Let's take our Bible and turn to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. As you're turning there, welcome to all of you who are visiting for the very first time. We're so thankful that you are here this evening, this afternoon to worship the Lord with us. And if you haven't been with us for quite some time, we're thankful that you are here. as well to worship our great savior together with us. It is a sweet thing to be with the people of God and the family of God, worshiping our great God and our great savior together. Elizabeth and I counted a wonderful honor to have you over to our home tonight. If you're able to join us for dinner and for fellowship after the worship service, we would be delighted to have you over after the time together around God's word. This afternoon, Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 20, is where we are in our Christmas series, Veiled in Flesh, The Godhead See, Hail the Incarnate Deity. And we come to gaze upon our great God and our great Savior in Luke chapter 2. And so I'm going to read where we left off last week, Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 20. Follow with me as I read God's word. In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them in the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and they found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen just as had been told them. Heaven worships Jesus Christ. Angels worship Jesus Christ. All of eternity will not exhaust all of the reasons that we have to worship Jesus Christ. It is good for us to worship our Savior in heartfelt honor. It is good for us to worship our Savior in humble submission, in true obedience, in thankful contentment, in songs of praise. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the beauty of our Savior, is infinitely mysterious. Because the Bible teaches that He is a baby lying in a manger trough. But at the same time, he is also Christ, the Lord. The Bible teaches that this baby was born with no fanfare. But yet at the same time, this reality is that heaven does not stop singing his praises. The Bible teaches that this Christ was born to ordinary people like Mary and Joseph. And yet he is the eternal and the infinite son of the living God. And that is the one that we have come to behold this afternoon as we learn about him who is the savior. born for sinners. But we come to behold him not just in an earthly perspective, but in a heavenly perspective. We come to hear the angels worshiping. We come to see the shouts of heaven as they behold and sing and wonder and marvel at the glory of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think no book of the Bible brings this out in so much glory. more than the book of Revelation. Because when we turn to the book of Revelation, we read about the triumph of the Lamb. We read about the reality of the victory of the Lord Jesus, that He is the conqueror over all. But amazingly, in the book of Revelation, this Lord Jesus Christ is often called the Lamb. He brings judgments upon a world that has rejected him in three different waves. In Revelation 6, they're described as the seals. In Revelation chapters 8 and 9, they are described as the trumpet judgments. And then in Revelation 16, Jesus the Lamb pours out judgment in the image of bulls. He pours out wrath upon the world. But what's so fascinating to me is just before each of the three segments of judgment, we see little respites of worship. We see little seasons of praise just before chapter 6, just before chapters 8 and 9, just before chapter 16. And all of these respites of praise, guess what? Are all seasons of praise in heaven, and they're all about the Lamb. They're all about the triumph of the Lamb. It's almost as if before we see the judgment that the Lamb brings upon the world that has rejected Him, we see a glimpse of heavenly worship that is enraptured with the beauty and glory and power of the Lamb. In Revelation chapters four and five, we see the song of the lamb who was slain. In Revelation chapter seven, we learn of the saints, the multitude in heaven, a multitude that cannot even be counted. And they are worshiping and praising the triumph and love and shelter and provision of the lamb. And then in Revelation chapter 15, we see yet another vision of heaven. And it is all about the songs and the glorious deeds and the great wonders of the Lamb. What's the point? Heaven is caught up in the worship and praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. And today we get a glimpse of that as heaven opens up to describe the worship and the singing and the praises of this one who was born. Maybe even still by way of introduction, we could just refresh our hearts with this reality that heaven is a world of worship. Heaven is a world of worship. It is a realm of worship. And we might look at it in a couple of ways. Heaven is a world of loud worship. It is loud worship, innumerable worshipers praising the lamb, singing to the lamb. It's not only loud worship. Second, it's a place of unending worship. Unending worship. No more distraction. No more coming to an end. No more worship service that ends. No more end. No more termination. It is an unending, continuous worship to the Lamb. We could also say, third, that heaven is a place of scriptural worship. And what what is so intriguing to me about the book of Revelation as it describes heaven is the descriptions of the singing of heaven are all biblical phrases. In other words, what we see of the worship in heaven is it is biblical worship. It is scriptural worship. It is gospel laden worship. It is driving us to the truth of scripture as it points us to the lamb. We could also look at the reality of heaven in worship and look at it as Christ-centered worship. The center of heaven is not me. The center of heaven is not you. The center of heaven is not the streets of gold. The center of heaven is not who's there and who's not there. The center of heaven is the Lamb. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And I bring all that out by way of introduction, because I want you to know that we church family, we must worship the lamb now so that we may worship him there in glory. We want to extol Christ here on earth if we plan to extol him there in heaven. We want to work for the Lord and for his glory as a response to the salvation that he's given now as we desire to work worshipfully for him in glory. We're going to see heaven open. Heaven is going to be open. in our text before us in Luke chapter 2. We're going to see the worship. We're going to see the songs to the Lamb. We're going to see the praise of the Lamb. We're going to see the loudness of heaven's worship to a bunch of shepherds. Maybe you're here today Maybe younger, maybe older, maybe single, maybe married, maybe somebody who's been here before. Maybe this is your first time. And maybe like the shepherds, you've come here today, just sort of engaged in your daily routine. You're, you're just sort of in the daily work that has been given to you. You're just kind of living life. You're just kind of doing the duties and performing all the tasks that have been given to you. But I want you to know that heaven has an announcement for you today. I want you to know that heaven has an announcement for you today. And last week we looked at Luke 2, verses 1 to 7, which describes the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy in the Old Testament, where Mary gave birth to her firstborn child in the city of Bethlehem, Ephrata. And this Mary wrapped her baby in swaddling cloths and laid him in a feeding trough. the southern hills of Bethlehem. But today I want to begin by drawing your attention to verse 11. Look at verse 11. This is the main verse of the whole paragraph today. I want you to look at verse 11. I want you to read it slowly with me or follow along as I read it out loud. Verse 11 says this, For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ. The Lord, that's the main point of the whole paragraph. That's the main verse that is carrying the whole paragraph along. There's good news today. Good news of great joy. Let's ask some questions about this. Let's just ask the question, who? Who's the good news about? And you see it there at the end of verse 11. It is all about Christ. the Lord. He is the Messiah, and he is also the master, the Lord. Oh, yes, this is who he is. The good news is all about the who? The Christ. He is the Lord. Well, what about the what? What is this good news? The good news is found just before that in verse 11. There's a savior. God has given a savior to people like me and you who desperately need to be rescued. Not from a bad financial condition. Not from a bad job, not from a troubling marriage, not from different emotional struggles or psychotropic, uh, psychological struggles that somebody may have. But the, the issue that we have is we need to be saved from the wrath of God. And God has provided the savior. That's the who that's the, what will, when did you notice in verse 11, that little word today. For today. And I just love that word, today. And we could even apply that to you and me right here today. There is a Savior available today. He is available for sinners today. Boys and girls, He's available for you today. Where? Where do we find the Savior? Well, we read in verse 11, he's in the city of David. That's Bethlehem. We saw that last week where he was born. Why all of this? Don't miss these two little words in verse 11. Do you see it? For you. I mean, that would be one thing if God sent a Savior for them. For the rich. For the Jews only. For the elite. For the powerful. For the prestigious. No, no, no. For you. And I want you to look at verse 11 again. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The emphatic phrase in the Greek language that Luke brings out is that little phrase, for you. A Savior is for you. A Savior is for you, a Savior is for the liars, a Savior is for the immoral, a Savior is for the young, a Savior is for the old, a Savior is for the worldly, a Savior is born for the self-righteous, a Savior is born for the weary, a Savior is born for the tired, a Savior is born for you. Oh, I love that. A Savior is born for you. What a good question that we could even ask at this point. Has this Savior come and seized your heart? Has He seized your heart and saved you all of grace? Today, as we look at this wonderful paragraph about a Savior that has been born for you, He is Christ the Lord. I want to teach on, I want to preach on this Savior who was born. And I want to do so in three ways. I want to show you about this savior who was born for you. First, he is a savior for ordinary people. I want to show you, second of all, that he is a savior who comes with heavenly worship. And then third, I want to show you that this savior is one who gloriously transforms. We're going to look at each of these as we walk through our section together. Let's begin with number one. This savior who has come for you is Christ the Lord. Number one, I want to show you that he is a savior for ordinary people. Ordinary people. Think of the Bible. Think of shepherds. Think of fishermen. Think of tax collectors. Think of the pagans. Think of the Gentiles. Think of sinners. Think of the people like me and you. The unglamorous, the unpopular, those that are just the ordinary people of this world. The son of God came into the world to seek and save the lost. The key is that he comes for the lost. Isn't it such good news that God did not send his son into the world and look for the VIP? But he came for ordinary sinners like us. Look at verse eight. Let's look at some of these ordinary people. In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. Now that would be a shock. I mean, if you're reading this in the first century, you know about Jewish culture and you're reading about shepherds and how God has come into the world. And we read about shepherds. This would have been a shock because they were socially looked down upon in Jesus's day. Their work made them ceremonially unclean. Some even deemed them to be untrustworthy. They were the bottom of the social ladder. Many of them were uneducated. Many of them were unskilled and many in the new Testament era viewed them as dishonest and unreliable. And you say, why? because they cared for the sheep every day. What was so amazing about this is they could not comply with, they could not obey the man made legalistic laws of the Pharisees. I mean, they couldn't go to the temple or the synagogue every Sabbath because they were in the fields with their sheep. They were hated by the Pharisees. The shepherds were ordinary people looked down upon socially and despised by the elite. And yet, at the same time, remember last week? Here in the area of Bethlehem, these shepherds were known to have cared for the temple sheep. These were the men who protected and cared for the lambs that would have been raised and nurtured and examined to be taken to the Jerusalem temple to be the sacrifices. These were diligent men. They were careful men. They were precise men. They were vigilant men. They were courageous men. They were watchful men. And they were ordinary. Just ordinary. I love that. I love how God sends good news to ordinary people. It's not just another day of news. Look at verse 9. Look at what kind of news this is. In verse nine, an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were terribly frightened. Now an angel appears and the glory of the Lord shines and the shepherds, all they fear. You know, at night when the shepherds are keeping watch over their flock, heaven opens and the glory of God shines kind of like at Mount Sinai. At the temple in Jerusalem, all through the Old Testament, we see the glory of God on display in the place of worship. And yet here the glory of God shines. An encounter with the glory of the Lord put the fear of God in these shepherds. I think there's a little application point that can be made here. When you encounter God, it will always lead to the fear of God. If somebody claims that they have a vision of God, or they've seen God, or they're right with God, and yet they're very trivial with God, that person does not know the God of the Bible. When God reveals himself and the glory of God is made known, they are frightened and they fear. And I love what the angel says in verse 10. Look at it in your Bible. The angel said to them, don't be afraid for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. Luke uses one of the most common words in the Greek language for good news. But it's more than just a common word, get this. In the Roman Empire, when kings or emperors or governing officials would have a son or perhaps an heir to the throne and someone would rise of age and he would become the new king or the new emperor, there would be an announcement using this word, I bring good news. I bring good news, glad tidings that there is the birth of an heir, that there is a new king on the throne. Well, Luke takes that same word and says, let me give you the ultimate, the really good. The perfect good news in verse 10, and it comes from the angels' mouth in verse 10. I bring you good news of great joy. It's not just the birth of a son of an emperor. This is the birth of God himself in human flesh. What an amazing reality. Good news. Christian, you and I are living in a climate and in a culture in a city, in a country where many people this Christmas season have no good news. They don't have good news. They're looking for good news, but they don't have any good news. And yet you can say with the angels, I know good news. And I know the ultimate good news. And I know the one that this good news is all about. And I love how the Savior was born for shepherds, for ordinary people like them and like me and like you. And the shepherds were ordinary men, unspecial men, hardworking men, underappreciated men, sacrificial men. And yet the gospel reaches even to them and to us. Kind of like the Rahabs. Kind of like the Timothys, kind of like the Davids, kind of like the Pauls, kind of like the Peters, kind of like those all through the Word of God, those who are unspecial. Isn't it an amazing thought that those who were dutifully looking over the lambs destined for the temple sacrifice, they were the first ones to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What an amazing thought. What an amazing God. And I think, Christian, you and I, in these opening verses, can look at these scriptures and say, you know what, I can be overjoyed. that God's salvation comes to ordinary people like me and like you, but not only ordinary people like us. Second, in your outline, I want you to see this savior who comes with heavenly worship. Not only does it come for ordinary people, but he comes with heavenly worship. So when the savior comes to earth, heaven opens up to shout forth his praise. When the Savior arrives, heaven shouts. And then we read that this one angel who tells them that today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior. He is Christ the Lord. Verse 12. The sign is that you'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. That one angel now in verse 13 turns into an army of angels. Interesting Greek word. Luke uses here for a host on the heavens. It's actually the Greek word for armies. It was the common word of the day for the military soldiers. And they're not coming announcing war. They're announcing peace. But, but don't miss this. The times of the first century were not times of peace. The times that you and I live in are not times of peace. Epictetus was a first century writer, not a believer, not a follower of the Lord at all. And here's what he wrote about the Roman empire. Quote, he said, while the emperor might give peace from war from time to time, he is really unable to give peace from heart passion and from grief and from envy. The emperor cannot give peace of heart for which man longs for even more than outward peace. We live in times like that. People are are screaming for peace. They're looking for peace and they don't know where to find peace. It's not all that different than it was 2000 years ago when the angels appeared. And there was a host of angels in the heavens. Imagine this. Pitch black night sky. You're in the fields of Southern Israel in the hills of Bethlehem, watching your sheep, and an angel appears to you. That's terrifying enough. And heaven opens up, and you hear, and you see, and you experience, the Greek word is armies. Now remember, one angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one night in the Old Testament. And now you've got a multitude of armies in the heaven praising God. Talk about a vision. Talk about an experience. What are they saying? What are the angels doing? Look at verse 14. Heaven is now going to speak about what's going on. And there are two features to heaven's song. Number one, in verse 14, they say, glory to God in the highest. What's the first feature of heaven's song from the lips of angels? They glorify and they praise God for salvation's plan. Angels are glorifying and they are praising God. We might simplify it and say they are marveling at God. Glory to God in the highest. What are the angels doing? They're not fixated on people like us. They're not fixated on the cultural events of the day. They're not fixated on the Roman emperor and all the laws and all the decrees and all the different cities and communities and villages. They are fixated on the glory. The second feature of heaven's worship in verse 14, the host of angels are praising God, not only in glorifying and praising God, but second of all, they are marveling at grace. They are marveling at the fact that people will experience peace from God's unmerited favor. Look at the rest of verse 14 and on earth peace among men with whom God is well pleased. Now, there's a lot of English translations that differ at this point. And there's even some Christmas carols that even teach about goodwill one toward another. That's not at all what the text is implying. It's not talking about men's goodwill toward one another. The whole point of the passage is the unmerited grace of God and the kind pleasure of God who brings salvation to sinners by His kind pleasure. That's the whole point. Heaven's worship is marveling at the glory of God. And second of all, marveling at the grace of God. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased. You know, that word peace is such a. An important word for us, isn't it? We could, we could talk on and on about Roman peace. It was a political peace, primarily. It was a peace dictated by the imperial government. Roman peace was an armed peace with soldiers on the neck of a vanquished foe. Roman peace was won on the battlefield at the cost of blood. Roman peace was a brutal peace that brought the cessation of war. Tacitus was a Roman historian, and he said Caesar Augustus seduced everybody with the sweetness of outward peace. Roman worldly peace was said to produce goodwill and people. But everybody knew that the peace that Rome could give in reality required slavery, terror, taxation, and fear. Kind of like today. No different from worldlings today who talk about peace. But the angels, the hosts of heaven, The armies of angels appear at the birth of the son of God, and they have two features to this loud song of worship. Number one, they marvel at God and his glory. And second, they marvel at grace that God would bestow his kindness upon men. Christian, what you and I need to know and what you and I need to speak of this week Because we know peace, but it's not peace the way the world defines it. You and I know peace. You and I have peace. You and I can give the solution to peace. But what peace that we are talking about is very different from the peace that the world describes, because the peace of God is an internal peace. The peace of God, according to Isaiah, is a perfect peace. Peace of God is a heavenly peace. The peace of God is a reconciling peace. The peace of God is a positional peace that can never, ever be changed. And the peace of God that we read about all through the Bible, all through the word of God. And as the angels are marveling at this reality of peace on earth, there are three dimensions. And we got to get this number one, and it's got to be in this order. Number one, there is peace in relation with you and God. It must begin there. There's no peace or there's no peace between you and God, but where you have reconciliation with God, there is peace. But second of all, the peace of the Bible then produces a peace in relation with other people. There's a lot of talk about reconciliation and peace in our day and all this kind of language. But if there's no peace with God, there can be no peace with other people. Third, not only peace between you and God and then second, peace between you and other people, but then there is a very real peace that you have in your own heart. that Philippians 4 says it's a peace that surpasses all comprehension. Who can explain this kind of peace that God can work in the Christian's hearts? And the angel comes and proclaims good news. You know, where is this peace found? The angels appear, the angels sing, the angels are shouting, the angels are praising God and they are marveling at God's glory and they are marveling at God's grace. And where is this peace found? Christian, answer, answer. It's found in Jesus. Look with me in your Bible at John chapter 16 on the last night of his life. The Lord Jesus said at the very end of John chapter 16 and in verse 33, these things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace in the world. You have what's the word? Tribulation. Don't miss that. Jesus said in the world, in this world system. Yes, you're going to have trouble. Christian, you're going to have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. You have peace with Jesus. A little later on in the book of Romans chapter eight, we learn about this peace. In Romans chapter 8, I love this, in verse 6, the mind that is set on the flesh is death. That is to say a non-believer who just lives his life a worldly way, living for himself, living for his lust, living for his pleasures, living for his own desires, that is death. But Romans 8 verse 6 says, but the mind that is set on the spirit, this is the believer, is life and peace. The Apostle Paul writes a little later on in Ephesians chapter 2, in Ephesians 2 and verse 17, that Jesus came and he preached peace to you who were far away, Gentiles, and peace to those who were near Jews. For through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. This is the only message of peace. Peace is found in the glory of Christ, the person of Christ, the love of Christ, the comfort of Christ, the blood atonement of Christ, the redemption of Christ. That's why the angels marveled at peace. That's why the prophet said in Isaiah, he's the prince of peace. Question, is he your prince of peace? Have you come here today with a troubled heart? hiding sin in your life, habits of sin that you're unwilling to give up. Like Romans 8 says, the mind of the flesh, living for the fleshly desires, living for yourself, calling Jesus Lord, Lord, but not doing what He says, like Luke 6, 46 says. The end result of that is death. If there is no peace in your heart, then Here's the solution for you today. You can come to the prince of peace, the one who gives peace, the one who is peace, the one that all heaven is singing about. Peace has come. Christian, this is good news for us. Christian, that there is a savior who has been born for us. If you're here today and you're not a believer, not a follower of Christ, I want you to know that today the Bible says there is a Savior available for you, and He is Christ the Lord. First, He's a Savior for ordinary people, but second in your outline, we also see that He's a Savior who comes with heavenly worship. But now third, in verses 15 to 20, I want to show you third, He's a Savior. Get this. He gloriously transforms. So what happens now? Remember that verse in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Don't forget the beginning of verse 18 right after that. And all these things are from God. How do you become a new creation? How do the old things pass away and the new things come? It all comes from God. God is the one who saves. God is the one who transforms. God is the one who does this great, awesome work. But look at verse 15 in your Bible of Luke 2, verse 15. So the angels are there. The heavenly host is praising God. But verse 15, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened. Isn't that interesting? Angels come and angels go. But Jesus remains with us forever. He remains forever. The shepherds, they see the angels, they hear heavenly worship. And they go. They go. I love, I love verse 15 when it says, they say to one another, let's go straight to Bethlehem. It's emphatic in the Greek language. There's a little word right there that means right now. At once. Immediately. Middle of the night. Let's go. Right now. Verse 15. Let's go straight to Bethlehem now. And let's see what has happened which the Lord has made known to us. Notice, the shepherds did not drag their feet. They didn't let their many questions hinder them. And I bet they had plenty of questions at this point with all that they had seen. They didn't say, I could use a couple of hours of sleep at this point. You kept me up. Let me sleep and then we'll go and figure this thing out. They didn't put it off until a more convenient time. No, no, no. They came in a hurry. That's what verse 16 says. They came in a hurry. I mean, they get up and they go and they hasten and they're hurrying and they say, we got to see this. Maybe. Maybe there's someone here tonight, this afternoon. You need to come in a hurry to Jesus. Maybe just like the shepherds of old, you've heard a message about the glory of the Lamb, the glory of the Lord. They, the shepherds, heard the angelic host. You hear it in the preaching of the good news of the word of God, and you hear the message of the Savior. But there might be someone here who is not hurrying. Procrastinating. Maybe making excuses. And maybe you need to do what the shepherds did. Christ reveals Himself in the Word. And maybe there are questions that maybe boys and girls, you have had from time to time. Yeah, but how could this be? Yeah, but why? Where? How long? Maybe somebody's thought, why me? Why would God do all this in my life? And maybe you, like the shepherds, need to get up and go in a hurry and come to Jesus and look at the end of verse 16. They get up and they hurry and they find their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby. They went and they found the lamb. Have you found the lamb? Have you come to this Lord? Have you come to this savior? The shepherds, they hurry, they run, they hasten, they're there. And verse 17, notice what they do. Not only do they travel, but now they testify. Look at verse 17. When they see this, they make known the statement which had been told them about the child and all who hear it wonder at the things that are told them by the shepherds. You know what that teaches us? When God's words come to pass, testimony should follow. Let me tell you what I just saw. Heaven opened up for me. And I heard the truth from the angel from heaven telling me where to go and what to look for and who I would find. And it's happened. Exactly as God said for his messenger, when God's words come to pass, Christian testimony should follow. Don't miss verse 17. When they saw this, they made known. Do you see that little word, the statement? That's actually a Greek word that means the promise, the very specific word. They're not just being sort of vague. They're not being generalistic. They're saying, let me tell you specifically the thing, the point, the word, the promise that was told me and it's happened. So maybe we could think of it as the shepherds or the first evangelists when Jesus entered the world. They were the first evangelists. You see, when you really see Christ, when you behold Christ, when you see the glory of God and you understand the beauty of God, the bigness of God, the worship of God, the splendor of God, it will instill a passion to speak of Him. Sometimes people come to me and they say, you know, you're a pastor and you're out evangelizing, and people in your church are out evangelizing, and I say, praise God, but may we do that more. And they say, well, how do you get that in a church? Well, it's not by having all these great evangelism outings and giving sort of a guilt trip saying, let's go do this. Come on, let's do this. That's that, that, that would wear off really quickly. What ignites the people of God to talk about the savior answer a vision of the glory of Christ as he's preached. and loved and seen from the word of God. My prayer is that we would see the beauty of Christ and the splendor of Christ and the bigness of Christ and the majesty of Christ and that we like the apostles in the book of Acts can say, I just can't help it. I'm going to speak of what we've seen and heard. But the shepherds are transformed. They go and they speak of this great promise that has been made known to them. They're speaking of these things. They're testifying to these things and all the people are marveling at what's going on. And then in verse 19, look in your Bible at what happens here. This is such a great lesson for us in verse 19, but Mary, it's almost like a little footnote to the whole story. It's almost like a little footnote, but Mary treasured all of these things, pondering them in her heart. I love the word here in the Greek language. It's like, she's just kind of mulling it over. She's trying to fit all of it in. She's trying to take it all in. The Greek words talk about biblical fidelity, careful reasoning, very clear thinking, precise consideration. And it's like, I'm trying to fit all of these things together. No doubt when she was heading to Bethlehem, she had the thought of Boaz. The kinsman redeemer back in the book of Ruth and how he was from Bethlehem. And David, the shepherd, the anointed king whom Messiah would come from him. He was from Bethlehem. And then in the providence of God, Caesar made a decree that brought me and Joseph to Bethlehem. And then the angel came to me earlier in chapter one and tells me that the baby that the Holy Spirit would conceive in me is going to be God. He's going to be king. He's going to be savior. And he's going to be Lord. And now there are shepherds who are now bearing witness of a army of angels in the heavens. Proclaiming how great God is, no doubt Mary spent time pondering, meditating, reflecting, filling her heart, being in awe of God. Boys and girls, she may have been about your age. What about you? Do you ponder the prophecies of God? Do you mull over the promises of God? Do you ponder the perfections of God and the offices of Christ and the attributes of Christ? Do you mull over the scriptures as God has revealed them before you? Do you meditate on the comforts of God and the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you? Christian, you can do this in the early morning hours. You can do this at noon, you can do this at night, you can do it in the middle of the night. Christian, you can do this while you're driving, you can do it while you're working, you can do it while you're relaxing. You can ponder the things of God while you're exercising, while you're writing letters, while you're typing emails. You can mull over these things at the dinner table with your family as you're talking about the things of the Lord. You can ponder these things when you're together having fellowship with church members and you're talking and discussing and reflecting and marveling at who God is. You can ponder these things with the Bible open right in front of you as you're studying the word of God, pondering, treasuring, considering. And then as Mary. It's just thinking. She's pondering all of these things. Look at the end of verse 20, or the end, but it's found now in verse 20. Well, back to our main story at hand, the shepherds go back, they go back to their fields. And the verb go back. is further explained by two clauses that talk about how they are going back. Number one, they are glorifying God. And number two, they go back praising God. How interesting. The word glorifying God speaks of rejoicing in God and praising God speaks of singing loudly to God. I mean, these shepherds are like skipping. They're leaping. They're loud. They're joyful. They're, they're happy. They're excited. Maybe you're here and you're thinking, man, I, I want that. I want that in my life, but, but with all that's going on and the headlines that I see in my work and my business and my family and all that is going on around us and, and the business of the Christmas season, it's hard for me to ponder and meditate on these great things. Jeff, tell me how to do this. How do you rejoice and praise and thank and sing and stand in awe of God? Here's a handful of suggestions. First, linger on the exceeding love of Christ for you. Just linger there. Second, fixate on your praying savior in heaven for you right now. Third, unhurry yourself on the union that you have with Jesus Christ. Let your mind get lost in the theology of what it is that you belong to Christ and he belongs to you. And all that he is, all that he's done is yours. Reflect on the soon return of your savior to receive you to himself. You can rejoice in Christ's righteousness that smothers and engulfs and covers you. You can triumph and marvel and thank God that you have a translation of God's word in your own language. You can ponder the power of the Holy Spirit right now at work in you, both to will and to obey for His good pleasure. You can muse on the mercy of God that when you loved your sin and you were drowning in your sin, God reached down and snatched you out of it. You can think. on eternal hell, that that is something, Christian, that you will never experience. How can you go on your way like the shepherds right here, glorifying God, praising God? You look at this and you think, man, I want that. I want to be transformed like that. I want my day to day life to be descriptive like these shepherds right here. I want that. Christian, here's some things that you can do. What a wonderful God, what a kind God, to think of what he has done for you, to think, drawing this full circle back to verse 11, that today there has been born for you a Savior, a Savior in the city of David, and he is Christ the Lord. Christian, let's be like these shepherds. Let's be like these shepherds as we see this great savior for ordinary people. As we see this great savior who comes with heavenly worship. As we see this great savior who does gloriously transform us. so that we travel with him, so that we speak of him, so that we testify about him, so that we glorify him, so that we praise him. We want to learn from these shepherds. All of this, in closing, leads us to the wonderful testimony of a man, let's call him Jacques. Jacques is a man from the Netherlands. The question haunted him from his early teenage years. How? Can I have peace with God? He had no peace in his life. He had no peace in his heart. He had no peace with other people. How can I have peace? And how can I have peace with God? And he kept wondering, how does it come? Where does it come from? Why could it come? Where can it come? How can I find this peace? As he lived for himself, As he lived for his own pleasures, as he lived in his own life of sin, something he thought that could never happen became a reality for him. He said, I finally came to have peace with God, but here's how it came, through our Lord. Jesus Christ. Glory to God that a Savior has been born for ordinary people like Jacques, just like the shepherds, people like me and people like you. The Savior has come to give peace. He has come to bring peace. Paul sums it up well in Romans chapter five in verse one when he says this, and I close with this. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. We thank you for the glimpse into heavenly worship, O God, that the angelic army of angels is glorifying you, O God, for your salvation and glorifying you, O God, for your grace. Thank you that this salvation and this peace comes to ordinary people like us. May you receive glory and honor and praise. And may we go from here today. May we go from here this week. May we celebrate Christmas this week like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God for all the things that we have heard and seen. To God alone be the glory. In his name we pray. Amen.