Benjamin Murphy
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Benjamin Murphy
Sermon Series Highlights
Sermon Series Highlights

Baby's First Christmas

Baby's First Christmas - The Perks of Waiting

Introduction:

What Happens to Me When I Wait on the Lord (Luke 2:36-38)

  1. My Woes become Small . (Luke 2:36-37)
  2. My Worship becomes Authentic . (Luke 2:37)
  1. My Witnessing becomes Natural . (Luke 2:38)
  2. My Waiting becomes Worth it. (Luke 2:38)

Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:02

    Open your Bibles up to Luke 2.

    00:05-00:09

    If you do not have a Bible, you are welcome to the one that's in the seat in front of you.

    00:09-00:14

    You can keep that as a gift from your friends at Harvest Bible Shop.

    00:18-00:19

    Luke 2.

    00:26-00:30

    While you're turning there, let me ask you, what's the worst part of Christmas?

    00:37-00:38

    Having to clean up?

    00:39-00:40

    I'm sure you have a lot of people with you on that one.

    00:45-00:49

    You know what, let's just, we'll just go around the room and everyone can give their own answer.

    00:50-00:50

    I love it.

    00:51-00:51

    I love it.

    00:54-00:59

    And some of you right now are like, man, that is like really grinchy of you to come out of the gate, like for Christmas service.

    01:00-01:01

    The kids were so beautiful.

    01:01-01:02

    They sang so nice.

    01:02-01:04

    The music was amazing.

    01:04-01:07

    And what's the worst part of Christmas?

    01:08-01:09

    Is it the fruitcake?

    01:10-01:10

    Is it the fruit?

    01:11-01:11

    Is that still a thing?

    01:13-01:13

    Is it?

    01:13-01:15

    People still do the fruitcake thing?

    01:15-01:16

    Wow.

    01:18-01:18

    (laughing)

    01:19-01:21

    Is it the lame office party?

    01:21-01:23

    Is that the worst part of Christmas?

    01:23-01:27

    Is it the pressure to find the absolute most perfect gift for someone?

    01:28-01:31

    I'm going to tell you what the worst part of Christmas is right now.

    01:32-01:34

    This is not even up for debate, this is objectively true.

    01:34-01:37

    The worst part of Christmas is waiting for it!

    01:39-01:42

    At least, that's what I thought when I was a kid.

    01:43-01:46

    When I was a kid, leading up to Christmas, anybody else like me?

    01:46-01:51

    Leading up to Christmas, the minutes seemed like days!

    01:52-02:01

    And I don't know how it happened, and I don't know when it happened, but I became somewhat of an adult, and now the days seem like minutes.

    02:02-02:03

    Did that happen to anybody else?

    02:07-02:14

    So today we're gonna continue looking at those who were there when Jesus was a baby.

    02:14-02:23

    And on Sunday, Rich walked us through the story of Simeon, who gave the weirdest baby dedication speech ever.

    02:23-02:35

    Luke 2:34, it says, "Simeon blessed him and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.

    02:36-02:52

    And a sword will pierce your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.'" And then suddenly, right there is Anna.

    02:56-02:57

    Look at verse 36.

    02:58-03:05

    It says, "And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.

    03:06-03:20

    She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin." And then, as a widow until she was 84, she did not depart from the temple.

    03:22-03:37

    Worshipping, with fasting and prayer, night and day, and coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God, and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

    03:42-03:56

    I had to read through this a few times to try to figure out what was going on because here's Simeon giving this prophetic speech and then suddenly Anna just, apparently, she just shows up.

    03:56-03:58

    She just walks right up.

    04:00-04:03

    I have to ask, how did she get there?

    04:07-04:13

    And then I look at her story here and I think, Why is she even in this story, right?

    04:16-04:19

    But even asking that question reveals something.

    04:22-04:35

    You know, if Luke told us the Christmas story that Jesus was born, God becomes a man, and the most important people of the day showed up.

    04:36-04:51

    All of the celebrities, all of the athletes, of the politicians. If that was the story, here comes all your LeBron James and your Beyonce's and here comes the president, you'd be like, well that makes sense because God's here.

    04:55-04:59

    But he mentions this lady.

    05:02-05:08

    And we really only have three verses about her, but in those three verses we We learn five things about her very quickly.

    05:08-05:10

    We learn she's a prophetess.

    05:10-05:13

    There's very few prophetesses in the Bible.

    05:14-05:15

    Like, well what does that mean?

    05:15-05:23

    Well we don't know exactly what her ministry detail looked like, but we can be sure that she was close to God, and she ministered to people in His name.

    05:25-05:26

    We know that she was Jewish.

    05:28-05:33

    And then thirdly, we know that she was advanced in years.

    05:35-05:37

    She was advanced in years.

    05:37-05:41

    Now that's the Bible's very dignified way of saying what?

    05:42-05:42

    Okay, you said it.

    05:46-05:49

    She was a senior citizen.

    05:52-05:58

    And you know, there's something sorely lacking in our culture, and that's respect for the previous generation.

    06:02-06:10

    And I had a whole thing written about this for tonight, and I'm going to save that for another time.

    06:12-06:14

    But I do just want to say this, don't dismiss such people.

    06:17-06:19

    Don't dismiss the previous generation.

    06:23-06:24

    Because God didn't.

    06:28-06:35

    Anna was one of the very few people mentioned in God's Word that was present when Jesus was an infant.

    06:38-06:42

    The fourth thing we know about her is she spent all of her time worshiping at the temple.

    06:43-06:50

    And the fifth thing we know about Anna is she represents a particular group of people.

    06:50-06:52

    Look at verse 38 again.

    06:52-06:59

    It says, "She began to speak of Him - speak of the Lord - to all who were waiting for the redemption Jerusalem.

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    She represents a group of people who were waiting for the redemption of Israel.

    07:12-07:19

    These are Jews who believed in God's Word that He was going to send His Messiah to the earth to save His people.

    07:22-07:34

    And you see, we too, are part of a group of people waiting on the Messiah to come again, to bring the ultimate redemption.

    07:37-07:38

    Do you feel that?

    07:41-07:48

    Because never in my ministry have I heard more people talking about the return of the Messiah.

    07:49-08:09

    In our day of so much sickness, death and corruption, our day of the celebration of sin, our day of the persecution of God's people, our day of slaughtering children in the womb.

    08:12-08:21

    This church represents a group of people who are saying, "Messiah, come." We're waiting.

    08:24-08:29

    And that is how we connect with Anna.

    08:31-08:35

    Because we are waiters.

    08:36-08:39

    I don't mean like serving tables at Applebee's.

    08:39-08:41

    I mean, we're waiting on the Lord.

    08:45-08:50

    And like I said at the beginning, That's the worst part of Christmas, right?

    08:51-08:53

    I mean, who loves waiting, really?

    08:54-08:56

    I mean, we know what Tom Petty said about waiting, right?

    08:59-09:07

    Well, I mean, I'm not sure about his theological background, but I certainly agree with Tom Petty when he said waiting is the hardest part, right?

    09:10-09:12

    But we hate waiting! We hate it!

    09:14-09:20

    We're the kind of people that we stand in front of the microwave what's taking this stupid thing so long, right?

    09:22-09:26

    We are nuclear blasting our food, can you give it 12 seconds?

    09:28-09:29

    But we hate waiting.

    09:29-09:31

    You know which one lands more for me?

    09:31-09:39

    As I get people all the time, they'll text me or email me a YouTube link, and they're like, "Jeff, you've got to see this video.

    09:39-09:50

    It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life." And I'm like, "All right, click." And it's like, "Your video will start in five seconds." I'm like, "Not for me.

    09:52-09:59

    I guess I'm never gonna see that video." Five seconds? Ain't nobody got time for that.

    10:01-10:02

    But we hate waiting.

    10:05-10:10

    And yet God's word repeatedly calls us to wait on the Lord.

    10:10-10:22

    And here at the birth of Jesus Christ comes this amazing woman who's known as being a person who's spent decades doing what?

    10:24-10:24

    Waiting.

    10:27-10:35

    And I just want to share with you for a few minutes tonight that waiting on the Lord doesn't mean that I sit and do nothing until He does something.

    10:35-10:38

    It's not passive inactivity.

    10:41-10:42

    Because Anna here is our role model.

    10:45-10:51

    And she taught us the blessings of waiting actively and faithfully on the Lord.

    10:53-11:03

    So tonight I just want to show you four things from Anna that you know, at the risk of contradicting Tom Petty, waiting is not always bad.

    11:05-11:11

    There's actually, according to her story, according to God's word, there are some perks to waiting.

    11:13-11:14

    So if you're taking notes, write this down.

    11:15-11:16

    What happens to me when I wait on the Lord?

    11:17-11:19

    What happens to me when I wait on the Lord?

    11:19-11:23

    Number one, my woes become small.

    11:25-11:27

    My woes become small.

    11:28-11:36

    Now, it says that Anna was advanced in years, she was married for seven years, and she was widowed until she was 84.

    11:37-11:44

    And in translating that to Greek, that can be translated a couple different ways, and there's some friendly debate about that.

    11:45-12:01

    But some people say that this verse is saying that she was 84 years old here, and other translations say that no, she was widowed for 84 years, which means if she was married at 15, she would have been 106 years old right here.

    12:02-12:07

    So she was either 84 or 106.

    12:08-12:12

    And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, which one is it?" I don't know.

    12:12-12:15

    But if Anna was here right now, I know which one she would want us to believe.

    12:18-12:18

    Right?

    12:21-12:23

    But seriously, you've got to feel for her.

    12:25-12:26

    Because that's rough.

    12:29-12:32

    Married and widowed so soon.

    12:33-12:35

    I mean, did she have kids?

    12:35-12:36

    I don't know.

    12:36-12:37

    The text doesn't say.

    12:40-12:44

    She was alone for so long.

    12:46-12:52

    I'm not saying that Anna never felt sadness, but obviously her faith kept things into perspective.

    12:53-12:57

    That she never gave up on God.

    12:58-13:02

    She never faltered seeking Him with her whole heart.

    13:05-13:14

    And just because it's December 24th doesn't mean that the hardships that you're going through just magically disintegrated.

    13:15-13:28

    Because I'm sure to some amount, to some degree, everyone walked in here today, or the people that are watching this stream online right now, you're carrying some woes too.

    13:32-13:36

    Some of us have lost a loved one, and this is our first Christmas without that person.

    13:39-13:49

    Some of us have been so affected by the pandemic that we've lost jobs, or are about to lose jobs, or we've certainly lost income.

    13:53-14:02

    We come in here and we look around and we see these families, but some of us might be alone for the holidays.

    14:05-14:07

    and you start to feel like maybe you're missing out.

    14:10-14:12

    And at that point it's easy to give up on God.

    14:15-14:20

    Like, you know what God, if this is how it's going to be, you're going to forsake me, I'm just going to give up on you.

    14:23-14:41

    But you know, if Anna had done that, if Anna had let her situation turn her into a bitter person, She never would have had the opportunity to witness the most glorious thing she had ever seen in her life.

    14:42-14:46

    The most glorious thing anyone could have seen.

    14:48-14:50

    The face of God himself.

    14:51-14:57

    I just want to encourage you, like Anna, to confess something like this.

    15:00-15:00

    Yeah, life is hard.

    15:02-15:07

    But God has a glorious promise that I know He's going to fulfill.

    15:08-15:23

    And when I think of what God is going to do, my relatively short amount of time of suffering here on the earth doesn't even compare to the glories He has ahead.

    15:26-15:29

    So what happens to me when I wait on the Lord?

    15:31-15:34

    You're going to find that your woes become small.

    15:35-15:38

    And secondly, my worship becomes authentic.

    15:41-15:45

    Anna was known as someone who was committed to fasting and ceaseless prayer.

    15:46-15:52

    And in the Old Testament, that was connected with the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah.

    15:52-15:55

    And understand that's something that didn't change between testaments.

    15:56-16:02

    because fasting and ceaseless prayer is still associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    16:03-16:08

    Matthew 9, Luke 18, verses 7 and 8, respectively.

    16:11-16:19

    So for Anna, her doctrine was true, her belief was genuine, and her worship was authentic.

    16:19-16:24

    So I just have to ask, what's our excuse?

    16:27-16:28

    Think about this.

    16:31-16:33

    Anna's knowledge of the Messiah, all right?

    16:33-16:42

    You have Anna's knowledge of Messiah versus our knowledge of Messiah, okay?

    16:44-16:47

    Who has more knowledge of the Messiah?

    16:48-16:49

    Anna or us?

    16:51-16:51

    We do.

    16:53-16:57

    Because we live on the other side of his life, right?

    16:58-17:02

    And not only that, we have this record right here.

    17:02-17:06

    We have this account of the life of the Messiah.

    17:07-17:12

    We know about his ministry.

    17:13-17:17

    We know that he died on the cross to take away our sin.

    17:17-17:20

    We know He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.

    17:21-17:26

    We know that He promised that His Spirit would come and indwell us upon believing in Him.

    17:26-17:30

    And we have these promises that He's going to return.

    17:33-17:46

    So I have to ask you, church, should we be anticipating and excited about the coming of Jesus Christ?

    17:46-17:50

    Should we be more or less excited than Anna was?

    17:51-17:53

    Based on the knowledge that we have.

    17:56-18:00

    Should we want Jesus less or more than Anna?

    18:02-18:03

    More, yeah.

    18:03-18:04

    All in favor?

    18:08-18:17

    You see, the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah for decades kept Anna in worship mode.

    18:18-18:19

    24/7.

    18:20-18:20

    That anticipation.

    18:24-18:28

    And if you really get it, I mean if you really get it, it's going to put you in that mode too.

    18:31-18:37

    We have way more reason I'd be excited about the coming of the Messiah.

    18:39-18:41

    So how's your prayer life?

    18:43-18:51

    I mean, if God was writing about you in His Word, would God be able to rightly describe you as a person of prayer?

    18:54-18:55

    How's your prayer life?

    18:57-19:04

    When was the last time that you fasted to focus your appetites on spiritual things?

    19:04-19:09

    When was the last time you fasted solely for the return of Jesus Christ?

    19:10-19:12

    As God's Word calls us to do.

    19:16-19:19

    You see, it's that anticipation that leads us to worship.

    19:19-19:23

    And worship is, yes, it's the music, but it's so much more than the music.

    19:25-19:32

    And we get to this place when we get it, and when we truly anticipate, and our lives are centered on that.

    19:34-19:40

    I don't want to worship because I have to, or because I'm expected to.

    19:41-19:47

    It just becomes this natural expression for my soul because of what's to be when Jesus comes again.

    19:50-19:52

    So you have way more reason to worship than Anna.

    19:55-19:55

    So do you?

    19:58-20:02

    When I wait on the Lord, when I really wait on the Lord, my worship becomes authentic.

    20:03-20:05

    Thirdly, my witnessing becomes natural.

    20:06-20:07

    See that in verse 38?

    20:09-20:16

    It says that she began to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

    20:18-20:23

    You see, like worship witnessing become this obligatory, awkward exercise.

    20:24-20:32

    Like, "I know I should do it, but I'm going to be honest with you, my heart's not in it." But notice in this passage, the witnessing came after the worship.

    20:35-20:44

    And you can tell who is a sincere worshiper by how eager they are to witness.

    20:46-20:48

    And right now, somebody's going, "Oh no.

    20:51-20:57

    Everybody pack your bags, we're about to go on a guilt trip about witnessing, right?

    20:58-21:00

    Jeff's going to lead us on this guilt trip about witnessing.

    21:02-21:03

    No.

    21:04-21:05

    That is not my intention at all.

    21:07-21:10

    I want to fire up our passion for the return of Jesus Christ.

    21:11-21:13

    I want to fan the flames of worship.

    21:14-21:20

    Because then I'm not going to have to talk you into witnessing, because you won't be able to help but do it.

    21:22-21:31

    Because there's a truth about every single person in this room or watching this stream, there's a truth about every single person you know.

    21:31-21:37

    People love talking about the things that they're passionate about.

    21:40-21:41

    You can't get around that.

    21:43-21:50

    When I was in college, I worked a stretch at Walmart, and somehow I ended up working in the automotive department.

    21:51-21:52

    I have no idea how I got there.

    21:53-21:55

    I know nothing about cars.

    21:55-21:56

    Nothing.

    21:57-22:06

    But for some reason I was working in the automotive department and as I'm sure you can imagine, do you know what kind of people shop in the automotive department?

    22:08-22:36

    People who are excited about cars. Guess what they wanted to talk about when they came to my department? Cars! And I dreaded that every single day when I was working that somebody would come in and they would expect me to have an intelligent conversation with them about cars and it happened all the time.

    22:39-23:18

    I get guys come in and they'd say they'd say something like this they'd say yeah I just I just dropped the chassis on my catalytic fuel injected heavy to discover that the the vascular was corroded I'm like huh and he's like the best problem it was corroded and I would go um this air freshener will make your car smell like puppy breath They love cars.

    23:19-23:22

    And they love talking about cars, and you can fill in that blank with whatever.

    23:23-23:28

    Pets, football, scrapbooking.

    23:30-23:32

    How about Jesus Christ?

    23:35-23:38

    You love talking about the things that you're excited about.

    23:39-23:44

    So I would say, church, let's get excited about the return of Jesus.

    23:46-23:51

    and watch the Lord bring more people to Him through your witness.

    23:53-23:55

    So what happens when I wait on the Lord?

    23:55-24:05

    Well, my woes become small, and my worship becomes authentic, and my witnessing becomes natural, and finally, my waiting becomes worth it.

    24:08-24:09

    My waiting becomes worth it.

    24:09-24:10

    Look at verse 38.

    24:11-24:18

    It says, "And coming up at that very hour, She began to give thanks to God.

    24:21-24:28

    Upon seeing the Messiah, baby Jesus, she began to give thanks to God.

    24:29-24:29

    Alright?

    24:30-24:40

    It wasn't as if Anna came up, and there's Simeon, and there's Mary and Joseph and the baby, and Anna comes up and she goes, "You mean to tell me I waited my whole life for this?

    24:41-24:41

    This is it?

    24:44-24:47

    "Yes!" That wasn't it at all.

    24:47-24:52

    She said, "This was worth the wait." God, thank You.

    24:55-24:58

    Thank You for letting me see this.

    25:00-25:02

    Waiting is worth it when there is a payoff.

    25:03-25:14

    And if you have even the slightest idea of what Jesus is going to do when He returns, No, there can't possibly be a bigger payoff than that.

    25:19-25:22

    You will see Him in His glory.

    25:25-25:28

    You will fall on your face in worship.

    25:30-25:41

    You will cast your crowns at His feet, and as your heart is overwhelmed with the awesomeness of being in the presence of the Almighty.

    25:44-25:46

    You and I are going to declare this together.

    25:48-25:56

    We're going to say, "Worth it." Worth it.

    25:59-26:06

    Every difficult day, every struggle, worth it.

    26:08-26:12

    Every trial, every tear, worth it.

    26:15-26:23

    Every discouragement, every setback, worth it.

    26:28-26:33

    And this story simply boils down to this.

    26:34-26:49

    Whatever hardship you're facing, despite how long you face it, living a life of worship devoted to God, is worth it.

    26:53-26:58

    Because those who wait on Him will never disappoint.

    27:01-27:08

    Like Anna, at the end of the waiting, is seeing something glorious.

    27:10-27:13

    I'd like you to bow your heads with me please as the worship team makes their way forward.

    27:16-27:23

    Father in Heaven, Thank You for the example that we have.

    27:26-27:33

    Father, I pray, just simply this, that we wouldn't grow weary in the waiting.

    27:36-27:39

    That we would take a really hard look at Anna's life.

    27:42-27:49

    It had to seem so long and incredibly difficult at times, She never let that get her off track.

    27:52-27:55

    Father, I pray that You would find the same faithfulness and fervency in our hearts.

    27:59-28:04

    Because like her, we are waiting for the Messiah to come.

    28:06-28:10

    We are waiting, Father, for the return of Christ.

    28:13-28:14

    We believe it.

    28:17-28:18

    May our lives reflect it.

    28:19-28:23

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 2:36-38

  1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Baby's First Christmas - Great Expectations

Introduction:

(Luke 2:22-36)

  1. Mary and Joseph were expected to Follow the law, which They did. (Luke 2:22-24)

    See: Lev 12:4, 6, 8

  2. Simeon expected to See the Messiah, which He Did! (Luke 2:25-32)

See Isaiah 42:1,6-7 | Isaiah 49:5-6

  1. I am expected to Believe in Jesus, which I Do. (Luke 2:33-35)

    Acts 17:30 - The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent...

    1 John 3:23 - And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:01

    Who knows what we're looking at here?

    00:02-00:03

    Does anybody know what this is?

    00:05-00:06

    Darla knows, it's a vacuum.

    00:07-00:12

    This is a vacuum from the 1960s, early 1970s.

    00:12-00:17

    And my parents had a vacuum like this.

    00:17-00:25

    And this is the kind of vacuum that every housewife of the atomic age wanted to have.

    00:26-00:28

    Look at all the gadgets and gizmos.

    00:29-00:32

    But if you look at her carpet it doesn't look like she's using any of them.

    00:34-00:40

    And yes, yes kids, our furniture in the 1960s and 70s was really this ugly.

    00:43-00:57

    But this vacuum had a couple of, well many purposes, but if you put up the next picture, you see at the front there was this little opening and you could connect the vacuum hose so that it would blow air.

    01:00-01:03

    And I have a story about Bethany's dad.

    01:04-01:08

    'Cause he used a vacuum like this at least once a year.

    01:09-01:13

    See, he was, I didn't mean it to come out there.

    01:13-01:14

    (audience laughing)

    01:14-01:16

    Actually, he did all the vacuuming.

    01:17-01:22

    He would put on patriotic music and he really, really loud.

    01:22-01:23

    He'd vacuum the whole house.

    01:24-01:30

    But anyway, he was expected every year at Christmas to flock the Christmas tree.

    01:31-01:33

    And like, what, what?

    01:34-01:47

    So the way they do it now is you take a natural tree and you spray it with water and then you sprinkle this paper product over it and then when it dries, it looks like the tree is covered in snow.

    01:49-01:52

    But back in the '60s, we didn't have it so simple.

    01:53-01:58

    We used these really toxic, chemical-laden paint-type products.

    02:00-02:03

    And what you would--I'm not quite sure how it worked.

    02:03-02:08

    If you connected it to the hose or you actually put this substance inside the vacuum.

    02:09-02:15

    But you would put the hose on and then you would have your tree and you would be spraying it with the hose.

    02:15-02:20

    So Bethany's mom expected Bill to do this every Christmas.

    02:21-02:22

    And he didn't like doing it.

    02:23-02:27

    He was never really happy when he had to do this.

    02:28-02:36

    And the one Christmas when Bethany was about 10 years old, he's got this all set up and he's trying to flock the tree and nothing's coming out.

    02:37-02:48

    He's like, "What's going on here?" So he's like, "What's going on?" He turns the hose around and he's looking at it and boom, right in his face.

    02:49-02:52

    And there's white stuff everywhere and Bethany is laughing.

    02:53-02:57

    And there were a few choice words that followed this little episode.

    02:59-03:03

    And Bethany made herself scarce before she got strangled by the hose.

    03:04-03:12

    But yeah, Bethany's mom's expectation of a flocked Christmas tree was completely dashed.

    03:13-03:18

    And after that, Bill was no longer expected to flock the Christmas tree.

    03:19-03:20

    Never happened again.

    03:21-03:25

    So, yeah, expect, expectation.

    03:26-03:29

    That's a word loaded with meaning, isn't it?

    03:29-03:30

    Actually, several meanings.

    03:32-03:35

    There's a sense of being duty-bound or obligated.

    03:35-03:39

    You know, we're expected to show up on time for work.

    03:39-03:43

    You expect me to preach a good sermon this morning.

    03:44-03:49

    Or like my father-in-law, you're expected to flock the Christmas tree because it's a tradition.

    03:51-03:59

    There's also the sense of anticipation, of looking forward to something, of desiring a certain thing to happen.

    04:00-04:06

    You know, the Bible has synonyms or for these meanings of expect or expectation.

    04:07-04:11

    So when we do what's expected of us, it's called obedience.

    04:12-04:16

    And when we look forward to something, that's called hope.

    04:17-04:28

    So as we continue our study this morning of Jesus' birth and how he affected people, even as an infant, we're gonna look at obedience and hope.

    04:30-04:38

    We're gonna look at how when we do what's expected, we find hope, and in our hope, we find fulfillment.

    04:41-04:43

    So let's look at Luke chapter two.

    04:44-04:45

    We're gonna start at verse 22.

    04:47-04:55

    And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

    04:56-05:12

    As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

    05:14-05:20

    So our first point is that Mary and Joseph were expected to follow the law, which they did.

    05:21-05:23

    Now, what law is this?

    05:24-05:27

    Luke gives us a summary, but what law?

    05:27-05:31

    Well, this is referring to Leviticus 12.

    05:32-05:34

    And I've parsed this out a little bit.

    05:34-05:37

    We're going to look at verses 4, 6, and 8.

    05:39-05:48

    So what the law required was that when a woman gave birth to a son, she was considered unclean for seven days.

    05:49-05:51

    And then on the eighth day, he must be circumcised.

    05:53-05:59

    And then, picking up our verses here, "Then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying.

    06:00-06:06

    She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed.

    06:08-06:20

    And when the days of her purifying are completed, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering.

    06:21-06:35

    And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.

    06:38-06:45

    So we see that Mary and Joseph fulfilled the commandment, even though they were poor.

    06:46-06:48

    Now that's the obvious point here, right?

    06:48-07:00

    We've heard this many times, the fact that they offered two turtle doves or two pigeons indicates that Mary and Joseph were very poor.

    07:03-07:09

    But even though Jesus was born into poverty, His parents were pious, they were observant.

    07:12-07:26

    And some may look at Leviticus chapter 12 and they would see, oh, this is an oppressive patriarchal system that treated women as second class and unclean just because they had a baby.

    07:28-07:37

    But you know, both of those observations, They miss something profound happening here.

    07:38-07:46

    You see, in the Old Testament ceremonial system, keeping oneself and one's belongings clean was essential to worship.

    07:47-08:02

    And if some food or some clothing or the person or the priest came in contact with something that was unclean, like a dead person or a sick person, It would make the holy person unclean, unholy.

    08:03-08:06

    And they were excluded then from worship.

    08:07-08:15

    And the process of ceremonial purification, it would have to start all over again until they were clean enough to go into worship.

    08:18-08:21

    What's profound in our account this morning is this.

    08:23-08:25

    Mary nursed the Son of God.

    08:26-08:29

    She kissed and touched the face of God.

    08:29-08:31

    She held him in her arms.

    08:33-08:36

    Even though the law said she could touch nothing holy for 40 days.

    08:39-08:44

    How do we know he was holy and not just a baby who would someday become holy later on?

    08:44-09:07

    Well, Luke 2.23 says, "As the firstborn, he was holy to the Lord." And in Luke 1.35, the angel Gabriel told Mary, "The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." Now I am aware that Catholic doctrine holds that Mary was never, ever unclean.

    09:08-09:12

    That in order to be the mother of God, she must have herself been immaculately conceived.

    09:13-09:17

    That is, she was without original sin from the moment of her conception.

    09:18-09:23

    But you know there's several problems with that doctrine, not the least of which is not in the Bible.

    09:26-09:29

    The fact is Mary was a sinner, just like everyone else.

    09:31-09:35

    That she became pregnant while she was betrothed to Joseph was scandalous.

    09:37-09:40

    And Deuteronomy 22 doesn't mince any words about it.

    09:42-09:45

    It was considered, what had happened to Mary was considered an evil thing.

    09:47-09:48

    She should have been stoned to death.

    09:50-09:59

    She could have been considered to have done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house, so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

    10:01-10:06

    The scripture doesn't mince any words about what people may have thought about Mary.

    10:09-10:28

    But yet the fact that Mary was unclean and yet tenderly connected to the Son of God is a great hope for us. Have you ever felt unclean? Have you ever felt, "I'm a complete mess.

    10:29-10:48

    I'm unworthy. I'm sinful. I'm vile. I'm detestable. I know I'm wicked." Have you thought that so much so that you think God wants nothing to do with you? So much so that you think you are beyond the reach of God.

    10:51-10:56

    Mary was unclean, but the Son of God put himself in her arms.

    10:58-11:03

    This tells us there is no one too unclean, too unholy for Jesus.

    11:05-11:15

    He touched lepers, he touched the diseased, the sinful, the dead, and instead of becoming unclean himself, the diseased were made well.

    11:15-11:19

    The dead were raised to life and the sinful were forgiven.

    11:20-11:28

    No matter what we have done, no matter how often we sin, we are never, ever, ever beyond the reach of Jesus.

    11:31-11:35

    The second thing to note here is, we don't become holy by what we do.

    11:37-11:43

    We see that Mary did what was expected of her by making the required offering for her cleansing.

    11:45-11:53

    But the deeper reality is she was made clean because of who she was connected to, to Jesus.

    11:54-12:00

    It wasn't because she performed religious rites, but because she embraced the Son of God.

    12:03-12:08

    We're gonna look next at Simeon, verse 25.

    12:09-12:16

    Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

    12:17-12:19

    And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

    12:20-12:26

    And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

    12:27-12:30

    And he came into the Spirit, into the temple.

    12:32-12:36

    So our second point is, Simeon expected to see the Messiah, which he did.

    12:40-12:42

    Think about Simeon and his circumstance.

    12:42-12:44

    He's expecting to see the Messiah.

    12:45-12:46

    You know, the time is right.

    12:46-12:53

    It's been over 400 years since the prophecy of Daniel that Messiah should be coming about this time.

    12:54-13:02

    We're looking for him, but circumstances are completely wrong for this.

    13:03-13:10

    The Messiah was to be the son of David, but there's no Davidic king on the throne.

    13:11-13:16

    They got Herod, and Herod is an Idiomian.

    13:17-13:19

    I was gonna make a pun about, well, what do you mean, Rich?

    13:21-13:23

    I did it anyway, didn't I?

    13:24-13:29

    So Idiomian, what that means is Herod is a descendant of Esau.

    13:30-13:41

    And if you remember back in the book of Genesis, What God told Rebekah was that the older would serve the younger.

    13:41-13:46

    The younger was Jacob, Esau was the older, but Esau was going to serve Jacob.

    13:47-13:50

    Well, here are circumstances, things are flipped, right?

    13:51-13:54

    The son of Esau is the king over Israel.

    13:56-14:00

    So how can we have a son of David coming?

    14:02-14:07

    And then the Sadducees were in control of the Sanhedrin, the religious council.

    14:08-14:11

    And they only followed the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible.

    14:12-14:17

    They didn't read the histories, they didn't read the Psalms, they didn't read the prophets.

    14:19-14:24

    They don't have a clue, really, about what Messiah is going to be like.

    14:24-14:26

    And they're the religious authorities.

    14:28-14:31

    And then of course all Israel is under the iron boot of Rome.

    14:33-14:36

    This just doesn't seem like the right conditions for the Messiah.

    14:37-14:38

    How can Messiah come?

    14:38-14:39

    How can he arrive?

    14:39-14:42

    It must have seemed impossible.

    14:44-14:46

    Do you ever feel like that?

    14:46-14:48

    That your circumstances are impossible?

    14:49-14:53

    You feel like you're just piling up hope against hope, prayer against prayer.

    14:54-14:59

    You pray long and hard for something, and you wonder if circumstances will change.

    15:00-15:01

    Is God going to act?

    15:02-15:13

    You know, the Psalms are full of the refrain, "How long, Lord, how long?" I think the saddest of these is in Psalm 74 verse 9.

    15:14-15:17

    We are given no signs from God.

    15:17-15:18

    No prophets are left.

    15:20-15:22

    None of us knows how long this will be.

    15:25-15:26

    Feel like that?

    15:27-15:39

    And then there's Proverbs 13, 12 that says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." When we find ourselves in such dire circumstances, we become heart sick.

    15:40-15:44

    And we wonder silently, we wonder aloud, God, are you paying attention?

    15:46-15:48

    Do you see what is going on?

    15:49-15:50

    Don't you know what's happening to me?

    15:52-15:53

    Do you really love me?

    15:54-15:55

    Do you care?

    15:58-16:00

    You know, perhaps Simeon felt like that.

    16:01-16:01

    He's old.

    16:02-16:06

    He could have been waiting for decades to see Messiah.

    16:07-16:08

    He's old.

    16:08-16:11

    How much longer is he gonna live?

    16:14-16:14

    He's old.

    16:14-16:17

    He's lived his entire life under the Mosaic Covenant.

    16:20-16:26

    But Simeon had the Word of God that promised the Messiah, and God cannot lie.

    16:28-16:35

    Simeon believed the Holy Spirit, who had given him a promise that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.

    16:37-16:38

    How long did he wait?

    16:39-16:39

    We don't know.

    16:40-16:49

    What we do know is that he continued in steadfast expectation, and he obeyed when the Holy Spirit to go to the temple.

    16:52-16:53

    And what did he expect to see?

    16:55-16:57

    Sure, he expected to see Messiah.

    17:00-17:03

    He probably expected Messiah would have to be born.

    17:04-17:07

    Right, that was the promise of Genesis 3.15.

    17:08-17:13

    The very first prophecy of the Messiah that he would be the offspring of the woman.

    17:15-17:17

    But maybe he was expecting to see a full-grown man.

    17:19-17:20

    Maybe just even a young man.

    17:22-17:23

    Maybe he expected to see a prince.

    17:25-17:27

    Or even maybe a warrior king.

    17:29-17:30

    Let's pick up in verse 27.

    17:32-17:42

    And when the parents brought the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, and there's Simeon, it's a baby.

    17:45-17:46

    The Messiah is a baby.

    17:47-17:48

    The Simeon object?

    17:48-17:51

    Oh God, there's gotta be a mistake.

    17:51-17:55

    There's gotta be someone else here in the temple you want me to look for, right?

    17:55-17:59

    Not this young couple here with the infant.

    17:59-18:00

    There's somebody else, right?

    18:01-18:02

    No.

    18:04-18:04

    Nope.

    18:06-18:07

    He doesn't keep looking.

    18:08-18:10

    Perhaps he remembered the word of the Lord.

    18:11-18:13

    Behold, I am doing a new thing.

    18:14-18:25

    So in verse 28, he takes him up in his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

    18:26-18:40

    For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him.

    18:43-18:46

    Yes, the Messiah he sees is a baby a little more than a month old.

    18:48-18:51

    Yet consider the certainty of Simeon's proclamation.

    18:54-18:58

    He didn't see any miracles, healings, he didn't see the dead raised.

    18:59-19:01

    He didn't even hear Jesus preach or teach.

    19:02-19:04

    He didn't see his death or resurrection.

    19:06-19:09

    And yet he considered the work of the Messiah as good as done.

    19:11-19:20

    The fact that the child had been born was all the assurance Simeon needed, that everything else necessary for salvation was going to be accomplished.

    19:21-19:28

    Simeon saw not just the baby, but he saw and believed in the finished work, even though he would not live to see it.

    19:29-19:29

    Why?

    19:30-19:33

    Because, again, Simeon knew the Word of God.

    19:35-19:38

    His proclamation is rooted in the prophets.

    19:39-19:49

    So for example, Isaiah 42, God is speaking, "Here is my servant whom I uphold, "my chosen one in whom I delight.

    19:50-19:54

    "I will put my spirit on him "and he will bring justice to the nations.

    19:55-19:57

    "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness.

    19:57-19:59

    "I will take hold of your hand.

    19:59-20:14

    "I will keep you and I will make you "to be a covenant for the people "and a light for the Gentiles, To open the eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

    20:17-20:30

    Then Isaiah 49, "Now the Lord says, 'He who formed me in the womb to be his servant.'" See, it's almost like a dialogue between Jesus and his Father.

    20:31-20:54

    "Now the Lord says, 'He who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has been my strength." He says, the Lord says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

    20:55-21:11

    I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." You see, based on the promises of God, Simeon knew the Messiah would be the salvation of all people, even the Gentiles.

    21:12-21:17

    And now he had seen the personal promise to him fulfilled.

    21:19-21:21

    Was that verse in Proverbs 13.12?

    21:22-21:22

    What did that say?

    21:23-21:24

    Hope deferred makes the heart sick?

    21:26-21:29

    but a longing fulfilled as a tree of life.

    21:32-21:33

    Was Simeon special?

    21:34-21:44

    You know, sometimes we read the accounts of people in the Bible, like Mary, like Simeon, David, Moses, and we're like, they're on a pedestal, man.

    21:45-21:47

    We're not like them at all.

    21:47-21:48

    I can't, that's not me.

    21:49-21:50

    Was Simeon special?

    21:52-21:55

    I think we can say that God dealt with him faithfully and graciously.

    21:57-21:59

    Was he more spiritual than us?

    22:00-22:02

    Does he have something we don't?

    22:02-22:04

    Was he somehow smarter than the average bear?

    22:06-22:06

    No!

    22:08-22:11

    He believed the Word of God and he listened to the Holy Spirit.

    22:13-22:14

    What do we as believers have?

    22:16-22:18

    The Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

    22:19-22:28

    So anchor your hope, beloved, in the eternal word of God, who does not lie, who does everything He says He will do.

    22:30-22:32

    And be still and listen to Him.

    22:34-22:45

    His Holy Spirit has been given to you to lead you into all understanding, to counsel you, to guide you, to bring you to a place of fulfilled hope.

    22:47-22:49

    Simeon knew there was more to come.

    22:51-22:57

    He knew the child would grow and become both suffering servant and righteous ruler of Israel.

    22:57-23:00

    Simon knew what the law and the prophets had to say about Messiah.

    23:02-23:47

    So he goes on in verse 34, "And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." You see, Jesus was expected to save his people from both Jews and Gentiles. He obeyed all his father's commands and fulfilled all that was spoken of him. Simeon understood that there were some dark clouds though on the horizon. Jesus was born to suffer and die for sinners.

    23:48-24:07

    He did so out of obedience and love and then he rose again to give eternal life to all who believe. So our last point is this. I'm expected to believe in Jesus which I can't fill that blank in for you.

    24:09-24:29

    And if you didn't immediately complete that sentence with, "I have, I've got good news for you." You see, Jesus is appointed for the fall and rising of many, the fall of those who don't believe and the rising of those who do.

    24:33-24:37

    In the garden, God gave Adam and Eve a number of commands.

    24:39-24:42

    He told them a bunch of things that they could do, that they should do.

    24:42-24:44

    Look, all these trees.

    24:44-24:50

    You can eat from all of these trees, all of this fruit, even the tree of life.

    24:51-24:53

    Be fruitful and multiply.

    24:55-24:56

    Exercise dominion.

    24:56-24:57

    Work in the garden.

    24:57-25:00

    of very good commands, but there was one command.

    25:01-25:04

    They were to obey.

    25:05-25:19

    One command, absolutely, "Do not eat from the tree "of the knowledge of good and evil, "for in the day that you eat of it, "or when you eat of it, you shall surely die." One command.

    25:21-25:22

    And what did Adam and Eve do?

    25:24-25:26

    They zeroed right in on that tree, didn't they?

    25:28-25:37

    And a whole human race, because of their sin, has been under the death of sin ever since.

    25:40-25:41

    But God has fixed this.

    25:42-25:45

    And now He's given us one command.

    25:46-25:50

    God now commands all men everywhere to repent and believe.

    25:51-25:53

    Look at Acts 17.30.

    25:55-26:01

    The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.

    26:03-26:13

    And then 1 John 3.23, "And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ." This is important.

    26:14-26:15

    This is a commandment.

    26:15-26:17

    It's not a mere invitation.

    26:19-26:23

    It's not a mere, you know, this would be a really good thing for you if you did this.

    26:25-26:30

    This isn't about, oh, if you just ask Jesus into your heart.

    26:32-26:35

    Would you, oh sinner, give your heart to Jesus?

    26:36-26:37

    Would you give your life to Jesus?

    26:39-26:42

    Well, if I do, can I get it back later if I change my mind?

    26:43-26:43

    No.

    26:45-26:46

    It's a command.

    26:49-26:55

    You either do what is expected and live, or you don't and you perish.

    26:57-27:06

    You see, the thoughts of your heart are being revealed right now by what the Word of God is saying to you and how you are responding to it.

    27:08-27:09

    Just recall last week's message.

    27:10-27:11

    Who's Jesus for?

    27:11-27:12

    He's for sinners.

    27:13-27:22

    If you admit you're a sinner, that's a good thing, because God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

    27:24-27:40

    We can't make ourselves acceptable to God, but when we obey the command to embrace Jesus, when we repent of our sins, our sins are all forgiven and we become clean and holy, just like him.

    27:42-27:53

    When we obey the command to repent, and we do what's expected, all our hopes, all our expectations are fulfilled in Jesus.

    27:57-28:10

    As that well-known psalm says as we sing, "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow." You see, Jesus, Jesus alone is who we really need.

    28:13-28:23

    It's that proverb again, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." You see, the cross for us is a tree of life.

    28:24-28:29

    Jesus knew all the evil you've ever done, all the evil you will ever do.

    28:31-28:36

    And He took it upon Himself on the cross and He surely died there for sinners.

    28:36-28:38

    He died for sinners.

    28:38-29:01

    And if you recognize yourself as a sinner and you repent and believe, then Proverbs 23, 18 tells us, "There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off." If you have questions about this, if you want to know, "What does it really mean to repent?

    29:01-29:07

    and believe. How do I do this? Well, talk to Pastor Jeff. Talk to any one of our elders.

    29:08-29:13

    Come talk to me. Talk to the person who invited you to church this morning.

    29:14-29:17

    That's exactly what they want to talk to you about.

    29:21-29:21

    So let's pray.

    29:23-29:50

    Our gracious Father, you have given us the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, to reconcile us to yourself, to give us eternal life, to fulfill our expectations and give us great hope and hope fulfilled in Him.

    29:52-29:59

    Lord, we thank you for this great gift. In the equally great name of Jesus, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 2:22-35

  1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?

  2. Have you ever felt so unclean or so unworthy that you thought God could not possibly have anything to do with you? Does the knowledge that Jesus makes everyone He touches clean and holy change your perspective?

  3. Share an example of a time you waited on or cried out to God – did you focus on your circumstances, or on His promises and His Holy Spirit? If you are going through trying circumstances now, how can knowing His Word and listening for the Holy Spirit’s counsel give you hope?

  4. Have you repented and believed in Jesus for salvation?

  5. Consider this statement: “Salvation requires obedience” (See Acts 17:30 and 1 John 3:23). Discuss.

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Baby's First Christmas - Who is Jesus For?

Introduction:

Who is Jesus For? (Luke 2:1-21)

  1. Jesus is for people who make Him Priority . (Luke 2:7)

    Colossians 1:18 - And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent...

  2. Jesus is for who are actively Seeking Him. (Luke 2:8-16)

Proverbs 2:3-5 - ...if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

  1. Jesus is for people who need a Savior . (Luke 2:11)

    Matthew 1:21 - She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

    If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
    If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
    If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
    If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
    But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

    Mark 2:17 - "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:04

    Open your Bibles with me please to Luke chapter 2.

    00:06-00:14

    We're beginning a series, "Baby's First Christmas." And here's what we're going to be doing over the next three messages.

    00:14-00:20

    We're going to just simply be looking at the people that were there when Jesus was a baby.

    00:22-00:34

    He didn't exactly have a baby shower, but we see people that were profoundly impacted by Jesus even when he was an infant.

    00:34-00:35

    That's what we're doing.

    00:36-00:37

    Luke chapter 2.

    00:39-00:43

    While you're turning there, I'm going to tell you a joke.

    00:43-00:43

    You want to hear a joke?

    00:45-00:46

    All right.

    00:48-00:54

    I think somebody just made one and I'm thankful that I'm hard of hearing, I guess.

    00:55-00:56

    All right, so here it is.

    00:58-00:59

    Darren I know you know this one.

    01:01-01:14

    So this cowboy goes into a saloon and sits down at the bar and the bartender says, "What do you have?" Cowboy says, "Root beer," because it's a church joke.

    01:15-01:16

    (audience laughs)

    01:17-01:24

    And the bartender gives him his root beer, and he drinks it, and he says, "Can I get you anything else?" And the cowboy says, "Are you crazy?

    01:24-01:32

    "I need to get going because Big Zeke's coming." The bartender's like, "Who's Big Zeke?" Cowboy says, "You don't know who Big Zeke is.

    01:33-01:48

    "Big Zeke is the biggest, nastiest, meanest, "most violent, vicious, ruthless, bloodthirsty cowboy ever." He's on his way here, and I ain't gonna be here when he gets here, because when Big Zeke shows up, everybody gets hurt.

    01:50-02:12

    So he takes off, and the bartender's standing there like, "Huh." Well, sure enough, about 40 minutes later, the door is kicked in, and in walks a cowboy, six foot seven, 400 pounds if he was an ounce.

    02:14-02:21

    He was wearing a coat made out of a buffalo, and I don't mean buffalo skin.

    02:22-02:25

    It was an actual buffalo draped over his shoulders.

    02:28-02:34

    He had a rattlesnake belt, And I don't mean a rattlesnake skin belt.

    02:35-02:39

    I mean around his waist was a rattlesnake, too scared to let go.

    02:40-02:43

    He had spurs the size of dinner plates.

    02:45-02:55

    And he sits down, the bartender's trembling, 'cause his words go back to the previous customer.

    02:56-03:08

    The bartender says, "What can I get you?" And the enormous cowboy says, "I'll have a root beer." Because it's a church joke.

    03:09-03:10

    That part didn't change.

    03:12-03:26

    And the bartender, shaking, brings it over and sets it down and he says, "Sir, will there be anything else?" The big cowboy looks down at him, he goes, "Are you crazy?

    03:27-03:28

    I'm going to get out of here.

    03:28-04:56

    Zeke's coming. You see the birth of Jesus is actually the exact opposite of that story because Israel was expecting a Messiah and many people missed him even though he actually arrived. But not everybody missed him. So again we're going to look at the people that were there when Jesus was born. Luke chapter 2, are you there? Pick up in verse 1, it says, "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." It's like a census, right? It says, "This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary his betrothed who was with child while they were there the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end.

    04:57-05:10

    So the census brought Joseph and Mary back to the hometown and that was actually to fulfill the prophecy that the Christ, the promised Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem.

    05:10-05:15

    Micah actually pronounced that 700 years prior to this event.

    05:17-05:21

    So the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was about 90 miles.

    05:23-05:25

    And Joseph and Mary probably didn't have a minivan.

    05:26-05:27

    Okay?

    05:27-05:32

    So imagine, very pregnant, 90 mile journey.

    05:34-05:41

    We have Mary pregnant by the Holy Spirit conceiving within her womb, and she arrives in time to have the baby.

    05:43-06:14

    up in verse 8. It says, "And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with fear. The angel said to them, 'Fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

    06:16-06:17

    And this will be a sign for you.

    06:18-06:21

    You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

    06:22-06:38

    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 among those with whom he is pleased." And the angels went away from them into heaven.

    06:39-06:55

    The shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

    06:57-07:06

    And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

    07:07-07:13

    But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

    07:14-07:21

    And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

    07:21-07:31

    And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

    07:32-07:51

    Now if you grew up in the church or even attended church the last several years consecutively at all, you're kind of familiar with the story, right?

    07:51-07:53

    You don't even have to go to church to be familiar with the story.

    07:54-08:00

    We can hear about it in Christmas shows and programs and cartoons.

    08:03-08:06

    But can we just take a step back here for a second?

    08:07-08:15

    Because some of us are so familiar with this story that we forget how strange it is.

    08:17-08:20

    Because it's really a strange story when you think about it.

    08:21-08:34

    I mean, imagine you're God's PR person, and God says, "Hey, we're going to let the world know that the Almighty Sovereign of the universe is becoming a man.

    08:34-08:37

    How are we going to let the world know?" I mean, what would you do?

    08:39-08:43

    I know you'd be like, "Okay, we're going to have to hit the big social media, right?

    08:43-09:02

    We're going to have to get on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter, and we're going to have to blast it out that way." Maybe some of you would say, "Well, we'll call CNN, and we'll call Fox News." And like, "Well, they didn't have that sort of platform back then, Jeff." But okay, so what if you lived in these days?

    09:05-09:12

    What if you lived during Jesus' day, and God said, "I'm coming to the earth." Like, who would you tell?

    09:13-09:14

    The high priest?

    09:15-09:16

    The Sanhedrin?

    09:17-09:22

    You know the religious ruling body over Israel, would you tell them?

    09:23-09:24

    What about Herod?

    09:25-09:27

    We'll just go right to the top, we'll tell the king, right?

    09:29-09:30

    That's not God's way.

    09:32-09:38

    What we see is God told a group of shepherds, and that's really strange.

    09:39-09:44

    And if that's not strange enough, again our familiarity sometimes helps us gloss over it.

    09:45-09:48

    Think about how strange the news itself is.

    09:48-09:49

    Look at verse 11 again.

    09:51-09:55

    For unto you is born this day in the city of David.

    09:55-09:57

    Unto you, underline that.

    09:59-10:01

    Because that's not a typical baby announcement.

    10:03-10:09

    Like, "Hey, somebody's having a baby for you." Like, I don't remember signing up for that.

    10:10-10:12

    Somebody's doing what for me?

    10:12-10:13

    But that's the announcement.

    10:16-10:25

    And that's simply what I want to look at for a few minutes this morning is, just to answer one question, who is Jesus for?

    10:27-10:30

    Like there's this announcement that somebody had a baby for you.

    10:31-10:31

    For who?

    10:32-10:32

    For me.

    10:34-10:35

    Yeah.

    10:36-10:38

    Well, how do I know Jesus is for me?

    10:40-11:07

    from this story, I just want to look at three things. Who is Jesus for? Who is Jesus for? Write this down. Number one, Jesus is for people who make him priority. Jesus is for people who make him priority. Have you ever been part of a church that does, you know, every Christmas they get the kids to reenact the nativity scene? You ever seen that in the church? You ever seen that? Anybody?

    11:07-11:08

    Okay, thank you.

    11:08-11:08

    Alright.

    11:10-11:11

    I can start over.

    11:12-11:14

    Okay, this cowboy goes into a...

    11:17-11:18

    Nativity, okay.

    11:19-11:26

    So I remember we grew up in the Methodist church, and I was so excited because they were doing the Nativity play, Jay.

    11:26-11:31

    And I was like, "Yes!" I'm like, "I'm going to land a big role this year." Do you know what role I got?

    11:32-11:33

    The innkeeper.

    11:35-11:37

    And do you know what that role entails?

    11:38-11:42

    You got to stand there and tell pregnant Mary that there ain't no room in your inn.

    11:43-11:44

    I felt like such a jerk.

    11:46-11:58

    Like here comes pregnant Mary, just made the 90 mile trip, and I'm like, "Sorry, there's no room for you, little pregnant Jewish lady." I mean, what a jerk, right?

    11:58-11:59

    Not me, the innkeeper.

    12:01-12:05

    But we might be shocked to discover there is no innkeeper.

    12:06-12:08

    The Bible doesn't talk about an innkeeper.

    12:09-12:10

    What does the text say?

    12:10-12:14

    It says there was no room, verse 7, in the inn.

    12:17-12:20

    Now that word for inn is the word kataluma.

    12:21-12:25

    And sometimes it helps us to understand the Bible when we look at, okay, here's how a word is used here.

    12:25-12:27

    Is that word used any place else in the Bible?

    12:28-12:29

    And actually it is.

    12:29-12:33

    In Mark 14, 14, it refers to the upper room.

    12:35-12:47

    The kataluma was a guest chamber, and actually in the Greek, there was a completely different word for a hotel or a motel, like an inn.

    12:47-12:49

    That's a completely different word.

    12:49-12:52

    That's not really a great translation of this word.

    12:53-12:55

    There was no room for them in the guest room.

    12:58-13:07

    Meaning this, the animals often were kept downstairs on the ground level, sort of like a barn or what we would call the garage.

    13:09-13:20

    So because there wasn't room in the upper room in the guest room, in our vernacular it would be like saying Mary had to have the baby in the garage.

    13:22-14:11

    And I want to share a story with you. I know some of you have heard this, but I want you to humor me for those who haven't because I think it's such an appropriate illustration here. But many years ago we did a wedding and we were all dressed up, you know. Erin was with me. She looked like a trillion dollars. I had my suit on. I looked like about 75 cents, but still she looked she looked amazing. And okay, so we went down to, we had the wedding and we went down to the receptionist at the place around, I think it was the Days Inn on Route 8. And so we show up and we get into the lobby where there's the table with the seating assignments. And we're just standing there. It was alphabetized.

    14:11-14:26

    and I'm like, "Which table are we?" And Aaron's like, "I don't see us." And I'm like, "I don't see us either." And then it dawned on us that we weren't invited to the reception and we had to leave.

    14:28-14:30

    And that was embarrassing.

    14:32-14:33

    But it gets worse.

    14:34-14:44

    Because we were all gussied up, I'm like, "We're still going out to eat." So we just went a little further down the road to the hardwood, and we had a nice dinner, just the two of us there.

    14:44-15:02

    It's probably better than having the reception with a bunch of people we really didn't know that well anyways, but when we got back in the car, I looked in the back seat and saw that I had the couple's marriage license in the back seat.

    15:03-15:10

    And they needed it for the honeymoon and all the legal stuff there.

    15:11-15:16

    And I thought to myself, oh no, I gotta go back in there.

    15:17-15:21

    You know, the place where I wasn't invited the first time, I gotta go back in.

    15:22-15:31

    And not just in the lobby, I gotta track the groom down and give him his, and believe you me, I was trying so hard to think of a way out of this.

    15:32-15:33

    And there just wasn't.

    15:34-15:45

    And so I walk in, go up to the head table, And I said, "Hey, I'm so sorry I forgot to give you this "and all your paperwork's in there that you need.

    15:46-15:57

    "You know, hope you have a great honeymoon." And I'm walking away and I got probably, you know, 20, 25 feet away and he hollers nice and loud for everyone to hear.

    15:58-16:12

    He goes, "Hey, Jeff, if you're hungry, "I think there's some leftovers in the kitchen." I'm like, "Leftovers?" Like, do you realize what goes into a wedding?

    16:12-16:14

    Do you realize what goes into that from my perspective?

    16:14-16:30

    We did weeks and weeks and weeks of counseling, and I helped plan the wedding ceremony, and I helped with the rehearsal, and all the headaches that often go with that, and I helped plan the whole thing, and execute the whole thing, and you're offering me crumbs from your table?

    16:32-16:33

    Like, do you know who I am?

    16:33-16:34

    I'm the pastor!

    16:36-16:36

    Leftovers.

    16:37-16:37

    Leftovers!

    16:40-16:45

    But that's the point of the manger, because that's what Jesus got.

    16:47-16:51

    There was no room for Him where we'd let the people sleep.

    16:53-16:54

    But you can have the leftovers.

    16:57-17:06

    Creator God, awesome God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who keeps His covenant.

    17:06-17:07

    Do you remember Him?

    17:08-17:13

    He's coming to the earth, He's coming to die a horrible death for our sin.

    17:16-17:19

    And we're like, yeah, you can just go ahead and have that baby where we keep the animals.

    17:19-17:20

    That's fine.

    17:20-17:22

    We don't have any room for you where the people sleep.

    17:24-17:33

    And before we get all judgy, like, yep, yep, shame on, shame on whoever made this happen, shame on them, shame on them.

    17:33-17:45

    Before we get too judgy, maybe you need to examine your own life and see if leftovers is still what Jesus is getting.

    17:48-17:53

    If you're like, "You know, it's so hard for me to find time to read my Bible.

    17:55-17:58

    It's hard for me to find time to get involved in church at all.

    17:58-18:43

    A small group I think I signed up, but I haven't really been able to go, and I just don't really have the time. It just seems like every minute Alex has spoken for, every minute, whether it's work or hobbies or sports, I mean all the stuff that my kids in, and then I found out there's this new series on Netflix I want to watch, and I just can't seem to squeeze Jesus into the schedule. Leftovers! You're I'll throw up a quick one in the car while I'm driving to work, or I'll pray at the end of the day, but honestly, usually I fall asleep.

    18:45-18:46

    It's called leftovers.

    18:48-18:50

    I read the Bible on my own.

    18:50-18:52

    I read the Bible on my own.

    18:53-18:53

    Do you?

    18:53-18:53

    Yeah, yeah.

    18:55-18:56

    It was a couple weeks ago.

    18:58-19:02

    I read, I think it was a Psalm, maybe?

    19:05-19:05

    Leftovers.

    19:09-19:15

    And really, it's no different than, there's no room in the guest room.

    19:16-19:17

    You can have your baby in the barn.

    19:20-19:26

    The Bible makes this incredible statement about Jesus.

    19:27-19:31

    Colossians 1.18 says, "He is the head of the body, the church.

    19:32-19:41

    He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent." You know that's how this church started?

    19:41-19:43

    That was the year one theme.

    19:44-19:44

    Jesus is first.

    19:48-19:53

    Because according to the Bible, He is to have the preeminence in everything.

    19:57-19:59

    But the question is, does He have the first place in you?

    20:02-20:04

    I mean, imagine this story.

    20:04-20:24

    What if Joseph and Mary showed up, and let's just pretend for a second, can we pretend that whoever had the jurisdiction over who was allowed to stay in the guest room, what if they knew who it was that Mary had in her womb?

    20:27-20:28

    How do you think the story would have played out then?

    20:31-20:38

    He would have gone to that room and whoever was in there, I don't care if it's the Pope or Elvis or who, whoever was in there.

    20:39-20:40

    It's like, hey, Jack, you get out.

    20:43-20:47

    I just got you're going to have to get out because God needs this room.

    20:48-20:50

    And it's the same for us, church.

    20:51-20:53

    When you recognize who Jesus is.

    20:54-20:55

    You make room for.

    20:57-21:57

    You bump him up to the VIP priority position, and sometimes that means saying no to good things because they're lesser things. Because I want Jesus to have the first place. So Jesus is for people who make him priority. Secondly, Jesus is for people who are actively seeking him. Jesus is for people who are actively seeking him. Again, we kind of said this at beginning, it's strange that the angel appeared to shepherds. Why not rabbis or the high priest or kings? Why is it so strange that this angel appeared to shepherds? Because some of you still might not think that's strange, because Now, we tend to glorify shepherds.

    21:58-21:59

    And I get why.

    22:00-22:04

    Because when you read your Bible, being a shepherd sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

    22:04-22:06

    Because Adam was a shepherd, right?

    22:07-22:11

    And Abel, and Jacob, and Moses, and David.

    22:11-22:17

    I guess quite a gallery of famous shepherds.

    22:19-22:21

    But you have to understand, in Jesus' day, it wasn't like that.

    22:22-22:24

    Do you know how they viewed shepherds?

    22:25-22:26

    Bottom of the barrel people.

    22:30-22:37

    Ignorant, uneducated, because they couldn't keep the rules that the Pharisees prescribed.

    22:37-22:41

    You know, the Pharisees made up like 600 and some rules.

    22:42-22:47

    You had to keep these rules and they mainly circled around keeping the Sabbath.

    22:47-22:50

    shepherds were just unable to keep those rules because of their jobs.

    22:53-22:59

    And in Jesus' day, shepherds weren't even allowed to testify in court because they were considered garbage people.

    23:00-23:02

    Like, you can't trust a shepherd.

    23:03-23:04

    They weren't allowed to testify.

    23:04-23:05

    They were outcasts.

    23:07-23:14

    And that is who God chose to receive the greatest news in history.

    23:15-23:17

    I've got to tell you, it doesn't make sense.

    23:17-23:21

    And if you're expecting me to spin this in some way where it makes sense, I can't do it.

    23:22-23:23

    We just finished a series in John.

    23:24-23:28

    Who was the first person that got the announcement that the Lord resurrected from the dead?

    23:28-23:29

    Who was the first person?

    23:30-23:31

    Mary Magdalene.

    23:31-23:32

    Like, who was she?

    23:32-23:33

    Nobody!

    23:34-23:36

    From the world's perspective, she was a nobody.

    23:36-23:50

    But from God's perspective, He goes, "Yeah, she's going to be the first person that finds out about this." And I think it's interesting in our story that you don't really see the shepherds being specifically told to go.

    23:52-23:54

    But they really didn't need to be, did they?

    23:56-24:01

    Like man, this story gives me so many more questions than answers sometimes when I really think about it.

    24:02-24:03

    Like how did they find Mary and Joseph?

    24:06-24:10

    Like the angel gave them three clues, like look, a baby was born.

    24:12-24:12

    That's clue number one.

    24:13-24:15

    Swaddling cloths, clue number two.

    24:16-24:18

    Lying in a manger, clue number three.

    24:18-24:19

    Good luck.

    24:21-24:23

    And how did they find him?

    24:24-24:26

    Did they run around knocking on doors?

    24:26-24:31

    Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, baby's laying in a feeding trough in here.

    24:31-24:33

    Okay, sorry to bother you.

    24:33-24:34

    I don't know.

    24:35-24:52

    But I do think it's funny that Mary travels 90 miles, has the baby in the garage barn thing, and a bunch of gnarly strangers just show up.

    24:53-24:56

    I mean, for those of you that are parents, can you put yourself in that scenario?

    24:56-25:05

    Can you think back to when you had your child or one of your children, and you're in the hospital, and push, and, oh, congratulations, it's a boy.

    25:05-25:11

    And all of a sudden, this group of gnarly, dirty people just run into your room, "Oh, you've got a baby here.

    25:11-25:14

    Oh, we heard about this." You're like, "Who are you?" "Oh, it's okay.

    25:14-25:17

    God told us about this." What?

    25:19-25:28

    But you see, the shepherds did the simplest and most important thing a person can do.

    25:30-25:31

    They responded to God's Word.

    25:33-25:36

    You know, oftentimes in the church we talk about seeking the Lord, right?

    25:36-25:45

    You say you've got to seek the Lord, and the Bible says seek the Lord, seek the Lord, and that's literally what the shepherds did.

    25:48-25:54

    I want to clarify something, because seeking the Lord absolutely does not imply that He's hiding.

    25:54-25:55

    Okay?

    25:56-25:58

    Actually, Acts 17 says He is not far from any of this.

    26:00-26:01

    But the Lord's not hiding.

    26:03-26:08

    And the shepherds were literally given the information in order to find Him.

    26:10-26:17

    And we too have been given the information so that we too may find the Lord.

    26:19-26:21

    What matters is what we do with the information.

    26:24-26:26

    And really that's what seeking the Lord is.

    26:28-26:39

    It's hearing His Word and responding, having the desire to know Him and going after Him according to His Word.

    26:41-26:41

    Okay?

    26:41-26:45

    So seeking the Lord isn't hide and seek.

    26:48-26:58

    It isn't, "Gosh, I hope I can find Him." It's simply being willing to respond to His Word.

    26:58-26:59

    That's what it means.

    27:02-27:04

    Proverbs 2 puts it this way.

    27:05-27:27

    It says, "If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." Now this passage is about seeking the Lord, specifically seeking the wisdom of the Lord, which is seeking the Lord.

    27:30-27:35

    But notice it says that you need to be searching like it was money.

    27:37-27:54

    Meaning this, if I gave you a treasure map, it's your neighborhood, and I said, "Hey, this map will take you to a place in your neighborhood and you'll find hidden treasure worth $10 billion, but the map was written in Spanish.

    27:55-27:56

    Would you learn Spanish?

    27:58-27:59

    Si, you're like, si.

    28:01-28:02

    Si, senor.

    28:02-28:04

    Si, jefe.

    28:07-28:09

    Or you could just call Martha, right?

    28:10-28:10

    That's cheating.

    28:11-28:13

    You can't find loopholes in my sermon illustrations.

    28:15-28:15

    (audience laughing)

    28:17-28:23

    Look, you see, you get these people to find these loopholes in these illustrations.

    28:25-28:28

    Well, I appreciate that, but that's not where I was going with this.

    28:31-28:31

    We're just moving on.

    28:34-28:35

    I think you get the point.

    28:35-28:36

    We're having fun, right?

    28:36-28:39

    We're having, but I think you get the point.

    28:42-28:49

    There has to be like this diligence and this desire this on your part, like I want to know.

    28:50-28:58

    And I'm not sure how much the shepherds really understood the impact of the message that they were given here.

    29:01-29:03

    I mean how much did they really comprehend do you think?

    29:04-29:09

    This is God taking the form of man.

    29:11-29:13

    And we're going to see him.

    29:14-29:15

    I don't know.

    29:17-29:19

    But they responded to it, I do know that.

    29:19-29:20

    They responded.

    29:23-29:28

    And when Jesus is your priority, seeking Him and His Word isn't something I need to talk you into.

    29:30-29:34

    Like the shepherd, you hear the message from God about His Son and you don't debate it.

    29:35-29:40

    You don't consider it, you just get moving on it, like the shepherd, right?

    29:42-29:44

    They just got moving immediately.

    29:46-29:46

    So should we.

    29:49-29:50

    So who is Jesus for finally?

    29:53-29:55

    And this is like last and most important by the way.

    29:55-29:56

    This isn't like last and least.

    29:57-29:59

    This is top of the mountain here.

    29:59-30:01

    Jesus is for people who need a Savior.

    30:03-30:05

    Back to the announcement, verse 11.

    30:05-30:13

    unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior." What does that imply?

    30:15-30:17

    That implies that He came to save people.

    30:18-30:19

    Save them from what?

    30:20-30:25

    Well fortunately we have another birth announcement in Matthew chapter 1 verse 21.

    30:26-30:37

    It says, "She will bear a son and you shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins." This is the kind of savior that was announced.

    30:40-30:46

    I came across this quote probably a couple decades ago now, and I had it written down.

    30:47-30:48

    I'm going to share it with you.

    30:48-30:48

    I don't know who.

    30:48-30:50

    It's not original with me.

    30:50-30:51

    All right?

    30:51-30:56

    You can probably Google it and find out if you're really interested.

    30:56-31:02

    And you're like, "Yeah, Jeff, why didn't you do that?" And now that I'm standing up here, it seems like I probably should have done that.

    31:04-31:05

    Here's the quote.

    31:08-31:15

    If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.

    31:17-31:21

    If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

    31:23-31:26

    If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

    31:28-31:33

    If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.

    31:35-31:36

    But our greatest need was forgiveness.

    31:39-31:40

    So God sent us a Savior.

    31:43-31:50

    And I think it's easy with all of the stuff associated with this season, that that part of the message sort of gets buried.

    31:51-31:57

    'Cause we're all about the decorations and parties and appointments and presents, and I'm not giving you a guilt trip on that at all.

    31:58-31:59

    We do that stuff too.

    31:59-32:02

    I'm just saying this is the part of the message sometimes.

    32:02-32:06

    It gets a little suppressed, put on the back burner.

    32:10-32:18

    The fact that this baby that's born is first and foremost called a savior.

    32:20-32:25

    That baby grew up and had an incredible ministry.

    32:26-32:36

    We just spent three years looking at one account of it, but in a different account, in Mark chapter two, verse 17, that baby grew up, and this was something profound that he said.

    32:38-32:47

    Jesus said, "Those who are well "have no need of a physician, "but those who are sick.

    32:48-32:54

    "I came not to call the righteous, "but sinners.

    32:56-33:00

    And the question is, when does someone go to a doctor?

    33:02-33:04

    You know I need your reaction to that, right?

    33:04-33:08

    "Oh, you go to the doctor when you're sick." And that's not true.

    33:11-33:15

    You go to the doctor when you know that you're sick.

    33:17-33:18

    And it's the same with Jesus.

    33:21-33:29

    You won't come to Him to be saved until you know that you are a sinner guilty before God.

    33:32-33:33

    Who is Jesus for?

    33:35-33:45

    And if you're sitting here listening to this, if you're watching this stream or watching this on replay sometime later, you can say, "I'm not really that bad of a person.

    33:48-33:50

    I don't really think that I'm a sinner.

    33:51-33:55

    Actually, then you're not going to think that Jesus is for you.

    33:58-34:00

    Because first and foremost, He is a Savior.

    34:02-34:11

    Jesus isn't about warm, fuzzy Christmas sentimentality or come to church out of religious obligation.

    34:11-34:16

    He is the one, He is the only one who can save you from your sin.

    34:17-34:22

    if you're willing to turn from your sin and believe in Him.

    34:24-34:27

    And really, that's who Jesus is for.

    34:30-34:42

    And the shepherds, as far as I can see, they didn't become apostles or pastors, but they did become the first New Testament missionaries of Jesus.

    34:46-34:50

    like seeking Jesus in the first place, they didn't need talked into this either.

    34:52-34:58

    And here we see Jesus' impact even as a baby completely changed their lives.

    35:01-35:11

    So as we get deeper into the holiday season, let's not reduce the story of Jesus to merely the strangest birth announcement of all time.

    35:15-35:20

    baby came into the world to save you from your sins.

    35:21-35:40

    So as our worship team comes forward, the question is, "Who is Jesus for?" You're like, "Everyone!" That's what I want to say initially, but not everyone received Him.

    35:42-35:43

    So who is Jesus for?

    35:43-35:48

    I think a better word to use there, he's for anyone.

    35:49-36:11

    He is for anyone who is willing to recognize him for who he is, allowing him first place in their lives, anyone who is willing to actively seek him, anyone who realizes that they need a Savior.

    36:13-36:14

    That's who Jesus is for.

    36:15-36:15

    Let's pray.

    36:17-36:23

    Father in heaven, I pray that you would just grip our hearts in a fresh way with this message.

    36:23-36:28

    Some of us have heard this dozens of times over the years.

    36:28-36:38

    And it is no less astounding today as it was when it happened.

    36:41-36:44

    There's a lot of questions that I have about this passage.

    36:44-36:47

    How did the shepherds find Jesus?

    36:51-36:53

    What did it look like when the angel showed up?

    36:55-36:59

    There's a lot of questions that we have, Father, but that's really not the important thing.

    37:00-37:10

    The most clear thing about this passage is you sent a Savior that we are to seek after and allow to have the first place in our lives.

    37:12-37:25

    So Father, I pray that you would bring us to a recognition of who we are, a sobering self-examination, so that we realize that Jesus is for me.

    37:27-37:30

    To your glory and honor, we pray in Jesus' name.

    37:31-37:31

    Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 2:1-21

  1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?

  2. In what ways have you made Jesus a priority in your life? Have you been guilty of giving Him leftovers? If so, what changes do you need to make?

  3. Why do you think God chose the shepherds to give the big birth announcement to?

  4. How would you explain to a non-believer what it means to “seek the Lord”?

Breakout
Pray for one another.