You are listening to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. Have you ever received a great gift at Christmas? I remember growing up I've had a lot of gifts that have been not so great and maybe you've had a few of those that for some reason somebody gave you something that you didn't really want or wasn't really something you needed and you kind of wonder, what am I going to do with this thing now? Do I give it to somebody else? Do I just throw it away? Somebody spent money on this? We can kind of be in some of those weird situations when we get stuff like that. I remember a couple times when I was 18, I got a model train. I was kind of past the point of really wanting a model train. It was one of those gifts that was not so great. What do I do with this thing? I don't really have time to play with this. It was one of those gifts that was not so great. Growing up, I think, growing up in Wisconsin, some of the best gifts that we had were anything that had to do with the Packers. And I remember growing up, we would get all kinds of different Packers gifts. And some of the best gifts there, I remember a locker that had Brett Favre's name on it, it was almost our kid's size, and we stuffed all kinds of stuff in it. I remember getting this outfit, this Packers outfit, and just wearing it all the time. I don't know, you can hardly tell, but there's purple, I have purple socks on. I don't know why I wore purple socks with it every single time. But this was one of the great gifts. And through my younger years, the tricycle, the bike, the toys, those were great gifts that I loved. We get that idea, I think, the tradition of giving gifts from a number of different places, but even in scripture, we find that gifts are given during the Christmas season. Think back with the three wise men. They brought gifts to our Lord as a baby, as a young infant there. They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Maybe that's where that transit. that tradition that we have comes from. We find good things, but the greatest gift that we're going to look at this morning is the gift of God, the eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We find that the greatest gift that we could ever have is Jesus Christ and we're going to be looking at a group of individuals this morning, ordinary people that were able to learn and receive this greatest gift. They're the shepherds. And you'll find their story in Luke chapter 2 and verse 8 through the end. We're going to be looking at that area kind of piece by piece. But these shepherds of old, Jesus Christ offered them the greatest gift. Like them, we have an opportunity to receive it. You have the opportunity to receive this greatest gift that's offered to you. As we follow this story, we'll find that these shepherds had an opportunity to go and seek for that greatest gift. And some have said that the wisest of scholars, as well as the simple of humble believers, like these shepherds, simple men, have bowed a light to the manger They were in Bethlehem and acknowledged that the infant, born of a virgin, laid in swaddling clothes, is their Lord and Savior in whom is resident all the attributes of Almighty God. And one day, whether we like it or not, every knee will bow before that babe. Will you this morning consider this baby, this greatest gift? Maybe the Lord would lead you to this morning, bowing and receiving this gift. Let's unwrap this gift that these shepherds receive. And we'll find it through three areas. that this is the greatest gift. We're gonna notice that the recipients, the people that heard about this gift, make it the greatest gift. The reason why this gift was given makes it the greatest gift. And then they reacted to it. Their reaction, all these three things, they prove that this is the greatest gift that we could ever receive. So let's go look at God's word and see what it says. Look with me at Luke chapter two and verse eight. It says this, and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And now look at verse 10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, let us go now even onto Bethlehem to see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. Verse 16, and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lined in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the scene which was told them concerning this child. These shepherds were the very first recipients of this gift. And this is the reason why we see that this is the greatest gift. It's the recipients, the people that received it. In addition to these shepherds, we find that other people, learned about the king of this baby born in a manger it was given as a gift to all people you'll find there what the angel said for unto you is born this day for all people i bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to everybody all of us Whether you're like the shepherds, you're an ordinary, just working individual. Or maybe you're like the kings where you've got gifts, you've got that gold, you've got those precious items. There's also some religious people later on in this chapter, Simeon and Anna. They're two people that we find in God's word that were devoted to worshiping there in the temple. They were religious. They were very devout is what the Bible says. Anna was a widow that spent a lot of time after she was widowed, spending time worshiping there in the temple. But what's interesting of all these people, They all bow before the king of kings. Those shepherds realize that he is their savior. The kings are searching for him because he is their savior. Simeon even, this devout religious man, his eyes light up and says, now I have seen my salvation. These recipients show that this is the greatest gift. I love the fact that God chose to reveal, announce his birth, the birth of his son to the shepherds. Think about them with me. They're just ordinary people. Maybe like you and I, maybe like your family and my family. Humanly speaking, if a king was born, this would not be the class of people that would normally be the ones to first learn about it. We would think that given who Jesus Christ is, the son of God, that he would be revealed in other manners, but Jesus Christ chose to reveal this to people like you and I. And even in this very announcement, we can find that Jesus Christ was born for us, for all people. There's not a person, a group of people, a class of people that Jesus Christ is only for. He is for all people, unto you, me. These shepherds are, Jewish tradition kind of helps us learn an interesting fact that will kind of give us a little bit more background about who this man is. Some people have studied who these shepherds were and given their location, they're somewhere outside of Bethlehem, And Jewish writing kind of leads to the fact that these shepherds were kind of unique shepherds. They were told to be taking care of the very flocks that would be used in the temple sacrifice system. And if you studied the Old Testament, this was a special flock of sheep that had to be very pure, had to have no blemishes. And these very shepherds would, through tradition, they would raise these sheep. They would keep them outside of Bethlehem. And this was one of the only flock that was used in temple sacrifices at Jesus' time. And these shepherds were in charge of that. And at night, they're out there watching this special flock. And what's unique about that is that Jesus Christ we find in the New Testament is the Lamb of God that died for us. Just like those temple lambs would shed their blood, they would die, they were raised to die the same way our Lamb of God died to take away the sins of the world. It's a great, kind of an interesting fact that these Jewish writing has led to people to find this out about that. This had to be the people, the shepherds that Jesus revealed to his birth to them. These flocks were special and Jesus Christ was a special gift for all of us. Unto you is born this day. Whatever category or class you are in, Jesus came for you. Today, in this day and age, when we give gifts, we usually write on them, too, and then you put in the person's name from, and then you write your name there. That's what Jesus Christ did for us. The shepherds heard a message and it said there in verse nine, the angel came out in verse 10, he says, fear not for I bring you good tidings of great joy. This is a great gift, which shall be to all people. Jesus Christ saw, excuse me, it's almost like God wrote a message on this gift and he said to you, to all people. I was telling this to the shepherds, but it wasn't just for them, it was for you and I. The recipients show that this is the greatest gift, and God's greatest gift has your name written on it. I think at this point, no one would really disagree with that God, Jesus Christ died, he came as a savior, he came as God's son. But to understand why, what makes this gift unique, what makes it the greatest gift, we've got to learn two more things. about why Jesus Christ came, what this gift is to you. Jesus was born in the manger, and I think the second aspect, the reason for the gift, really shows why it's the greatest gift. The message inside this gift shows why it makes it the greatest gift. Let's look at what the angel said about this gift. Imagine yourself there as those shepherds. You've left the sheep and you're out in the cold December night. It's dark. You're just there maybe with a fire to warm yourself or somewhere around those sheep and all of a sudden out of that dark night sky, you hear, it lights up with an angel and then you hear a voice. All of a sudden, if you were right there, I'm sure, like the shepherds, I would be afraid. That's crazy. This isn't supposed to be happening. And they were really afraid. They were so afraid that the angel had to calm them down. He said, fear not. And then he tells them a message. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And here's the message that shows why this gift. For unto you is born this day a savior. a savior is born, here's the sign. If you go back to that stable, you'll find this baby in a manger. That's kind of unique. Normally a baby wouldn't be there. Swaddling clothes, you would find a baby in that, but you wouldn't find him in a manger. And imagine once again, you're thinking about that. It's not making any sense to you. Why is a baby in a manger? And then all of a sudden, instead of just one angel, the entire heaven just burst forth in song, and it's almost as if those angels, they couldn't hold themselves back any longer. That first messenger told the story, told the message, and then everybody else was proclaiming the glory of God. It says there was suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host. And they started singing, and the heavens praised the Lord, gave Him glory. The earth echoed it back as peace, and those shepherds understood it as goodwill. They saw a great sight there. They saw a great message proclaimed. And when we unwrap this message, it shows its reason why Jesus Christ came. Those angels said, for unto you is born this day a Savior. To understand this, we've got to first understand who God is and what that means to us. But think about it with me. If a Savior came, that means by just deduction or just by reasoning, if there's a Savior, there has to be a person in need of being saved. Think about this. A lifeguard doesn't just jump into the water to swim. A lifeguard goes in to save a life. Similarly, a paramedic or a firefighter doesn't just come to your house to have dinner. He comes there because he's called to have some part in medical or fire or some sort of emergency. He's coming in there as a Savior. And similarly, when we see the fact that Jesus Christ came in as a Savior, it reveals to us a little bit about God's character. God is completely holy. Bible says that he is of pure eyes, that he can't even look on iniquity. And you've heard of the Ten Commandments, and that reflects his nature. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not murder. All these things. God is completely pure. And he set up standards whereby we must live. The problem with that is that we're in a dilemma. We can never keep all those Ten Commandments. We can never do all of those things. We can never keep all of those laws. Think about one, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not lie. Have you ever said a lie? I think that's all of us, have said something like that. One sin makes it a sinner and it makes us a sinner. Only one time Does it take to commit murder? You're a murderer. Similarly, only one sin makes every one of us a sinner. But we're in a dilemma. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. There's a payment for sin, just as a criminal has to pay the crime, do the time for his crime. Similarly, there's a payment for our sin. The wages of sin is death. And the Bible gives us a little picture of what that is. In Matthew, it says that God judges the earth based on their sin. And he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Revelation 21.8, it gives a list of all kinds of sins, sorcerers, fearful, the unbelieving, the immoral people, people that we would consider very bad, very full of sin. But then it ends the verse, and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is a second death. There's a punishment for our sin, that's a dilemma. God is just, he can't overlook our sin and that sin earns death. Remember that Jesus Christ came as our savior because each one of us is a sinner. God can't overlook your sin. We've seen the purpose that he came. He came as our savior because we're in the dilemma. We need him as our savior. We're lost and dead in our sins. but let's look at the person who this gift is. The angel said, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. Who would you say that Jesus Christ is? During this Christmas time, it's easy for us to repeat, Remember that Jesus Christ is God's son. One of his names is Emmanuel, God with us. He's the son of God, but he came as our substitute. Jesus Christ is your substitute. He sacrificed himself for you. Just as the picture of those shepherds that were keeping the flock, the sacrificial system, they would be sacrificed for sin. Jesus Christ came as your lamb, your perfect sacrifice. He was the son of God, he was perfect, he was blameless. He took your sin. He became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. See, he made an exchange for us. He took our place. He said, I'll take your sin. And I'll put that on myself. And he was crucified on a cross. He died for us, in 1 Corinthians 15 says he died and was buried, but he rose again the third day. Jesus Christ is your full payment. He took his sin, he gave you his righteousness, and he paid it in full. Even on the cross, he said, it is finished. There's nothing left for you to pay. In the Christmas story, we find some religious people that realized that they were in a dilemma. They realized that they needed a savior. And Simeon, in this same chapter, lifts up the little baby Jesus in verse 30, chapter two, verse 30. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon recognized that he needed somebody to have a full payment. Even though he was a religious person, even though he had worked there in the temple, even Anna, the lady there, the widow, they realized that they needed a full payment. There's nothing left for them to do. Jesus Christ can be your deliverance. Jesus Christ came, the reason that he came was for you. Did you know that Americans use over 38,000 miles of ribbon every year wrapping their gifts this time of year? 38,000 miles. I can't really even picture that. I don't even know what that would be from where we're at to how far. I just know if you drive your car 38,000 miles over a year, that's a lot of miles. If you're doing oil changes every 5,000, that would be somewhere between seven and eight oil changes. That's a lot. That's almost like once a month or every other month. That's a lot of time. That's a lot of ribbon. We wrap up our presence with four million tons of papers and bags. And that's a lot. I can't even picture that either. We like the idea of wrapping our gifts, but some have said we probably like the idea of unwrapping them even better. If we're gonna go through that much stuff to cover these things up and then just tear them open. But it's a beautiful picture that as we unwrap this very gift, we realize the person and the purpose, the reason why Jesus Christ came. This is the greatest gift and we find inside of it a little bit about God. In a simple statement, friend, the angels told these shepherds the reason for this season. It's the message shared that Jesus Christ was born as a savior for you. Remember, it's for all people. There is no other way for forgiveness of sins in relationship with God. Finally, this morning, I wanna look at, in addition to these two areas, the recipients. The reason why this gift was given, I want to look at the shepherds' reaction. What did they do with this greatest gift? We find that the heavens brightened up, the angels are singing, all of a sudden they disappear and it goes back to that night sky. And they say among themselves, they're in verse 15, let us go now even on to Bethlehem. Let's drop everything. They left, they somehow did something with their sheep and they dropped everything. They said, we've got to go. Bible says they hurried, they went as fast as they could to find this baby. What if among those shepherds, that manger that that baby was sleeping in, what if that was one of those shepherds? And they looked around, that's my manger. This is the Savior. That would be amazing, wouldn't it? I think it's interesting how they reacted. They sought for Jesus Christ. They ran to Him. They looked for Him. They wanted to see this gift. And as soon as they saw Him, as soon as they received this gift, they told it to somebody else. They made known abroad. They told everybody, look, there's a baby. He's Jesus Christ. He's the Savior of the world. Come and see him. What a great application for us. Thanks be unto God for this unspeakable gift is what we find other people, Paul writing about in 2 Corinthians. This is a great gift. Just by its reaction, what people did when they heard about it, when they received this gift, And this morning, you, like the shepherds, have a choice. Will you receive Jesus today? How do we do that? We recognize the fact that God's gift is his son, his greatest gift. He's gracious, he's offered us salvation. It's not what we can do with nothing that we can earn. It's not of ourselves, but it's given freely by God. It's a gift of grace. And what should we do with that greatest gift? Just like the shepherds, we've got to run to Jesus. We've got to find Him, search for Him, receive Him. John 1 verse 12 says this, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. That gives us, at first, a little explanation about how we receive God's greatest gift. Friend, you've got to understand that he came as the greatest gift, your Savior, which is Jesus Christ, the Lord. We've got to understand that God can't tolerate or overlook my sin, but he gave his Son his life in exchange for mine and wants to give you, me, eternal life. We've got to agree with that. just like the religious, just like the ordinary shepherds, just like the kings, whatever class you're in, agree that you are a sinner in need of a savior, this gift. Finally, we find, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. We've got to trust, make an exchange, your sin and its penalty of hell in exchange for Christ's righteousness in a relationship with God forever. takes a decision. Will you run to Jesus? Will you repent, admit that you are wrong and God is right? Like the shepherds, you've got one opportunity. Will you take this gift? Will you receive it? Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish, is what the Bible says. Imagine yourself in a rowboat going down a fast-moving river. you quickly see buoys and signs along the shore that there's a waterfall ahead. And you realize that if you were to continue going down there, you would certainly plunge and lose your life in that robo. So immediately, with all your might, you're rowing. You're rowing as fast as you can. And for a moment, it seems like you're holding your position. But then that current just keeps moving stronger and more rapidly towards your boat. And you start going closer and closer to the edge of those falls. All of a sudden, you see somebody from the shoreline. They throw you a rope, and it lands across your lap. You've got one simple choice, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna keep rowing by yourself or are you gonna grab onto that rope and pull them to safety? What do you choose? And I think that's a picture of what we are. Jesus Christ is a savior and imagine yourself, you're a sinner and in need of him. You can try with all your might, but your sin is gonna take you to that lake of fire that said, when Jesus Christ said, depart from me, I'm holy. Can't have, I cannot tolerate sin. I can't even look on sin. You've got an opportunity. Maybe you could keep working. but quickly you'll find that even in your own strength, you'll never be able to pay full payment like Jesus Christ did. You've got to simply reach out, grab that greatest gift, Jesus Christ, run to him, receive him. Friend, Jesus has offered you the gift. You're one of his recipients. He wants you to understand the reason for his gift. You're in need of a savior. And the reason that he came, Romans 6, 23, that says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, His eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He wants you to react to it. Reach out, receive it, run to Jesus, bow your knee before Him, offer Him your life. Like as the shepherds at the manger, will you this morning, will you seek Jesus as a recipient, understand it and agree and depend on Him as the reason for this greatest gift? Will you react to it? Friend, if you have reacted to it already, if you have received Him as your Savior, will you, like the shepherds, tell somebody? These shepherds went out and they spread it abroad. They told everybody they could. There's a reason. There's a reaction that we have to have. You're one of the recipients. This greatest gift is offered to you. What have you done with it? Seek Jesus and you'll be found before you. Thank you for tuning in to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. We are conveniently located in Corona, New York City, and are devoted to loving God and making disciples. For more resources and helpful information about our church, visit StudyGodsWord.com. We'd also like to extend a personal invitation for you and your family to worship with us on Sunday at 10 o'clock in the morning. followed by a luncheon and an uplifting time of interactive Bible study for teenagers and adults after that. If you have young children, they will really enjoy our exciting Bible-based children's ministry that also occurs in the afternoon session. If you have any questions about the Church or would like to learn more about how to have a personal relationship with God, please give us a call or leave some feedback at studygodsword.com. We would be thrilled to meet you in person and show you firsthand what God is doing at Faith Baptist Church. Until next time, may God richly bless you.