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Our Christ: His Humility and Glory · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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To the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2.
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The Gospel of Luke, chapter 2.
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It's really great to have you all here with us this morning.
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I'm thankful to be part of a church that can
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! and is willing to meet together on Christmas Day.
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It can be a bit of an odd thing.
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And for many churches, it's an impossibility to meet.
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The setup and the teardown and all that is encompassed.
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The churches that don't have meeting spaces,
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it'd be difficult to pare things down the way that we can do
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on a Christmas morning.
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So I'm glad that we're able to and that people are willing to.
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So thank you all of you for being here today.
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I hope that our time together will bless your Christmas Day.
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Thankful for the kids.
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I know we have some guests with kiddos with us that don't normally do this.
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We're glad to have children in the service with us.
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So let them be loud to a point. It's okay.
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I'm still mic'd as I normally am.
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So if the micing confuses you with such a small crowd,
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we do have video and sound across the hall.
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I think it's turned on across the hall anyway.
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If you are having a catastrophe and you need to escape
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but still would like to hear the preaching and the music,
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you're welcome to do that.
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It's now being turned on for across the hall.
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So Merry Christmas.
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Merry Christmas is a thing that we say many, many times in the month leading up to
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and to today.
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I think last night I said it a hundred times
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and this morning I've said it many, many more.
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To be merry is to be full of cheer or good feelings.
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Merry Christmas is a wish of joy for you for the Christmas season.
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But for a lot of people, the experience of this holiday is not an experience of joy.
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That's largely because we often measure our joy in terms of happiness
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based on our circumstances.
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Lots of things that make us happy this time of year.
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Sam gets up and makes from scratch.
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Bless her on Christmas morning.
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My brain just went blank.
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Cinnamon rolls.
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And they're wonderful, right?
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From scratch.
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And they're allergy free for my sake and for the sake of the boys.
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And they're fantastic.
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And we get to see family that we haven't seen for a while.
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And of course we get to open presents.
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So lots of circumstantial things that make us joyful.
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And there's lots of circumstantial things that can rob the joy from such a holiday.
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People experiencing loss or tough family situations or food that doesn't turn out so great.
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I was reflecting on the joy that our kids experience this time of year.
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I have a six-year-old and a four-year-old and now a seven-month-old who has no idea what's going on.
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But the six-year-old and the four-year-old have been counting down the days.
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I've seen children do this.
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They're so expecting.
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You may remember being a child and feeling like Christmas would never come.
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It's two weeks away.
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And then considering that the way I feel now about Christmas often is that it can't come late enough.
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Like just put it off for another couple of weeks because there's so much to do.
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And we've been running around and getting all the preparations done.
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And I went to bed at midnight last night.
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And I was up at 5 a.m. this morning trying to get everything done for today.
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And I want to put it off.
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But I think the opposite should be true.
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If we're looking to the circumstantial things, that's the normal experience.
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Kids, it's all about the toys.
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It's all about the joy and the cookies and all the stuff that's coming in those regards.
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But for adults, it's this work that we have to go through to get ready for this day.
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Some of you have probably experienced adding a service to your Christmas morning.
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Added some stress to the day.
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I know it did for me.
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But if our joy comes from where it should come from, I think the opposite should be true.
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I think that the experience that my kids have of the joy of Christmas coming, right?
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Because as much as we try to pump this is all about Christ, they're still really looking forward to the presents.
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To the temporal things.
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But we have an eternal thing that we're rejoicing in together.
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I think if our minds are set right towards this holiday, right?
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Our joy should be increasing.
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We should be as adults longing for the day to come.
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That we can celebrate the birth of Christ.
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And so, it's my intention this morning that we would set our minds and find joy in an enduring reality.
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That God has loved us in Christ.
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My hope as we take a look at the first bit of Luke chapter 2 is that we will marvel at the arrival of God incarnate.
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That our affections for Jesus Christ will be warmed this morning.
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And that those affections will flavor the rest of this day.
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So, our text for today is Luke chapter 2.
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And I will read verses 1 through 14.
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In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
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This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
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And all went to be registered, each to his own town.
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And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.
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Because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
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And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger,
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because there was no place for them in the inn.
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And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
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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.
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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.
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For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
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And this will be a sign for you.
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You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
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Beloved, this is God's word to us.
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It was written for his glory and our good.
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We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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In the hope of marveling at Jesus' coming and warming our affections this morning,
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I just want us to make two observations from this text.
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There's much that can be said about the text.
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We're going to try to compress it and keep it short this morning.
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So just two observations from the text.
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Number one, the humility of Jesus Christ's coming.
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And number two, the glory of Jesus Christ's coming.
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So firstly, let's look at the humility of Jesus Christ's coming.
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Jesus had a humble beginning.
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The first seven verses are about that, right?
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We can note and try to understand the circumstance of Joseph and Mary's travels.
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This is the first year I ever really stopped to really consider what it would be like to be newly married,
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very newly married, and have a wife who is pregnant and to pick up and take a journey.
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Silas was five months old and we went to Memphis, right, which is a seven-hour drive.
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Not that big a deal.
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It took us nine hours and it was miserable.
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Absolutely miserable.
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This was a much more epic journey that they took.
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And they did it because there was a census going on.
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But it's important to understand that this census was a census that was put in place in order for there to be a poll tax.
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And a poll tax was simply a tax put on the Jewish people by Rome,
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a denarius per person per year that had to be paid just for the privilege of being a Roman citizen.
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And so Caesar Augustus wanted to count up how much would be paid in that year.
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And the Jews and other people that had been conquered by the Roman Empire saw the poll tax as a particularly offensive tax
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because it was a way that Rome said to them,
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We own you, right?
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Come to the town that you were born in and be counted so that we can be sure that you pay to us what is due to us
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just because you're now part of the Roman Empire.
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In fact, not long after this census takes place,
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there's a revolt, a major uprising in Israel that was, of course, squashed.
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But it was about this issue.
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This was the issue that enraged the Jewish population to revolt.
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And so it wasn't a pleasant thing they were going to do.
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It wasn't the normal thing.
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It wasn't like, well, time to go for the census again to take our regular trip back to Bethlehem.
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This was something that was being imposed upon them.
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And in fact, the decree had actually gone out.
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It feels like from the text that it had gone out that week or that month.
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And so they said, oh, gosh, we weren't expecting this, but we have to go.
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But it had actually gone out four years prior.
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It seems that Joseph and Mary were procrastinators and were holding out.
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There may have even been a deadline,
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and they had to get to Bethlehem to be counted to find themselves in good standing with Rome.
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So this is the circumstance of their traveling.
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It's an oppressive trip.
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It's a trip they do not want to take back to the town of Bethlehem.
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Bethlehem itself is a seemingly insignificant town.
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A minor on the map.
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Micah 5.2, which is where the prophet predicts where the Christ will come from, says,
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But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
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from you shall come forth the one who is to be ruler in Israel,
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whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.
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So they're taking a journey they don't want to take to a seemingly insignificant town.
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It is humble in every respect.
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And it was a journey.
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It was an arduous journey.
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Eighty-five to ninety miles.
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The text says that they went down to Bethlehem.
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What does it say up to?
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I'm getting my head flipped in my mind.
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It is Christmas morning, isn't it?
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Someone help me.
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Up to.
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Okay.
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That's right.
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Because I'm looking at the map in my brain because it is south.
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They went up because they had to actually climb in elevation to that place.
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So it would have been an uphill journey to the town of Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem.
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And they're in the northern part of the kingdom in Nazareth.
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So a humble beginning to arrive in such a place.
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And when they get there, and we know the story, right?
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We get there and there is no place for them to stay.
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The town, this tiny town, is overrun.
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The inns are packed full.
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People are staying with family members.
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There would have likely been more Roman guards in the town helping take the census out.
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We get this picture in our mind, at least I do at times, of the quaint, stable environment
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that they go to, that they get turned away.
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And some kind innkeeper says to them, well, I've got this place.
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This place that's nice and warm.
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And the animals are there and they're happy.
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You guys have the nativity set up in your house and it just seems so cute.
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And beautiful in that way.
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What was more likely is that these inns would have had stables as part of the grounds.
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And people would have gone upstairs and stayed above.
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They would have kept their animals there.
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Their donkeys would have been dropped off.
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And this would have been a cold and dreary and smelly, miserable place.
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It's a humble place.
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It's not a place set out on the hill with the beautiful stars in the background.
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And what a beautiful, quaint place to have a child.
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This was not that at all.
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I am convinced that just because Jesus lived a sinless life that Mary gave birth to him
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in the way that women give birth, that she was affected by the fall as well.
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Luke's record of her giving birth is one sentence and she gave birth.
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And I'm thankful that he spared us the details of how that came to pass.
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But I'm sure it was not an easy thing.
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I'm sure it was a frightening thing for her.
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I'm sure people staying in the inn were not pleased that someone was giving birth to a baby downstairs in the stable.
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It's humble in all respects.
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Jesus also had a humble societal standing.
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He was not born to a king and a queen.
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He was born to a man and a woman.
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A man who was a carpenter.
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A woman who married a carpenter.
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Seemingly insignificant parents.
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Joseph was a carpenter in the tiny town of Nazareth.
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To add to the fact that he was a carpenter.
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He was a carpenter in the tiny town of Nazareth.
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And we find this out in the biblical narrative when Jesus was rejected in his hometown in Matthew 13.
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They say, isn't this Jesus, the son of the carpenter?
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They find him insignificant in that way.
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Now the word that's translated for carpenter can mean a lot of things.
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It can mean craftsman.
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He may have been a fine builder of homes.
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But we know that Joseph was not a wealthy carpenter.
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If we look later in Luke chapter 2, Jesus is presented in the temple as he was meant to be.
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And a sacrifice is made for Mary's purification as was ordered by God in our Old Testament.
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If you look at verse 24 of chapter 2, it says,
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And to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord.
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A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
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This is a citation from Leviticus 12.8.
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And if you don't go and look at Leviticus chapter 12,
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you wouldn't know that the proper sacrifice to be given,
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the primary way in which purification was made for a woman who had a child,
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was a lamb.
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That was the way they were meant to do it.
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But God made a provision if you couldn't afford to buy a lamb.
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And that was that you could give this lesser sacrifice of a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.
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So there's some evidence right in our text today that Joseph was a carpenter
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and not a wealthy carpenter in the little town of Bethlehem.
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Jesus' societal standing was nothing impressive.
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Jesus had a humble ministry.
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He had a humble ministry.
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In our text today, we get introduced to a group just called the shepherds.
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Verse 8.
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He has humble admirers.
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Shepherds, shepherd keepers.
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These were not people of high standing in the society.
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This was the night shift.
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These people drew the short straw.
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They were out in the field sleeping with the sheep to keep them safe
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because they were not of high standing.
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His admirers on the night of his birth were humble.
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He ended up with humble followers.
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Jesus called apostles to himself.
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They were largely made up of fishermen.
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We know at least seven of them were fishermen.
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That's likely that more of them were.
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We know one was a tax collector being Matthew.
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These were people that were not seen as illustrious and valuable in the society.
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Matthew would have been hated by the Jews as a traitor in the collecting of taxes.
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And Jesus had a humble goal.
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Mark chapter 10 verse 45 says,
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The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
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Christmas should be the most joyous of Christian holidays except Easter.
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Easter should be the most joyous of Christian holidays second only to Easter.
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Wes has said it well this morning and we've been saying it for the last month.
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The celebration of Christmas should set our minds to the sacrifice of Christ and his resurrection on Easter.
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Sam has challenged me, which is a challenge I think I'll take up,
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to write a kid's advent that begins after Thanksgiving, works us up to Christmas, and then takes us through Easter.
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So we don't stop celebrating Christ.
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He comes and then we keep pressing on to this great high calling.
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The very reason that he came.
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Christmas is aimed at Easter.
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That's the point of Christmas is Easter.
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He came and he had a humble goal.
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A humble ministry, a humble societal standing, a humble beginning.
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Isn't it peculiar the way God works in the world?
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It's an odd economy that he works with.
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God seems to accomplish everything in his kingdom in an upside down fashion.
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I am so thankful for that.
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I'm thankful that I am insignificant and yet God can use me.
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Augustine, when he called St. Augustine or Augustine, if you prefer, I don't, but if you prefer,
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wrote,
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Man's maker was made man that he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast.
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That the bread might hunger, the fountain thirst, the light sleep, the way be tired on its journey.
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That truth might be accused of false witnesses.
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The teacher be beaten with whips.
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The foundation be suspended on wood.
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That strength might grow weak.
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That the healer might be wounded.
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That life might die.
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God has a strange way of working.
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And we should marvel at the way that the Savior of the world came, lived, and died.
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In Philippians 2, verses 5-11, Paul exhorts us to humility in this way.
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Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
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who, though he was in the form of God, he was God on earth,
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did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
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but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
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We call this the hypostatic union, right?
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Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.
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Again, 200%.
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It's the only time it's okay to say more than 100%.
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200%.
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Verse 8,
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And being found in human form,
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he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
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even death on a cross,
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the worst kind of death.
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But it doesn't stop there, right?
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Praise God.
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Jesus Christ comes as a servant.
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He's a suffering servant.
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But it doesn't stop there.
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Verse 9,
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Therefore, because of this,
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because of the way that Christ emptied himself,
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therefore, God has highly exalted him
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and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
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so that at the name of Jesus,
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one day, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth
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and under the earth,
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and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
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to the glory of God the Father.
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Which brings us to our next observation.
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So we observe the humility of Jesus Christ coming.
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Let's observe together, secondly,
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the glory of Jesus Christ coming.
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Glory is one of those churchy words.
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Not knowing who would be here this morning.
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I'm not sure if you wrap your mind around what that means,
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because we use it in a lot of different ways.
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We use it in different tenses,
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different parts of speech.
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To glory in something means to praise or to honor something.
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When we're speaking of God,
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when we're talking about glorifying God,
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it's not that we add to him more worth.
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It's that he is worthy of our praise.
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So we're doing the thing that is right and proper,
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because God is worthy of being glorified in that way.
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So when I say the glory of Jesus Christ coming,
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I mean the praiseworthiness of his coming.
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The praiseworthiness of his coming.
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On the evening of the birth of our Lord,
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an announcement is made by an angel.
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Verses 9-12.
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And then in a broadening sense,
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the announcement goes out,
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it gets bigger by angels in verse 13-14.
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There's a lot of notions about angels,
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what they are and what they do in the world.
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And I'm not negating much of that
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by what I'm about to say,
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but primarily the way that angels work in the world
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is they serve as messengers.
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They get a message from God,
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and they come and they deliver that message
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from God to a particular individual.
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Familiar with the Christmas story,
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both Joseph and Mary and God's good mercy to them
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explains to them exactly what's happening
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as Jesus is conceived immaculate.
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It's a virgin birth,
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immaculently.
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It's Christmas.
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I told you what time I went to bed
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and what time I got up, right?
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So angels are messengers of God.
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John Piper, I like this in a very Piperian way,
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say angels were created for Christ's everlasting glory
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and for our everlasting joy.
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The angel of the Lord appears to these shepherds,
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these lowly shepherds in the field.
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Verse 9.
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And the glory of the Lord shines around them.
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I don't fully comprehend what that means.
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If you see this illustrated,
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it's bright light.
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I think there's some hint of that in the Scripture,
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that that's what the glory of God will look like.
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In Revelation 21-23,
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John writes of his vision of the new Jerusalem
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and says this,
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And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
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for the glory of God gives it light,
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and its lamp is the Lamb.
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It's Christ Himself.
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The glory of God is Christ,
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and He lights up the new Jerusalem.
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So the glory of the Lord shining
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could have just been bright, bright light,
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but whatever it is,
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it's a tangible glory, right?
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This praiseworthiness now,
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this noun being used, right?
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This thing that's meant to call attention to,
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the greatness of God.
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The shepherds see this physically,
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the glory of God.
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And so, have we?
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How?
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Have any of you had an angel visit you
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with bright white light?
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I'd love to talk to you about that.
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How have we seen the glory of God?
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2 Corinthians 4-6, Paul says,
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For God who said,
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Let light shine out of darkness
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has shone in our hearts
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to give the light of the knowledge
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of the glory of God
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in the face of Jesus Christ.
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Christ Himself, right?
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God made manifest on earth.
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We have not been with Christ,
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but we have the Word of God
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that attests to Christ.
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We get to open its pages,
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its inspired pages,
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and have our hearts illuminated
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by peering in
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and seeing Christ
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and all of His work,
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the effect of it.
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But you can imagine
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if you saw glory in this way,
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that rightly so,
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the shepherds are filled with fear.
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I think we would have been as well.
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And the angel says to them,
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verse 10,
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Fear not,
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fear not,
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because,
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for behold,
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because,
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I bring you good news,
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great joy,
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that will be for all peoples.
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Proclamation of the angel
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was good news.
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Same word here,
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Greek word that we use
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for gospel.
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Good news.
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Gospel news.
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Most commonly used
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in speaking of battle,
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people would stay back in a city
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and an army would go out to battle,
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and whatever the outcome
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of the battle was,
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a runner would be sent back
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to proclaim to the city
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what had happened.
25:34
We were defeated.
25:36
Hang on tight.
25:37
The army's going to come.
25:38
Or,
25:40
good news,
25:41
right?
25:41
We were victorious.
25:43
You are safe.
25:44
This is the way this word
25:45
was commonly used
25:46
in this day.
25:48
Proclaim good news.
25:49
It's a victory declaration.
25:53
And it's good news
25:55
of great joy.
25:59
It's good news
26:00
of great joy.
26:03
Beloved,
26:03
this is why
26:05
we don't do Santa
26:06
at our house.
26:10
The celebration,
26:11
I would suggest to you,
26:13
of Santa
26:14
is a lesser joy.
26:16
It's a temporal joy.
26:19
It's an imaginative joy.
26:22
We have fun imagining stuff
26:23
with our kids, right?
26:24
We do,
26:25
and we play games,
26:26
and we goof around.
26:27
That's great.
26:28
But that's temporal joy.
26:31
Jesus Christ brings
26:32
great joy.
26:34
Jesus Christ brings
26:35
eternal joy, right?
26:37
Something that we can hang on to
26:39
for forever.
26:40
That's what we want to give
26:42
our kids.
26:43
That's why we don't do it.
26:44
We feel like we're not
26:45
robbing the magic of Christmas
26:47
when we take
26:48
those things out.
26:50
We want to maximize
26:52
the great joy
26:53
that is Christ.
26:55
So all the things we do,
26:56
the food that we eat,
26:57
and the gifts that we give,
26:58
and all of those things
26:59
need to be pointing us
27:01
to the great joy
27:03
that the angels
27:04
are proclaiming here.
27:06
It's a great joy,
27:07
and praise God,
27:09
for all the people.
27:12
All throughout the Scripture,
27:13
God has said
27:15
to the nation of Israel,
27:17
His chosen people,
27:18
My glory is not just for you.
27:21
And He makes these
27:22
merciful extensions
27:23
to peoples of the earth.
27:25
We're preaching
27:26
through Acts right now,
27:27
the life of Christ
27:28
family church,
27:29
Jalaneke,
27:30
and we're seeing
27:31
this global glory
27:33
go out, right?
27:34
Just from Jerusalem,
27:36
turning from the Jews
27:37
and going out
27:37
to the Gentiles.
27:38
We're the beneficiaries
27:39
of that, beloved.
27:41
Any of you are of
27:42
Jewish descent,
27:43
you may be.
27:43
You may be of that bloodline.
27:45
I'm not.
27:46
Praise God, right?
27:48
That the good news
27:48
of great joy
27:49
is for all the people.
27:52
What a proclamation.
27:55
Verse 11
27:55
kind of is the crux
27:57
of all of this.
27:58
For unto you
28:00
is born this day
28:01
in the city of David
28:03
a Savior,
28:04
who is Christ,
28:05
who is the Messiah,
28:07
the long-awaited Messiah,
28:10
the Lord.
28:11
So right here
28:12
in the proclamation,
28:13
of the angels,
28:14
they're saying
28:15
this birth
28:16
is ultimately aimed
28:17
at salvation
28:19
for God's people.
28:21
This is the direction
28:22
it's going.
28:23
Christmas points
28:24
to Easter.
28:26
Luke 19.10,
28:26
For the Son of Man
28:27
came to seek
28:29
and to save
28:30
the lost.
28:33
The angel then
28:34
gets really practical.
28:36
This will be a sign
28:37
for you.
28:37
Verse 12
28:38
is how you're going
28:38
to find Him.
28:39
He'll be wrapped up
28:41
as a baby
28:41
should be wrapped up,
28:42
but He'll be lying
28:43
in a manger.
28:45
It gives them
28:45
what they need
28:46
to go find Him.
28:46
We find out later
28:47
that they do in fact
28:48
go find Him
28:49
and worship Him.
28:52
Before they do,
28:53
a heavenly host
28:54
joins the purpose
28:55
of this angel,
28:56
this proclamation
28:57
of good news,
28:59
of great joy
28:59
for all the peoples.
29:01
Suddenly,
29:02
verse 13,
29:03
with the angel
29:04
a multitude.
29:06
Multitude is
29:07
most often used
29:08
in the Bible
29:09
to speak of a number
29:10
too great to count.
29:12
I have a felt board
29:13
and I'm felt boarding
29:14
this morning
29:14
and I only had
29:15
five extra angels.
29:17
It was a sad multitude.
29:18
This is not that
29:19
kind of multitude.
29:20
It's a massive number
29:22
of heavenly hosts
29:23
praising God
29:24
and saying,
29:25
Glory to God
29:27
in the highest
29:27
and on earth
29:28
peace among those
29:30
with whom
29:31
He is pleased.
29:33
The angels
29:34
glorify God
29:35
because of the peace
29:37
that Christ brings.
29:39
They're looking forward
29:40
to the resurrection
29:42
of Christ.
29:43
They're joining in
29:44
this song,
29:45
this proclamation
29:46
of good news
29:47
that a Savior
29:48
has been born.
29:51
This peace
29:52
they're speaking of
29:52
is not good
29:54
and happy feeling.
29:55
It's not circumstantial stuff.
29:57
It's not getting along
29:58
with your parents
29:58
when you go home
30:00
or your estranged kids
30:02
that come
30:02
and visit.
30:03
It's not a circumstantial peace.
30:05
It's a peace with God
30:07
that they're speaking of.
30:09
Christ seeks
30:10
to glorify God
30:11
by saving
30:12
His people.
30:15
Peace among those
30:17
with whom He is pleased.
30:19
How do we please God?
30:21
Faith in Christ.
30:22
Put on Christ's righteousness.
30:24
We have our penalty
30:26
for our sin
30:26
paid by Christ
30:28
on the cross.
30:29
Christ seeks
30:31
to glorify God
30:32
by saving
30:33
His people.
30:35
John 18, 37
30:36
when Jesus
30:37
is on trial
30:38
with Pilate
30:39
for the first time
30:40
and Pilate says to Him
30:41
verse 37,
30:42
so you are a king?
30:44
Jesus answered,
30:45
you say that I am a king.
30:47
For this purpose
30:48
I was born
30:49
and for this purpose
30:51
I have come
30:51
into the world
30:52
to bear witness
30:54
to the truth.
30:55
everyone who is
30:58
of the truth
30:59
listens to my voice.
31:01
What is the truth
31:01
that He's talking about?
31:03
It's the good news
31:04
of great joy
31:05
that He's referring to.
31:07
It's the message
31:08
of the kingdom of God
31:10
that He had gone around
31:11
and preached
31:11
up to this point.
31:13
It's this great high point
31:16
in redemptive history
31:17
that He's about to fulfill
31:18
as He's having
31:19
this conversation
31:20
with Pilate.
31:22
John 8, 47
31:23
so previously
31:24
in John's Gospel
31:25
whoever is of God
31:26
this is Jesus speaking
31:27
hears the words of God.
31:29
Here's the truth.
31:30
The reason why
31:31
you do not hear them
31:32
is that you are not
31:33
of God.
31:37
So,
31:38
peace among those
31:39
with whom
31:40
He is pleased.
31:42
Christ seeks to glorify God
31:43
by saving His people.
31:46
And the result of this
31:47
Philippians 2, 9-11
31:50
Therefore God
31:51
has highly exalted Him
31:54
and bestowed on Him
31:54
the name that is above
31:56
every name
31:56
so that at the name of Jesus
31:57
every knee should bow
31:58
in heaven and on earth
31:59
and under the earth
32:00
and every tongue confess
32:01
that Jesus Christ
32:03
is Lord
32:03
to the glory of God the Father.
32:07
So I hope this morning
32:08
that a short look
32:10
at this text
32:10
has aided you
32:11
in marveling
32:12
at the arrival
32:13
of God incarnate
32:14
and that your affections
32:16
for Jesus Christ
32:16
have been warmed
32:17
this morning
32:18
and that those affections
32:19
will flavor
32:20
the rest of your day.
32:22
Let's pray together
32:23
to that end.