- LISTEN Up! Be ready to respond to God's Word. (Luke 2:8-16)
- Knowing the information
- Agreeing with the information
- Acting on the information
- REPENT
- RECEIVE
- REACT
- SPEAK Up! People need to hear what you know about Jesus. (Luke 2:17-18)
- LOOK Up! Seeing God at work changes you! (Luke 2:19-20)
Three Levels of Belief:
How to Act Upon Your Faith:
North Street Christian Church - Christmas Eve Service
Sermon Notes (PDF): (no notes)
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:05
So the story was told of this man in the Wild West who ran this saloon.
00:07-00:28
And this cowboy comes in and he says, "I'll have a root beer, but I'm gonna need it really fast." And the saloon manager says, "Okay." And he pours him a root beer and the cowboy takes it and he chugs it and he says, "Okay, good to go. Here's the money." And the saloon manager says, "What, what, what, what, what, what's the hurry?
00:29-00:31
"Why are you in such a hurry?" And the cowboy says, "Didn't you hear?
00:32-00:38
"Big Zeke is coming!" And the saloon owner says, "Haven't heard.
00:38-00:42
"Who's Big Zeke?" He says, "You've never heard of Big Zeke.
00:43-00:50
"He is only the biggest, nastiest outlaw "anyone has ever met.
00:51-00:57
"They say if he doesn't like the way that you look at him, "he'll bust your jaw right off.
00:58-00:59
won't even think twice about.
01:01-01:04
He says, "But you know what, I don't have time to sit here and tell you stories about Big Zeke.
01:04-01:06
I'm out of here." And the cowboy left.
01:07-01:15
And the saloon owner just went back to his business and, sure enough, about 15 or 20 minutes later, those swinging doors kick in.
01:17-01:19
And in walks...
01:19-01:21
in walks this mountain.
01:23-01:27
This man was 6'7" and weighed at least 400 pounds.
01:29-01:33
And he was wearing a buffalo, and I don't mean wearing a buffalo skin coat.
01:33-01:37
He had an actual buffalo on his back wearing it.
01:39-01:48
He had a rattlesnake around his waist as a belt, and it wasn't even a dead rattlesnake. It was a living rattlesnake that was too scared to move.
01:50-01:52
He had a beard halfway down his chest.
01:53-01:56
He had spurs on his boots the size of dinner plates.
01:58-02:17
And he walks up to the saloon owner, and he says, "Give me a root beer." The saloon owner, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, sir." And he pours, and he puts it down there, and the man grabs it.
02:19-02:25
One swig, and it shatters the glass with his hand, and it just explodes and he throws the pieces down.
02:26-02:36
And the saloon keeper says, "Can I get you another one, sir?" The man says, "I don't know what you're talking about.
02:36-02:37
"I gotta get going.
02:37-02:46
"Big Zeke's coming, haven't you heard?" You know, at Christmas, there's all this expectation.
02:48-02:59
But the Christmas story, there's something that's sort of lost to us because you have the nation of Israel that was expecting this Messiah to come for generations and generations and generations.
03:00-03:06
And unlike the big Zeke story, when we look at the Christmas story, the Messiah was there.
03:08-03:11
The one that they've been expecting for generations, He was there.
03:14-03:16
And hardly anybody knew He was there.
03:19-03:21
Now how in the world did that happen?
03:24-03:26
Didn't the Lord have a PR person?
03:26-03:30
Didn't the Lord have somebody that could have handled that better?
03:31-03:33
That God was going to become a man.
03:34-03:39
The most significant act in the history of the planet, true or false?
03:40-03:40
True.
03:41-03:55
God was going to become a man and live among us, And the only people that show up on the night that God shows up on the earth is a handful of shepherds.
03:56-03:58
How in the world did that happen?
04:00-04:18
We live in a day when if some celebrity sneezes, there's 20 photographers in their face, and it's all over the news, and TMZ and the E! Television Network, and, you know, is this a fatal cold this celebrity has?
04:18-04:28
And everybody knows about it! But how is it that God himself comes to the earth, and the only people that he bothers to tell are...
04:30-04:39
shepherds. No parade, no fanfare, no spectacle, no paparazzi, no red carpet.
04:39-04:44
but just complete humility.
04:46-04:48
Maybe God's just a fan of shepherds.
04:49-05:05
Moses was a shepherd, and Abraham was a shepherd, and David was a shepherd, and the Lord Himself, when He identifies Himself in the Old Testament, Psalm 23, verse 1, says, "The Lord is my shepherd." So maybe God's just a big fan of shepherds.
05:07-05:21
Maybe it's hard for us to understand in a day when Christmas comes, we're anticipating getting the new thing, and what's the bigger and better and newest technology?
05:24-05:28
Maybe this idea of humility has lost on us.
05:29-05:39
Maybe the Lord was just teaching that the child born wasn't just for the elite, It wasn't just for kings and governors and the higher-ups and the religious organization.
05:39-05:45
Maybe this was God's way of saying that this child born is for everyone, even common people like me.
05:48-05:54
So the story of the shepherds is really your story and it's my story, and it's the story of everyone who's encountered God.
05:54-05:57
And I want us to look at it again for just a few minutes.
05:57-05:59
Turn in your Bibles if you have them.
05:59-06:01
I hope you do, to Luke chapter 2.
06:02-06:23
picking up in verse 8 and the title of this message is how to have the best Christmas ever the Shepherd way I just want to give you three things that I want you to meditate upon tonight and tomorrow and through this Christmas This is the season.
06:25-06:26
The first one is this.
06:27-06:28
Listen up.
06:29-06:32
Be ready to respond to God's Word.
06:33-06:34
Let's look at this.
06:34-06:44
This is a familiar passage to most of us, but I want us to try to look at it as if it's the first time that we're reading it.
06:47-06:49
God's Word writes for us.
06:50-06:54
And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field watch over their flock by night.
06:56-07:02
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.
07:02-07:10
And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
07:12-07:18
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
07:19-07:21
And this will be a sign for you.
07:22-07:59
"You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and 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 among those with whom He is pleased." When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, "The Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.
08:01-08:02
First of all, listen up.
08:03-08:06
Be ready to respond to God's Word.
08:08-08:15
Back in verse 7, the verse right before this passage we looked at, it says that there was no room for Jesus in the inn.
08:16-08:18
And that's something else that always bothered me about this story.
08:19-08:26
Imagine you ran an inn and this pregnant woman shows up and she's about to give birth any minute.
08:27-08:28
Would you turn her away?
08:30-08:31
I did some studying on this.
08:33-08:40
You know the Greek word for inn is the word kataluma, and it's used one other time in the New Testament.
08:40-08:44
And the only other time it's used is actually in Mark 14.
08:44-08:55
in verse 14, when Jesus was talking about the disciples going ahead to prepare for the Passover in this kataluma, the guest room.
08:56-08:57
That's where they had the Last Supper.
08:57-08:59
We sometimes call that the upper room.
09:00-09:11
And that's my understanding, this is just my understanding from the text, that when it says there was no room for them in the inn, I don't see them showing up at this hotel when this innkeeper slams the door in their face.
09:11-09:21
What I see is because of this census and because of the crowds coming in, that the place that they were supposed to stay, the guest room was full.
09:21-09:24
The catalooma, the upper guest room was full.
09:25-09:31
And the Bible doesn't say that they were in a barn or in a cave.
09:32-09:40
It simply says that Jesus was laid in a manger, So we know that he was laid in a place where they kept the animals.
09:41-09:43
And I studied this.
09:44-09:52
Many houses that had these upper rooms actually in the lower rooms or the ground floor is where they kept their animals for the night when they brought them in.
09:52-09:54
In other words, we would call that the garage.
09:55-10:05
So when I see the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, Jesus being born in the garage with the animals.
10:08-10:10
But a lot of funny things in this story.
10:11-10:20
Verse 16, "When the shepherds heard the message, it says they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger." And I don't know about you, but doesn't that strike you as funny?
10:22-10:24
Like, just get this scene.
10:25-10:35
Okay, pregnant woman about to give birth and they just traveled and there was no room where they were supposed to stay, and they end up having the baby.
10:36-10:37
Anybody here ever have a baby?
10:38-10:42
I'm not gonna go into all the details, but there's a lot of stuff that goes with having a baby.
10:42-10:57
So they have this baby, and they lay this baby in the feeding trough, and here's Mary and here's Joseph, and all of a sudden, this big group of strangers shows up.
10:58-11:05
"Well, many of you were there when my children were born, because you're my friends and I know you and I love you and it was great to see you.
11:05-11:15
But I would have thought it was a little weird if right after my wife gave birth, like this whole group of like custodians from the middle school show up that I've never met before.
11:15-11:27
Like, who are you people?" And they're like, "God told us to come because you were having a baby." I'm like, "Get out!" But the shepherds just show up.
11:30-11:32
because... and here's the point I want to make.
11:34-11:35
Simply because God told them to show up.
11:37-11:39
This wasn't a typical baby announcement.
11:40-11:46
Typically when people give the announcement that they're having a baby, a lot of the focus is on the couple, right? A lot of the focus is on mom, right?
11:46-12:11
Interestingly, look at what it says in this passage, verse 11, When this baby announcement was made and these angels were proclaiming to the shepherds that Jesus was to be born, verse 11 says, "For unto you is born this day." The shepherds are standing there, "Somebody's having a baby for me?" That's what the angel said.
12:12-12:15
"This baby is going to have significance for you.
12:17-12:32
A Savior, the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, He's here." But what I want you to see first of all, very simply this, the shepherds believed the message that the Lord gave them.
12:33-12:35
How do we know that they believed?
12:35-12:37
Have you ever wondered that for yourself?
12:37-12:46
I know when I was a very young Christian, right when I came to Christ, I remember I just started reading the Bible and I had this little crisis of faith as a young Christian.
12:46-12:49
I remember reading the Bible saying, "Do I really believe this?
12:50-12:52
Do I really believe this?
12:52-12:54
Has anybody else ever asked yourself that?
12:54-12:55
Do I really believe?
12:58-13:06
Well, we know that the shepherds believed the Word of God given to them because they acted upon what God told them.
13:07-13:11
There are actually three levels of belief.
13:13-13:15
The first level is just simply knowing the information.
13:16-13:18
You know the information.
13:18-13:20
The second level is you agree with the information.
13:23-13:27
And the third level is you act upon the information that you know and agree with.
13:28-14:02
You see, Christmas time, as churches are being packed, I would say it's probably in the high 90% of people who know the message, and it's probably a pretty high percentage of people who would even agree with the message, who would walk out of the church, and they wouldn't say, "Well, I don't believe any of that stuff." They'd walk out of church and say, "Yeah, yeah, I think maybe that stuff might have probably happened." But biblically, true belief, true faith is taking it to the level that these shepherds took it, acting upon what I know and agree with.
14:04-14:05
Biblical faith getting to level three.
14:06-14:08
You say, "Well, wait, what does level three look like?
14:08-14:14
How do I act upon faith?" I'm going to give you three R words.
14:14-14:18
These are the things that you do to act upon your faith, and the first one is repent.
14:20-14:21
Andy had mentioned this earlier.
14:23-14:27
Sin had come into the world and destroyed man's relationship with God.
14:28-14:33
And the first step in coming to the Lord is acknowledging that you're a sinner.
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I can't do anything to save myself.
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I can't.
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I can't do enough good works.
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I can't go to church enough.
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I can't be nice enough to people.
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those things won't cancel out this problem that I have, that I'm guilty of sin.
14:47-14:50
And biblically, repentance is changing your mind.
14:50-14:57
By nature, sometimes we think we're good people, and surely God's going to see the good stuff that I've done and He's going to let me into heaven.
14:57-14:59
Repentance means you change your mind and say, "You know what?
14:59-15:03
I realize I'm guilty of sin." Secondly, receive.
15:04-15:04
Repent of your sin.
15:04-15:06
Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
15:08-15:10
Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
15:10-15:11
This is where it becomes very personal.
15:12-15:47
You see, it has to turn from "The Christmas story is a history lesson" to "The Christmas story has impact on my life." It has to go from "Jesus was born in Bethlehem" to "God came to the world for me." It has to go from 33 years later Jesus died on the cross, to Jesus died on the cross for me.
15:47-15:53
It has to get from a historical fact to a personal appropriation of the truth.
15:54-15:56
Repent, receive, and then react.
15:57-15:58
You need to grow as a disciple.
15:59-16:07
You need to find a church like this one that preaches the Word of God and encourages your walk with the Lord.
16:08-16:10
We believe that a disciple does three things.
16:10-16:14
A disciple worships Christ, walks with Christ, and works for Christ.
16:15-16:17
Those things are the fruit of somebody being a disciple.
16:17-16:21
That's reacting to what God's doing in you through Jesus Christ.
16:23-16:29
You'll know that you're growing as a disciple when the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are making decisions for you.
16:32-16:50
Like the shepherds, you hear the message from God about His Son, and you don't debate it, you don't consider it, "I'll think about it." You get moving on it, act upon it, listen up, be ready to respond to God's Word.
16:51-16:52
That's what I love about the shepherds.
16:52-16:53
They heard it and they were gone.
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With haste, let's go.
16:56-16:57
Moving on the Word of God.
16:58-17:03
Secondly, speak up. Speak up.
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People need to hear what you know about Jesus Christ.
17:10-17:12
Look at verses 17 and 18.
17:14-17:20
It says, "And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
17:21-17:35
And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them." These shepherds left this manger scene fired up and ready to tell people what they saw.
17:36-17:48
Imagine tonight, across this city, across this state, across this country, as people are packing into churches to celebrate the birth of Christ.
17:48-17:55
Imagine tonight if everybody that left these churches was fired up about the message of Jesus Christ as these shepherds were.
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Imagine what that would do to your community.
17:59-18:01
Imagine what that would do to this city.
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If everybody left here like these shepherds, just fired up that God became a man and He gave us this incredible message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
18:14-18:17
Why aren't more people fired up about evangelism?
18:18-18:26
You know, some people say, "Well, people are afraid they're going to be asked a question they don't know, Maybe I don't know enough to share.
18:26-18:28
Maybe I'm afraid of rejection.
18:29-18:32
And maybe that's why people aren't more fired up about evangelism.
18:32-18:39
But I really believe the main reason that people aren't fired up about evangelism is because they're not captured and gripped by the message themselves.
18:41-18:45
Because every great evangelist I know has that common denominator.
18:45-18:51
They are so gripped by the message of Jesus Christ that they can't stop talking about it.
18:52-18:54
because it is awesome to them.
18:56-19:01
20 years ago, I worked at Walmart.
19:02-19:03
And I don't know how it happened.
19:05-19:09
When I started working at Walmart, I was like taking out garbage and cleaning bathrooms and things like that.
19:09-19:14
But somehow, I got transferred to the automotive department in Walmart.
19:17-19:21
And I remember when I worked in the automotive department, I was a bus driver for quite a while.
19:22-19:32
Every shift, every day I went into work, I dreaded people wanting to come to me and ask me about cars.
19:33-19:35
Because I know nothing about cars.
19:37-19:37
Nothing.
19:39-19:46
And my wife Erin, bless her heart, if there's something wrong with the car, she's like, "Pop the hood and take a look at it." I do.
19:47-19:51
I do, I pop the hood and I look at it and Aaron's like, well, what do you think?
19:51-19:54
And I'm like, well, the engine's still there, so that's not the problem.
19:56-19:58
She has more faith in me than I do, honestly.
19:59-20:09
I dreaded people coming to the automotive department of Walmart and wanting to talk to me about cars, but it would happen almost every day.
20:09-20:10
And it was so uncomfortable for me.
20:11-20:21
I'd get some guy come in and he'd be like, yeah, I just dropped the chassis on my catalytic fuel and discovered the vascometer intake was corroded.
20:21-20:22
Can you believe that?
20:24-20:32
And I would say, you know, this air freshener will make your car smell like puppy breath.
20:32-20:33
Here, why don't you check this out?
20:36-20:37
But the truth is, you're never afraid.
20:39-20:51
You're never afraid to talk about something that you're excited about, whether it's football or scrapbooking or your cat or whatever, you're never afraid to talk about something that you're excited about.
20:51-20:58
And when you immerse yourself in the gospel, in God's Word, you will get excited about it.
20:59-21:04
I have a good friend that, I love it, he calls me up, he's like, "Man, you're not going to believe what I read in the Bible.
21:04-21:15
Do you know what I studied this week? And did you know this?" And he's always so excited about the Bible because he's in it, And he's reading it, and he's studying it.
21:15-21:19
And when you go after that, you're going to be excited about it.
21:20-21:26
So speak up, pray for, and look for, and take the opportunities to share what you know.
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You're like, "Well, I don't know very much." Well, if you know enough to be saved, you start there.
21:36-21:38
You know your testimony, don't you?
21:38-21:41
Can you tell somebody the effect that Jesus Christ has had on your life?
21:42-21:44
Can you tell somebody how He's changed you?
21:44-21:54
And yes, I'm not perfect, and yes, I'm not yet the person that I want to be, but He's changed me from being the person that I was, and I'm heading to heaven, and I'm born again, and there's going to be some bumps along the way.
21:56-21:58
What a difference Jesus Christ makes in your life.
21:59-22:01
You see, in God's Word, that's what the shepherds did.
22:03-22:04
They just shared what they knew.
22:06-22:15
They just went out and said, God came and told us this message about this baby and who the baby was going to be, and can you believe we saw the baby?
22:17-22:19
How effective were they as preachers?
22:19-22:21
Well, verse 18 says the people wandered.
22:22-22:24
Whoa, whoa, whoa, tell us more about that!
22:25-22:27
Wow! Wow, what can this mean?
22:28-22:28
They wandered.
22:30-22:30
Speak up.
22:31-22:33
People need to hear what you know about Jesus.
22:33-22:35
And then finally, look up.
22:37-22:42
Look up, seeing God at work changes you.
22:43-22:45
Look at these last couple of verses.
22:46-22:55
It says, "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." Mary, very introspective here, as you can imagine.
22:58-23:00
It says the same thing in verse 51, I believe.
23:01-23:13
Verse 20 says, "And the shepherds returned," look at this, "glorifying and praising God all they had heard and seen as it had been told them." Glorifying and praising.
23:14-23:19
The shepherds had to go back to work, but they were never the same, were they?
23:20-23:29
I imagine those shepherds, I don't know, the Bible doesn't really tell us, but I imagine those shepherds for the rest of their lives probably never talked about anything else.
23:29-23:31
Could you imagine hanging out with them?
23:32-23:34
Like, "Hey, how are the sheep? Sheep are good.
23:35-23:39
Did I ever tell you about that time that the angel showed up with the baby and the swaddling cloths in the manger?
23:39-23:42
Like, "Yeah, you told us that yesterday." Well, hang on, I've got to tell you again.
23:43-23:51
"Hey, how's your family doing?" "Oh, my family's good." Did I ever tell you about the time that we walked in right after the woman gave birth and we saw God in the flesh?
23:51-23:52
Can I tell you that story?
23:54-23:59
And when God grips your heart with the message of Jesus, you're never the same.
24:00-24:03
Your life is now about praise.
24:05-24:12
And there might be some here tonight, many Christmases away from the original birth of Jesus Christ, saying, "You know what?
24:13-24:15
You know what, Jeff? I hear what you're saying, and I'm going to tell you something.
24:15-24:19
If I was one of those shepherds, I'd probably just as fired up.
24:19-24:32
In fact, if I was one of those shepherds, I might even be more fired up." Well, you and I have even more reason to live a life of praise and worship because we know the rest of the story.
24:34-24:49
That baby grew up, and just as he was laid on a manger this night, he was laid on a wooden cross to die for our sins.
24:51-24:55
Three days later, He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
24:57-25:08
The shepherds, yeah, they heard and believed the message and they saw God in the flesh, but church, we have heard and believed the message and we have God personally indwelling us.
25:10-25:14
They were changed from the experience.
25:14-25:18
We are changed from the inside out by God's holy presence.
25:19-25:20
We have reason to celebrate.
25:22-25:27
If you're like me sometimes, it gets to be close to Christmas, and you can be a bit of a scrooge.
25:27-25:29
Not you, when I say you, I mean me.
25:29-25:36
I can be a bit of a scrooge sometimes because of all the other stuff that goes with it.
25:36-25:41
I love the story, I love the story of the Incarnation, it never gets old, it gets better every time I hear it.
25:42-25:49
I'm just talking about all that extra stuff It's easy to get sort of grumpy about it.
25:50-25:57
I'd just like to encourage you, when you're tempted to get distracted, worship God for who He is.
25:59-26:04
When you're tempted to get annoyed, praise God for what He's done.
26:05-26:13
And when you're tempted to be worn out by all the festivities, remember who it's really about.
26:15-26:27
If you make it your aim to listen up and speak up and look up, like the shepherds maybe every year, you're going to hear yourself saying, "This was the best Christmas ever.
26:28-26:37
You pray with me." Father in heaven, I thank you for the very simple message that we see from the shepherds.
26:37-26:41
They were just simple people who just heard your word and acted on it.
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they were people who weren't shy about telling other people what they saw.
26:48-26:54
And they were people whose very lives were characterized by praise and worship after they left their encounter with Jesus Christ.
26:55-27:00
Father, I pray for the churches represented here tonight.
27:02-27:10
I thank you Father for the way that the message of Jesus Christ, the message of the Incarnation, the message of the Gospel, and the cross, and the empty tomb.
27:10-27:15
I thank you for the way, God, in 2015, you are still changing lives.
27:16-27:19
You are still saving people from themselves.
27:20-27:25
You're still saving people from the condemnation of God that we so rightly deserve.
27:25-27:30
And you're doing it all through this glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
27:31-27:39
The Father, in the midst of everything else going on, The Word tells us that the Word itself is like a seed.
27:40-27:47
And I pray God that this seed is taking deep roots, bearing much roots.
27:48-27:50
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
27:51-27:51
Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 2:8-20
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.