here's the second 00:22:08.120 --> 00:22:14.000 thing and most importantly the birth itself and what it means. In verse 12 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:20.319 the shepherds were told here's the way you can find the Savior of the world, the 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:25.359 Christ, the anointed one, the Lord. Here's how you can find him. Go and look in 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:31.000 Bethlehem for one wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. Now back in 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:37.640 verse 7 she gave birth and she wrapped this baby in swaddling cloths. Swaddling 00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:44.720 cloths are very probably strips of cloth that have been ripped from work cloths. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:52.759 So baby Jesus was wrapped in cloths that were torn from a rag you 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:57.200 would use for working to wipe things away. And then it says she laid him in a 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:02.680 manger. Manger is a word for Greek. I don't know why exactly why I always 00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:08.080 translated as manger. It's a feeding trough and so Jesus was laid wrapped in 00:23:08.080 --> 00:23:15.640 work cloth and laid in a feeding trough. You know remember the hymn born in 00:23:15.640 --> 00:23:25.640 flesh the godhead. See? Hail the incarnate deity. But it doesn't go as far as it 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:30.920 could have gone. Layed in a feeding trough sitting on the muck and the spit of 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:36.240 all the animals. That's where he was laid. And that's the condition of his birth. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:40.640 It says that there was no room for him in the inn. But that's just the word 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:44.519 guest room in Greek meaning that it could have been an inn. It could have also 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:50.800 just been that there was nobody in the town that had a spare room. And so first 00:23:50.800 --> 00:23:56.360 century houses were built where the animals resided on the bottom ground 00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:01.359 level and the people lived above them. And so very very probably Jesus was born 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:06.759 on a first level ground level of a first-century home where the animals are. 00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:12.599 And that's why he's wrapped in work cloth and put on top of the muck of the 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:20.079 feeding trough. Why? You know that that's what the angel said go to Bethlehem and 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:24.759 that's what you'll find. That's the condition of the savior of the world. And 00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:27.920 you've got to really look at that. You've got to really think about that this 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:34.160 morning. That's so important. Why? Peace with God is why. Reconciliation with God 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:41.119 is why. How do you get yourself out of the darkness? And one of the early 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:46.200 church fathers, St. Ambrose, he said, when you look at the story here, there is no 00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:52.839 baby. There is no royal baby wrapped in Tyrian purple. The royal color. And John 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.799 Chrysostom, he said, surely if Jesus had willed it, he might have come moving the 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:02.679 heavens, making the earth to shake, shooting forth thunderbolts. But such was 00:25:02.679 --> 00:25:09.079 not the way of his going. His desire was not to destroy but to save, not to 00:25:09.079 --> 00:25:16.439 trample upon humanity. Therefore he is not only man but he's poor. And he's 00:25:16.439 --> 00:25:21.480 chosen a poor mother who had not even a cradle where she might lay her newborn 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:27.279 child. So she laid him in a feeding trough. I've never given birth, but 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:32.180 I've been there for it. And I've been there for at least, not at least only four 00:25:32.180 --> 00:25:38.839 times for birth, only for it. And one thing I do know about giving birth is 00:25:38.839 --> 00:25:43.640 that nobody, I don't think, I don't think any mother giving birth wants the 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:50.680 conditions of the birth to be this. Her baby put in a feeding trough on top of 00:25:50.680 --> 00:25:55.120 the muck and the spit of the animals, right? Nobody wants that. No parent wants 00:25:55.120 --> 00:26:01.360 that for their baby. But that's what he got. Why? Because his birth condition is 00:26:01.360 --> 00:26:07.240 the sign of our condition. He was born into the darkness. He was born into 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:13.440 poverty. He was born into the condition as a sign of exactly what the 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:16.759 shepherd's experience. That when the light comes into the world, the darkness 00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:22.879 is exposed and he took it on. He lived into it. It was the very condition of 00:26:22.879 --> 00:26:29.240 his life, his poverty in the midst of this night. And even more than that, his 00:26:29.240 --> 00:26:32.000 birth condition, even more, here's the meaning of Christmas. His birth condition 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:39.599 is the sign of his death condition that is to come. Remember, Adam, when the glory 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:44.359 of God appears to humanity, the light shines, what does the human 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:49.439 being do? The human being is silent. The human being hides. The human being in the 00:26:49.439 --> 00:26:55.240 midst of the garden of God has to get behind a rock and say, woe is me, don't 00:26:55.240 --> 00:27:00.199 get any nearer, oh Lord, or I will die. That's the condition of Adam, the first 00:27:00.199 --> 00:27:06.000 Adam. The second Adam comes and at the end of his life, he also goes to a 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:12.359 garden. He entered on that fateful night into the garden of Gethsemane. And when 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:17.319 God encountered Adam, Adam was silent and he hid. Jesus Christ went to the 00:27:17.319 --> 00:27:23.559 garden and he was the first to speak. He stood in the open. He had to tell the 00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:28.039 soldiers, come and arrest me and take me. You see, Jesus Christ entered into the 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:33.639 garden, the very same garden where Adam hid. And he stood in the open. He was 00:27:33.639 --> 00:27:39.719 exposed. He came to stand in the darkness. He came to go into the darkness. You 00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:46.360 know, he came to give himself. The light of the world came to become totally dark. 00:27:46.360 --> 00:27:51.960 He came to be engulfed by the darkness. That's exactly what took place in the 00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:55.160 cross. You see, his birth condition was nothing but the sign of his death 00:27:55.160 --> 00:28:01.079 condition. Peace on earth. Reconciliation with God is all because he plunged 00:28:01.079 --> 00:28:05.440 himself into the turmoil and the darkness so that you could have peace. You 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:08.960 could be reconciled to God. It's the meaning of life. It's the meaning of 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:13.079 everything. It's the meaning of your existence. Now, let me close with the 00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:20.440 final word. Third, very briefly. Let me say, there's a way to see why this really 00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:27.120 is treasure for you today. Why Mary, you know, what does it mean that Mary treasured 00:28:27.120 --> 00:28:32.200 this in her heart that she realized, I have got something. I've got something 00:28:32.200 --> 00:28:40.279 here. Peace on earth in this little baby, my firstborn son. Most of us, most of us 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:46.480 are, we all, we're modernists. We live in the world, but we don't really believe 00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:51.039 day to day that if you were to pull back the curtain, there would be a multitude 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:54.880 of angels singing, glory to God in the highest and peace on earth. We don't really 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:59.440 believe that. But that's reality. That's the real world. That world is more real 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:04.240 than our world. And if God was to pull back the curtain for us for just a 00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:09.400 moment, we would see the reality of Gloria and ex-chelsis Deo, the multitude of 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:13.840 heavenly hosts singing to God. It's here. It's just behind the curtain. 00:29:13.840 --> 00:29:18.720 That's what we learn about here in verse 13 with the shepherds. Now, that's the 00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:23.160 real world. That's the most important thing. The most important thing is your 00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:29.080 relationship to God. Do you really believe that? If you were to pull back the 00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:33.399 curtain and see it, you would. If the curtain, the shepherds finally got it. 00:29:33.399 --> 00:29:36.199 When the curtain was pulled back, they realized the most important thing in my 00:29:36.199 --> 00:29:41.079 life is my relationship to the divine, to God. That's the most important thing in 00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:45.559 your life, above all else. And that means that if you behold the baby of Bethlehem 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:50.439 as your savior today, plunged into darkness so that you could have life, 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:59.559 peace with God, if you've got that, you know, you can have peace anywhere. You're 00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:03.279 gonna have peace anywhere you are because you've got the peace that 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:10.080 you need, the reconciliation you really need between you and God. Some of you 00:30:10.080 --> 00:30:15.600 are at the top of your game right now. Things are going really well. You made 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:20.719 partner or you're about to, or you think you probably will. You're 25 and you're 00:30:20.719 --> 00:30:24.399 ambitious and one day you're gonna get it. Or you're gonna become a 00:30:24.399 --> 00:30:28.879 consultant and you're gonna be at the top of your game and you're gonna 00:30:28.879 --> 00:30:32.759 have a family and God's giving you that. You've gotten the things in 00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:38.819 life that you were ambitious about and you hoped for. If you are not 00:30:38.819 --> 00:30:45.000 reconciled to God through the baby born on this night who died for you, who 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:47.559 punch into the dark, if you are not reconciled to God, if you do not have 00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:53.519 peace with God, then none of that matters. You can't really rest. You can't really 00:30:53.519 --> 00:30:58.839 say I have peace in my life. And some of you are not at the top of the game right 00:30:58.839 --> 00:31:02.000 now. You're at the bottom. You've never made partner and you're never going to 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:06.400 and you know that. You've not achieved the things you wanted to. You've not 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:12.079 had the life you were hoping to have. And for all of us at some point, the thin 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.960 ice that we're standing on will finally crack and we will have terrible 00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:21.079 circumstances in our lives. In some way, shape, or form. If you have 00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:29.199 reconciliation with God, peace, you have treasure that can't be taken away from 00:31:29.199 --> 00:31:33.879 you. You have everything. You have everything you need no matter what goes 00:31:33.879 --> 00:31:41.240 on in this life. Mary realized that. She was poor. She was desperately poor. And 00:31:41.240 --> 00:31:45.559 she had something that could never be taken away in her firstborn son, peace 00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:51.000 with God. Let's pray together and ask that God would teach us that this day. 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:57.000 Lord, we pray Father, now that you would teach us what it means to have peace with 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:02.440 you. That we would really comprehend our lives as existing in the light of our 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:08.720 enmity against you and yet our hope that in Jesus we can be reconciled, 00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:16.240 justified, utterly at peace. No conflict. So I pray today for somebody here that if 00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:21.640 they don't know you that yet, if they're for the first time wrestling with that 00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:26.240 truth that you would buy the Holy Spirit, bring that home to their hearts right 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:33.360 now. And for all of us Christians here that have professed our faith that we 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:40.000 would rest today, not in our circumstances but in the treasure that 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:46.119 can't be taken. Peace by the blood of Jesus. So we thank you. We thank you. We 00:32:46.119 --> 00:32:49.679 thank you for it. We thank you for the gospel and we pray that we would live 00:32:49.680 --> 00:33:05.240 through it and out of it and we pray in Christ's name. Amen.