If you're not still there, back to page 1014 in the few Bible, Luke chapter one. First, let me just say again, Merry Christmas. First, first, let me say again, Merry Christmas. That's better. I feel a lot better now. I won't be nervous. I don't know what your Christmas plans are. I'm sure you're excited about those. Ours include two perfect grandchildren. And begin this afternoon with a trip to Texas. And I hope you have a wonderful, blessed, glorious Christmas week. Well, I got to thinking about this this week. You know, I've been preaching Christmas messages for a very long time now. I have obviously preached on baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, angels, Bethlehem, wise men, Christmas stars, Christmas presents, Emmanuel, God with us, Christmas ornaments, God's Christmas tree. And we've looked at verses from the Old Testament, pre-Christmas verses, and very many more things through the years. And it isn't like the Christmas story ever gets old, is it? It's kind of like a multi-faceted, brilliantly cut diamond where every cut and every angle gives you another beautiful perspective of something just glorious. Something God has done. And there are so many glorious reasons for believers to celebrate Christmas, right? That's why and what I want to focus on for today. We're going to look at some of the people around the Christmas story and the reasons for celebrating Christmas. You hear the saying, the colloquialism, the reason for the season. Don't forget the reason for the season, which is true, and we've all said that, right? and been warmed by that. But there are lots of reasons for the season. And that's why I entitled the message this morning, The Reasons for the Season. Looking at the person of Christ is even more beautiful than looking at a wonderfully cut diamond because of who He is and all He's done. And this week when we celebrate His coming to earth, as I said earlier in the prayer to open this morning, gives us opportunity to do that. It's the people of the Christmas story, the beneficiaries, real people in real life that are the real reason for Christmas, right? Luke 19, verse 10 says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was us. fall in humanity. That's why He came. And that's why the people of Christmas, from the pages of Scripture right down to you and me here today, are the reason He came. It's incredible when we think about all the blessings of Christmas and all the things that we could ponder and should ponder, to think that He came for us. That He came for me. Isn't that incredible? So what we're going to do is just look at some real people from Scripture today. We have some wonderful examples in our text this morning. We're going to pick up in verse 67 of chapter 1. We're going to look at three basic lessons. We're just going to do a simple overview today. Three basic lessons we can learn from these folks in Scripture and what it meant for them. What was the payoff for them? And see that obviously it's still the same today. As we've said the last couple of weeks, when Jesus comes to a heart, to a life, to a home, anywhere, it means the same thing when we let Him in. So the first example we want to look at actually is a husband and wife duo. It is Zachariah and Elizabeth. They, of course, take up a big part of Luke chapter 1, and you're probably familiar with the story. I'm not going to go into it, but the overall lesson I want us to learn from them is that it is so worth it to live a godly life. It is so worth it to live a godly life. None of the people that we're going to look at in Scripture today, in fact, none of the people we ever look at in Scripture is perfect, right? We're not perfect. In this text here, today, Zechariah earlier in the chapter, verses 19 and 20, doubted God's Word given through the angel. He just couldn't believe it. It was too good to be true. And he didn't believe it. And because of that, the angel said, since you won't believe me, you're not going to be able to talk for nine months. And he couldn't. But still an example of a godly man. Now, begin with me in verse 67. This is the father of John the Baptist, as you probably know. And the miracle of John's birth precedes all of this. And in verse 67, Zechariah breaks out in song. It's really what's called a benedictus. It's a Latin term that means praise be the first word in the Latin praise here. Praise be is benedictus. So it's called a benedictus. And they got that from the Latin Vulgate. So his father Zechariah filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us. The lesson I want us to learn from this, and I want us to learn well, teenagers here today, anybody here today, all of us, pay close attention. It is so worth it to live a godly life. Turn back one page in Luke 1. to verses 5 and 6. Zechariah was a priest serving in the temple. In verse 5 it says, In the time of Herod, the king of Judah, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly. It goes on to tell that they were facing the greatest heartbreak that could be faced in a society in that day. She couldn't have kids. They couldn't have children. And then down in verse 13, it goes on to say, their prayers had been heard and they were blessed. So they had been faithful in serving and faithful in praying. So, what's the payoff for that? Why is it important to live a godly life consistently through the years. Well, the payoff is they knew what no one else knew. They knew what no one else knew. If you look at these first couple of verses in this Benedictus, the first thing that he understood, Zechariah, that nobody else did was the was the term redemption, redemption. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people." It's a fascinating word, that word redemption. We've talked about it in the past, so I won't dwell on it too much, but Zechariah and his wife looked around at the wickedness of their time and in their society. A minute ago I just read verse 5, and we saw that Herod was the king. You remember how wicked he was, right? Killed all the babies trying to kill Jesus in the process. And that was just one of the things Herod was notoriously nefarious for. He was a horrendous king. Zechariah and his wife looked around their society. They saw the evil. They read the newspapers. They followed everything on the Internet. Just kidding, but we do that today and we see the wickedness around us, right? They lived in wicked times too. And then he says, God has redeemed His people. The word redeemed I mentioned a minute ago means to set free by paying a price. Fascinating term. A lot of times it was used in the freeing of prisoners or the freeing of slaves. And that's what Jesus meant to them. When Jesus came, they understood it meant redemption. Now bear in mind, it hadn't happened yet. They were still just trusting God for His promise. But the miracle they saw in the birth of their son, the one who was to go before the Lord and to be the forerunner of the Lord, proved that Messiah was coming. The Lord had redeemed His people. What does that mean to us? We've been redeemed too, right? From the bondage of sin. from not knowing Jesus Christ, to being lost and helpless and hopeless without Him. We can fast forward in the New Testament, Colossians 1, verses 13 and 14, to be reminded of that, and we should never forget it. For He has rescued us, redeemed us, from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ came for you and me. He paid for my sin and yours with His blood, with His sacrifice. The Christmas message doesn't end in a manger. That's just a wonderful part of a plan that started in eternity past and became physically visible to men that first Christmas. Zechariah had lived a godly life and he knew what redemption meant. And that ought to bring us great joy. The second thing, by the way, is there anything you would trade for that? Contemption? Not me. And if you're here today or if you're hearing this and you're not a Christian, anything you can think or feel is worth giving up to trust Christ and to be redeemed. Second thing he understood, did Zechariah, was victory. Victory. It says here, because he has come and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation. And you understand, as we've talked about before in Scripture, when it talks about a horn of something, it's a reference to strength. A lot of times they would refer to the animal, to the ox or whatever, and the horn was a symbol of their strength. And when he says here that he has raised up a horn of salvation, it's an interesting concept. And again, because I want to keep rolling here, I'm not going to go into it, but it literally means to provide total victory. The strength of a salvation. And the word picture is of an army that's fighting and losing badly and they know they're going to be overrun very soon and the end is not pretty. And then at the last, someone or something shows up to rescue them, to save them, to deliver them. No more fear, no more fighting, no more prisoners. It refers to total victory. Zechariah understood. what the coming of Messiah meant. He knew what other people didn't know they could have known, and as we've said before, they should have known. But He understood redemption and He understood victory because of this promise. Third thing He knew that nobody else knew was truth. Truth. Look at verse 70. Let's back up because it's the middle of a sentence. Verse 69, He raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He said through the holy prophets long ago. Again, here is a person who has lived a godly life, who has studied Scripture and believed it and applied it. This reference to the servant David isn't an accident because all of the promises that God gave, the Davidic covenant, all of those things that God said in the Old Testament about an heir that would succeed David, that would come and would sit on David's throne forever and ever, referred to Jesus Christ and are still going to be fulfilled, by the way, Zechariah knew that. The coming of John the Baptist and the promise of the Messiah. We skipped over Mary's song in the first part of this chapter when she was expecting Jesus. It just thrilled him because he knew the truth of Scripture. He understood redemption like nobody else did. He understood victory. The horn of salvation. He understood that the Messiah would bring victory, not some sort of a military victory over Rome. but he would bring permanent, eternal victory over any enemy and every enemy anywhere and everywhere. He was thrilled to the core because he understood the truth of Scripture, the things the prophets had said hundreds of years before were coming to fruition in this little baby at this point in time in Mary's womb. He understood redemption. He understood victory. He understood truth. And lastly, he had a whole new outlook on life. If you look down at verses 71-75, I'm not going to take time to extrapolate anything here. Just look at it with me. the salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, an oath He swore to our father Abraham to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve Him without fear and holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. His outlook on life now because of this redemption and this victory and this truth was, I want to serve my Savior. I want to serve Him in holiness and righteousness without fear. And you know what? He's still doing it. Right? He lived in hard times 2,000 years ago, but then He was promoted to glory. And since that time, He's been elevated to a level of joy He couldn't even understand here on earth. And we have that same promise, right? When we trust Him, right? Ok, just making sure you're paying attention. Some of you are starting to drift. When we trust Christ, all of these things are true for us as well. Hearing, seeing, understanding His Word. The payoff is that we know what most people on this planet don't know. Just like Zechariah knew things that his peers didn't know or understand, maybe because they didn't care. All of this was available to them too. But Zechariah had lived a godly life. And that's why the overall lesson here It's just so worth it to live a godly life. Wherever you're at in life now, whatever age you're at, if you're young or you're old, it's so worth it to live a godly life because it gives us the ability to know what other people don't know. We understand redemption and victory and truth. We have a whole new outlook on life. The scriptures come alive. The second example I want us to look at today is found in chapter two. and beginning in verse 25. The example here is another godly person, Simeon. Simeon. And the overall lesson here is that in order to receive God's blessing, we need to be willing to faithfully and patiently wait. We need to be patient. Think of all of the years Zechariah and Elizabeth spent praying for a child, faithfully serving, faithfully obeying, doing the right things for the right reasons. And all those years of agony and all the wickedness all around them, and think of that payoff and how important it is to be godly. And so when we look at Simeon, the lesson here is that it's important to wait, to be patient. It says in verse 25, now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous, and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon Him. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was living a godly life. He was faithful in His worship. Faithful in prayer. Everything that this word devout here means. But He was waiting patiently. And I love this phrase, waiting for the consolation of Israel. He too, like Zechariah and Elizabeth, looked at all of the wickedness around them and their society. And he was longing for the Messiah. That's what this phrase here, the consolation of Israel, means. He was longing for the coming Messiah and all of the deliverance that would bring. You know, we're told several times in Scripture that we just need to be patient. To be still and know that He's God. To be willing to wait on the Lord. One of the verses that came to my mind was in Psalm 37, verse 7, where it says this, Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes, like Zechariah and Simeon looking around, like we feel when we look at the contemporary scene around us. The word, be still, it's one word in the original, means to come to a full stop and just rest. Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for what he's going to do. That's exactly what Simeon did. What was the payoff for Simeon? He saw what no one else saw. Zechariah and Elizabeth knew what nobody else knew, but Simeon saw what nobody else saw. Read with me. Verse 26, It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you can now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation. Can you imagine what it must have been like to hold the baby Jesus? If you're part of the CBC family and you come here, you know how much I love babies and how much I love to stand up here and hold babies and dedicate them to the Lord. Usually they cry when I do. But I just love it. Every little, mini person is a bundle of wonder and joy to me. I can't imagine what it must have been like to hold Jesus. as a baby. He got to see what nobody else saw because of his faithfulness. Several things he understood. The first was guidance. Look what it says here. Verse 25, he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Spirit that he wouldn't die before he saw the Lord's Christ. moved by the Spirit that particular day to go to the temple. There was a divine meeting and he was a part of it. And God made a point to get him there. Does God work in our lives that way today? You can do this because that's the right answer. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 still says what? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Philippians 1.6, and we've quoted it before, He's faithful. He'll complete the work He began in you. But for Simeon, back then, there, they didn't have access to the Holy Spirit as we have it today. When we trust Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit becomes part of our life. Jesus said in John 14, verses 16 and 17, after He had revealed to His disciples that He was about to leave, to leave them behind, and they were very troubled, and at the beginning of that chapter He said, Don't let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God. Trust Me too. I'm going to prepare a place for you. It's a familiar passage. Further down in that text, He says, And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate, to help you and be with you forever. The Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him or knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. Isn't that awesome? Plenty of other passages we can look at, but the truth of the matter is when we trust Christ, when we repent and turn to Him and ask Him to be our Savior and to forgive us, the Holy Spirit comes into our life and stays there forever. It is the Holy Spirit in our life that comforts us in difficulty, that prompts us to do things as He did with Simeon here, that convicts us when we're wrong. That's why after we trust Christ and we do something wrong, we all of a sudden feel different about it than we used to. It's the Holy Spirit that helps us understand the Scripture that teaches us. We are so blessed. The payoff to living a godly life is knowing what people don't know around us. The payoff for waiting and being patient is that the Holy Spirit works in our life and guides us. We don't have to kick doors down. We don't have to push our way through Christendom. We don't have to figure out this life. We can trust God. God the Spirit within us. Second thing he saw was, and I'm going to lump several together here for the sake of time. Would that be okay? Good. Satisfaction, fulfillment, and peace. That's what Christmas means. Sovereign Lord, verse 29, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people." After all these years of godliness and patiently waiting for the consolation of Israel, the satisfaction that must have flooded Simeon's soul at this point isn't really even describable. Do you think? I just try to picture the joy that captivated that old man as he held this baby and realized all of the satisfaction that he ever could have hoped for in his life was wrapped up in that precious little baby right there. And the fulfillment which you have prepared is inside of all people. And the peace. You can dismiss me in peace. the kind of peace only Christ can give. This kind of patience and dependence upon the Lord, at this point in our lives, leaves us with no regrets, no shame, no sense of a wasted life. And if you don't think this is important, Stop and consider how many don't have it. Or sit and listen to somebody at this point in their life who does have regrets and does have shame and does feel like they lived a wasted life and it doesn't happen. It doesn't have to be that way. Living a godly life, waiting patiently on the Lord brings guidance, satisfaction, fulfillment and peace, but also wisdom and insight. wisdom and insight. He saw what others should have seen. Look again at verse 29. Verse 30, For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for the Gentiles, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel. I wonder when he said that, if heads turned, what do you think? He was in the temple. A light for revelation to the Gentiles, my eyes have seen this." Why had his eyes seen that? Why didn't other people around see this? In Isaiah 42, verses 6 and 7, it's pretty clear, I the Lord, talking about God and referring to Jesus Christ, have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. To open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. 700 years before Simeon, God's Word revealed that this coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be a light to the Gentiles. And here it is fulfilled and it's Simeon that sees it and none else. Waiting patiently for the Lord gives us guidance. It produces satisfaction and fulfillment and peace, and it gives us wisdom and insight. The ability to see things other people don't see, not because we're any better or any smarter, but because trusting Him and waiting patiently for Him and obeying Him produces this kind of reward. And then finally, and again, we're going to hurry along, but it gives comfort and direction to others. In the verses that follow, verses 33, Down to 35. He turns and says to the child's father and mother and reveals what is said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your soul also. Simeon is prophesying about what's going to take place, and then not everybody is going to share his joy and his enthusiasm for this wonderful answer to prayer and prophecy. But he can do just that. He can comfort them and give direction to them because this is part of God's plan and this is God's Word. And whatever we face in this life, The answer is in this small baby that he held in his hand. So, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the importance of living a godly life, and the payoff was that they knew what no one else knew. And here, Simeon, the importance of waiting patiently for God, and the payoff was being able to see what other people didn't see in Scripture. Finally, let's go to the Christmas story in chapter 2, and the third lesson here. Be willing to do what God lays on our hearts to do. It's so important to be willing to do what God lays on our hearts to do. I just said we need to wait patiently for the Lord, and we do. But when God prompts us to do something, we should what? Do it. Do it, right? Let's look at the shepherds. Verse 8, there were shepherds out in the fields nearby. We read about that, so we won't read it again. And this angel of the Lord appears to them, and this heavenly choir appears, amazed by all of it. These guys were just humble shepherds, not kings, not rabbis. In fact, they weren't even accepted in their society because their positions as shepherds kept them perpetually ceremonially unclean. You understand that? They couldn't even testify in a court of law. They were that denigrated. They were looked down on that much. And the greatest story ever was revealed to them. But the angel in verse 10 said to them, don't be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy. This will be a sign to you. You'll find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And he said, go. Go find this baby. Now, it may be a little bit redundant, They went. Right? They went. They could have said, you know what? We have all these sheep. This is really awesome and stuff. They wanted to see Jesus. They went. And like I said, it may sound redundant. I mean, what else would they do? But you know how many people I've talked to that told me, you know, I really should start going to church. I really should start doing this. I really should start serving this area. And I feel like screaming, do it! Do it! If that's what you should do, do it! They did what they were told to do. We need to be willing to do what God lays on our heart to do. What's the payoff for this one? A life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. A life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. If you're here and you don't know Him, and you haven't accepted Him as Savior, and Christmas is just a big warm fuzzy for you, and you respect Jesus or agree with Jesus or whatever, but have never come to Him in repentance and said, Lord, I'm sorry for my sins. Please forgive me and be my Savior. You need to do that. Do it. That's the purpose for all of this, as we said earlier. He came for people just like us. Do it. If you know you should, do it. Trust Him. It produces a life-changing encounter with Jesus. It says in verse 16, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby. In the Greek word, the word found means to find something after seeking really hard for it, as you might imagine. Down in verse 20, it says the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. You see, there is proof. When you turn to Jesus Christ in repentance, it does produce a life-changing encounter. To those that honestly seek Him, Jesus never disappoints. Did you know that? There are a lot of people that are disappointed with God, angry with God. They've never come to Him like this. They've never learned the importance of living a godly life, the importance of patiently waiting, the importance of coming to Him honestly and earnestly, understanding what this evil, wicked world did to Him, but also understanding the glorious future ahead. Verse 14. I'm sorry, let's see. Verse 12. This will be a sign to you. You will find the babe wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. It was a personal encounter. Not some sort of generic thing. And like Simeon holding that little baby, I just often think, and I'm sure you have too, what the looks on their faces were like when they looked and saw this baby laying in a manger understanding who it was after this glorious appearing and announcement from all of these angels. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is for you. Has God been working in your heart to do something? Some step of obedience that you know you should do? To leave your comfort zone and seek Him and serve Him? You see, for these shepherds who did act upon the revelation they'd been given, the directions they'd been given, this Christmas joy never left them. It wasn't something they just pumped up every year around December 25th. I bet you they talked about this nonstop for the rest of their life. I bet you couldn't shut them up. Man, if I saw angels like that, I'd be waiting for the next one. And if they didn't show, I couldn't wait until I got to glory and I could hear them sing again. There are so many wonderful reasons for this season. And the key to all of them is personally accepting Jesus Christ. This, as it says in verse 12, is assigned to you. to do what you know you should do, to trust Him. And if you have, maybe you make some changes to follow Him, to serve Him as Zechariah and Elizabeth did. So, the three basic overall lessons of Christmas from these individuals today. First, living a godly life. How important is that? And the payoff is to know what other people don't know. Secondly, waiting patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled, being able to see things from Scripture other people don't see, not because we're any better, but because that's how God works in hearts and lives, and thoroughly to do what we know we're supposed to do. Simple, humble shepherds, the outcasts of society, received this glorious message and could have made all kinds of excuses. Well, I wasn't raised in a Christian home. I don't have the right clothes to wear. I don't know if I'd be accepted. You know, on and on. They went. They obeyed. And Christmas transformed their lives. So, three simple lessons from the people of the Christmas story. And reminding ourselves that we're the people of the Christmas story too, right? God's still at work. These promises are still true. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, You are so so wonderful, and there are so many glorious reasons for this season. We couldn't expound upon all of them, but we can praise You for all of them. And as we seek to honor You and follow You as these simple folks in Scripture did, we can trust the fact that You'll work in our hearts and in our lives too, and that the Christmas story will be with us all year long. But the blessings of Christmas will grow and grow and bless and bless. And that's the truly wonderful part of all of this. They just keep getting better. And then we're promoted to glory. And as these wonderful individuals have been rejoicing with you for all these years, we can look forward to that as well. Work in each heart here today, Lord. Make our hearts, our will pliable in Your hands. And for those seeking I pray that you would cause them to surrender and I know that you will fill their hearts and lives too. All of this we pray because of the magnificence of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.