Well, this morning, let's take our Bibles and go to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 2. As we turn there, I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak to you this morning. I realized because there's not a Sunday school and a regular church service, just the regular service today, and there's no evening service, and so I figure that's why pastor asked me to come to preach because he knows that I preach long, and this would be perfect for a Sunday. I think that's why Jerry was gone. I hope that you don't fault Jerry. I think he went to Starbucks to get himself a drink and then to come back here probably for the message. No, we look forward to it. Isn't it great? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. And this is Christmas time and it should be an exciting time. It should be a fun time. There's a lot of things when you think about this time that bring back a lot of great memories in our lives, isn't there? You think about getting together with family. Many of you are going to be getting together with family. How many of you are getting together with some family at some point this Christmas? Yeah, that's normal. And that can be wonderful. It can be fun. There's a lot of laughter. It doesn't always have to be that way, though. Sometimes it's not that way. Sometimes you're agonizing and you're hoping don't step on anything, don't say anything that you shouldn't say, and be careful. So you have all kinds of things. I think about all the traditions that we have during this time of year. that excite us. We've got the lights around that we see. How many of you are planning on doing some kind of a Christmas drive-by with the lights, maybe at the Roper Mountain or something like that, or you've done that? Okay, some of you are like, what are you talking about? There are lights on this mountain called Roper Mountain. It's really not a mountain either, it's a hill, but anyway. And that's exciting. My mom told me not too long ago, she said, Jeremy, there's outside, I think there's going to be meteor showers tonight. And this is just, I don't know, maybe a week ago. So I stepped out the place. We're staying in in Greenville, and I and I just want to see it You know is that timing we could maybe see it and I stepped out and the first thing I saw this Unbelievable light and I'm like whoa. I did. I mean, I think I saw one I mean I it really took me by surprise and then I realized it was that light from Bob Jones that that shines up there and And I really thought, that's the hugest meteor shower I think I've ever seen. And so there's lights, there's the fun things that you do as a family as you get together. You read the Christmas story and you open presents. You give presents. One year it dawned on us that we could give presents to our siblings. in a way that would be kind of funny. Their presents were already wrapped and so we just thought it would be fun to wrap some more presents and some gag gifts to our relatives and specifically my younger brother Joey. And I loved it because we got together and gathered all these old toys that were really just like you wouldn't want to have met necessarily, that were around the house somewhere, old things. And we begin to wrap them up. And I remember that morning he came in. He was so excited because we would pass out the presents. And sure enough, there's a stack of presents around Joey and everyone else had a handful. And he had this stack. And he looked at us and he said, this is my lucky day. He was so excited until he began to open them up. And we began to laugh even more and more as he opened up more and more presents. I think my own kids are doing some of that even this year, and with each other, and so it's a lot of fun. There's so many great memories of Christmas, isn't there? Some of you right now are thinking of the food, the food that you'll eat. How do you really enjoy the food during Christmas time, all right? And for some reason during the season, it seems that we gain extra weight, and we all have good expectations. But don't worry, because the New Year hits, the New Year's resolutions, we can all lose all the weight like we're really going to do that. And so we've got this timing of year, but I think about this, and as we would typically take mission trips during this time and come back, my heart always comes back to this, well, American Christianity. And in some ways what we can do is we can get so busy during the season that we forget what the season is really truly about. I mean, you meet people and it's like you've got hostility, you know, people, it's almost like you say Merry Christmas and it's like, bah humbug, you know what I mean? Like, don't say Merry Christmas, you know, Happy Holidays maybe, but not Merry Christmas. You've got those kind of people. You've got people who are so excited about getting places and the driving, you know how that gets to be, it gets to be heavy traffic, long lines. People are very patient, very giving, because it's Christmas, you know? And we forget what Christmas is all about. When I think about that, my mind races to Luke 2, where we get into this passage. And in Luke 2, verse 25, we see Simeon here. It says this, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. So here's a man. who walked with God, he knew God, he had been saved by God, and he was waiting for Jesus to come. I think that should be every good Christian who's walking with the Lord, that should be anticipated in his own life. And so here's Simeon who's doing this, and then verse 26, and it had been revealed of him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child, Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law. He took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken. of him. Let's pray this morning. Father, as we would look to you this morning, we're so thankful for a season like Christmas. And Lord, we do have a lot of traditions and we do have a lot of things that we like to do. There are people we like to see, there are places we like to go. And God, we love the memories that it brings. But God, I pray that you would allow us this morning to marvel at the Christ child. that we would bring glory to you because this season really truly is about you as true Christians. God, may we not lose focus of what you want us to do and what you want us to be. Lord, this may be our last Christmas. And so God, may we live in such a way to bring glory and honor to you. God, may we have that peace that passes all understanding because we have you as our Savior and as our Lord. May we submit to you. May we obey you. May we walk with you. Or there are many believers here in this this room this morning, I pray your blessing upon them. I pray that during this Christmas time that they would get alone and get with you and seek your face and praise you and glorify you. I pray, God, that we would declare it to others around us or that don't know that walk in darkness, don't know the truth. God, may we be those who love them enough to share the truth of the gospel with them. And then, God, for those who are here today who are without you, I pray, God, that you would open up their eyes and open up their hearts. Lord, thank you that they're here. Thank you that they've come to hear this message. But, Lord, we realize just because we come and we even marvel at the truth of the message, God, may it not just be something we think about and marvel at, but God, may this message transform us and who we are. God, I ask for your power, I ask for your grace today. I pray that you would work in and through this message, I pray that we would leave here changed people because we submit to you and we walk with you and we know you, God. Thank you, God, for what you're gonna do. In Jesus' name we pray and all God's people said, amen. Look at this passage of scripture. We start to see in verse one of chapter two, As I'm studying for this, my heart was kind of, I was having a rough time because there's so much. And you start and you start to look at the life of Christ, especially the birth, and there's just so much there. And then how to put it all together. But I look in chapter 2, verse 1, it says, And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. When you think about this, initially you can think about this, first of all, God steps in. Isn't this amazing? I mean, to think about the darkest time, you could say, maybe a dark time in history, where the truth is that it had been many years, some 800 years, since any real miracles occurred, maybe you could say, under the life of Elijah and Elisha. It had been some 500 years since they had this angelic visit, and this was to Zechariah in the Old Testament, the prophet. It had been 400 years since they had heard from God through the prophets, through the prophet Malachi, and that was the last bit of the Old Testament. And so it had been a long time, and it was a dark time because it's almost like, where is God in all of this? Where is He? At the very moment, God steps in. And that's the first thing we see. God steps in. And as He steps in, He steps in at the very perfect time. It's at the perfect time in history that God would come down and do this. And we know this in the Scriptures because we see this and how He historically came at the right moment. Take your Bibles and go to Galatians chapter 4. As we look at Galatians 4, We see in verse four. It talks about in verse three, and even so, and we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. Then in verse four, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And so here's God. at the perfect time, stepping in for mankind. Isn't this God? This is God, isn't He? I mean, you think about it. You go back to Luke, chapter 2, and you see it says, And it came to pass in those days that this decree went out that from Caesar Augustus, so here is the ruler of the known world at the time, Caesar Augustus, who makes this decree that the world should be registered. Well, why would they register? Well, simple, because it was of taxation. And so they wanted everyone to come. They wanted to know where people lived, what they did, and those kind of things. And they would register people for the purpose of, well, taxing them even better. And so that's exciting, isn't it? And don't worry, it's getting ready to hit us pretty soon, too. And so they came together for this purpose, but it's interesting how God orchestrates even human pagans for his own glory. And when you think about this, could you imagine, I mean, if Herod really knew what was going to happen, If Caesar Augustus really knew that this Christ child would be born, what would they want to do? They would want to do what Herod tried to do. He tried to kill the baby. They don't want this. But it's amazing, even as the world can say, we don't want this or we don't even believe this, God can step in. And so historically, this is what he does. And then we see in verse 2 that this census first took place while Quirinius was the governor of Syria. Saul went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Now the idea here is this happened historically, and we know this happened historically. There's a lot of history actually involved in all of this, and I'm not going to go into it all, but the idea here is that they came to it, and the Jews, probably in Palestine, probably pushed it off and said, no, we're not going to do this, no, we're not going to do this, no, we're not going to do this, until finally it came, no, Caesar said you do this, and you obeyed Caesar, or maybe you would die. And so the idea was, at the perfect time, This is what happened. So this took place and so all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. And you think about this, perfect time. You think about not only the perfect time, Caesar decreed it, the governments had to comply, all governments, the Jewish government had to. And then Joseph and Mary, guess what they had to do? They had to travel from where they were. And they had to go some 80 miles, it depended on which way you would go, but the idea was it would be a very difficult journey. And you notice this, it says that Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea. Now you kind of look at that and if you look on a map you say, what do you mean went up from Galilee to Judea and to Bethlehem. That doesn't make any sense. But the truth is, if you ever go to Israel, you'll realize that everything in Jerusalem and Bethlehem is all, it's very up, it's very high. So everything is up to Jerusalem. So when you read in the scriptures, you go up to Jerusalem, that's what's going on here. So here they are, they're going to this place. But could you imagine this? Women who've been pregnant before. You're full term. And now you're going to travel 80 miles. How are you going to do that? Well, you don't have the padded seats of an F-350 or something like that. And just kind of no problem, go through the mountains. So here you are traveling. Why? It's almost like, I mean, I think they probably understood the prophecies, honestly, but when you look at this, you kind of say, this is pretty amazing to me, because they're traveling like this, and probably, maybe, again, knowing, maybe not knowing, and if they didn't know, again, here's the plan of God, orchestrating them to go to Bethlehem for this child to be born, and so here is this, this perfect time in history, this perfect place, Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the place where the Christ child would be born. Remember, it was the wise men went into Jerusalem and they said, where is this child to be born? And the religious leaders said, oh, it's that simple. It's in Bethlehem. I mean, everybody knows that. But they didn't go. And yet you begin to see how there's this perfect place. See, God had to supply this. Take your Bibles and go back to the book of Micah. As we look in the book of Micah, it's amazing to me to think about how God's Word always comes true, doesn't it? And, find Jodah, then you find Micah. Micah chapter 5, verse 2, prophecy here, it says, But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, the one to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth are from old, from everlasting. This is Jesus, the special Messiah to be born. When I think about this, I think of a conversation I just had the last couple of weeks. uh... with with uh... with the woman and she basically said that you know listen the bible you know you can't really trust it it's like one of these things you gotta read it and uh... it's a it's a metaphor you know I'm like, what do you do with all the fulfilled prophecies? I mean, there are prophecies that are fulfilled that are just you just can't get around. And yet all of these keep coming to be fulfilled in some 300 plus in Christ alone. And then Christ makes the mention that he's the Messiah and he's the way, the truth and life. And she says, oh, well, don't worry. You see, see, the Bible is like a is a metaphor. I look at it as a good metaphor. It's like a real good book. Really? Historically, though, it's accurate. As she said this, she was no just ordinary lady. I mean, you could say she was actually an elder in her Presbyterian church. And she said she finally came to understand Christianity a little bit better and began to be a little bit more inclusive when she became a Hindu first before then she came back to her roots in Christianity. But when you go to Luke chapter 2, you begin to see this is the perfect time, the perfect place, and not only that, it's the perfect couple because in verse 4, Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David. He had to do this to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child, it tells us again. shows again of a virgin birth. Mary was a virgin. Isaiah 7 verse 14 spoke of this virgin who would conceive and yet it had to be this perfect person, the perfect couple. It couldn't just be anybody because virgins don't have babies. I mean, that's pretty understandable. And so here's this perfect couple, and yet here's Joseph who is of the lineage of David and down all the way to Abraham. You look at the lineage that are laid out and you go, this is, I mean, he is the one. It's like right there. It's so evident. And this is historically accurate. The perfect couple. But can I just say this? It was the worst conditions. to think as a full-term pregnant woman, you would be traveling 80 miles, maybe most of those on foot, maybe on donkey, and the idea of riding for those miles up and down big hills, mountainous area, to make your way to this place. Now, I'm just telling you, if you're full-term pregnant, you don't want to travel anything. And Dr. Gatti would say, hey, don't travel. Listen, it's too close to have the baby. Don't travel. But they had to. It was of God. Could you imagine the pain she felt as they get to this place? the perfect place, but yet the worst conditions. They go around and they're trying to find a place, and the idea there would be kind of like a place, like there would be a, maybe you could say a camp out area for all of those travelers during different seasons, like Passover and different things. And so here it is in this area of a sheltered area, but yet there's no more shelters kind of left available. And now here's this one with the stall and animals, and it stinks. It's dirty. I mean, I think about when my wife is gonna have a baby, I'm like, I want her to have the best conditions. You know, some people do this. They go and they scope out. They go to the place that the baby's supposed to be born and they go, okay, they scope it out and go, okay, this is a nice room and wow, okay, I like how the beds are here. And they scope, women will actually scope it out because they want to make sure. And the man, you know what he wants? He just wants her to be happy, doesn't he? And so, he wants her to have a good birth, and you know, and men don't really know what to do sometimes, you know, when the baby's being born, we get nervous, and that's the way life is. It's like, you know, and we pace, and we wonder, and some people are really good at it, some people are like, and then faint, and you know, and then to think, here it is, and who's to help them? And so, all of a sudden, Mary's like, Joseph? Joseph? The baby's coming. What do you mean, the baby's coming, the baby? We can't do this. I mean, could you imagine this? And guess who delivers the baby? Probably Joseph. I mean, the idea there is they had no help. They're poor and they have no real shelter. And this is not the good conditions. I mean, what about sanitary things? Where's the epidural? For both, you know what I mean? Because when my wife has a baby, I want the epidural, you know what I mean? And you look at all this and say, this is horrible. Could you imagine Mary at this point? I mean, I didn't sign up for this. I mean, I know I'm going to have the Messiah, but like this? This is not good. And yet, in the midst of it all, the baby is born. I love this because Mary humbly submitted to the will of God for her life. Go back to Luke chapter 1 and you can see this in verse 26. because we see how this birth was announced to Mary. We know all these things to be true. It's amazing to study these out. Every one of these are great messages. But verse 26 now, it says, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. And so he had come to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph in the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. Having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he will be great and he will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him a throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever in his kingdom. There will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man? She's saying, I mean, I've I've not I'm not married. I've not had relations with a man. I just that how can this how is this going to happen? I mean, exciting, but not, I don't think in unbelief, but she said that she's, she's really amazed in verse 35 and the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. And therefore also that the Holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. So indeed. Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who is called barren. And so she was called this. She had this stigma about her because they were, yes, religious people, but with no children and without a child. They just looked as though God's cursing was upon them and not God's blessing. And so she hears this again, it says in verse 37, the angel said, for with God, nothing will be impossible. Notice Mary's response. Mary said this, Behold the servant of the Lord. Actually, she uses the word doulos. And if you remember that from a long time ago when I spoke to you, she says she's the slave of God. She says this, let it be done according to your word. And the angel departed from her. She submits. See, this is Mary under the worst condition she's humbly submitting. It shows us this, it shows us that God is sovereign over the works of mankind, that even in the midst of darkness, God can bring great light. God is a God who steps in. And all God's people say what? Amen. But not only did he step in, but when he stepped in, you could say this, he spoke too. You say, what do you mean? Well you see this in verse 8, it says, Now there were in the same country, this is in chapter 2, chapter 2 verse 8, Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And so here these guys are as shepherds, and so you could say here's God speaking, and God speaks to specific people, these are shepherds, they're simple people, you could say. Shepherds were not considered lofty people. They were considered very simple. They weren't allowed to be even used in a court of witness because they just weren't really credible. They were just practical people who worked with animals. But these shepherds were thereby in the fields keeping watch of the flock by night. So they were close by. And where that would have happened, probably, many say this, that the shepherds probably were the ones to actually keep and watch over the Passover lambs. Which is even more interesting to think about. Because as they're watching over these flocks at night, it says this, Behold, the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. I mean, how would you feel if you were out there at night and an angel came and spoke to you, or this bright light in the midst of darkness came and shone? I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm easily frightened. Not too long ago, I was doing something in this basement area and then Steven Pettit snuck up behind me on purpose and then he knew I wasn't painting and I was moving things and all of a sudden he comes up behind me and says, Jeremy, how are you doing? And when he did that, can I just tell you, my heart, I mean, I almost had a heart attack. I'm like, Steven, don't do that. Oh man, you scared me half to death. Could you imagine though now here you are at night even with friends and all of a sudden bright light and an angel from God is speaking. That is scary stuff. And everyone who is approached by the angel is scared to death. They're scared for their life, for one thing, because one angel can kill 185,000 warriors over a process of an evening. We learned in Hezekiah about that with Hezekiah. And we go, that's pretty serious. And so we always laugh at that when you always tell people they have their cute little angels, because every time you look at angels in the scriptures, they're manly, and they're rough, and they're gruff. And so I don't know what we're saying when we say, look at her, she's such an angel. Really? Maybe she has a beard and she's tough, you know, I don't know. And yet here's God, he speaks, he speaks to these specific people and he speaks in a special way through these angels and he delivers a special message. What is it? As we look even further, it says this, he says to them. As they were greatly afraid, the angel calms them. In verse 10, the angel said to them, and some would say, this may be Gabriel. We don't know at this point, but Gabriel keeps making these announcements, and so it could be him. But the idea is, here's the angel who said to them, he said, do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. He's saying, listen, I'm delivering to you some great news. Don't be afraid. Listen to the news. Then it begins to give us the news in verse 11. It says this for there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. Think about this for a minute. This news about the special person, the redeemer who would come. This is all about Jesus, the Christ child. His name will be called Jesus. And the word Jesus literally means Jehovah saves or salvation. And yet he's a savior, isn't he? He's the one who would come to pay the price for mankind, for your sins and for my sins. And he would he would make a way possible for us to be rescued. The Savior, who is Christ. The Lord, the word Christ, Christ really means Messiah or anointed one here in this special one from God, the Savior, the Christ child would be born. He is Christ the Lord. And anytime you look at the scripture and you see you see the word Lord with the idea of Christ, the Savior there, the idea would be that this is a this is a claim of deity. Here's Jesus. who is God in flesh. He is supreme. He is sovereign one. He is king of kings. He is the ruler. He is deity. This is Jesus. He is not just a man. He is the God man to come to rescue you and to me from our sins. We can be rescued because of Jesus's special announcement. Some people don't really think they need it. Have you ever really examined your own life? Do you really think you don't need a Savior? Do you really think that it is you, that somehow you're the Savior, that you're okay on your own? Do you not realize the things that you say with your own mouth and how often we sin against God with our lips? Have you ever recognized and realized how often we do things towards others? We sin against God in so many ways. No one likes to come to grips with this, do they? We all want to treat ourselves as pretty good, don't we? It's like we go to church, and you know on the way to church what it's like. It's rough, it's tough, and, hey, you stop doing that, hey, you do this, and then we get to church and everything's fine, isn't it? None of us want to come to grips with how sinful we really are. And yet here's God saying, listen, don't you realize there is a Savior to be born and He's going to be born there in the city of David. And then He tells them this special message. See, you can be rescued through this Savior. And as you look even further, what does it say? So it tells us this. He says, suddenly, well, first of all, verse 12, and this will be a sign to you. Here's how you'll know this. In other words, God spoke to a special people in a special way with a special message. And he gave this specific sign, this special sign. And what is it? This sign will be to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths. It's like pieces of cloth for a baby to be born. They probably carried that with them, knowing the baby could be born. And so you'd want to be prepared as much as possible. This is normal. So actually for them to come to try to find a baby and swaddling cloth that for them, that's not too abnormal. But that's really not the main sign, because that's what all the Jewish babies would look like. They would be born and they'd be wrapped real tightly and real good in that sense. But then it says lying in a manger. Lying in a manger means this. He would be laying in a feeding trough. That's how they would know. This was the one. And so they went, where did they go? They probably went to all the different stalls with all the animals. Until they came across Jesus. This little baby. Cute baby. You know why? Because all babies are cute. Well, sort of. And you've got this cute little baby. You've got this baby that's born in this manger. This is how they'll know. So there's a specific sign. This feeding trough. See, God steps in and prays to God. Not only does He step in, but He speaks to us. Man, that's amazing. Why would God do that? Why would He do that? Brings me to the third thing, and the final thing is this. Not only does God step in and God speaks, but also God supplies. Because when you look at this even further, you begin to see how God does supply. Because as this happened, here's how you're going to find the baby. Verse 13, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, now what does this mean, the heavenly host? This is like the armies of God, literally. This is a military term. The armies of God now fill the sky, thousands upon thousands of angels that no one can even number. And yet they fill the sky. I mean, talk about amazing. My little one-year-old, he would go, oh wow, because that's about all he says right now, and every time I see something, oh wow, oh wow. Man, can I just tell you, that would be an oh wow. That would be like the best fireworks display ever, times a million. You know what I mean? It would just be like, oh, and they're all saying this. They say, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us now go to Bethlehem and to see this thing that had come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. I mean, what would you do? I would do the same thing. I mean, for one thing, I'd probably look towards each other and say, did you guys just see what I just saw? I mean, did we just see this? Yeah. Isn't that amazing? Can you believe what he said? Let's go. Let's go see. In one sense, I don't know. Do they take the sheep with them? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. This is so important. This is from God. The sheep will be okay. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. And you know where they went? They went about six miles away. So think about this. In the night, they go and the Bible says they went with haste. So they're probably running or going very quickly, mountainous terrain, making their way to this place where Jesus is. Six miles. That's like a 10K. And maybe they're pretty fast. They did it in an hour. I doubt it. They probably did it in closer to two. But they made it there, and they get there, and as they make it there, here it is. Here's God supplying. They see the child. You look even further, and it says in verse 16, they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger, lying in the feeding trough. And now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told to them concerning this child. So they said, you won't believe what we just heard and what we just saw. Let me tell you all about it. And then they began to spread it all around. It wasn't just to them, but they began to spread it all around. And verse 18, and all those who heard it, they marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. I mean, this is so unusual. Are you serious? But Mary, she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. She began to dwell upon them. Wow, what is this? What's this to be? My child. The savior of the world. Amazing. to think about these things being heralded by angels and these shepherds. And it says this, but Mary, as she kept all these things and parted them in her heart, then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen and as it was told them. And so you could say this, God supplied people to declare His praise. Here they are, they came, they saw the child and they were transformed, they were changed. They went away glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen. It's all about God. And that's what they did. You know, God has done, God has supplied people to declare his praise. And yet here we are as those who are truly saved. What should we do? We should declare it. We should tell others you don't believe you won't believe this. But can I tell you, you can believe that this is the truth. Historically, this happened. Miraculous. Yes, but is of God. And we declare the truth. We declare his praise. We worship him. God supplied people to declare his praise. But I would also say this, that God supplied a Passover lamb, which is very interesting to think about, because Jesus, that's what he was. He was a Passover lamb, because when we look in verse 21, it says, and when the eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus. The name given. by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. It's interesting, again, how Luke just sometimes just states these things. He's a doctor. He just kind of just tells you, you know. It's like, hey, she was with child, and she had a child. The child was born. And you're like going, hello. I mean, what about this pain this woman faced, you know? And what about all the things? She had a child, you know? And then you've got this sense here. He was circumcised. Here's now a child facing pain. And it was a sign of the covenant. It was fulfilling the law of God. In verse 22, now in the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. And so again, this is something they would do. Verse 23 tells us this, and as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who opens a womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And so they were presenting him to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons. They were supposed to provide a lamb, but if you didn't have the money for a lamb, you could do as little as something like this. And so here are these two young doves. Pigeons. They were poor as can be. They're fulfilling the law of God. Because Jesus fulfilled the law of God. He was the Passover Lamb. He was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Remember John the Baptist who would herald Him? I mean, if you want to know who the Messiah is, then you've got to look at the forerunner. And the forerunner is John the Baptist, and it all points to this. And so now you've got this forerunner, John the Baptist, saying, listen, and then Jesus comes, and what does He say? He says, behold, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. I mean, Jesus is the Messiah. Even later in John chapter 4, what do we read? We read that this lady says, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. And when He comes, He will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I that speak unto thee am He. I'm the one. Jesus makes the claims. He is the Messiah. He had to fulfill the law in every perfect way. And so it says in verse 25, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout. He was a saved man. He was waiting for the consolation. He's waiting for the redemption of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so here's the Spirit of God. He said, listen, Simeon, I'm going to let you see the Christ before you die. And so he came by the Spirit into the temple. It was the perfect timing. I mean, think about how many people would be there. But he came at the perfect timing. And when the parents brought the child to Jesus... to do for him according to the custom of the law. In other words, he's again fulfilling the law. He took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. It's Jesus which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. Now this is amazing because, can I just say this? is Jesus is the Savior of the Jews and the Gentiles. Now, how many in here are Jewish? How many in here are Jewish? Any Jewish people in here? Okay. One. Okay. Guess what the rest of us are? We're Gentiles. We weren't originally part of the covenant. Now, just because you're a Jew doesn't mean you're going to heaven. Okay, you know that too, because not all the real Israel are Israel, you know what I mean? So the truth is, it's not just because you're a Jew you're going to get there, because you've got the lineage, you know? But God's Messiah would come to the Jewish line, and the truth is, is you're a Gentile, and so here we are as people who need a Savior as well, and so guess what? God provided Jesus to fulfill all of the law. He's the Passover Lamb. He would provide this. He lived under the law. And he'd provide salvation for us. And Mary and Joseph were so amazed at this. Again, they marveled at the things which were spoken of him. They just sat back in amazement. That is amazing. Take your Bibles back to Galatians 4. Verse 3, again, even so we, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, this woman was a virgin, born under the law, so He would have to live according to the law of God and fulfill every element of the law. He didn't come to destroy the law, He came to fulfill it. And as he would do this, he would live perfectly so that he would be that perfect sacrifice, the sacrificial lamb that could rescue you and rescue me. And this is an amazing thing that God would do this. How would he do this? He provided salvation. To redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons, we would become his children. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Now, just because Jesus died doesn't mean you've got the gift. In other words, God, the greatest giver, gave Jesus the greatest gift. But just because you're given a gift doesn't mean it's yours. See, if someone hands you a gift, you have a responsibility. You can do one or two things. You can say, heh heh, nah, I don't need it. Throw it out before opening it. Or maybe you can say, no, thank you very, very much, and begin to open it. I think most of you, during this Christmas season, when you're given a gift, you're probably going to open it. And that's a gift to you. Someone paid for that. And here's Jesus who's come and has given you this great gift, a gift of salvation. You say, well, then what do I need to do? Well, I mean, how does this work? I mean, okay, so God provides the Passover lamb and Jesus is the Passover lamb, but how does that work for me? Well, Jesus made it very clear. Go with me to Mark chapter 1. In Mark chapter 1, we read in verse 14 about Jesus Going about preaching, it says now after John was put in prison in Mark chapter 1 verse 14, Jesus came to Galilee preaching, proclaiming the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God. And here's what he said. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand because here's King Jesus right there. And what's the message to you and to me? It's repent and believe the gospel. God is commanding all people from all walks of life, no matter how spiritual you are, no matter how much you go to church, whatever, to repent. Repent is to change your mind, to change your life. It's literally a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in life. It's when you go, you know what, I can't save myself. I need the Savior. There are many people who I really believe who have never repented. They come and they say, oh, I believe. Well, so do the demons and they tremble. But they're not going to heaven. There must be a time in your life where you become a true believer, where it just doesn't just amaze you and you go, wow, this Jesus stuff is pretty crazy. This church stuff is pretty amazing. It's where we go, you know what? Jesus is my savior. You repent of your sins. You turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior. You're trusting in Him alone. He says, repent and believe in the gospel. Now, why would God allow us to be saved this way? It's repentance in faith. Why would He do this? Why would He bring a Savior? Have you ever wondered this? It draws us back to this final conclusion in John chapter 3. In John chapter 3, verse 16, it says this, For God. So loved. The world. That he gave. He gave his only begotten son, this one of a kind, a special, unique son. That whosoever would believe in him should not perish. But you could have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. God made a way for you. Why would he do this? Can I just tell you this? He did this because he loves you. You have broken his laws. You deserve his punishment. And God has shown you mercy and shown you grace through Jesus. God has shown you that He loves you. He's a friend of sinners. So what should that do? His love should compel us to say, you know, I need Jesus. I want Christ to save me because God supplied this. But the question is, has He really supplied it for you? And if He has, how do you treat Christmas? Because again, here we are, and sometimes as American Christians, and what do we do? We've got this stuff, and we're so busy, and we've got to get there, and we've got to do this, and this, and eat this, and go here. And pretty soon we miss out, and it's like Christ is missing. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Kiowa Island, and we got there. We went there, and we didn't bring the kids. Where were our kids? Oh, yeah, Andrea was watching our kids. Something was going on with the kids. So someone was watching our kids. Ben and his wife were with us, too. Someone was watching their kids. And Jason and Sarah were with us, too. And they went down there for the purpose of this marathon. And they were going to run the half marathon or whatever. And so that's like 13.1 or something like that. I'm not sure. My wife was sick the week before and so she she ran it. I was amazed I mean she gets she's been kind of sick. She's been balancing this even this week really bad But she ran it Jason and Sarah ran it too, and that's pretty big deal and and then Dana didn't run it, but Dana's you know she's got a young child and so that's an excuse and Ben and I had no excuse. We just went along for the ride. And so anyway, we're there. And you know what? It's kind of Christmas. And so it's all decorated. You got lights that are all around. It's cool. It's got a Christmas tree. And wow, I mean, it's awesome. You go to these special places. And we would eat. And we would hang out. And it was fun. It was enjoyable. And as you saw all these things, and I remember at one point in time, we're trying to find a place to park. And we pass a manger scene. And we see this. I mean, it's like, you know, all the stuff. It's like the wise men who probably weren't there anyway. But they were, you know, not at the time. But then you've got the manger scene, you've got the animals, you've got Mary and Joseph, you've got the feeding trough. And as we looked closely at it, guess what was missing? Baby Jesus. We looked at it and we were like, where's baby Jesus? But isn't that like our world today? We've got all the lights, we've got all the things, and we can go through a season like this and something's missing. Baby Jesus. Isn't that what Christmas is all about? May God help us to be amazed And to be marveling at who Jesus is may help us to get away and get alone with God, to really seek Him. Yes, and all these things are great. And I'm not saying trash your family or trash the food and trash people. No, no. But in the process, remember what it's all about. It's all about Jesus. God, He steps in, He speaks, He supplies. Don't we serve an amazing God? Let's pray this morning. Father, as we would look to You, We're so thankful for you at the right time, in the right place, with the right couple, stepping in. God, we are so thankful that you speak. You spoke in time past through prophets, through angels. You speak through circumstances, situations to us sometimes, and through people. And you spoke to us through Jesus, and you've given us your revealed word. God, you speak to us, may we listen. May we respond like Mary and Joseph and many others in this picture here to in obedience as you supply our needs, as you provide people to declare your praise, as you provide the Passover lamb. God, may we say as true believers, Jesus is our Messiah, or may we be able to say that Christmas is truly about Jesus and may our lives prove that. Rescue us, God, from this world that is so in a hurry, this world that is so going after everything else but Jesus. Everyone's pushing away Jesus. God, may we as Christians declare your praise and may we thank you for the Passover lamb that you sent for us. And then, God, specifically, I pray right now for those in this room who have not truly received this wonderful gift yet. I pray that this morning, today, would be the day that they would submit themselves to you and they would trust in you alone.