Lord, we pray for our various ministries, for those leading in
coordinating among our different ministry teams.
Lord, we pray that all of us would grow spiritually and
increase in passion for, for serving you through the
ministries that were involved in.
Lord, we pray for our missionaries this morning.
We pray for the Petula family, pray for them as they make a
trick of several 1000 K's to go to a conference and just pray
for safety for that and justice. Pray that it's a, it's a
blessing to them and a blessing to you.
So they do this. So we pray for Kirsty over in
Zambia and we pray for the, the valleys in, in Bangladesh in a
place that's, you know, often not, not a safe place to be.
Lord, we pray for the popular family as they look to make your
trip back to New Zealand at the end of the year.
And we'll just look forward to seeing them maybe early in the
new year and just pray for that trip as well.
Lord, we pray for all the people we're we're our missionaries are
ministering that they would have hearts open to receive the
gospel message. And we pray for our missionaries
as they try and effectively communicate your love.
Lord, we we pray for protection from harm and danger, but also
for a a knowledge in the comfort of your presence in challenging
times that they face. We pray for those in our church
family who are sick or have health things different issues
at the moment, physical health things.
We just pray for healing and restoration according to your
will look just a few specific people.
We want to pray for Jocelyn and as she recovers from her
pacemaker surgery and just pray that that goes well.
Pray pray for Brian Peden with his surgery coming up on the
17th of this month and pray he's able to yes, stay healthy so
that there's no delays there. Lord pray for Catherine Pyne is
a she's waiting for the specialist employment and I'm
just pray pray for their pray that comes quickly and can get
in and see the right person to get some a diagnosis And Lord
just pray for Riaz continued recovery from her her surgery.
Well, we just pray for everybody that's going through health
struggles and at the moment and pray for strength and endurance
and hope and the middle of illness and thank you that you
provide that. Lord, we we pray for the peace
that comes from knowing you that you're with them even in those
hard times. Lord, we pray for Billy as he
brings your word to us this morning as we carry on looking
at Luke's orderly account of the life of Jesus.
And look, we just pray that we are struck by it, that we are
motivated by it, that we are changed by it, become more like
you. Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for our church family. Thank you for this chance this
morning to be able to together as a group worship you.
And we pray a great prayer of thanks for being able to do
that. We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen. Thank you, Jen.
Good morning. Would you open with me to Luke
Chapter 2? Luke Chapter 2 as we continue
our series in the Gospel of Luke.
We come now to chapter 2 in, and we're gonna be reading this
morning from verses one through 21.
So let me read for us Luke chapter 2, verses one through
21. In those days the decree went
out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
registered. This was the first registration
when Quirinius was the 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, 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. While they were there, the time
came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her first born
son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a Manger
because there was no place for them in the end.
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, born this day in the city of David, a Saviour,
who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign for you.
You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying 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, peace
among those with whom he is pleased.
When the angels went away from them and to heaven, the ship had
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 Heist, and found Miri and Joseph, and saw
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 Shepherd's told him.
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. And at the end of eight days,
when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by
the Angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Hey man, what a great passage. Well, since I started reading
that passage around the world, 250 babies have been born around
the world. By the time I finish scheming, I
take about 35 minutes, we'll see 9000 babies will have been born.
We have so many babies born everyday across the world and
the reality is most of them, outside of the family and friend
group, most of them go unnoticed.
Most of them are not necessarily remembered or seen as hugely
significant to the wider world, but there's a handful that as a
society we deem to be significant.
I remember my mum's a huge royal family fan.
I remember in 2013 her sitting us down in front of the TV with
the the announcement of the birth of Prince George, the heir
to the throne. And there was a huge deal.
And what happened was when Prince George was born, this
man, the royal Cryer came out and declared that an ear to the
throne has been born. People awaited the name.
They would put bits on what different name it could possibly
be. But it was seen as a hugely
significant event. It looks very fancy.
But if you see that photo from another angle when that scroll,
there's just an A four piece of paper sellotaped onto the
scroll. But there's certain births that
we deem to be hugely significant.
We see from from the announcement of the birth, it is
significant. In a similar scenes, what Luke
is trying to do here in this text that we just read is show
us through the birth of Christ, through the events surrounding
the birth of Christ, that this is a birth that is significant.
Luke wants to show us in this section that Christ's birth and
the events around Christ's birth.
They're gonna show us who he is, and they're gonna show us why he
came. They highlight his identity and
they highlight his mission. He's gonna show us he's no king
of England. He is of far greater value.
And this comes in the context of where we've been so far in the
first few chapters of Luke. If you'll remember, Luke has
been ping ponging between the birth narratives of John and
Jesus. And at every point he's been
highlighting that Jesus is greater.
And and no clearer way is that shown in our passage this
morning where he's highlighting the events surrounding the birth
of Christ, magnifying who he is, magnifying why he came.
There's no normal birth that we're gonna read off.
And Luke actually wants to show us that this is a hugely
significant birth. This is a birth that reaches out
and touches everyone of us here today in in 2025 and Hamilton.
So that's how we're gonna go through this this morning,
looking at who Christ is, looking at why Christ came.
So let's jump into it. Who Christ is gonna look at
verses one through 3. Firstly, I just want to note
Christ is historical. Let's read.
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all
the world should be registered. This was the first registration
when Coronus was the governor of Syria.
I just want to stop there. I think Luke is trying to
highlight just straight off the bat, and it seems like a very
basic point to to say Jesus was a real person.
Jesus is a historical figure. He came when Caesar or Gustus
was the ruler over the Roman Empire.
He came when Quirinius was the governor of Syria.
And it's a good night to start on because I think often we can
reduce Jesus to a character in a story, a story that happened
long ago in a Galaxy far, far away.
But here, Luke, he's putting these details in here to show
that Jesus came and he entered into time, space, and history at
a specific time and historical time.
When Caesar Augustus was over the Roman Empire, Quirinius was
the governor of Syria. These are two historical
figures. We can place this somewhere
between 4:00 and 8:00 A D and it's a simple point, but it's a
good challenge as we come to this, not to read this narrative
like we would a fictional novel. Lucas showing us, hey, hey,
this, this happened. And it's good because we're
about to see the truth that God came as a baby.
We're about to see angels appearing in the night sky with
the glory of God around them, and then a multitude of angels
surrounding them, singing praise.
And so often we can read that and go, ohh, Yep, OK, as if
we're reading it at Jack Reacher novel.
This, this happened. Jesus entered into history here.
Here's a real person. It's a simple point, but it's an
important point. Allow yourself to be shocked as
you read. So what is happening?
What is the historical setting? We have two figures here who are
not familiar with Caesar Augustus and Quirinius.
Caesar Augustus, he is the head of the Roman Empire.
So at this point, Israel is under Roman rule.
So. So the Romans have taken Israel.
They've taken over the the land of Israel.
They are in control of Israel. And Caesar Augustus is the head
of the Roman Empire. So his name is neither Caesar
nor Augustus. His real name is Octavian.
The Roman title for leader is Caesar, and the name he was
given was Augustus. So you could think of it like
the Pope at the moment as Pope Leo.
His name is neither Pope nor Leo.
His name is Robert, the the title for the head of the
Catholic Church is Pope and the name he was given is Leo.
So same here we have Octavian who is Caesar Augustus and he
orders this registration. It is a census.
Any orders for a Census 2 take place in the Roman Empire and
the purpose of the census is twofold.
I wanna suggest taxation and ego taxation.
Firstly to to get a census to number the amount of people
under Roman rule to then work out how much taxation the people
under Roman rule need to pay to Rome.
But another factor in it, and I think a big underlying factor
behind this, is ego. In order to show his power,
Caesar Augustus wants his name to go in history.
These are the number of people under Roman rule.
These were the number of people under my thumb that we held
captive. These are the people of Rome.
He wants to make a name for himself and because of these
reasons, but for the Jewish people, they hated this census.
It was a sign of oppression. They already knew they were
under Roman rule. Now they had to travel to their
hometown. They had to travel to to the
town of of the origin of their birth and be counted just so
this Roman emperor can text them and can boost his ego behind
this. Caesar is just desiring to make
a name for himself, but little did he know God was going to use
this working through his actions to make his name great.
Not only was Jesus historical, Jesus was divinely planned.
Let's read verse 4 to 6. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city
of David, which is called basically him, because he was of
the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his
betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time
came for her to give birth. So caught up in all of this is
Mary and Joseph, who we've already seen so far in this
narrative. Miri is heavily pregnant with
Jesus. They were required to be counted
in their hometown and so they have to travel from Nazareth to
Bethlehem. It says they went up to
Bethlehem. It's actually S, but it sees up
because they went up an elevation.
It's about 120 kilometre journey from from Nazareth down to
Bethlehem. Through the Hills was an
arduous, difficult journey. And then Miri has this baby in
Bethlehem. Now.
Why is that significant? It's significant because in the
book of Micah, Israel has promised about this ruler, this
king who is going to come to them.
They are promised and Micah 5 verse 2, that from Bethlehem,
the little insignificant, barely known town of Bethlehem, your
ruler will come. Who's coming forth is from old,
from Ancient of days. You see, the promise in the Old
Testament is is that the ruler who is coming and will speak of
their more He would come from Bethlehem.
He would be born in Bethlehem. Now how would Christ be born in
Bethlehem when his parents are from Nazareth?
How would that happen? Because God ordained for it to
happen, it was divinely planned that the Messiah, Jesus Christ,
would be born in Bethlehem. And God here is at work through
the mind, through the actions of Caesar Augustus.
Now that's interesting. You have Caesar Augustus
desiring for his own evil intentions to put the census
into place. You have God working through
there saying, yeah, it was my plan, it came from your mind,
but it was my plan that the Saviour would be born in the
town of Bethlehem. We serve a God who is completely
sovereign. He is in control.
As young adults at the moment, we're going through the book of
Genesis, and we're up now to the narrative of Joseph covering the
last section of Genesis. Many of us are familiar with the
story of Joseph. He was horrifically treated by
his brothers, sold into slavery into Egypt.
When he was in Egypt, he was mistreated, wrongly imprisoned,
yet he eventually rose into power, saving the Egyptians and
saving God's people from a famine.
And at the end of Genesis and Genesis 50, verse 22, Joseph is
with his brothers, and his brothers are terrified because
of what they've done to him. And Joseph says these words.
He says you meant it for evil. Everything you did to me,
selling me into slavery, you meant it for evil, but God meant
it for good. God can work even through evil
to achieve great things, to achieve His plan.
I'm not going to turn there for time sake, but we see a similar
theme in the next chapter, 2 Peter is speaking to a Jewish
audience, and he's speaking to them about Christ.
He's speaking to them about the gospel and remember Jesus was
crucified under the hands of of Jews who who commanded for him
to be executed and Jesus sorry Peter speaking about Jesus and
he says this Jesus whom you crucified speaking to the Jews,
he said the blood is on your hands.
You did this. He said you crucified according
to the definite plan of God. We serve a God who is completely
sovereign. It was always God's plan for
Christ to come. It was always God's plan for
Christ to die. And he came and Bethlehem as God
planned. So Christ is historical, He is
divinely planned, and Christ is humble.
Verse 7 And she gave birth to her, her first born son, and
wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a Manger because
there was number place for them in the in in the end.
So God himself, the Son of God, comes to 12 among men on earth.
How might we expect them to come?
We might expect him to come like a a mighty leader, like the
character of Caesar Augustus that we see here born in a
palace. Jesus did not come and mighty
wealth or power. With so many in town for the
census, it's likely that there was no accommodation available.
But many houses they would have adjoining rooms where their
animals would stay. So we picture we've seen all
these photos of Jesus being born in a stable up on the hill.
More likely, Jesus was born in an animal room adjoining
someone's home, and then he was born in a Manger, which is
probably one of the most romanticised words that we have
in the Bible. I'll put it this way, Jesus was
born in a feeding trough. This is not the place for a king
to be born. Yet our Lord came, born of a
humble lowly woman and laid into a feeding trough.
The King of Kings, John 1 describes him.
He. He was there in creation from
his as mouth and he was laid into a a feeding trough.
And we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago when we were
looking at Mary's prayer. God views things different to
the world. God views status different to
the world. God views blessing different to
the world. And it's shone beautifully
through Merry, but it's shown in its greatest way when we see the
Son of God laid here in a feeding trough, and the the
bookings of the life of Christ. On one end you have him laying
in a a Manger, on the other end you have him hanging on a bloody
cross. Christ came as a humble servant.
He became poor to make many rich, and I think Luke wants us
to see how this stands in contrast with Caesar Augustus,
who desires to make his name great.
He decides to show his power. Well, God was showing His power,
but He was showing it in a different way, and that is our
Lord. He is humble.
Let's keep reading. First sight and in the same
region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over
their flock by night. Just a quick note on that and
and Jewish culture, shepherds were at the bottom of the social
ladder, near the bottom of the social ladder, often viewed as
lowly Judah, The Dirty nature of their work, they're getting
muddy working with the sheep. Many of them didn't keep to the
strict ceremonial laws of of cleanliness.
And so many of them were ostracised.
And many of the shippers grew a reputation for being
untrustworthy, for being deceitful.
We don't get that idea about these shippers we have here.
But as a proficient shippers were frowned upon to the point
where they were not allowed to testify in a court of law.
They weren't seen as trustworthy.
And so here we have these shepherds, and what happens?
An Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord
shone around them, and they were filled with a 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.
This is the third appearance that we have in Luke of an
Angel, and each of them have have have shown that the same
events happening where an Angel appears and the person is
terrified. And it's fair enough if an Angel
popped out in front of you right now, I think you would be pretty
afraid. These shepherds are fearful.
But straight away it has meant fear not they.
Fear is to be replaced with joy. They bring good news that word
gospel. I bring you gospel, I bring you
good news of great joy that will be for all the people and then
invites to leave. And they're going to highlight
the final reason of all the final element of who Christ is
Luke. Luke is highlighting to us that
Jesus is Saviour, Christ and Lord, since there's four unto
you, as born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, who is
Christ the Lord unto you. This is a a personal statement
here to the shepherds. You see, the the birth of Christ
was not just too merry was to Joseph.
The birth of Christ was to us. The birth of Christ was to the
lowly Shepherd, a gift to mankind.
And then we have this threefold description of who Christ is.
He is Saviour, He is Christ, and He is Lord.
This is the only time in the New Testament that these three
titles are used in one sentence. They're all by themselves.
They used very commonly and especially very commonly in the
Old Testament. Who is Christ?
He is saviour. This word, I mean, we're
familiar with this word. It's a rescue from peril, a
rescue from danger as weird as used plenty in the Old Testament
of Israel describing God. God is their saviour.
He saved them from the Egyptians through the Exodus.
David speaks of God being his saviour, saving him from the
hand of Saul and so on and so on.
And most times in the autistic ment this word is directed and
God now this baby Jesus who was born is saviour.
Christ has come to save. He has come to rescue.
We need rescuing. Christ is our Saviour.
Jesus is our Saviour and he is Christ.
Now I spent a long time thinking that Christ was his last name,
like I'm Billy Hannah. He's Jesus Christ.
No, his name is Jesus. His title is Christ.
We could call him Jesus the Christ.
Christ means it's the the Greek translation of the Hebrew word
Messiah meaning anointed 1 And this is bringing the reader back
into the Old Testament to the promises God made to David and
promises God made to Israel that one would come a Messiah, an
anointed one to bring rescue to save God's people, the promised
Messiah. Now this description here is
saying Jesus is that Messiah, He is the Christ, so he is our
Saviour, He is the promised 1 He is the Messiah, that Christ, and
he is Lord. That Greek term curious on an
earthly sense it means a ruler, someone who who is hid.
This is also the Greek translation that is used in the
Old Testament for the word Yahweh, which is the description
for God, for the Lord God is Yahweh.
So Jesus Christ here this carrying these implications.
He is of God, He is the ruler sent from God.
In fact, He is God himself. Jesus is Saviour, He's come to
save. He is the promised Messiah, He
is Lord. That is a significant baby and
that is a baby worth following. And so the shepherds are given
this sign in verse 12 that they will find a baby wrapped in
swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger.
Not where they would expect to find them, but that's the sign
that they are given. So that is who Christ is.
He is a historical person, He was divinely planned, He is
humble, He is Saviour, Christ and Lord.
And now when we're going to see in verse 13 and 14 at simple
clear explanation of why Christ came.
I just want you to picture this situation with me.
There's 13 And suddenly they was with the Angel, a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is
pleased. So the Angel here is is joined
by a multitude of the heavenly hosts and we get this idea.
This could be similar picture to what we get in Revelation 5
verse 11, where John pictures the voice of mini angels that
number myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.
You've got a heavenly choir here surrounding this Angel.
And in this simple prayer, the simple song of praise, they
highlight to us why he came. What is this baby going to do?
What is this baby bringing? He's bringing glory to God in
the highest and peace on earth. Very simply, this baby brings
glory to God and heaven and peace to man on earth.
Glory in the highest that Speaking of the location and and
heaven. Heaven offers praise to God for
the sending of His Son of the gift to mankind.
The coming of Christ offers glory to God and on earth,
peace. Paste to man, pace piece really
is something that we all want. We all desire peace, whether
it's in our heart and our relationships and our
situations. There's peace in the Middle
East, peace in Ukraine. We want peace.
How do we get this piece? Robbie Reed earlier from Genesis
chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were dwelling
with God, there was complete perfect peace.
There was complete rest. There was complete harmony, but
what went wrong is when they chose to rebel against God, when
they chose to choose their own way, eating of the fruit, The
peace between God and man was ruptured.
The peace that we had a harmonious relationship with God
was lost, and from there man lost their peace with one
another. Adam and Eve are in conflict
with one another. Kane and Abel were in conflict
with one another. The peace that we had in the
world was completely gone. Our core problem in the world is
that we no longer have peace with God.
We need peace with God, and when we see a world that is broken,
we see a world without peace. The main problem isn't that.
The main problem is this. We've lost our peace with God,
and from there we have lost our peace with one another.
Pulses it this way in Romans chapter 5 verse one.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This piece that this baby is bringing, this piece that this
baby is promising is the most significant piece that we need.
And it's the piece that we've lost, which is our peace with
God through his suffering and death on the cross.
Paul Sears Because we've been justified, means Meg, right by
faith, by our belief in Christ. Through Christ we can have peace
with God. That is our biggest need and
that is what this child has come to offer.
That is why heaven is singing God's glory, because God has
made a way for man to be made right with God.
But I will just note what this first says.
This piece is not universal, it is a peace among those with whom
he is pleased. And what I mean is this.
Christ does not promise to bring universal peace to the world.
I mean, the world is evidence of that.
Christ has come and the world is still broken there.
There is not peace in the world. There is not universal peace in
the world. Christ hasn't come to make
everything perfect. Christ has come to make an offer
of peace. It is with whom he is pleased we
receive peace. We received this peace with God
by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
If we put our faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the
cross, we can have peace with God.
The Bible says if we do not put our faith in Christ, there is no
way for us to please God. There is nothing we can do in
ourselves. We need an offer of peace, and
that offer comes through Jesus Christ.
And if you do not know Him, if you forget anything else, I just
plead that you consider the fact that we need peace with God.
That is our problem and this baby who was born 2000 years ago
has come to offer peace with God.
There's no other way. This is no ordinary baby.
Not only does he offer peace with God, but through that we
can begin to have peace with one another.
If you tune with me too, if you can.
Ephesians chapter 2 and Paul is speaking to the Ephesian church.
He's speaking to a church that is made-up of Jews, Ezra Lights
and Gentiles and non Jews. And there is division and there
is a fracture in this church because these very different
people are struggling to become one people.
And I'll just read one verse and in chapter 2, but that's kind of
summarises the whole thing that Paul is doing in the book of
Ephesians. He's saying, hey, because of
what Jesus Christ has done on the cross, because of the peace
that he brings in our peace with God that makes a way for us to
have peace with one another. He sees there's an Ephesians 2
verse 14. He for he being Jesus Christ, He
Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down
in His flesh, the dividing wall of hostility.
First and foremost, Christ has given us peace with God.
But because of what Christ has done as a church, we can have
peace with one another. It is not perfect peace.
We are sinful people seeking to get along and in one body, but
through what Jesus Christ has done, we are one people.
Us here in this room and and the wider church.
We are one body of Christ brought together by what he has
done. Jesus has come to bring peace
with God and through that we can have peace with one another.
We can have unity as a church. That is who Christ is.
That is why he came. This is a birth for us to
celebrate it as good news of great joy.
And so as we close, I just want to consider two different
responses to this message that Luke is gonna lay out for us.
He lays out for us a couple of different ways we can respond to
this. Because what happens in versus
15 and 16 is these shepherds, They see what what was happening
in the heavens and they say, well, we need to go and see this
with our own eyes. They've been given the sign
you're going to see a baby in the Manger.
Now they need to go see the sign with their own eyes.
And so for 16, they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph
and the baby lying in a Manger. The sign has been confirmed.
And then the next few verses are going to show them Speaking of
what they just saw in the sky. They're gonna speak it to Mary
and Joseph. They're gonna speak it to a
wider group of people. It's not clear whether the group
of people were together with Mary and Joseph and they they
shared it with everyone at once, or they spoke to Mary and Joseph
and then went out and told everyone.
It's not super clear, but I do just wanna note the irony and I
think it's a divine irony that the individuals who went seen
fit to testify in a court of law, they are the first humans
sent out to testify. And when they saw it meaning
this baby and the Manger, 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 these things, pondering them in her heart.
So the people wondered at what happened, yet merely treasured
them in her heart. And when we read them, they
sound like similar responses. But Luke here is put in the
significant word button. It's there in the Greek as well.
And he's seeking to contrast Miri's response with the
response of the others. So the others even around
wondered. That's not necessarily negative.
You might translate or understand as they were amazed
they were. They marvelled at what happened.
They thought, wow, that is crazy, that is awesome.
They might even celebrate it. Wow, that's amazing.
But the implication here is that that wonder, that amazement,
stopped there. One commentator puts it this
way. The report tickled the crowd's
ears, but it may have missed their hearts.
Yet in contrast, Mary treasured up these things, pondering them
in her heart. This is a deeper, richer,
heartfelt consideration of what she heard.
Myriad treasured who her baby was and her belief was long
lasting. It was impactful.
It touched her heart. And I think that's especially
true for a story like this. The the birth of Christ, the
coming of Christ. That's something that so many of
us are familiar with and it's so easy to hear stories like this.
And maybe God is is highlighted something to you this morning in
your mind you've gone wow, that's cool.
Jesus Christ has brought peace or you've seen some theological
things. You go, man, that's really cool
and to be it's so easy to be amazed in our minds, but not be
changed in our hearts. And and Luke has highlighting
these two different responses. It's laying out two different
ways we could respond to Christ in the coming of Christ this
morning. We could be engaged in our
minds, we could be wowed intellectually, or we could let
that touch our hearts. We could let it change our
priorities, change our interactions, change our
marriages, change our parenting, change the way we go to work
this week, our prayer life. The point Luke is making is that
what we've just read about the the birth, the coming of this
baby, Jesus Christ, his identity, his mission, it should
move us. She changed the way we live.
It is a life changing offer of love, of hope, and as Christians
we need to know who our Saviour is, we need to know who Jesus
Christ is. We need to know the hope that he
offers because He's the one that we follow, he's the one that we
pursue, he's the one that we live for.
We need to know who He is. When we truly know who Christ
is, it changes the way we follow Him, the vigour in which we want
to know Him, read of Him, speak about Him, live in light of the
way He lived, live in the light of the way He has called us to
live. There are a lot of exciting
birth stories I could have come and told you about this morning.
But the Word of God has told us about the birth of Jesus Christ
because it is a birth story that is not just exciting, it is one
that reaches out and touches our hearts.
It is significant. My prayer for us is that we may
go out like the shepherds did in verse 20.
The shippers returned. They went back to their work.
They went back to their lives, but they went back glorifying
and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had
been told them. May we go out into our weeks?
May we go out glorifying and praising God for the coming of
Christ. It is no ordinary birth.
Now say again, if you do not know Christ, I'd ask you to
consider the hope that is offered in this passage of peace
with God. We have no hope without the
birth of Christ, don't we? Let's pray.
Lord God, we come to you humbly in response to your Word and
response to the coming of Christ, and we thank you.
We thank you, Lord, that this baby is no ordinary baby, This
birth is no insignificant birth, but it is the coming of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. So I pray Lord, this week that
we may ponder more about who Christ is, the significance of
who he is and what he has brought, what He has done, what
it changed, the way we live. God, we thank you for our Lord
in Jesus name, Amen.