If you were able, would you please stand for the reading of
God's Word this Christmas Eve? We'll be reading from the Gospel
of Luke, chapter 2, beginning with verse 8.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great
fear. 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'll 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 into heaven, the shepherd 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 they've been
told to them concerning this child.
And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherd's told them.
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her
heart. The Shepherd's returned,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as
it had been told them. This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated. The Gospel of Luke begins with
this opening declaration. Luke writes in as much as many
have undertaken, to compile a narrative of the things that
have been accomplished among us, and just as those who are from
the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and
have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also,
having followed all things closely from some time past, to
write an orderly account that you may have certainty
concerning the things you have been taught.
As Luke begins his gospel, he tells us that everything he is
recorded for us, written down in the Holy Scriptures, in the
Gospel of Luke, has come from eyewitness testimony.
It's an orderly account that Luke has recorded that
generations of people just like you and just like me would hear
these words and read these words and have certainty that every
single thing that we hear and every single thing that we read
and these pages is true. What that means for us on this
Christmas Eve, that as we gather together and we hear and
rehearse the Christmas story, once again, we are coming
together not to hear a fable or a fairy tale.
It's not an allegory or some kind of metaphor for joy or
peace. Of the Christmas story is the
eyewitness account, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and
the Savior of the world. This is history.
In fact, it's the turning point of all of history.
And there were witnesses. In fact, what we hear in the
Gospel of Luke is that there were two witnesses, 2 witnesses
that represent a cosmic display, the entire universe that God has
made bearing witness that Christ is born.
Those two witnesses are heaven and earth.
And on that night, 2000 years ago, heaven and earth met in a
small village in the middle of nowhere in the Middle East
called Bethlehem. And there heaven and earth met
and declared that Christ is born.
And so we gather tonight, not for the sake of tradition or
ritual, because this is what we do in our culture, but we gather
tonight to hear once again the eyewitness testimony that Christ
is born, the witness of heaven and earth, that your Savior is
here. The first witness that we see in
the Gospel of Luke is the witness of heaven.
Once you look with me at verse 8, Luke tells us in verse 8 that
the same region there were shepherds out in the field and
they were keeping watch over the flock by night, and an Angel of
the Lord appeared to them. Now children, I want you to
imagine what it would be like for you to keeping watch over a
bunch of sheep and you're straining your eyes in the
middle of the dark trying to make sure that you have all of
the sheep that have been entrusted to you.
Maybe you're counting all of them and as you're straining
your eyes to make sure 12345 all of a sudden in the darkness a
light appears that illuminates the night sky.
In verse 9 it says an Angel of the Lord appeared to them and
the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled
with great fear. Now anytime you see the word
glory in the Bible, it's often associated with light,
brightness and shining it. The glory of the Lord is His
very presence. And the word glory literally
means weight, heaviness. It's that when you are in the
presence of God, you can feel it.
And for these shepherds outside of Bethlehem, they could see it,
light illuminating the darkness, and it we we're told by Luke
that they were filled with fear. Now, that might seem like a
strange response to you, but if you're really putting yourself
in these shepherd's shoes, you would be afraid to where did the
light come from? And then as you trace the light,
you see that it came from the glory of God accompanying the
presence of an Angel. And suddenly in verse 10, this
Angel begins to speak. The Angel says, fear not, for
behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be with all
the people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
This Angel is declaring that not only Christ is born, but it's
the fulfillment of prophecy. Now what you need to know about
the word Christ. When we say Jesus Christ, we're
not saying Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last
name. But the word Christ is a title.
It's the Greek word, original language of the New Testament
for Messiah. And the Messiah was the
long-awaited Savior king who was going to come to save God's
people from their sins. So in other words, this Angel is
telling a bunch of shepherds that the Savior King has finally
come and he's long been foretold.
And the prophet Micah, Micah 52 Micah the prophet says that the
Savior, this Savior king would be born in Bethlehem.
And then in verse 12, the Angel goes on and says, there will be
a sign for you, and you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling
claws and lying in a Manger. This sign was foretold years
before by the prophet Isaiah. This Isaiah 7 verse 14.
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the Virgin will conceive and bear a son, so call his name
Emmanuel. What's the point?
All of the scriptures have been leading up to this moment.
All of the prophets waiting for the birth of the Savior, King,
the Messiah, the Christ. All of heaven has been waiting
for this moment when Christ the Savior would be born.
The prophets foretold it would be in Bethlehem.
The prophets were told that he would be born of a virgin.
The prophets foretold that He would be the King of kings and
the Lord of Lords, that the government would be on his
shoulders, that He would being priests and salvation to all who
trust in His name. And here's this Angel declaring
that all of this has finally come to pass.
Heaven is bearing witness that Christ is born, and it's not
just one Angel. But then in verse 13, we're told
suddenly it was a multitude of angels, the night sky filled
with a multitude of a heavenly host praising God and giving him
glory. You see, when you are in the
presence of the glory of God, and you truly see God for who He
is, you cannot help but glorify Him.
God's glory is his presence. Our response and worship is to
glorify Him. And that's exactly what the
angels do on this night outside of a little village named
Bethlehem. These angels praise God and they
give him glory. Why?
Because Christ the Savior was born.
They sing glory to God in the highest on earth.
Peace among those with whom He is pleased.
Christ, the long-awaited Savior, King offering peace, not just
the absence of fear, but the kind of peace that we need
between US and God. You see, because this Savior had
come to be born in a Manger in order to die on a cross.
This is the second witness we see here in the gospel of Luke.
Not just the witness of heaven. We also see the witness of
earth, the shepherds. Verse 15, the angels went away
from them, from heaven, and the shepherd 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.
Now I want you to pretend that you know a king is coming, a
king that everybody's been waiting for, and you know that
this king is going to be born. If you were writing this story,
how would you announce that king?
Would you bring a band and trumpets?
Would you bring an army? Who would you tell first?
Would you go and gather all of the kings and kingdoms of the
earth and make sure that they're the first to hear that the
long-awaited King of Kings is born?
That's not what God did. God sent his angels to a bunch
of lowly and humble shepherds, keeping watch of their sheep by
night. These shepherds were the first
to hear that Christ the Messiah is born.
And as they heard this, they went in verse 16 and they went
with haste and found Mary and Joseph and a baby lying in a
Manger. If you were writing this story,
the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the
long-awaited Savior King, the Conqueror who's finally come to
set us free, where would that baby be Born In a palace,
amongst jewels and treasures. That's not what God did.
No, God sent the King, his son, to be born in humility, in a
Manger. And so here's the scene.
The long-awaited Savior King in the form of a weak and helpless
baby, born in a barn, lying in a Manger, surrounded by sheep and
shepherds. Why did God do it this way?
So that you and I could be witnesses to you.
See, God sent his Son Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
not with a sword in his first and not with an army, but he
sent them into humility to take on the sin of our flesh.
Jesus Christ was born in a Manger in order to die on a
cross. So that this Christmas Eve, just
like the many Christmas Eves that have gone before this one,
we would gather together once again and tell the true story
that our Savior is here. And so the question for all of
us tonight is this. Are you a witness to see just as
Christ came to us 2000 years ago, The story is not over yet,
and one day Christ will come again in his second advent.
Until that day comes, He comes to us now.
He comes to you. He comes to you through the
scriptures. He comes to you through prayer.
And He comes to you tonight as we gather together and sing
these carols. He comes to you and as we gather
after this with family and friends, we give gifts, we're
bearing witness, we're joining with the shepherds and all the
host of heaven, and together we are declaring Christ the Savior
is born. Let's pray, Father in Heaven,
help us now to receive this gift, the gift of your Son who
died in our place on the cross for our sins.
We pray as we tell this story, as we hear it again, as we sing
it to one another. We pray that it wouldn't just be
words on a page. We pray that you, Jesus Christ,
the very word of God would penetrate our hearts, that we
would receive you as our Savior and that and gathering tonight
and worshipping you as your as as our Savior, that we as your
people would join with all of heaven and all of the earth to
give you glory and to worship for you have come down to be
with us. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.