Dear friends, I've just overcome again this week by the fact that I have to preach to you the most joyful good news that any ears could hear. And though we hear it year after year, I suppose it does get somewhat common. We're about to hear about how the news was announced to shepherds. as though that would be the most natural thing. Like, it would only be right to announce the birth of the King of Kings to shepherds. What would be more lovely than to have this pastoral setting on a Christmas card and that shepherds should hear the good news? Oh, friends, nothing is more unexpected than that the King of Kings should be announced to shepherds who would find him laid in a manger, in an animal stall, So please, with new ears, hear once again these joyful tidings as we consider together from Luke chapter 2, the continuation of the passage I started with you some weeks ago, but coming back to it now. Not because we have any holy days or holy calendar besides that which the Lord has given on the Lord's day, of course, but hard to fight the drift and the current of people thinking about such things. And as Spurgeon reminded me this week, the drift itself is not bad. Let us then turn our minds to the joyful news that is everywhere around us being announced with joy. So let us hear now from the word of the Lord. This is Luke chapter two. I'd like to read to you from verse eight. down to verse 20. Now there were in that 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. And 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 assigned 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's 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. 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 the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in their heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things which they had heard and seen as it was told them. Amen. Let us pray ourselves together. Let us all pray. Gracious Father, we long once again to be partakers and participants of the joy of these shepherds. And so we pray that this good news would again strike our souls, our minds, our emotions, that our whole being would once again be elevated and lifted up. We realize that who are we among the people of the earth. Indeed, of all the works of your creation, We are the only ones that are rebellious, the only ones who are unworthy of any attention or notice from you. But it was even to such as us, even the lowliest among us, that such a joyful and gracious announcement has been sent. So we pray once again for joy, for wonder, and for life to be rekindled in our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. The angel called for joy that day, and it is the same that I am calling for from you. And no ordinary joy, as Craig reminded us. It was called great joy, literally mega joy. And if that wasn't enough, the angel said, I bring you good times of great joy. Every word you see triumphant and emphatic to show that this good news, more than anything else, is intended to give, and will surely kindle within and create the highest possible joy in the human heart when it is received. Earth's joys are small and fleeting. But God has delivered to us a joy that will never end, a joy that is as infinite and eternal as God himself. These little hands, wrote Charles Spurgeon, will one day grasp the scepter of the universe. These little arms will one day grapple with that monster death and destroy it. Those little feet shall tread on the serpent's neck and crush the old deceiver's head. Yes, and that little tongue shall before long pour forth from his sweet lips such teaching as to transform the world. Oh, sin had separated God and man, but the incarnation bridges the separation. From now on, when God looks upon man, he will remember that his own son is a man. And from that day forth, when he beholds the sinner, He will remember that his own son, as man, has stood in the sinner's place and bore the sinner's doom. And so as in the case of war, the feud is ended when opposing parties intermarry. So there is no more war between God and man, because God has undertaken man, taking him into union with himself." End quote. Well, this is just by way of review. Last time we considered this passage was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and we just began to open it up. I introduced it to you, and we looked basically at three words, if you remember. What did it mean, this announcement, that there's one to you, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord and from those three words I tried to open up to you really the riches of everything that went before in the Bible and everything that was to come after because those words summarize everything that the Lord was going to do for us and everything that he was going to be for us and that's why it was such an announcement of great joy who is this Jesus whose birth is being announced with such fanfare well God has done what we could never do The whole race of men, guilty and rebellious, sunk in sin and misery and death. has now been redeemed and restored by this one Jesus, God himself having come to do what we could not do, so that in Bethlehem, the most joyful and wonderful news the world could ever hear was announced. The Bible, therefore, as Craig also said, is brimming with words of joy, not just joy that happens 480 times, but the verb, which is countless, rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory. And where does that joy come from? Where can you get that joy? Now, you know, when some of you get a paycheck at the end of that month or at the end of that two weeks, however often it comes, how do you receive it? Do you clutch it to your breast in loving gratitude and adoring wonder? Do your tears well up in your eyes? Do you have trouble being able even to read the numbers on your check stub because you have such joy in the giver? Of course not. I mean, you know it's coming. You earned it. Indeed, the company has to give it to you. There's no love. There's no grace involved at all. They owe you. You earned it. And therefore, there's no joy, certainly no tears of joy. You might be happy to see the paycheck, of course, but no tears of joy at the giver. But here's where Christianity alone is a religion. of the profoundest joy. Because Christ had come to us when we deserved nothing. Indeed, when we had positively deserved judgment. When we were enemies, it says, Christ died for the ungodly. And so our great joy springs from a great love, from a great sacrifice, from a great mercy. a great redemption that has returned us rebels to God himself, to the very fountainhead of all perfect love and joy and peace and knowledge. And so it is that when we were even unwilling, he has made us so that we now love him because he first loved us. that He has given us faith and love and everything else, and has promised to keep us to the end. And so if God is for us, who could be against us? Here is the foundation for our love and wonder and delight. This I say by way of just review, just bringing you back to the passage that we considered last time, why it's such good news. Why can we rejoice? Well, because there's born to you and to me, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Now today we're going to move on in the story a bit. I'd like to preach to you really from one verse this morning and then to finish it up this evening with some more practical application. But today I'd like to just look with you at verse 12 at this interesting phrase in the announcement. And once again, even though it's just one verse, I'm going to try to look ahead at everything that's about to come to us. the Gospel of Luke and why it's the fulfillment of everything that had been promised in the past. In verse 12, the shepherds, after being told this wonderful news, are given a sign. This will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. A manger? What kind of sign is this? What do you mean a sign? What does it signify? The question for today then is, what is the sign of the manger? Now, humanly speaking, there's nothing really remarkable about this at all. Really, it's just kind of a sad story. From just a human perspective, there was a Roman census, and people had to go register, and Joseph and Mary were both at the house in line of David. They had to register at their home in Bethlehem. And so Bethlehem was then a very small farming town, probably didn't even have an inn, by the way. The word that Luke uses is somewhat more general and could be used of any accommodations, you know, the end of a house, any place that would accommodate any guest. Mary was with child. You can imagine travel was probably pretty slow for her. Others may have arrived earlier, but for whatever reason, When they arrived, the houses of Bethlehem were more than full with visitors. People had more than they could deal with. But there was an animal stall free. And there in the hay they could lodge for the night. And there, perhaps in the stall of a donkey, as we just sang, Jesus was born and laid. And thus God incarnate The Savior of the world was put into a feed box to spend the night. Humanly speaking, I'd say it's kind of a sad story. And yet, as we are reminded, all of this took place under the sovereign hand of God in order to be a sign to the shepherds, a shine to the people, and a sign even to us. And a very strange sign at that. What in the world does it mean? This is not the kind of sign we would expect. Now, I'm sorry to say that here, unlike many other places, this isn't actually explained. There's no first letter that says that this sign means this. It's just given. The sign is, your Savior's going to be in a trough. Go see Him. Well, I would like at least to tell you why it is a very fitting sign, a very fitting introduction in this book to our Savior as He comes onto the scene of history. I'd like to tell you three things. First, and most obviously, at the most length, it is a sign that He has come for people like us. Second, it is a sign that He has come to suffer for us. And third, it is a sign that He is willing to receive people just like us. First, and I'll spend the most time on this, it's a sign that he has come for people like us. The birth announcement of kings is typically given in palaces to the nobles, to the rulers of the earth. The birth of Christ the King is announced not to rulers in their palaces, but to shepherds in their fields. And this is very, very significant. All these shepherds are sent to find a babe, a babe who's not been wrapped in purple and laid to rest in a crib of gold. They are to find their king lying in an animal's manger. Here is the ruler and the savior for people like them, surely. Jesus, you see, was not going to be a king. like Caesar, not at all. He was not going to trample their fields down with his armies. He was not going to slaughter their fox to feed his nobles. This one was the poor man's friend. Indeed, his chosen ambassadors would in a few years be the lowly fishermen of the world or the despised tax collectors of Israel. You know that for many people, politics and religion are both a matter of power. of money and of status, reputation. Jesus had come to overturn all that, for that is all of no account at all in the sight of God. Even a few paragraphs earlier, in chapter 1, verse 52, there is this prophecy of Jesus, that he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly, that he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. or right after this, chapter 2, verse 34, that this Jesus is destined for the fall and rising in Israel, come to turn the world upside down. And you see, the rich, the mighty, the religious leaders, not very many of them were to become the people of Christ. Indeed, To them, no birth announcement was sent. To shepherds and to Gentiles, that's it. Such people were, in any case, would be too proud to come and to worship a king in an animal's stall. They would not rejoice to receive such news. The mighty of the world would not rejoice at such an invitation. Jesus indeed had not come for them. He had come for the poor, the lowly, the needy, and the outcast. Jesus had come for the harlot, the tax collector, the sinner. No one was too low for him. No one was too humble. But many were too proud. The self-righteous, much too proud. They didn't think they needed him. So what a joy it was for those shepherds to be able to go to an animal stall most natural comfortable thing in the world for them here is a king that is truly one of us you know working men love a leader who's taken from one of their own somebody who understands their difficulties somebody who sympathizes with their miseries somebody who feels an interest in their concerns I told you before about Wayne Alderson that magnificent manager of a steel mill who turned the whole thing around as well as the spiritual lives of a few hundred people there. And you know how he won their arts? Because with this time of great tension between labor and management, great separation, that he would walk with the men. He would wear one of their hats. And he would get out there and he would be there with their homes and he would talk to them and he would ask, he asked the chipper, hey let me have that for a few minutes. Let me see what that's like. to do that kind of work. They said, no manager has ever been like this. Here is someone who's not above us, someone who wants to understand us, someone who will sympathize with us, somebody who will share our pain. Similarly, great military commanders in the history of the world have won the hearts of their soldiers by sharing in their hardships and even risking their own lives and showing that they are not in no way beneath the men. Well, here in Jesus, in the most extreme way, is a king who shares every bit of the misery of his subjects and who places himself even below us to become a servant to creatures like us, that he is one of us, that he shares our pain, that he understands us, that he knows us, and he cares for us. so that all the prophecies about the Messiah who would tenderly care for the needy and that their blood would be precious in His sight would be fulfilled. And so the rest of this book, Luke shows us how this sign of the manger works out time and time again. How is it fulfilled? Well, Jesus time and again is compassionate to people who were not at all important to the people of that day. Look, Messiah brought a new order to society where, to put it mildly, riches and power were not esteemed, and poverty and lowliness is not despised. Those are his people. This book, chapter after chapter, overturns today's snobby, selfish, superficial society, showing God's special love and concern for the poor, like the shepherds, like Mary and Joseph, who we read later in this chapter are too poor even to make the regular offering at the temple for their new son, Jesus, presumably the wise men having not yet come. Okay, now when we read the word poor in the Bible, we Americans tend to think, okay, poor means economically poor. We tend to think about people who have little money. Certainly in the Bible it includes such people, but much more as the day in the rest of the world where poverty is so prevalent. The word poor is a term to cover all the needy and oppressed and those who have no helper, who cry and no one hears, who don't get justice, who are the people in need. Psalm 72, we sang about the sympathy of the Messiah. Listen to these words, how they're stacked up. He'll deliver the needy when he cries, the poor and him who has no help. He will spare the poor and the needy. He will redeem their life from oppression and violence and so forth. The psalm using many, many words to help explain one another. For when it speaks about the weak, and the needy, and the helpless, and the poor, and him who has no help and stay, and the one who doesn't get justice, and the children of the people, and on and on. It's saying that everyone, everyone who has need. Somebody may be in the middle class and yet oppressed. Somebody may even be wealthy, but if you're lame, or blind, or barren, you are in your own way weak or needy. And whatever advantages you may have in one area of your life will be offset by some need or affliction in another. So some are downcast and mourning or left without family. Some are widowed or alone. Some suffer physical infirmity. Some sickness and pain. Some societal exclusion or social norms are violated if you're a person in society that's lowly, if you are marginalized, if you are ill-treated, if you are a slave, a foreigner. and outcasts and so forth. This word, this term is an umbrella term to cover all of such things, including especially in the Bible, all spiritual weakness and infirmity. Blessed are the poor in spirit. If you are a lost sheep of the house of Israel, if you are a despised Gentile, far from the covenants of promise, far from the household of God, if you are a leper cut off from your people in all these areas, we are reminded that Messiah has come. And with the most tender and affectionate language, we are told that his heart is specifically toward these people in need. Psalm 73, again, we sang it. He delivers the needy when he calls the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak. He will save the children of the needy. And all these things are stacked up. And what do we find chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter in his life? The proud he knows from afar, but these people, these are the ones that have his heart. And this is why at the very beginning, God gave the shepherds this sign of a manger. And why God did not count it extravagant, to throw a big concert out in the field, sending thousands, apparently, of the heavenly host to put on some music for a few shepherds and their sheep out in the field. Now, we might think that's a bit extravagant, but God did not think so. So far as we know, these shepherds and their sheep were the only ones with tickets to the performance of Gloria in Excelsis Deo, which obviously they said in Latin, right? It's a joke. Why shepherds? Why were they the ones invited to the splendid concert of angelic singing, glory to God in the highest? Why were these, oh no, these were the perfect ones to invite. You see, shepherds in that day were not invited to very many royal concerts, as you might imagine. No. Shepherds did not have the connections. They didn't have the formal wear. If they had it, it would get ruined pretty quick, sleeping on the ground with your animals every night. Not good to have a tuxedo that's full of mud. Okay? Shepherds are perhaps the modern equivalent of the guys who pick up the trash in your neighborhood. It's just the nature of a shepherd's job. In appearance and clothing and social standing, it means you don't get invited to society's events. You're not sent royal birth announcements. You don't get to go to royal concerts. You know, when Caesar had a son, there would be great celebration, birth announcements to all the nobles and their associates and parties would be held. They would not be invited to such things. But when God brought His King into the world, when His Son came, He wanted His people to have the joy of the announcement, you see. And so these poor souls sleeping out with their sheep in the field are the very people who will get the announcements. You see, there is born to you this day in the city of David a saint who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a feeding trough. Well, that manger that we sentimentalize as though nothing would be more appropriate for the king of kings. As I say, there's nothing more unexpected and shocking in the world. And that manger, by the way, you notice how often that's repeated? I don't think I enunciated it properly. It's repeated again and again. Did you notice that? The angel said, you know, you're going to find him laying in a manger. And when Jesus is born, we are told that Mary and Joseph, Mary laid him in a manger. And when those shepherds finally showed up, did you notice that one more time, just in case you missed it, if you forgot where Jesus was, For the third time, he mentions that he was there lying, you guessed it, in a manger. That manger was a very important symbol for the shepherds and for all who are the poor of the earth like them. As Jesus put it in his very first sermon in his home synagogue, the Lord has anointed him to preach the gospel to the poor. These shepherds were the first of the poor and needy in their own way to hear the good news. And so, as the book went on, People who were without sight were healed. A widow of Nain who lost her only son, Jesus would raise her boy to life in the sight of all and give her back to his mother. Think of that sinful woman who wept at Jesus' feet, whom Jesus honored and declared that her sins were forgiven before the proud religious leaders, who could only see in her a sinful wretch they wouldn't even want to touch. If this man were a prophet, they thought, they would know what kind of woman was touching him. Oh, don't you know, this was the kind of people for whom he came. This is the sign of the manger, the sign that Jesus had not come for the proud and great and rich, that he had come for a people of need. And so, my friends, if you are poor and needy, whatever that need may be, It is altogether possible that you will live in this world longer without comfort. I assure you that it will continue for a time. Nevertheless, this world is passing away. And the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. And those temporary things, well, they do last a lot longer than what we like. But Christ has come. to bring an end to this existence, and to bring a world in which he will, we read, wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, and the old order of things will have passed away, for behold, he says, I make all things new, and he will have finally turned the world upside down, and many, he says, many who are last will be first, and the first will be last. And this is a challenge to us in the present time then, this in-between age when the great power of God has broken in and the world to come is not yet. But Christ's people are nevertheless to conduct themselves in the world as he did and to have this same attitude as their own. Because you notice in practically every chapter, not only does Jesus have sympathy for such, But he also condemns, in the hearing of his disciples, all that snobby, selfish, superficial, self-righteous attitude of the people, commending to us God's special love for the poor and needy, for the lowly, for the outcast, for the pariah, for the sinner. Luke's colleague Paul puts it this way, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but for the interests of others. Let that same mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus." See what the sign of the manger means? We are to have that same mind in us. Again, he says, let love be without hypocrisy. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another, distributing to the needs of the saints given to hospitality. Don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. It says with the humble sign of the manger. It's to be our calling every day in the world as it was his. You can start today after church, just go and associate with the humble. If you have a bunch of people coming up to you after church, you'll know that people think that you are the humble, lowly ones in the congregation. That's okay. Jesus had an eye for you. The proud he knew from afar. But he was our Savior if we are those people who have need. And especially, as I say, it's true for the spiritually needy. That is the chief concern that he had. For Jesus was a Savior full of compassion. He had come, He said, for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do we have that same compassion? He was called a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He ate with them. He sought them out. He had come for people who had nothing to be proud of spiritually, who were not satisfied that they were so much better than others. people who beat their breasts and said, God have mercy upon me, a sinner. Jesus says, I tell you, that man goes home justified before me, not the man who says, I'm so glad I'm not like the other man. Jesus was tender, merciful, forgiving, a welcoming Savior for all who had sinned. for all who had made a wreck and needed to come back to God, a sign that He was a Savior for all who had need, for a people just like them, a people like everyone here, if you're honest. This then the sign of the manger. He had come for people like you and me. It's also a sign, secondly, that He had come to suffer for us, that He had come into the world to suffer for us, for that manger was just the first day of a lifetime of His humiliation, that Jesus had come, according to prophecy, to be one who was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was to be without form or comeliness, and we did not esteem him, but he would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And in so many other words that I don't have time to tell you today, we are reminded that the Messiah was to come into the world not to receive glory and honor, but to receive degradation and humiliation, and not to hide his face from spitting, as Isaiah put it elsewhere. That he had come to suffer, the just one for the unjust, to bring us to God, that this man would be treated as we deserved, that he would die, that we would live. And so I ask you, would it have been right for the one who was condemned to die upon a cross? Would it be appropriate for such a one to be born to be robed in purple and blading gold at his birth? No. Would it be appropriate that the Redeemer of the world, who would be laid in a borrowed tomb, to be born anywhere indeed but an animal stall? Because, you see, the beginning and the end of His life make perfect sense. The manger and the cross. It's hardly anything more fitting, is there? And even in between, He says, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. And so we see that this manger is a sign that points back to all the prophecies that had come of this one who would first suffer and then be exalted, who would live a life of humiliation and then be exalted to the right hand of God. And this whole lifetime of humiliation and misery that ended at the cross itself began on day one, as it should begin, with a manger. The sign of the manger that Christ had come to suffer for us. We sang it earlier in that song, What Child is This? You look there in the manger and what do you sing? Nails, Spears shall pierce him through, the cross be born for me, for you. The manger says this man God has made, this man who knew no sin, that he will become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, that we deserve humiliation, agony, misery, and death. It is what justice deserves. but in His mercy He will carry that Himself and give us His kingdom. The manger, a sign first that He had come for people like us, a sign second that He had come to suffer for us. Third, and finally today, it means a sign that he was willing to receive us, that he was willing to receive us. Now imagine how intimidated those shepherds would have been. The angel had come to them and said, now, you guys, I'd like you to go to the royal palace in Jerusalem. And there you go through the guards, you go through the royal hall, you go into the royal chamber itself, and there in the bedroom of the king you will find laid a crown of gold, and there amidst all the nobles you will find my king, the king of kings, laid. Would that be intimidating, do you think, to shepherds? They would probably say, oh, maybe the Lord is testing us. I mean, God might have commanded it, and they might have gone. But it was going to be something that God was going to be, it was going to be difficult for them. They would at least have to change their clothes and wash up. To go and see Jesus, if he were laid there, right? You see that? It would almost be a put off. But nothing could be less intimidating to a shepherd than a manger, a stall, They would tremble if they had to approach a throne in a palace. But a manger? Who would fear a manger? Nothing would keep them away. There's no rough royal guards to pass through, no nobles or high officials they had to be concerned about. Nobody would see them. The sign of the manger says, come on. You shepherds, you come as you are. You come to him now. Here's the word of the Lord. You yourself are invited to come to him just as you are right now. There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior. And here's a sign. He's just right there in an animal trough. Go ahead. Whoever among you has the desire in your heart to come to Christ and see the King of Kings, there is no hindrance, no barrier, you will surely not be kept away." This was the sign of the manger to them. Charles Spurgeon again writes, sinners often imagine that they're shut out. Oftentimes the convicted conscience will write bitter things against itself and deny itself mercy. Oh, I'm not worthy for this or I'm not for that. Brother, if God has not shut you out, do not shut yourself out. until you can find it written in the book that you may not trust Christ, until you can quote a positive passage in which it is written that He is not able to save you, I pray that you will take the heavenly word wherein it is written, He is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by Him. You venture on that promise, come to Christ and the strength and faith of it, and you shall find him free to all comers. And do you think that Christ died on Calvary and yet would not come into your heart if you sought him? Do you believe that he who died for sinners would ever reject the prayer of a sinner? If you believe that, it's only because you don't know him, for his heart is very tender," end quote. And you could ask the same thing about the manger. Do you think that he who was not ashamed to come and be born into a filthy manger would not come to your heart and life? Not when he has been born for this very purpose. It was his delight. And Jesus himself said, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. And he who was willing to lodge in a filthy sable will be willing to lock with you this day and dine with you. Do you think it would be an offense? I tell you it's for this very reason he's come into the world. The sign of this manger is a sign that there is nothing keeping anyone back at this very moment, that there is nothing required, that there is nothing that you can do, nothing that you can achieve or earn, nothing for which you may be proud, nothing that you may claim as your contribution. There is nothing that you need except at this moment a willingness that the shepherds indicated to go and welcome their Savior with great joy assigned to you. Is there not a heart here who will receive? Do you want this joy? Do you want this Savior? How many excuses and inventions and objections people have to this? Well, if you perish, it will be of your own hand. Nevertheless, I tell you that there lies in that manger yet today good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And you should count yourself too good for a savior. I assure you, a great company will not. And with those shepherds, the lowly of the earth will come and find a savior born to them. But my last word today in conclusion will be to you who have come to that manger in Bethlehem by faith and pray that you would behold your Savior, a high priest who indeed has been taken from among men, one who has compassion because he has been touched with the feelings of our weakness as it is written, one of whom it is said, this man receives sinners and eats with them. A scandal to the religious people of the day, but great comfort to us. even from his infancy, rejoice that he has been set forth as the one who is the friend of the lowly, whom everyone can come to see and rejoice." Now, you're frequently taught here about such things as unconditional election, that God does not choose anyone because he foresees some goodness or worthiness or potential or even faith in them, but purely because he has goodness and compassion and mercy. But just because election is not conditional on us, don't think that God has not chosen a people especially. Because we are reminded at the manger that this is a sign that God has chosen the meek, the lowly, and the humble, and the poor, and especially the spiritually needy to be His people. These are his, not the others. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, you see your calling, brethren. Not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty. and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are in order that no flesh should glory in his presence but of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that as it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord So it was, you see, from the very first day. So it continues to this day. And to be sure. The Lord does not leave himself without a people among the high and mighty. Don't misunderstand me. For some of the world's greatest minds and rulers and artists, scientists and leaders in practically every field have been followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Let no one think that the truth of Jesus cannot satisfy a great mind or a great vision or a great heart. Perish the thought. It doesn't say not any noble. It does say not many noble. It doesn't say not any wise. It says not many wise. Because the vast majority of the people that Christ came to save are and have always been the shepherds, the Zechariahs, the Elizabeths, the Josephs, the Marys, the Simeons, the Annas, the people of Luke chapter 2. These are His people. Do you have more than this? Do not boast, I say. What is your boast? Only this, God has had mercy on me. that God has become man to give himself for me and my salvation, to bring a poor sinner like me back to himself. And if this is your boast, then you are able to come to Bethlehem and rejoice. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be born for me, for you, but hail Hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary. Let us pray. Lord, you are letting your servants depart this day in peace, for our eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all the nations, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. We are poor and lowly. Do not forget us or despise us. We pray for those who are yet in need without God and without hope in the world. We do not ask them to come up where we are. We pray them to come down with us. Down, down to the manger of Bethlehem. And they are kneeling. to find that one who is a savior for people like us. In his name we pray. Amen.