Very early on in my preaching ministry, I began to realize that Christmas messages are really quite a unique challenge. Maybe for three reasons they're a challenge. One is because you learn early on that there are what I call CEOs. Those are Christmas and Easter only people. And you don't want to give the impression that the only thing the Bible talks about is the birth and resurrection of Christ. People that enter the doorway twice a year could conclude that the only thing the Bible talks about are those two things. Another reason why Christmas messages are difficult is because there is, maybe we could call it, an over-familiarity with the storyline. I mean, if you have never opened a Bible, you could get the basic storyline just by walking down a cart aisle, right? A third reason Christmas messages are uniquely a challenge is there just isn't that much information about the birth of Christ in the scriptures. A few amazing Old Testament prophecies. You have John's prologue, which is more theological than it is historical narrative. And then you have Matthew and Luke's record, only a handful of verses about the birth of Christ. Only a handful of people interact with the birth of Christ. But this year, as I've thought about preaching this series with Daniel, which, by the way, I'm going to take what I was supposed to do last week and combine it with what I'm supposed to do this week, you only have a handful of people, a handful of verses. But one of the things I've noticed uniquely about those few interactions that we have is that of this small handful of people who interact with the birth of Christ, this tiny group of people associated with the birth of Christ, you have in this few a small group that really, in a figurative way, represents the whole of mankind. That is to say, they represent the extreme ends of the human continuum. We have, with a few people, associated with birth of Christ, sort of, you might say, the North and the South, the East and the West of humanity. We're taken from pole to pole. I've titled this series that I'm sharing with Daniel, The Great and the Small, the Young and the Old, and the Birth of Christ. The great would be the Magi, some of the most powerful people in the ancient world. The small would be shepherds who were the absolute dreg of society's culture. The young, you have the still unborn John the Baptist somehow in prenatal condition, conscious of the presence of the unborn Christ. And then you have the old Simeon hanging on life by a thread until he sees the newborn Messiah. That's amazing. as powerful as they get, as low as they get, as young as they get, and as old as they get. In fact, everyone here today, including myself, falls somewhere in between, falls somewhere in between. No one here today is as great as the Magi were, no one here today is as low as the shepherds were, no one here today is as young as the prenatal John, and no one here is as old and near to death as Simeon was. At least I hope not. And so you have the great, the small, the young, and the old. I want to look at the first two this morning, so the great. We're going to look at two passages, first the great. Open your Bibles and look with me, if you would, at Matthew chapter 2. I'll read the first 12 verses. Matthew chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, He inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. And they said to him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet, In you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go search carefully for the child. And when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him. After hearing the king, they went on their way. And the star which he had seen in the east went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And after coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell to the ground and worshiped him. In opening their treasures they presented him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for Christ. We thank you for the incarnation, for the miracle of God becoming man. We're thankful, Father, to know Jesus Christ today. We're thankful to know him not as a child, but as the triumphant Lord and Savior of your people. We're thankful to know that his humiliation and his emptying has been reversed, and now he reigns on high. We're thankful to know that this Christ is in fact the one and only hope of humanity, the world. Father, we pray that you would fill our hearts with truth today. In a world filled with the noise and chaos of what Christmas has become, we pray that you would draw our hearts back to the amazing truth. We do pray for the one who preaches, his sins are many. We've not come here for him, but for you. And we pray this morning as we pray often, but with sincerity of heart, that we not only be challenged today, but changed, not just confronted, but conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And it's in his name we pray, amen. The typical nativity scene, church lawns, Christmas cards. In fact, we were living in Northern Virginia back when the first time the ACLU was suing the White House for a lawn. And I remember Chuck Colson was alive at that time and made some very poignant points on the whole issue. The typical nativity scene that you see on lawns, Christmas cards, and so forth, frankly, depicts more than we know, and it also depicts actually less than we know. The nativity scene that you and I are familiar with sort of is a series of concentric rings. The centerpiece, of course, is the baby Jesus laying in a hay trough. We don't really know that to be the case. In the next ring, you have Mary and Joseph. And then the next ring, maybe some animals. And then you have another ring that involves shepherds with sheep. And then on the outer ring, you have kings with their gifts and their camels. As you look at that scene, there are some things we don't know and some things we do know. One thing we don't know is that there were three of them. We don't know. In fact, probably many, many more. Matthew 2.3 tells us that all of Jerusalem was troubled when they arrived. That means that their presence was something that could not be missed by the entire inhabitants of Jerusalem at that time. Something else we don't know is we don't know that they rode camels. They probably did not ride camels. More than likely, they rode horses, Arabian steeds. One thing we do know is they weren't kings. Another thing we do know is they weren't there at the birth of Christ. Probably not three of them, probably not camels, weren't kings, and weren't there. It's clear that tradition has eclipsed the biblical record of the Magi. Further, I'm going to say this to you, that the meaning and the significance of this count is not conveyed at all in the traditional nativity scene. You would not get the whole import of this passage by looking at a nativity scene. This morning, I want us to think clearly about this amazing event. And the first thing I want to draw your attention is to the question, who will be king? Who will be king? Notice verse 1 through 3, just a minute with me again. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Let me say this, that Matthew's gospel is unique in that it places the record of Jesus within the historical claims of the Old Testament. That is to say, the idea of Matthew is to take the promise and show fulfillment. The actual Old Testament historic promises that were made by God, Matthew's attempt is to show actual historic fulfillment to these Old Testament promises. And you'll notice just the very first verse of chapter 2, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king. He's telling us when and where. Where? In the city of Bethlehem, which is the ancestral city of God's first anointed, appointed king, David. The city of bread, Bethlehem, a small, insignificant shepherd village. And when was Jesus born? During the reign of Herod the Great, who reigned from 5 BC to about 4 AD. And the phrase in the first verse, in the days of Herod the Great, introduces us to the conflict. the conflict. I want you to look, you're in chapter 2, back up one chapter and look at Matthew chapter 1. You'll remember that Matthew chapter 2 comes after Matthew chapter 1. So Matthew is recording chapter 2 in light of what he's just said in Matthew chapter 1. If I were to draw your attention to verse six of chapter one, it says this, Jesse, who was a shepherd, was the father of David the what? King. And then from that time on, you can read on down all the way to verse 16, what you have is a record of the Davidic royal line. These were all the kings of Israel. Verse six, Solomon. Verse 7, Rehoboam and Abijah. Verse 8, Jehoshaphat. And you can ring all the way down through all the kings of Israel to verse 16, where Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. This is the Davidic line. All sons of David. Then you go to chapter 2, verse 1. In the days of Herod the king, here is the conflict. He is not supposed to be king. In fact, Herod isn't even Jewish. He is not a Davidic royal, he is not a Davidic royal blood. In fact, he is Indomien. He was born about 73 BC. His father was an Indomien named Antipater. His mother was a daughter of an Arabian sheik from Cyprus. Herod does not belong in the Davidic line. He is not the king. So here is the conflict. In fact, Herod became king by winning the favor of the Roman general Octavian. Octavian later became a Caesar. He was given the royal title by Rome, Caesar Augustus. And because of that favor, Herod was made inappropriately an out-of-line king. What we do know from history about Herod is he was brutal. In fact, in a fit of jealousy, he had his wife murdered. He was paranoid. He was narcissistic. When he knew he was dying, rather than giving the kingdom over to his rightful son, he wanted none of his sons to have the full sphere or arena of his power. So he divided it among, he was a, he was a piece of work. And so Matthew continues to develop this historic event. After Christ is born, during the reign of Herod the Great, in and around the city of Jerusalem, Magi arrived from the east. Who in the world are these people, the Magi? In fact, chapter 1 sets us up for what we read in chapter 2. And look at the last verse of chapter 1. Excuse me, verse 17 of chapter 1. Verse 17 of chapter 1 says this. So all the generations from Abraham to David are what? 14. And from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation of Babylon to Messiah, 14 generations. Verse 17 sets the stage for chapter 2. All the generations, which include 14 generations to David, 14 generations to Babylon, 14 generations from there to Messiah. Then chapter two begins with Bethlehem, the city of David, the king, Magi from the east, Babylon, and the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Verse 17 of chapter 1 is an introduction that primes us for a proper understanding of what in the world it is that's taking place in the first verses of chapter 2. Can everybody say Amen? And so Matthew is pointing out that God and His sovereignty controlled human history to the point that there are 14 generations from Abraham to Israel's first appointed king, anointed king, 14 generations from the first king to the deportation where God brings judgment, all the people are taken from Jerusalem and Judea to Babylon. They return 14 generations from the deportation to the birth of Christ. So Matthew begins, birth of the royal Davidic son, the city of David attended by men from the east. So it is not a coincidence that chapter 2 gives us this account because it is seen as a fulfillment of all that Matthew sets in Old Testament historic context. Scholars tell us that the ancient Magi were not kings. Rather, they were a hereditary priesthood from the Medes and the Persians. Maybe you remember in the Old Testament, Israel, the Jews, they had a priestly tribe. They were called the Levites. Among the Medo-Persians, they weren't Levites. They were Magoi or Magi, a priestly hereditary line from the same tribal bloodline amongst the Medes and the Persians. Unlike the Jewish priests or the Levites of the Old Testament, who were learned and trained in the complicated procedures of temple worship, the Magi of Persia and Medo were known to be extraordinary in their ability to know, to interpret, to predict, to counsel, to guide. They were experts in that time and in that place in their use and understanding of science, astrology, astronomy, math, natural sciences. And if you think back to the empires, the great world empires of the Babylonians and the Medo-Persians and the Greeks and the Romans, magi appear in all of those great world empires. These priests became the voices of knowledge to the royal courts of the great world empires. In particular, you can see in history evidence of their power and influence in Babylon and the Persian, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sansian periods of time, very influential in ancient world history. You might ask the question, well, how do they fit the Magi? How do they fit into scripture? Well, you know that nearly 600 years before the birth of Christ, God raised up the Babylonians and used them as a tool of judgment. And in a series of three great devastating invasions that were concluded in 586, three waves of invasion and capture and deportation, basically the people of God were taken by the Babylonians into Babylon. where they served basically in what we might consider concentration camps. Ezekiel by the river Chabar. We see this picture throughout so, so many books in the Old Testament. Much of the Old Testament is written by men, prophets, called by God, speaking to just before the Babylonian deportation, during the Babylonian deportation, and after the Babylonian deportation. It's a major, major theme in the Old Testament. But one of the unique books in the Old Testament concerning Israel or Judah and Babylonian deportation is the book of Daniel. And here's why Daniel is so unique. Here you have God's people taken captive to Babylon. And in all those Old Testament books, in every one of them, with one exception, that's Daniel, in every one of those books you have the captors, Babylonians, and the captives, Israel, and the Babylonians are over Israel. Israel is under the domination of the capturing force of Babylonians, with one exception, that's Daniel. where Daniel and his friends are taken, and Daniel shows himself so bright that Daniel, as a captive, is placed in authority over the Babylonians. Who would think it? I want you to look at Daniel with me for a minute. I believe it has everything to do with understanding who the Magi were. Daniel 2, and we'll turn back to Matthew in a second and to somewhere else after that. Anyway, Daniel 2, notice verse 1-3. Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. And the king gave orders, here it is, to call in his magi, his conjurers, his sorcerers, his Chaldeans. I take these to be synonyms for the same kind of people that will become magi. calls all these people in, or this one kind of people in, to tell him what his dream means. So they came in and stood before the king, and the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream. And sort of like Humpty Dumpty, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the dream together again, right? The Magi, Nebuchadnezzar's Magi could not interpret the dream. Notice verse 12, chapter two of Daniel. Because of this, the king became indignant, very furious, gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went forth, the wise men should be slain, and all of a sudden they started looking for Daniel and his friends to kill them. What happens then is Daniel interprets the dream. Turn to Daniel chapter 12. Notice verse 46 and 49. After interpreting the dream and some other events, then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, the king doing homage to the captive Daniel, and gave orders to present him an offering, listen to this, a fragrant incense. That's incense. That's frankincense. That's how they honored someone. The king answered Daniel and said, surely your God is a God of gods, a Lord of kings, a revealer of mysteries since you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole providence of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Stay in Daniel. In Daniel chapter 4 verse 9, you can take note, and also in 5 verse 11, Daniel is called the chief of the Magi. When Babylon falls to the Medo-Persians, the Medo-Persian king Darius promotes, elevates Daniel to the very same position, king or ruler of the Magi. The Persian kings were prepared by Magi. They were prepared in the whole body of their knowledge from natural science to math, astronomy, astrology, all of it they called the law of the Medes and the Persians. No king could ever be crowned without an expert knowledge and possession of the law of the Medes and the Persians. Even 100 years after Daniel. In Esther 1.13, we have then King, who is Ahasuerus, the king of Persia, said to the wise men who understood the times there was a custom of the king to always advise the Magi. A hundred years after Daniel. The Magi were the anointers and the informers. of the kings, the royal courts. The Magi served as a check and balance system against deputism amongst the royal courts of the ancient world. You can even not only go 100 years beyond Daniel, but you can go back 600 years before Daniel and you see the practice in the ancient world. For instance, as the book of Acts is dealing with Moses, Acts 7, 21 and 22 says this, after he had been set outside Pharaoh's daughter, that's Moses. Pharaoh's daughter took him in, nurtured him as her own son, and Moses, listen to this, was educated in all the learnings of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power and word and deeds. Here's the same sort of practice, even in the Egyptian culture, where you had sort of an Egyptian form of magi who were preparers of princes and kings. It took place from Egypt all the way through the Babylonians, all the way through the Medo-Persians, all the way through the Romans and the Greeks. So God uses the Babylonians to take his people captive. God causes one of those Jewish captives to become ruler of the most influential people of the ancient world. And then God gives this Jewish chief of Magi an amazing prophecy. Look at Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9, beginning in verse 24. This is an amazing prophecy. Daniel 9, 24, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." That is, now they're returning from Babylonian captivity. The new Persian king Cyrus is going to send them back and issue a decree for them to rebuild and return. Until Messiah, the Prince, that's the birth of Jesus, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks, and it will be rebuilt again with applause and moan, even in times of distress. Verse 26, after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. That's to say that Jesus will be killed and have nothing, and the people of the Prince who has come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and its end will come with a flood, even to the end that there will be war. Desolations are determined. He, I take that to mean Christ, will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the one week, He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering on the wings of abomination will come to make desolate, even until the complete destruction of one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate." Any questions? Pretty complicated prophecy. Here's what it says, keeping it simple. Daniel is told when the Jerusalem temple will be rebuilt. Daniel is told when the Messiah will come. Daniel is told that when the Messiah comes, he will be cut off, he'll be killed. Daniel is told that Messiah will accomplish these things. He's going to make an end for sin. He's going to bring an atonement for iniquity. He's going to bring everlasting righteousness in. He's going to anoint the most holy place. And I take that to mean not in Jerusalem, but in heaven, where he enters something not made by hands, but an eternal place. He anointed the holy place. Daniel is told that God will bring about, listen to this, this is what this prophecy says, that he will bring about the complete destruction of the old covenant system. The destruction of the temple, the completion of offerings, no more sacrifices. This is the end of the old covenant system. When the new covenant comes, it is Christ who will be killed. He's gonna bring an end to the entire Old Testament system. And that Jerusalem's history subsequent to that will be characterized by conflict and war. In fact, it says that he will establish a firm covenant. The Hebrew is gavir. That he, the Messiah, will establish a firm gavir. It means a strong covenant, a mighty covenant, an everlasting covenant, a prevailing covenant. It means to ratify a covenant that cannot ever be broken. Amazing. That's quite a prophecy. The old is over. The new has come. The new will accomplish because of this Messiah what the old could never accomplish, an end for sin, atonement for iniquity, everlasting righteousness, the anointing of the most holy place. In whole, the prophecy is about the coming of Messiah and the changes that his coming will bring, of which we now are beneficiaries. But the main point, Daniel is told—and I'm not going to get into the weeks of years and all of that— Daniel is told when Messiah will come. Daniel is shown when. The chief of the Magi, this tribe that he doesn't even belong to because he's a foreigner. He's not Persian. He's not Medo. He's a Jew who becomes chief of the Magi, is shown when the Messiah will be born. Go back to Matthew chapter 2 just for a minute. Matthew chapter 2, notice verse 10 and following. And when the Magi, three, thirty, three hundred of them, three thousand of them, we don't know. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. That is as demonstrative as a sentence could possibly be. You get that? They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." Exceedingly great joy, they rejoiced exceedingly. And after coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary's mother, listen, and they fell to the ground and what? Worshiped him. Here is the most graphic picture of the change in the new covenant from the old covenant. Here we have not Jews worshiping God in a temple, but Gentiles. Worshiping the Savior in a manger. It's exactly what the prophecy said it would do. The Magi, the great, worship this infant as king, as fulfillment of Daniel chapter 9's prophecy. How they knew? Daniel had informed them. And if you think about the hundreds of years that transpired from the ministry of Daniel as chief of the Magi to the birth of Christ, that is to say for hundreds and hundreds of years, Magi lore had spread Daniel's teaching and Daniel's understanding of the birth of this great king till it came to pass. And God condescended to their astrology and all of that to bring them rightfully to the right place to worship the right infant as the king of the Jews, even during the reign of a king that did not belong. Let me take you to the small, from the great to the small, look at Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two, beginning at verse seven. Verse 7, And after she, Mary, gave birth to her firstborn son, she wrapped him in clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In that same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord showed 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 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, that you will find a baby wrapped in clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angels of multitude." And I told you in the Greek that is a phrase which means sort of layers or a sampling of the millions and myriads of angels. You have a cross section of the angelic host of heaven that appears 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 found their way to Mary and Joseph. and the baby as he lay in the manger. And 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." I've preached on this passage many times, and at length I'll be brief. This is an enormous contrast, from magi to shepherds, from the most influential, powerful people in the world to the absolute drag of the social ladder. At the time of Christ, shepherding was lowly, unskilled, common, insignificant. They were known to be uneducated, unskilled. They were the lowest paid people in that culture. By necessity, shepherds, because they cared with sheep unclean, seven days a week, they lived at some level of violation of Mosaic law, day in and day out. So for the Jew of the first century, They couldn't maintain Sabbath. They couldn't maintain rabbinical laws. They were looked at as living in violation, unclean, all their lives. They were cheap hired labor. They were seen as unreliable and untrustworthy, unsavory. They were constantly by and large in rabbinical literature, always suspected of stealing sheep. They were not so savory were these people. They were never allowed to testify in a Jewish court. They were never allowed to testify in a Jewish court. How about verse 17? And when the shepherds had seen this, they made known all that they had seen. Verse 18, and all who heard the shepherds wondered. Because of shepherds, the rabbis of the first century had banned pasturing sheep in modern-day Israel. They had to pasture sheep in the plains away from the city so that people would not have to encounter shepherds. The Mishnah, which is Judaism's written record of their oral law, refers to shepherds in some very demeaning terms. One passage in the Mishnah says that no one should ever feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit. In other words, they're like an empty tin can. The German Lutheran scholar Joachim Jemias documents the fact that shepherds were deprived of all civil rights in that culture. He further, he wrote, to buy wool, milk, or a kid from a shepherd was forbidden on the assumption that it was probably stolen property. Everybody get in the picture, say amen. The rabbis of Jesus' day asked with amazement, how in the world could they use the despicable nature of a shepherd to call God my shepherd? Psalm 23 one, the Lord is my what? How can that be? When Jesus and John 10 said, I am the good shepherd, that is the most graphic oxymoron in the world. A good shepherd? Remember, even as Jesus explained shepherds, when the hireling, the shepherd sees the wolves coming, what does he do? Undependable. Just allow me to conclude with this. This is an amazing contrast. A few people, a few people that we have records of significantly interacting with the birth of Christ, and two of them are wise men and shepherds. There could be no greater contrast. I find this contrast to be amazing. on two levels. The first is this. Number one, those who worship the newborn incarnate Christ consisted of the great and small, the point being this, that Jesus and the new covenant, the gospel, in that covenant and in that gospel, in Christ, there are—listen to this—no distinctions. If Magi can worship Christ and shepherds worship Christ, then everybody in between can worship Christ. Everybody say Amen. We see that throughout the life of Christ in the gospel and in the church. We see priests and prostitutes, sinners and centurions, widows and the wealthy, thieves and theologians, magi and shepherds, angels to shepherds. In fact, right in the text, you know what the angels say to the shepherds? They say this, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for what? All people. That's one level on which this contrast is amazing. But the other level upon which it's even more amazing is that we see in this contrast, we see the merging of the king and the shepherd in the person of Jesus Christ. He is worshipped by king anointers because he is the king, and he is worshipped by shepherds because he is the shepherd. We have this contrast of worshippers, the magi and shepherds. And the reality is that they are worshipping both of them, the shepherd king. I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about a shepherd and a sheep. It's all about a king and a subject. And we are given throughout the scriptures the reality of both Christ's humility as a shepherd and his power as a king, his presence and nearness as a shepherd, and yet his transcendence and approachability as God king. His provision and his and his watering, and his feeding, and care, and protecting as a shepherd, and yet his absolute authority as king. And what's really amazing, as you think about this, is we see all of this hinted at through the Old Testament. Because all the significant kings of the Old Testament were all shepherds. Abraham, the patriarchs. What did Abraham do? He was a shepherd. Genesis 30, Isaac, the patriarch, a shepherd. Genesis 37, the patriarch Jacob, a shepherd. Joseph in Egypt, royal robe, prince of Egypt, a shepherd. In fact, when they return with the family, you remember the big reconciliation, the family comes, and here comes Jacob's family, and they bring the flocks and the sheep, and just like the rabbis of ancient Israel, the Pharaoh, and the people of Egypt say, yuck, sheep. And even worse, yuck, shepherds. And if you look carefully at the text in Genesis 46, the reason they are moved out of the capital of Egypt down to Goshen is not to build and hay and all, they're moved because of sheep and shepherds. Get away from us. And then we have Moses, who goes from the courts of Pharaoh to shepherd the sheep in the fields of Midian. and then the first anointed king of Israel, David. You know why David was a shepherd? Because he was the youngest one in the family. Second Samuel, verse seven and eight, God says this to David, I took you from the pasture from the following after of sheep to be the ruler over my people, Israel. That blows my mind. A contrast so great as Magi and Shepherd realized in the person of Christ and anticipated in the Old Testament and witnessed at his birth. Let's bow our heads and hearts in prayer. Father, we thank you for Jesus Christ, our Shepherd King. Your plan to save your people conceived before the world began, where the triune God had determined to redeem sinners before man was ever created, and certainly before man ever fell into sin, involved the second member of that godhood becoming a man to be born on earth as both a shepherd, the lowest and a king, the highest. And at his birth, representatives from one pole to the other are there to worship him. Father, thank you for all that is ours in Christ because he is king and all that is ours in Christ because he is also our shepherd. Yes, he rules, his authority, obedience is due him. And yet he's not just king, he's shepherd. He carries us. He's tender. He feeds us. He leads us. He guides us. He heals our wounds and binds up our broken hearts. Father, we just thank you for who Jesus is today. We thank you for all of his fullness. He is truly worthy of our worship. And though not one here today be a magi, nor one here today be a shepherd, we fall somewhere in between, somewhere between the greatest and the lowliest. But nonetheless, he's still worthy of our worship. So we do worship. If you're here today and you've never trusted in Christ as your Savior, never believed upon Him as the Lord of your life and the Shepherd of your heart, you've never seen yourself as a sinner and Jesus as God's only plan of salvation, we call you, as every New Testament preacher and apostle, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That is to say, confess your sin, your inability to save yourself, that He in Himself is the only hope of salvation that Christ alone, by faith alone, through God's grace alone, can save. This Christmas, do yourself the greatest favor you'll ever do. Trust Christ. Believe upon Him. And Father, for us who know you and have known you for years, fill our hearts this season with a new conceived wonder, love, and joy over Jesus. And it's in His name we pray and all God's people said, Amen.