Well, if you have a copy of God's Word, please open it up to Luke chapter 2. If you do not have a copy of God's Word, the text is printed for you in the bulletin. I almost don't feel the need to be up here because everything that I'm going to read and everything that I'm going to say, we've already said this morning in some way or another, whether it be in song or whether it be in the scriptures that we've read together. But even so, that's what God's called us to do. So I'm going to stay up here and do my thing. We're going to read Luke chapter 2 verse 7 through verse 20. So hear the word of the Lord from Luke chapter 2 beginning in verse 7. And she, that is Mary, brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Well, the impact of the Son of God coming in flesh is something that's inescapable and especially in our country. No matter how much our culture wants to cast off the reign of Christ as quickly and as passionately as it does, there is this nagging of Christmas every year. Every year, a culture that seems to hate Jesus still has Christmas. You turn on the radio to a station that ordinarily would play music that they wouldn't dream of playing anything relating to Jesus on certain stations. And yet at this time of year, you can turn on your radio and hear something like Handel's Messiah, you know, the Hallelujah Chorus, Handel's Messiah. And you hear this choir singing, The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And he reigns forever and ever. You turn it to another station, and you'll hear one of my personal favorites, The Little Drummer Boy. And we all know that Bob Seger's version is the best version of that song. And you hear about really wanting to glorify Jesus in this way. But one of my favorites, this hymn that we've already sung this year, is Hark the Herald Angels Sing. And one of my favorite lines from this hymn is, peace on earth, Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. We've already sang it this morning. We've already read it from Colossians 1 earlier about the reconciliation that God has provided for sinners, not for good people. Not for people who do a lot of good, but once in a while they do things bad. No, we're talking about people who are sinners, who have rebelled against God. This is what the gospel is, this is what reconciliation is, and we're going to look at that this morning. And here we find that in kind of summary form, and this is where it all begins in Luke 2. This is what Jesus accomplished, is reconciliation for sinners to bring peace on earth, And we hear about this here in Luke chapter 2, and so we're going to look at three aspects of this this morning. We're going to talk about the greeting, we're going to talk about the glory, and then we're going to talk about the gospel. The greeting, the glory, and the gospel. Children, bonus points if you can remember all three of those words. Just throwing that out. All right, so let's start by talking about the greeting. First thing I want to point out that we often do mention when we're talking about Christmas is the lowliness of it. The fact that this greeting, when this announcement of the birth of the king comes, it comes to shepherds who are out in the field. They're not in the city. They're not with other people. They're not sleeping, which is what they ordinarily would have, what the common man would have been doing at this point. But they come to shepherds. The news comes to shepherds. And really the only thing lower, there were basically two things lower than shepherds. They were tax collectors. And then I'm not saying this is a biblical idea, but tax collectors and women were pretty much the only thing in this day that were lower than shepherds. And so the fact that this announcement comes to shepherds is kind of a way of showing really just the lowliness of it. And then, of course, we talk about Jesus being laid in a manger. I don't know if you've got kids, particularly if you have one kid, you're different on your first kid than you are with the rest of them. We've got number seven on the way and you know by number five, number six, you'd be ready to hand out your kid to any bum on the street just to babysit them. But when your first kid comes, when your first kid comes, you're very concerned about things like germs and everything like that. I can't imagine laying your first born son in a feeding trough. And just think about the lowliness of this picture that you get here. Nobody, even in this day, would have laid their child in a feeding trough, a disgusting thing. And yet this is where our savior, the king, is laid at the announcement of his birth. So there's this lowliness in the greeting, but there's also this majesty or a greatness in the greeting. We have to remember that this is the birth announcement of a king. And another great theologically sound documentary having to do with the birth of a king is one of my personal favorites, The Lion King. And if you remember in The Lion King, kind of the beginning scene where Simba's born and they're on Pride Rock and they raise him up. You know, I say that being silly, but one thing we do need to remember is that in the ancient world, we do see in the Lion King this tradition reflected of how important the birth of the future king would have been. There would have been all the time pomp, there would have been circumstance, there would have been great ceremonies, and oftentimes in the ancient world, gifts would have been given when the newborn king would have been born. And so what we have, instead of having this going to the most important people, beginning with the royal family, what you have is it going to shepherds, but the greatness of it, the majesty of it is reflected in the messenger chosen. This is an angel, a creature that God has made that dwells in the throne room of God that he chooses to deliver his message to these shepherds. So it is something great. It is something that does reflect the majesty of God, even though Jesus is placed in a feeding trough, and even though it comes to shepherds, the peasants, or the lowest of the low, we see the majesty reflected. So we have this coin with two sides to it that we often see with God. The majesty of God and yet what we might call the humility of God, where God condescends to come to us. Think about Psalm 113. It says, the Lord is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God who dwells on high, and then he says, who humbles himself. to behold the things that are in heaven and on the earth. Isaiah 56, 15, for thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in a high and holy place with, not the rich, not the wealthy, not the intelligent, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. How often do we breeze through the Lord's prayer without even giving consideration to the fact that it begins with our father? Yes, there's this witness of God. He is our father. He loves us. He cherishes all of his children. But it is immediately followed by our father who art in heaven. So we have really this juxtaposition of the majesty of God and yet the withness of God. The fact that the transcendent God humbles himself to behold his creation. And not only that, to enter into his creation in the person of Christ. We see the majesty and yet the humility of God in this greeting. Well, let's talk about the glory. In verse nine, if you look back at the text, it says, and behold, look, check this out. An angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. In ancient Jewish literature, this was known as the Shekinah glory. Shekinah just comes from this Hebrew word that means the dwelling place, and so this glory was a the visible manifestation of the presence of God. This is what the Shekinah glory was. And particularly, the most important places that we see this Shekinah glory is in the tabernacle and the temple. So that when the tabernacle is complete, we'll get there in a couple of years to the end of Exodus when we get there one day, but we'll see that this cloud of glory comes into the tabernacle And the priests aren't even able to do their work because God is giving him this visible manifestation. Remember, God is invisible. God is a spirit and does not have a body like men, so you can't see the invisible God. But yet, at times, he manifests himself in this visible way so that you can know that he is there visibly. So we see that with the tabernacle, and we see this also in the Scriptures under the construction of the temple under King Solomon. And when the temple is completed and when it is dedicated, you see this Shekinah glory, whatever it looked like, this beautiful cloud of glory, this representation of the visible manifestation of God's presence come into the temple. But there's a problem. Israel rejects God in many ways, and so God judges them. God destroys that temple. And then there's another temple built. This is the era in history known as second, not sepent, that's not a word, but second temple Judaism. And under second temple Judaism, when this temple was dedicated, there was a problem. The glory doesn't show up. Why is there no glory here? Well, go with me to the book of Haggai if you have a copy of God's Word. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew. I tell you that. I gave away. I can't go through books of the Bible without saying them out loud. I'm not really saying that for you. I'm saying that for me. Matthew, about 20 pages back from Matthew, and you're in Haggai. I want to look at this text in Haggai because God explains, hey, don't be afraid that the glory doesn't show up at this next temple because it's going to show up one day. Of course, that's what we see in Luke 2. But go to Haggai chapter 2 and we're going to go through these couple of verses here at the beginning of Haggai chapter 2. It says, in the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now in comparison with it? Is this not in your eyes as nothing?" Let me stop right there. The Scriptures actually record for us that those who remembered the initial temple wept when they dedicated the temple because the new temple was lackluster. It wasn't as big, it wasn't as beautiful, it wasn't as glorious. And so there were people at the dedication of this temple that you would think was a glorious time, a joyous time. They were actually weeping because it wasn't as glorious. And number two, because the glory doesn't even appear to show up. And so the people are wondering, is God even with us anymore? Does God even care about us? Where is his glory? Where are the promises? Where are the manifestations of God that our fathers saw in ages past? Verse 4, Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, says the Lord, and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. So my spirit remains among you. Do not fear." You see, he's giving them this promise saying, don't worry that this cloud of glory hasn't come. I'm still with you. And then he goes on to say in verse 6, For thus says the Lord of hosts, Once more, it is a little while, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations. This is a messianic prophecy about the coming of Christ. And I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts." Notice that he's saying the Messiah is coming. I'm going to fill this temple with glory. Don't worry, the glory is coming. But it's not coming in the same way that it came to the tabernacle. It's not coming in the same way that it came to the temple. It's actually coming in a much greater way to this temple. By the way, this temple in this text was destroyed in AD 70. But the point was that the glory was going to come in a much better way. It was going to come in the person of the Messiah. And so if you fast forward up to Luke 2, where we are today, this glory finally comes. It's visibly manifested, the announcement of Christ's birth. But yet the glory of Christ, who is the image and glory of God, is much greater than this visible cloud that would have come. And in just a few weeks after this moment when Jesus is born, He was going to be presented in the temple. And throughout His life and throughout His ministry, you see Jesus in the temple. So there's a couple of things that we learn from this. Number one, the greatest glory that God has is in Christ, because Christ is the glory of God. And besides that, Think about the problem with those who adhere to Judaism, who reject Christ as the Messiah. Here is a promise that His glory would come to the temple, and yet that glory never came. At least in the cloud it didn't. So either Judaism is true, either we reject Jesus, which we cannot do, or God fulfilled His word in the person of Christ when Christ came to visit the temple. So this glory of God, this visible manifestation finally returns and we see it at the announcement of Christ and we see it in the person of Christ. And so it's really the celebration of the promises of God finally being fulfilled, that His glory, His presence, His salvation, His covenant, all of His promises, they're finally here in the person of Christ. This promise of peace that would come is finally here in Jesus. But then we have to ask the question, what kind of peace is this? And we talked about this a little bit last week. So let's talk about the gospel. The word gospel simply means good news. And that's what's mentioned here in verse 10. The angel said to them, I mean, you can't turn on the TV and not see the Peanuts Christmas special. And they read this passage. In Charlie Brown Christmas, verse 10, And then if we drop down to verse 14, what these angels were saying, praising God, this multitude of angels saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. This is where this saying peace on earth comes from, right here in verse 14. So I want you to think about the fact that there's a need for peace here. There's a need for peace. Well, what does that mean? The fact that there's not peace and that we need peace implies a couple of things. And the first thing that I think we need to recognize is that there are enemies asunder, that there is enmity between God and man. Remember, we're talking about peace between God and man. In fact, Psalm 7, verse 11 says that God is a just judge and God is angry with the wicked every day. That's not something that we like to think about, is it? That we don't oftentimes like to talk about the wrath of God, the justice of God, the anger of God, and yet, if we don't understand the wrath of God, we don't understand the love of God. We don't understand the greatness of the peace that Jesus brings. So we have to recognize that there is enmity between God and man, and that was why we needed peace, but there is also separation. Isaiah 59 too says, your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. So there is enmity, there's separation, there's danger. When we sin against God, this is not some trifling thing. I know a lot of times we think about sin, we think about rebelling against God, and we think about it as something that can just be swept under the rug, but God is a just judge. What would you think about a judge that let a murderer go free on the street? You wouldn't think He was a just judge. You would think He was a terrible judge, and you would be right in thinking that. And in the same way, God is a just judge and does not allow guilty sinners to just go free. He doesn't just shoo away sin or act like it's no big deal. God is infinitely more just than any somewhat just judge we have here on earth. That is why he is angry at sin. That is why he declares we need peace with God. So there is this need for peace of God. And so we need to ask the question, well, what kind of peace did Jesus bring? And he answers all of these things I think, helpfully, in this word, Savior, there is born to you in this day, in the city of David, a Savior, that Jesus rescues us from the very problem that we have. Jesus, when he died on the cross, took our punishment, the punishment that we deserve. We explain it to our children all the time in this way, that if you owed a great debt, if you stole $10 from someone, someone comes in to pay that $10 for you, someone steps in to take the punishment that you deserve to pay the price that you should be paying yourself. Well, that's exactly, yet not exactly really, but an infinitely greater picture of what we have on the cross. where that we deserve God's wrath and judgment because we have rebelled against Him, and that's what Jesus does. When He dies on the cross, God is pouring out on Him the punishment that we deserve, and this shows us the great love that God has for sinners. The fact that God is angry with sinners is a reflection of His anger, but the fact that God sends His own Son to take the punishment that we deserve shows the love that He has for sinners. I mean, I wouldn't let one of my children take two scratches for somebody that I even like, much less give their lives for someone that has done nothing but rebel against me their whole life. You see, the cross, when Jesus grows up and dies on the cross, is a great reflection of the rescuing Savior that Jesus is for his people. And this is really the greatness of what Jesus offers in the gospel, is this great theological word, reconciliation. We read it just a couple of moments ago from Colossians 1, and this word reconciliation in Greek is a word that means to change from being against, and it is God who is reconciled. So it's God who is against us because of our sins, rightly so, and yet there is a change that takes place where because of what Christ has done, God is no longer against us. But sometimes when we think about reconciliation, I think we think about it in a wrong way because we think, OK, there's a truce or there's some kind of ceasefire. And like human wars, we think, well, we quit shooting at each other, but we really hate each other for the next couple of hundred years. That's not the reconciliation that Jesus wins for his people. You see, the reconciliation that Jesus accomplishes is a reconciliation that brings adoption, where God, yes, He was angry at us for our sin, but He brings us into His family, He adopts us, He loves us, He cherishes us, to the point that the scriptures even say that God is for us. And if God is for us, who can be against us? So the gospel is not just something where God says, okay, I'm not mad at you anymore. No, God's love is shown in that he brings us into his family, that he cherishes us, that he cares for us, that he is for us. So two questions I wanna answer about this gospel, about this reconciliation, about peace on earth. The first is who? And the second is when, who and when. So who is the gospel, who is peace on earth for? Well, we've said it three or four times today, all the children recite it today, but I wonder if you picked up on it. In verse 10, do not be afraid for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to, say it if you know it, which will be to all the people. Man, to me, this is one of the most glorious things because there have been times in my life when I have thought, there is no way, given what I have done against God, that God could forgive me. And yet we have it right here in Luke chapter two, in verse 10, this glorious reminder that no matter the sins that we've committed, no matter the guilt that we bear, this good news of peace on earth is for all people. for the greatest of sinners against Jesus. It's for all people. All who come to Christ by faith can have this peace with God, this reconciliation. And the last question is when? When is what we need to look at concerning the gospel? Well, in verse 11, the angel tells them, for there is born to you this day. And so we might be tempted to think, OK, he was born that day, but what about the shepherd's response? What did they do? They say, OK, well, I'm going to gather up my shepherd things, whatever shepherds carry other than a staff. I don't know, their tents, whatever they got. And they say, well, when I get done doing this, then we're going to go take care of this Jesus thing. That's not what it says. Look down at verse 15. It says, so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass. You see, they didn't delay in going to see their salvation that was lying in a manger. They did not delay. They said, let us now go to Bethlehem. And I think about this as Christian. If you're Christian or if you're not really a Christian, whatever camp you consider yourself to be in, this is important because every day we sin, every day we need the gospel. Martin Luther said, every day I preach the gospel to myself because every day I need to be reminded of the gospel. And every day we need to remember that it is not us by doing good deeds or doing that which is right that makes us right with God. No, it's what Christ has done, how Christ has lived, how Christ has died, how Christ was risen that makes us right with God. And we need to be reminded of that every day. And we have to be reminded of that every day because we're just like our father and mother, Adam and Eve, who tried to sow fig leaves together for themselves and cover themselves. They tried to fix the problem for themselves, and that's the exact same thing that we do, try and fix the problem, but we can't fix the problem of sin. Only Jesus can do that, and only Jesus did do that. But there's this immediacy that we see, let us now go to Bethlehem. Now they must respond to the gospel. And when you sin, you must now respond. There is this nowness, really, to the Christian faith and to salvation that is in Christ. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, 2, Behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation. There is a nowness to the salvation that Jesus has provided. Sometimes I talk to people and they'll say, well, I want to wait a couple of years. There's some things I want to do before I kind of get my life right. I want to clear some things up. Let me tell you something. Tomorrow is the devil's day. You do not have tomorrow. Satan wants you to wait before turning from sin and coming to Christ because you don't have tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow holds. Now is the only acceptable time to come to Christ now. Sometimes people say, well, I need to think about what is there to think about? There is Christ. There is Christ. There's nothing else outside of Christ. Nothing else matters but coming to Christ by faith. That is the only thing that matters. And sometimes we think that we have questions, but all of them are answered in Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Whenever you sin, if you're a Christian, whenever you sin, if you've come from a background where you're not part of the Christian faith and you're investigating things, let me tell you something. Now is the only acceptable time to come to Christ. And that's exactly what the shepherds did. They went to see their salvation lying in a manger. Later on, we see people going to the cross to find Jesus dying for their sins. Interestingly, we do see people going to the tomb, but they didn't find him there. He was already gone because he was alive, risen from the dead. But now the place that we find Christ Whereas one point at the beginning of his earthly life, we see him lying in a feeding trough. Now we see him on the throne in heaven, ruling and reigning over the nations. And that is the only place that you will find him today. And so I would encourage you to do the same thing that the shepherds did. Go to your savior, go to the king and bow before him and say, I am yours. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. God, we do praise you for the glorious work of the gospel in Jesus Christ. We praise you for his birth, for his death, for his resurrection, for the great peace that you have provided for us. What a lovely thing that you were the one who provided reconciliation in your son. In Christ's name, we praise you, amen.