This morning's reading comes from Luke chapter 1, verse 1 to 20, and can be found on page 805 of the Church Bible.
Okay.
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 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 in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock 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 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 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 great multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us 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 them.
Let us receive God's word to us today.
Amen.
Thank you, Maddie and Avery.
Yeah, let's give them a round of applause.
Great reading.
Well, welcome, everybody, and Merry Christmas.
Let me add my greetings to Oscars.
If you don't know me, my name is Kevin, and it's wonderful to have you with us this morning.
To those maybe that are visiting us for the first time, a warm welcome.
Great to have you part of the Watermark family today.
And to those that have been here 10,000 times, welcome to you as well.
Merry, Merry Christmas this morning.
It's a real joy to be together.
Now, Christmas is a very special time of the year, isn't it?
I'm sure many of us have been preparing for weeks.
We've been thinking about this time.
Maybe you're planning to go away somewhere.
Maybe you're preparing a Christmas meal.
Maybe you've been shopping and buying gifts for friends or family or loved ones.
As a church, we've been preparing for this time and thinking about Christmas over the last couple of weeks.
Christmas is a wonderful, wonderful time of the year.
But we also know it can be a difficult time of the year.
Maybe some of you have family that are far away, other sides of the world.
Maybe some of us here are remembering those that are loved ones that have passed away.
And so Christmas is this dichotomy in our hearts.
We feel the joy and the wonder of it.
But also we remind it at times like this of the broken world in which we live.
The pain in which we live.
And Christmas reminds us that there are no perfect days.
There are no perfect holidays.
No perfect life stories in this world.
And yet it's that.
It's the dichotomy in which we live which amplifies the wonder of Christmas.
Because Christmas reminds us that in the midst of all the chaos, in the midst of all the tears, in the midst of all the pain and the brokenness of our world, God has not forgotten us.
God has not abandoned us.
The God who made all things has come to us.
As the words of that great hymn say,
Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared and our souls felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Christmas reminds us that in the midst of a broken world, there is hope.
Because God has not forgotten us.
God has not abandoned us.
Now, the question we as a church have been considering over the last few weeks is,
Why did Jesus come?
That Jesus Christ came into history 2,000 years ago, came into Israel, that's a fact of history.
But why Jesus came?
That's Christianity.
And so we've been thinking and asking this question,
Why is it that Jesus came?
And the passage that Maddie and Avery read to us this morning answers both of those questions.
It tells us what happened, but it also tells us why it happened.
And so I want to just take a couple of minutes and I want us to think about this passage,
this very, very famous and well-known passage in Luke's Gospel.
And I want us to think about three things here.
I want us to think about the royal puppet at Jesus' coming,
the real purpose for Jesus' coming, and the right response to Jesus' coming.
So let's think about these things quickly.
Firstly, the royal puppet at Jesus' coming.
The opening few verses of our passage here, Luke tells us the historical details around Jesus' birth.
And it involves the census that Caesar Augustus, the Roman emperor of the time,
issued throughout the Roman world for all people to be registered.
Look at how he says in verse 1,
In those days the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world,
that's the Roman empire, should be registered.
Now, why does Luke tell us this?
Well, on the one hand, remember, Luke is a historian.
At the beginning of Luke's Gospel, he tells us that one of the reasons he wrote his Gospel
was because a wealthy Roman official called Theophilus had heard the stories of Jesus
and wanted to know whether it was true.
And so he commissioned this man called Luke to study the historical facts
and to gather the evidence and to write an account of the story of Jesus of Nazareth.
And so that's what Luke is doing.
He's giving us the historical facts, the account of Jesus' birth.
And one of the things that's so great about Luke's Gospel in particular
is all the detail he gives, names and places and dates.
And so that's what he says here.
He talks about when Caesar Augustus was Caesar and when Quirinius was governor of Syria,
a decree went out.
And so Luke is telling us about how it is that Joseph and Mary came to be in Bethlehem.
And so why are Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem at this time?
This wasn't where they lived.
Well, it's because on the one hand, Caesar Augustus had decided everyone in the known world,
everyone in the Roman Empire, should go to their hometown where their family comes from
and be registered in his census.
So look what he says here.
In those days, the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
Verse 3.
All went to be registered, each in his own hometown.
And so Joseph went up from Galilee to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.
Now, why did Caesar want this?
Why issue a census?
I mean, censuses in the old days wasn't like census these days.
Caesar wasn't interested in mean, average household income or, you know, education levels,
those kinds of things.
Why did Caesar want a census of all the Roman Empire?
Well, on one hand, it's an exercise in political and economic power.
Caesar wants to know how many people he has and specifically how many taxes he can expect
to raise from various people in different parts of his empire.
Caesar's calculating how many taxes can he raise.
It's an economic exercise.
But it's also an exercise in political power because all these foreign lands that he's conquered,
Caesar wants to remind them, I am Caesar.
You belong to me.
He wants to know who lives where so that they brings them into the legal and the fiscal system
so that these people know they belong to Caesar.
Caesar's exercising his power, his authority, saying, I am king in this place.
That's the reason why they're there.
And so he issues the census and Mary and Joseph go up from Galilee to Bethlehem, a small town
about eight miles outside of Jerusalem, just at the time that Mary's getting ready to give birth.
But what Luke wants us to see here, the author, is that's not the real reason they're in Bethlehem, is it?
Actually, Luke wants to tell us that behind the rule and the reign of Caesar,
there is another king that's orchestrating everything according to his plans.
Caesar may be king of the Roman world, but in some senses, he's just a puppet king.
He's in the hands of the sovereign God that is orchestrating everything.
So look at what Luke wants us to see.
Luke wants us to see the real reason that Mary and Joseph are here in Bethlehem
is because the God of the Bible had promised hundreds, even thousands of years earlier
that there would come a king, someone of the house in the lineage of David, the great king,
someone who would come and fulfill the promises of God,
someone who would restore the fallen kingdom and the broken kingdom.
Heaven and earth's true king would come who would crush Satan and the forces of evil,
and he would be born in a town called Bethlehem, the city of David.
And so 700 years before not only Jesus is born, but Caesar Augustus is born,
Micah, which some I read to us earlier, says this,
that there will come a king, heaven and earth's true king,
who will be born in the town of Bethlehem, the ruler, the one who is from ancient of days,
the one who is without beginning and end,
who will come from the city of David and bring peace.
Friends, that's the reason why Joseph and Mary are in Bethlehem.
Caesar Augustus is actually just a puppet in the hand of the sovereign God
who is arranging everything, organizing all of history to accomplish his plans, his purposes.
And one thing that scripture tells us again and again is that behind the power of kings and rulers,
presidents and premiers and everyone in authority,
lies the sovereign God, the God of all creation,
who is Lord over every single life.
And even the self-serving actions of Caesar Augustus,
the most powerful man in the ancient world in this time,
is simply doing God's bidding.
Moving people around the ancient world to accomplish God's plans,
to fulfill God's purposes,
to do what God had predestined to take place,
that the Christ, the son of David,
would be born where God wanted him to,
in Bethlehem.
The puppet king behind Christ's coming.
But we still haven't got to why Jesus came.
Why did Jesus come?
Well, Luke wants to tell us that as well.
What was the purpose?
And of course, scripture has many answers.
Jesus came to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament.
Jesus came to restore the broken kingdom that Adam and Eve had messed up.
Jesus came to bring, restore lasting peace to this broken world.
But Luke here tells us another reason.
So look at what verse 8 onwards says.
If you've got a Bible, verse 8 says this.
In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone all around them.
Must have been a rather unnerving sight, right?
This brilliant angel appears in their midst,
surrounded by brilliance of glory.
And they were filled with great fear.
Makes sense.
And the angel says,
Fear not, behold, I bring you good news of great joy for all 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.
Now, one of the things that I only discovered in recent years,
I'm embarrassed to say,
is that the image that most of us think of,
when we think of Jesus lying in a manger,
is probably not all that historically accurate.
In fact, I confess our design that we have here,
that we designed for this Christmas,
even this is not actually historically that accurate.
Why?
What do we think of when we think of Jesus lying in a manger?
We think of a wooden manger,
a crib like this,
with a straw hanging out the sides,
and cows kind of eating out.
Actually, that's probably not what happened.
In the ancient world in Israel,
Israel is a very arid country.
Wood was very scarce.
There wasn't much wood around at all.
Wood was almost never used for building,
except in very expensive cases.
Wood was extremely expensive.
But what was far more available was stone, right?
Everyone built out of stone.
And so actually,
the manger that Jesus would have been lying in
was probably a manger carved out of limestone.
I think we've got a picture of something like this, right?
This is what archaeologists have found all over Egypt,
Israel.
And still,
limestone mangers are used in the Middle East.
And why does Luke,
but Luke keeps on telling us,
Luke tells us three times in this passage,
that Jesus is wrapped in swaddling cloths,
and laid in a manger.
Three times Luke tells us this.
Why is Luke,
in the system,
why is Luke making such a big deal
of the fact that Jesus was placed in a manger?
Well, as I said earlier,
Luke is a historian,
but Luke was also a medical doctor.
He was a physician.
Luke was very attentive to detail.
And Luke wouldn't write anything
without having a reason for it.
Papyrus in those days was extremely expensive.
Why is Luke making such a big deal
that the Messiah would be wrapped in cloths
and laid in a stone manger,
in a manger?
Friends,
one of the reasons is
that Luke wants us to see
that even here,
at the beginning of Jesus' life,
the reason why Jesus came.
See,
at the end of Luke's gospel,
in the very end of the gospel,
Luke is going to tell us about another time
when Jesus' helpless body
will once again be wrapped in linen cloths
and laid in a stone enclosure.
Except that time,
it won't be a manger.
It'll be a tomb.
Listen to how Luke writes it
at the end of his gospel.
This is Luke 24.
There was a man,
Joseph of Arimathea,
went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then he took it down
and wrapped it in a linen shroud
and laid him in a tomb
cut out of stone
where no one had ever been lain.
Friends,
you see what Luke is doing here?
Luke is giving us a sign
right at the early of the gospel,
right at the very beginning.
He's pointing us on a sign.
He's saying,
this baby that was born,
these are indications,
early indications.
And throughout the whole of Luke's gospel,
Luke is going to tell us
that Jesus was born to die.
The reason that Jesus Christ came
was to be hang on a cross,
to be taken down from the cross,
to be put in a tomb
and to rise again
to die for the sins of the world.
And Luke is telling us
Jesus was born to die.
That's why Jesus came.
To die on the cross.
As Isaiah the prophet
prophesied 700 years before,
Jesus would take upon himself
the punishment,
the chastisement
of all of us,
our sins,
those who come to him
and trust in him.
Jesus would take our punishment
upon himself
and be punished
and die in our place
so we don't need to die.
Later on in Mark's gospel,
Jesus speaking about himself
and he says this,
for the son of man,
talking about himself,
came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
Jesus came to exchange his life.
He said,
I will give up my life.
I will die so that you can live.
You deserve to die,
but I will die
that you can live.
That's why Jesus came,
to give his life
as a ransom
and exchange for all of us.
So we can be free
from the bondage
of sin and guilt,
free from shame and dishonor,
free from the power of hell.
Friends, you may know
the story of Zacchaeus,
right?
Very famous story.
Later on in Luke's gospel,
chapter 19,
Jesus goes and finds
a man called Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus was a tax collector.
A tax collector
was somebody
that sold out on his people.
He was a traitor.
Rather than serving
his own nation,
he served the enemy,
the Romans.
And so he's a traitor.
He's a sinner.
But he's also a man
that has a lot of shame
in his life.
He brought shame on himself,
shame on his family.
He was despised.
He was a social outcast.
He was morally dubious.
He was probably also a thief.
He would overtax people
and pocket the money himself.
And so here's a man
who's a social outcast.
He's morally dubious.
He's brought shame
on his family.
And Luke tells us,
why would he do all this?
Because he's a slave.
He's a slave
to the love of money.
And so here's a man
that his whole world
is falling apart.
And Jesus goes
and finds him.
And Jesus goes
and has a meal with him.
And Jesus pours out
his love on him.
And Jesus tells him
that he's come.
And look at what he says
at the end of that conversation.
He says,
I, I, the Son of Man,
I came to seek
and save the lost.
Friends,
this is why Jesus came.
For you and for me
to seek us out.
Nothing about Jesus' life
was an accident.
Everything was purposed
and planned
and progressed
towards this direction
until ultimately
he would end up
on the cross
for you and for me,
for your children
and my children,
for your parents,
for your neighbors,
for your friends,
for the great people
of Hong Kong.
Jesus came to die.
And we spoke earlier
about the puppet king,
Caesar Augustus,
this king who's,
who's actually
serving the hands of God,
motivated by his own
insecurity and power,
whatever his reasons,
instigates this
empire-wide census,
but actually all the work
he was doing
was just to serve
God's plans and purposes.
Well, friends,
can't you see the same
as Caesar Augustus,
even more so
Pontius Pilate
and all the religious leaders.
They take Jesus,
they put him
through a sham trial,
they sentence him
to death,
they condemn him,
beat him,
mocked,
tortured,
ultimately crucified
on the cross,
but all this is simply
doing what God
had planned and purposed
hundreds,
thousands,
millennia before
that God,
that Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
would come to earth
to die on the cross
for you and for me
in our place.
And here we have
at the beginning
of Luke's gospel,
this good news account.
Luke is pointing us
in that direction.
Jesus wrapped
in linen cloths,
placed inside a stone manger,
just like he will
in 33 short years' time.
And if there's any doubt
about it,
look at what the angel says.
Look in verse 10.
He says,
Fear not,
behold,
I bring you good news,
good news of great joy
for all people,
for unto you,
for you,
is born this day
in the city of David,
not just a friend,
not just a therapist,
not just an advisor
or a life coach,
a Savior,
one who would save us
from our sins,
one who would rescue us
from the penalty of death,
one who would take the shame
and the guilt that we carry
and bring us back to God.
Unto you is born this day
in the city of David,
a Savior,
Christ the Lord,
good news of great joy.
Friends,
this is what Christmas is about.
Why did Jesus come?
To save sinners like me,
like you,
to rescue us
from our guilt
and our shame,
to free us
from the power of hell
and the wrath of God,
to save us
from ourselves
by dying on the cross
in our place
and rising again
three days later
to bring us
newness of life.
Friends,
do you know him
like this?
Many of us here
know the story
of Christmas,
but do you know
the Christ of Christmas?
Do you know Jesus,
the one who came
for you?
The one who loved you
so much
that he came
to die for you?
Friends,
have you encountered
his saving grace?
Have you felt
the forgiveness
of sin?
Have you known
his transforming love
and the power
of Christ
that makes
our lives new?
Friends,
do you know
that he loved you
personally enough
to go to the cross
for you?
Enduring its shame
and its dishonor
to free you
from the power
and the bondage
of sin and hell
and to make you
new again.
That's why Jesus came.
This is who he is,
the Savior
for all who cannot
save themselves.
So,
how should we
respond to this?
Well,
in this passage,
Luke tells us
how he wants us
to respond
and he does this
by showing us
the responses
of three people
in the story.
And so,
look at what happens here.
But firstly,
we need to clarify something
because this passage
has kind of got a dichotomy
or what it seems
like a contradiction.
Because look at verse 10.
Verse 10,
the angel says to shepherds,
Fear not,
I bring you good news
of great joy
that will be for all
the people,
for all people everywhere.
But then,
in verse 14,
the angels say,
Glory to God
in the highest
and on earth peace
amongst those
with whom God
is pleased.
So,
in other words,
on one hand,
it seems like
this good news
is for everyone.
Anybody can accept it.
But on the other hand,
it sounds like
it's only for those
that God is pleased.
Friends,
in the Bible,
God tells us
again and again
that the good news
of great joy
is freely available
for all people.
No one is too bad.
No one is too far gone.
No one is undeserving.
No one is too bad.
No one is not good enough.
No people group
or ethnicity
is excluded.
And yet,
it's only available
to those
who will respond
and receive it.
Those who will come
to Him.
Those who respond
to the good news
of great joy.
Friends,
the good news
will be utterly
meaningless to you
unless you respond to it.
So,
how should we respond?
Well,
look at verse 20
with me.
Verse 20 says,
the shepherds returned
glorifying God
and praising Him
for all they had seen
and heard
as it had been told them.
How should we respond?
Firstly,
praise Him.
Praise Him.
What does it mean
to praise somebody?
Maybe you praise
a student at school.
You praise a colleague
for their great work.
You sing someone's praises.
To praise someone
is to speak
of the excellency
of someone,
the wonder,
the brilliance
of somebody.
Friends,
praise Him.
In light of all
that Jesus has done
for you
and for me
that God has come
to rescue us
and save us.
How should we respond?
Leave this place
full of praise
and wonder
at what God
has done for you.
Will you praise Him?
How will you return
home today?
Will you praise
and glorify the God
who came for you
to save you
and rescue you
by dying on the cross?
Those who know
the wonder of Christmas
find it easy
to worship and praise.
They left
praising and glorifying
for all that they'd seen
and heard.
Praise Him.
Secondly,
let's treasure Him.
Verse 19 says this,
Mary treasured
all these things,
pondering them
in her heart.
To treasure something
is to take something
and put it deep,
deep in your heart
and to think about it,
to ponder it,
to reflect on it,
to go back to it
again and again
and again.
It's not just to think
about it once upon a time
and then move on.
It's to go back to it
and draw on it
for your life
the rest of the year.
Friends,
can you this year
ponder the good news
of great joy?
To treasure it
deeply in your heart.
In a few weeks time,
Christmas is going to feel
like long gone.
In March,
April and May this year,
Christmas is going to feel
like a million miles away.
But the good news of Jesus
that He came to die for you,
to rise for you,
to live for you,
to save you,
treasure that in your heart.
Let that be a wellspring
to which you return
again and again and again.
Friends,
maybe the very best thing
you can give yourself
to in 2026,
is to follow
in the footsteps of Mary
and to treasure deeply
the wonder of Christmas,
that God Himself
has come for you and me.
And then thirdly,
how should we respond?
Tell others of Him.
Did you notice
what the shepherds did?
Verse 16,
it says,
they went with haste.
They found Mary and Joseph
and the baby lying in the manger.
And when they saw it,
they made known
all that had been told them
from the beginning
concerning this child.
Friends,
what did they make known?
They made known
what the angels had told them,
that God had come to earth
to save and rescue them.
In this day has been born
in the city of David for you,
a Savior,
Christ the Lord,
who has come to rescue you
and to save you from your sins.
Friends,
the good news of Jesus
is too good to keep for yourselves.
Maybe the greatest Christmas present
you can give your kids this year
is not a new iPad
or a new iPhone
or annual past at Disneyland.
Maybe the greatest gift
you can give your kids this year
is the good news of great joy
that Jesus Christ has come
to live for them,
to die for them
and to rise again.
Don't keep it to yourself.
Make known all that God
has made known to you.
So friends,
the angels are absolutely right.
When they told us
the first worshipers,
the good news of great joy
for them and for us,
Christ the Lord has come
so that we can be ransomed,
healed,
restored,
forgiven
because God has come
to us.
Let's pray together.
Well, Jesus,
thank you so much
for coming.
God,
thank you for the wonder,
the wonder of Christmas.
That God,
you have not left us,
you have not abandoned us.
But God,
in the midst of all the chaos,
all the brokenness,
all the pain of this world,
you,
God,
have come
to be with us.
Not just as a friend,
not just as a life coach,
not just as a moral teacher,
you've come to be our savior,
to do what we could never do
for ourselves,
to die on the cross for us,
to rise again,
that we too
may rise with you.
God,
write this in our hearts.
Help us to treasure this deeply,
I pray,
in your great and wonderful name.
Amen.