Apologia Church Live - 12/20/2015

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Apostle Paul, people call him Dr. Luke because he's a physician, but there's actually two works by Luke.

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There is Luke and then there is the book of Acts, and if you read, listen closely, chapter 1, verse 1, he says this, and as much as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the

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Word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent

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Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

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This is really interesting because Luke really opens up this narrative of the life of Jesus, telling you where he got the information.

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So this is really cool. You know that in the first century, all these eyewitnesses of Jesus, those who hung out with Jesus, were actually writing things down about what

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Jesus said, about what He taught, about what He was like, and so they told stories about Jesus. And so all these stories of Jesus are going around because people are trying to actually tell the story and the history of Jesus, the one they saw, the one that taught them, the one they walked with, the one they possibly ate with.

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And the gospel according to Luke is Luke actually taking all of the eyewitness testimony under divine inspiration, we know that, and he's actually compiling it into a consistent narrative and story for this

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Theophilus. Now there's questions people have asked, who in the world is Theophilus? And so people have had different ideas of, you know, who is this exactly?

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Because we don't get anything from Luke in terms of a description of like, what's your relationship with this guy?

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And so people have said that it's possible that Luke actually, in the book of Acts, obviously knows the situation with the apostle

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Paul, his trial. We see Luke actually kind of on house arrest, and so possibly

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Luke is giving this narrative of Luke and the book of Acts, and he's doing it to sort of like protect

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Paul and like put it in his defense so that people can actually read what the message of Jesus is actually about.

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So maybe Luke is compiling this narrative for Theophilus so that he can kind of protect the apostle

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Paul. I don't really buy that. I don't think that's a really good explanation because there's so much going on in Luke and Acts.

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We can't talk about it all today. It doesn't really look like Luke is doing that. I think there's a better chance that Luke is doing what is a common kind of practice or, you know, a practice in this day, and that is where somebody is maybe a wealthy person, possibly a wealthy

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Christian, actually funded Luke's attempt to compile a consistent narrative of the life of Jesus.

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And so it's possible that in the early church there was a wealthy Christian named Theophilus that kind of paid for Luke to go on this trip to investigate all the eyewitnesses.

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Now here's what's interesting, and I hope this gets you excited as you read through these narratives the next couple of days. Luke apparently spent time with Mary, Jesus' mom, because you're going to see in the text that Luke gives you information about what

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Mary pondered in her heart. How does he know what Mary is pondering in her heart unless, of course, he talked to her as one of the eyewitnesses?

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So you can picture for yourself in the first century, Luke is traveling with Paul, he's probably hooked up with Peter at times, he's hanging out with the apostles, he gets to meet with Mary, and you can kind of picture him in Mary's dining room, right, sitting with Mary, and he's just taking notes about Mary.

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What was it like to give birth to Jesus? How did you find out that you were pregnant? Can you tell me the story?

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He's writing it down and compiling this really consistent narrative under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

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So Luke is interesting because you get to sort of like step into the living room of Peter and Mary, and you get to hear about Jesus, and so I want you to hear the story.

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Luke is interesting because Luke gives you stuff that Matthew doesn't, and then John gives you stuff that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't do, and so you get this whole wide spectrum and full or picture of the life and times of Jesus, right?

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So let's start at the beginning, let's sort of walk through the text together today, again a unique service. I want you to just kind of be in this text and kind of feel and smell and taste the surroundings of what

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Luke gives to us. So Luke chapter 1 verse 5, in the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named

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Zacharias of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was

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Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the

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Lord, but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

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Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the

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Lord and to burn incense, and a whole multitude of people were in prayer outside of the hour, at the hour of the incense offering, and an angel of the

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Lord appeared to him standing on the right of the altar of incense, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

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Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him, but the angel said to him, do not be afraid,

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Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you will give him the name

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John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the

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Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the

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Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before him, and the spirit and power of Elijah to turn, here's a quotation from the

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Old Testament, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the

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Lord. Zacharias said to the angel, how will I know this for certain, for I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years?

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The angel answered and said to him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to you and to bring you this good news.

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And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.

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Now this is what's really interesting, because if you know your Bible, there's something similar about this story to some other famous story in the

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Bible. What's the similar story? You've got Zacharias being told his daughter, sorry, his wife will be with child, right?

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And he doubts it, right? So apparently he wasn't like paying attention in his

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Jewish Juanus class, right? Because there's another story in the Bible about somebody who's advanced in years and who hasn't had a child, and they doubted that God could do that.

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What was that story? Abraham and Sarah, right? And so he's supposed to know better.

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But here's what's really compelling, and I want you to hear this. Who's the angel that shows up? Gabriel.

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Now, if you think about Gabriel in the context of God's revelation, you know that the book of Daniel says a lot about Jesus, and in particular, it says a lot about the timing of the coming of the

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Messiah. So Daniel says in Daniel chapter two, long before the time of Jesus, he says that during the time of the fourth kingdom,

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God, the God of heaven, will himself set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

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It'll start like a stone that'll become a mountain and fill the entirety of the earth. So we have the timing of the

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Messiah's kingdom as the fourth kingdom, and by the way, if you count down from Daniel's day and his writing all the way down, and you get to when

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Gabriel is talking to Zacharias, which kingdom are they in? The fourth kingdom.

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And now is the announcement of Mashiach. He's coming. But there's another thing. I want you to see this and maybe bring this into the context as you study it later.

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In Daniel chapter nine, there's another example of Gabriel, the angel

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Gabriel, announcing to Daniel when the Messiah is coming. Now, this is what gets compelling, and it kind of freaks me out.

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In Daniel chapter nine, the angel Gabriel tells Daniel the timing of the

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Messiah's coming, and he actually... I can't... There's no way I can do it today, so sorry to disappoint.

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He gives the prophecy of the 70 weeks. Now, as much as I'd love to attack that right now and unpack it,

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I can't do it today, but Daniel chapter nine, this prophecy of the 70 weeks, here's what you need to know. Daniel is told that the

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Messiah is going to come, and he's going to put an end to sin, make atonement for iniquity, and he's going to anoint the most holy.

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That's what's going to take place in this prophecy. God's going to do that. But what's going to happen is the Messiah is going to be cut off, which just means to die a violent death, and then the second

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Jewish temple is going to be destroyed. The Messiah is coming. He's going to make an end to sin, bring an everlasting righteousness.

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Then he's going to be cut off, die a violent death, and then the second Jewish temple is going to be destroyed.

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Now, it was Gabriel, the angel, that told Daniel those events in Daniel chapter nine, and who's the angel that shows up to Zacharias?

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Gabriel, right? Gabriel's in it. He's like the messenger.

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He's the guy, the angel dude, that's letting everybody know, here's when

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Jesus is coming, and now the time is there, and so now Gabriel's announcing to Zacharias, look, this is the time, and you're going to have a son,

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John. He's that forerunner that God promised in the Old Testament. This is another powerful thing about John and Jesus.

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They were cousins, and so you'll see in the next chapter, you've got John in the belly of Elizabeth, and you've got

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Jesus in the belly of Mary, and it's just this crazy situation of events colliding that only the sovereign

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God could actually handle. You've got John, cousin of Jesus, the son of a priest, so he's ordained to that kind of ministry.

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He can do that ministry, and Jesus, and they're growing up as womb mates, and so now it's happening, right?

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And Gabriel's there to announce it. I love it. Can you think about Gabriel as an angel?

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He's not in the image of God, but he's this special creature designed to bring worship and glory to God, as are we, but he's sent by God on a mission to Daniel, and he gets to tell

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Daniel before Jesus comes, look, it's going to be like this, like 70 weeks, and then he's going to be cut off, and the

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Jewish temple's going to be destroyed, and this is coming. And now, like, can you imagine now Gabriel waiting, right?

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He's just like, you know, like, right? And now he gets to show up, and he gets to tell

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Zechariah, it's like, you're going to have a son, like, and it's John, and he's going to be the forerunner.

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And like, Jesus is coming, the Messiah, all God's promises, and all of a sudden, Zechariah's like, yeah,

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I don't know, right? And now you can see, maybe that's why he said, you're not going to be able to talk, right?

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Because, like, because, you know, it's a big deal, and God is faithful, so here we go.

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We know the story is unfolding. They were anticipating it. This was the time in the kingdom. This is when it all's supposed to actually take place.

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Gabriel's coming to announce it, and now John, he comes out in verse 22, and when he came out, he was unable to speak to them.

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And they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them and remained mute.

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When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home. After these days,

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Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, this is the way the

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Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men.

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Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called

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Nazareth. And you've got to, this has just got to be super sweet for Gabriel. Like he gets to tell Zechariah's, John, and now he gets to go tell

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Mary, Gabriel's very reliable source, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was

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Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. Now, why is it important to mention in Luke's narrative that Joseph is a descendant from David?

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Because God is the covenant -keeping God. He's the covenant -keeping God in terms of his promises to the world about Mashiach.

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He's the covenant -keeping God to you. And so when Luke mentions that Joseph is descended from David, it's to remind you that God keeps his promises.

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You can trust him in all things. In the macro things, the micro things, God keeps all of his promises to all of his people.

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You can depend upon God. He's a descendant from David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, greetings, favored one, the

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Lord is with you. Can you imagine how that must have sounded? Well, I think we always do it kind of like this in a student, greetings, blessed one.

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Like you know, like, we always think about, can you think maybe Gabriel was like kind of freaking out, right? Like really freaking out, like, greetings, yes, favored one.

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The Lord's with you, like, he's just freaking out, right? And coming in, he said to her, greetings, favored one, the

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Lord is with you, but she was very perplexed at this statement, obviously, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

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The angel said to her, do not be afraid. Kind of a common thing you see when the angels appear to people in the

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Bible is people freak out, right? Which is what we'd expect. Like they're not like, hey, nice to see you.

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They're kind of freaked out. He says, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him

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Yeshua, Jesus. He'll be great, watch, and will be called the

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Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father

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David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.

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Once again, you have so many connectors happening right now that if you know your Bible, all you can do is really shout with praise to God, because you've got descended from David, a kingdom reigning, no end, and you know right away,

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Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, wait a second, Gabriel's announcing to Mary that the

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Messiah's coming, you're the virgin, you've got God's favor, he's going to have a kingdom of no end, and you go, wait, oh, that's in the

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Bible too, Daniel chapter 7, same book, Angel Gabriel, Daniel 7, 13 through 14, it says that he sees in the night visions, one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven, and the son of man came up to the ancient of days and is given a kingdom, and it says that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve him, his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and now you've got the angel saying, he's faithful, and now it's time.

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He's reigning, and his kingdom will have no end. Mary said to the angel, how can this be, since I'm a virgin?

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You see this interesting thing about the Bible is it's always very honest with people's responses, whether it's their sinful response, or a response like this that's just really obvious, like, oh,

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I'm a virgin, that doesn't happen, right? You say, I'm a virgin, how's this going to happen? The angel answered and said to her, the

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Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God.

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That's what makes him the unique son of God. And behold, even your relative

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Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God.

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And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord made be done to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her.

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Now, let's pause there for a second. So here's the glory of this moment. Every day of the year, not just December, the glory of this moment is that God has kept his promise to the world, to Abraham, to David, to Moses, to God's people.

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He's kept his promise to bring a Messiah to actually destroy all the works of the devil, to bring a

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Messiah that would bring Jew and Gentile into one people and bring them to God, to bring a Messiah who would rule on the throne of David, this heavenly throne.

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He would be seated, and he would put all of God's enemies under his feet. He would have a rule and a kingdom that would never be destroyed, and the interesting thing about this king is the king comes in humility and sacrifice and as a servant.

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He doesn't come like other kings to dominate and just destroy and to be selfish and to think about his own desires and kingdom, but this king actually does something that most kings would never do, and he humbles himself and he submits himself to the will of the

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Father. He washes his people's feet. He dies in their place. He takes the death that they should take, and he calls them his friends.

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He goes to that cross, and he is brutalized and tortured by murderous people, and he takes upon himself the full wrath of God that his people deserve.

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He's faithful to the blessings and promises of Abraham. Abraham was told by God that you're going to have a seed, and all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed because of this seed, and Jesus is that seed.

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God is the covenant -keeping God. All this story flowing through history, coming together.

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Now, stop for a second. Here's the thing. This is where we can actually apply this in a pretty significant way to our own lives.

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Okay, you got all these promises, all of them. God says, I'm going to do this in the world,

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I'm going to do this in the world, I'm going to promise Abraham this, and that's going to take place, and David, you're going to have a descendant that'll be on this throne, and all the nations are coming, and salvation to the ends of the earth, all the families of the earth,

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Psalm 22, we're going to come and worship before the Lord. All these promises, all these promises, all these promises, and all they see in front of themselves is wilderness and desolation of temple, and they see death, and they see exile, and you must grant that the people of God before the coming of Jesus had to have moments where they were just despairing, right?

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And there's distress, and there's exile, and there's destruction, and there's tensions, right? There's brokenness in their relationships, and you got to think, they're just thinking,

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Now wait, I know that he said it, I know that he's coming,

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I know that God's going to fix this, I know that's what he said, but frankly, here's the thing, I don't see it. I can't touch it in front of me,

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I don't see it. I know that he's a faithful God, but the truth is right now, it doesn't look like he is.

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The people of Israel are under the boot of Rome, I don't see the world in anything but darkness and sin.

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The Gentiles are still off pursuing their false gods, I don't see Jew and Gentile together,

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I don't see Mashiach, I don't have something that can answer my sin before God, because every single year, it's the same thing,

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Yom Kippur. The priest goes, animal sacrifice, I still see a reminder constantly of my sin, nothing is fixed, but I know he's faithful, but let me tell you the truth, it doesn't feel like it.

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And the amazing thing that you can see as an application to your own experience as a child of God here, is that when

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God makes promises, he always keeps them.

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He always comes through, and he comes through in the weirdest of ways. For example, in this text, he comes to this very young girl.

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I think I'd have to have a conversation with God if he was like, Jeff, your daughter, she's like 14, and she's gonna be,

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I'd be like, oh Lord, she's like, she's real young, I got a lot of work to do with her, trust me, right?

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But God picks her, this is the one, and God does this unique thing in this young, young girl who has such an amazing relationship with God, that when she's told about this magnificent thing that's gonna happen to her, her first response is, may it be as the

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Lord, I'm the Lord's bondservant, I'm like, wow, how do you get your kid to do that, right? Very very powerful, like,

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I don't know what they did to catechize Mary, but I wanna figure it out, right? But as her response is so spectacular, he does it through this unique, little, lowly, nothing little girl,

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Mary, in like this strange, remote place in the world that no one cares about, like Nazareth, there's nothing in Nazareth, right?

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And the thing is, is that's what God works it out to be, is this lowly little girl in this nothing little part of the world, and he does it in a way with barren women, and he does it with a genealogy that is not spectacular.

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If you look at the genealogies, either in Matthews, Joseph's, or Luke's, which is Mary's, if you look at those genealogies, that list is not a stellar list of righteous people.

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They're all sinners, and they're rotten, and they fail God, and they fail each other.

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And that's what God does in the world to display His power and glory, is He takes the lowliest, most broken people, and He keeps

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His promise and covenant despite them. And that's what you have to see in Luke.

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It's not just the birth narrative of Jesus. It's not just a Christmas story. It's the story of God, and His faithfulness, and His goodness towards His people, and His love for us, and the fact that no matter what happens in the world,

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God keeps His promises. And I think I want to say something here to everybody in this room, my brothers and sisters, listen, when we talk about you can trust

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God, He said this about Himself and us and the world. These are His promises.

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When we say that, at times we may say, it doesn't feel like it. It doesn't feel like He's that God.

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It doesn't feel like He's in control. It doesn't feel like He controls history and declares the end from the beginning.

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But the truth is, you've got His Word in front of you, where He gives you a record of His faithfulness.

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He says, here's my record of faithfulness. Look at it, study it, examine it, treasure it up in your hearts.

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You know that I'm faithful. I keep my promises. I'm a covenant -keeping God in all things. Now watch this.

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If you take His record of faithfulness and you put it alongside your record of unfaithfulness, you know who you can trust.

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Trust the God that displays before the world His glory by using the lowliest, most broken people to glorify

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His name. And the amazing, powerful, potent truth in Luke here is the part about the

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Messiah's kingdom and reign. The Old Testament, if you're new to the Bible, the

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Old Testament tells you everything about Jesus, from Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, that it's God becoming a man, to Micah 5, 2, that He's coming from Bethlehem, from Daniel 7, 13 through 14, that He's going to have a kingdom that will never be destroyed, to Daniel 2, the timing of His kingdom, to Daniel 9, the timing of His kingdom, to Psalm 22, the passion of the

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Messiah, His actual death is foretold, His pierced hands and feet, His heart like wax melted within Him, dogs surrounding

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Him, evildoers encompassing Him, they're wagging their heads at Him saying, You're the

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Messiah? God delights in you? And what does it say? They cast lots, right, for His clothing.

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All the promises of Messiah down to Isaiah 53, that He'd be pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, that God was going to lay on Him the iniquity of us all, that He'd be counted among the rebels, and yet He would see

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His offspring after being counted among the rebels, after being cut off, He would see His offspring,

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He would prolong His days, the resurrection is promised in Isaiah 53, and even this, listen, that He would justify the many as He would bear their iniquities.

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There's the glory of the incarnation. All the talk about the Christmas season, all of the songs of Jesus being sung in the malls and in the restaurants and over the radio, all the conversations around the dinner table, really, they move towards this glorious truth.

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What the incarnation is about is the covenant -keeping God coming to save His people from their sins, and they don't deserve it.

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They shouldn't have it. It shouldn't belong to us. We should get the opposite.

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People often wonder, should Christians celebrate Christmas? Here's what

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I say. Wake up. God became a man, and we're asking if we should celebrate that truth?

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I say, let's get hype. Let's get crazy about that truth because, listen,

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God breaking into history splits history in half, and it's the most meaningful thing in the world to celebrate.

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I say, yeah, let's celebrate that. It's worth my whole life. It's meaningful in every possible way.

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It answers everything about the world. God's revealed Himself to us. He's condescended, become man to save His people from their sins.

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The glory of Christmas is that God became a man to save us from our sins. Now watch.

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I want you to see this. So if you move into the text now to Luke 1, verse 57.

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We're going to skip some here. Now, the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son.

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Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her, and they were rejoicing with her.

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And it happened that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him

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Zacharias after his father. But his mother answered and said, No, indeed, but he shall be called

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John. And they said to her, There's no one among your relatives who was called by that name.

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And they made signs to his father as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows,

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His name is John. And they were all astonished. And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise to God.

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Fear came on all those living around them, and all these matters were being talked about in all the hill country of Judea.

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All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, What then will this child turn out to be?

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For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And here we go. Listen. Verse 67.

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And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the

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Lord God of Israel, for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.

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And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all those, of all who hate us, to show mercy toward our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

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The oath which he swore to Abraham, our father, to grant us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

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And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the

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Lord to prepare his ways, to give to his people the knowledge of salvation.

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Listen, listen. By the forgiveness of their sins. That's what it's all about.

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Our sins are forgiven. We have salvation because of the tender mercy of our

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God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us.

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Here we go. Are you ready? Verse 79, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and on the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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Now, what's that from? What's that from? Isaiah chapter what?

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Isaiah 9. Isn't it amazing? Is that this whole story is now unfolding right before their eyes.

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John is the forerunner that's pointing to Messiah. Messiah is in the world. The kingdom's coming in history.

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The angels are announcing it. And the amazing thing is here in this prophecy of Zacharias, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 9, the very beginning of the chapter, which leads into Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, which is the verse we opened up with.

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And what is it? Unto us a child is born. A son is given. He is what?

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Wonderful counselor. El Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. What's this story about?

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The Messiah is breaking into history to redeem his people, to save them, and to bring that salvation to the ends of the earth.

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All the promises to Abraham are going to be fulfilled now. We know it. Abraham, look to the sky.

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Look up. Look at those stars. So shall your descendants be. It had to just be bewildering and insane to Abraham to think

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I would have descendants like that. I'm so old. I can't even have one. And he says, look up. That's how your descendants are going to be.

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And Zacharias points to it. Abraham's covenant going to be fulfilled. That kingdom of the Messiah now.

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Can you imagine how intense it must have been to live in this day as like Zacharias and Elizabeth to like John just like, you know,

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I don't know if they had like little tricycles then or maybe they didn't have those then. Like, you know, he kind of drives by and you just stop and you go, like, you know, what's it like to spank

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John the Baptist? It had to be kind of weird. You're spanking the prophet of the most high. The guy that's going to like proclaim the

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Messiah coming, you got him over your leg and you're like, this is really weird, right? This is going to be the guy that announces to people the coming of the

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Messiah. It had to just be really strange, right? Like it's just a weird experience. We never really think about these little things that happen in the text, but it happened.

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And here's where the story gets really interesting. You've got Mary pregnant, Elizabeth pregnant,

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Elizabeth gives birth, Zacharias is announcing, John's the one, God's covenant faithfulness right here in front of me.

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And now we have something powerful. You heard Luke say that he actually did an eyewitness investigation.

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What'd you see? What was it like? Who'd you hear? Who were you around? When does it take place? He's asking questions and he's taking notes and he's writing it all down for Theophilus.

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And now you get to get this intimate picture of what took place at the birth of Jesus.

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And so you know he was there with Mary. You know he had to ask her, what was it like? When was this?

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What took place? And so you get to actually hear this probably from the lips of Mary herself.

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So let's do this with the kids. Let them hear this up close and let's give the gospel.

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So let's go ahead and have the kids, you guys come on up now. We're going to talk about the birth narrative of Jesus. But before you do, we have a little tradition.

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Since you're in your pajamas, you get to also get hot chocolate. So it's coming out over here.

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So let's have the kids go on over there and you can go ahead and grab it. And you can sit right here up front. Be real careful, kids.

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It's right over there, guys. Go grab it over there and then come on over back over here. Hopefully this doesn't take too long.

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We'll see. Right over there, girls.

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You can go get your hot chocolate. I love your pajamas. They're awesome. When I was a kid, my mom gave me, what's it called?

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Is it called a onesie? Is that what it's called? Where your feet are locked in there, trapped in a prison? My mom used to put me in my onesie and I'd be so hot that I would unzip myself when she put me in bed and I'd take my legs out of it because it was so unbearably hot.

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And I would fall asleep and I would wake up on fire because she'd come to my room and put me back into it and zipped it up. So I have this deep hatred for these.

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You guys come on in and have a seat right here. All right.

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Hey, where's Merry Christmas on those cups? Just kidding. By the way, don't do that.

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What's your name? Merry Christmas. Yeah, is that funny?

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All right. Are you guys ready to hear about Jesus? Are you guys ready to hear about Jesus? Yeah? You got to be louder than that.

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Say, yeah. Okay. So you guys can be seated. Make yourselves real comfortable.

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You look very comfortable. All right. We're going to talk about God becoming a man. This is what happened when

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God became a man. Are you guys ready to hear about it? Yeah. You can go ahead and have a seat. You can have a seat. You want to sit down?

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There you go. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

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This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city.

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Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem because he was of the house and family of David. Where was Jesus born, guys?

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Do you know? Bethlehem. Very good. In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.

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While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son.

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And she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

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In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

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And they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.

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For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the

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Lord. How many guys have heard this story before? Charlie Brown's Christmas.

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Right? Okay. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.

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When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the

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Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger.

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When they had seen this, they had made known the statement which had been told them about the child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

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But Mary, and this is one of those things, guys, you know there was some conversations going on. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

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The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that had been heard and seen just as had been told them.

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Praise God. So kids, the most important thing about Christmas to think about is not just the presents, it's not just the toys and the cookies, although those are pretty awesome.

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Amen? Amen. Okay, all right. Kids are set. Amen. The story of Jesus is the most important thing.

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Who is Jesus? He's the Savior. What did you say? Who is

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Jesus? You said it right. God. And the story of Jesus is that God actually became a little baby and He grew up just like us.

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Once He was actually as big as you and He grew up and He actually lived the life that we have not lived.

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He was sinless and He was perfect and He went to die on a cross because we deserve that death because of our sin.

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But God loves His people so much that He went to that cross to take the punishment they deserve for their sin and then

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He rose again from the dead. Is Jesus dead? No. Jesus is alive and Jesus promises to everybody who will believe in Him, yes,

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He died on a cross and He's alive and He promises to everyone who believes in Him that He will give them eternal life and that you can know

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God and be forgiven if you just trust Him. How many of you guys trust

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Jesus? You believe in Jesus? Praise God. So that's the glory of Christmas.

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God became a man to take our sins upon Himself and to save us from our sins. Is that awesome?

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Amen. But you guys can take your hot chocolates now. You can go back to mom and dad. Thank you guys for coming to hang out with me.

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You got some serious chocolate face and it's awesome. It's awesome. You killed it.

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So brothers and sisters, we do this during this season.

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We focus in on the incarnation every year because it truly is something that ought to transform us.

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The thing that I think makes

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Jesus so powerful is that the story of Jesus is something that takes place and is connected to history.

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I'm going to leave on this. So interestingly, you have like examples in history of like religious leaders, prophets, people that found golden plates, right?

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And things like that. And all these things, watch this, they're these private experiences that exist really in the mind of the person telling it.

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And so, for example, just as a comparison, when you look at the story of the Book of Mormon just about 200 years ago, you've got a guy that came along and said he had this private experience.

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He was sent as a prophet. And you have people that actually came up initially and said, oh yeah, we witnessed those plates.

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And then within really a couple of years, they all actually abandoned it and they denied ever seeing it.

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And so the revelation exists in the mind of the one giving it, and the stories end up kind of falling apart within a few short years.

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And the majesty of the New Testament documents is that it is eyewitness testimony in history, in time, and in space.

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God touched the very earth that we stand on, and He did it because He loves us, not because He had to, but because He loved us.

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That's the glory of the gospel, the love of God. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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And the amazing thing about Luke and all the apostles is that when they said they saw these things, there was a point in their lives where they were challenged about it, and they could have denied it, but they didn't.

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They died gruesome, horrible deaths because they said,

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He's God, He's the Savior, He's worthy of my whole life, and I trust Him. In the first century in Rome, there would have been a very easy way for you to get out of dying.

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All you had to say was, Kaiser Curios, Caesar is Lord. Say it, let your tongue go, say it, and you get to go free, go home, have a meal with your family, no more persecution.

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All Rome wants is a little pinch of incense, that's it, just give me a little bit, Kaiser Curios, and you win, you go home and you live a long life.

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But the people who gave this revelation died gruesome martyrs' deaths to testify about the goodness of God becoming man to save us from our sins.

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That's the call. God became man, He lived righteously, died for sinners, was raised from the dead, and the call is this, the command is this, repent and believe the gospel.

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Turn from your sin to the living God, put your faith in Jesus, and Jesus says, brothers and sisters, I leave you with this,

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John 5, 24, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my voice and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

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That is the glory of Christmas. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the message that went out.

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I pray, God, if there's anybody in this room right now that doesn't know you, as Savior and Lord, has not experienced the blessing of eternal life, has not tasted and seen,

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I pray, God, that you would come at this very moment and convict, open the eyes of the blind, open the hearts of the hard -hearted, open the ears of the deaf, take those who are in death and bring them to life,

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Father, according to your mercy and grace. I pray that you'd grant faith today in Christ, that you would reconcile those people to yourself today through Jesus.

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I pray, God, that this week, as we, your people, think on and meditate on the incarnation,

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I pray that it would transform us. I pray that it would transform our marriages, it'll transform our relationships with each other, that we will recognize

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God, that if you, the Holy One, could condescend to chase the rebels and save us,

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I pray that, Lord, you would grant us the same grace and pursuit of others, that we,

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Lord, would live in a way that glorifies you, displaying before the world reconciliation and peace, because that's what you did for us.