The First Glimpse of the Face of Our God

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.

Alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was the governor of Syria.

And all went to be registered, each in his own town. And Joseph also 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 the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And 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 inn.

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.

And 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. And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known.

To us.

And they went with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. This is the gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Our story tonight begins in darkness. We learn from our gospel texts that Christ was born at night. What an interesting thing. It makes perfect sense. In the gospel of John chapter 1, we read this regarding the incarnation of our Lord.

The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

What has happened to us? What a stark contrast this is. In the beginning of the Bible, we read that God formed Adam from the dust of the earth, and his lifeless body was sitting there, standing there, well, lying there.

No breath had come into it yet. And then it says that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. An amazing picture, if you would. And so there, Adam, as his eyes opened for the first time, and he becomes a living spirit, a living soul, the first thing his eyes see are his creator.

But we all know how the story goes. Our first parents rebelled against God, disobeyed his command, cast his word behind them, and listened instead to the voice of the serpent, the great dragon. And in so doing, plunged us into ruin and misery, and death has come upon us all.

But we are so plunged into darkness that when our God shows his face, we don't even recognize him. Truth is, if Christ were sitting here tonight, worshiping with us, we wouldn't know him. We don't know what his face looks like.

Few have seen the face of God. And so consider then in this text, our gospel text, just how amazing the story is. Because when we think about God, we can't think about God apart from thinking about our sin and the fact that we have just messed everything up.

We all know the darkness of sin. Sin is slavery. Sin is not freedom. Sin is almost practically a mental illness. It's a delusion. It focuses you on yourself, and you become like the devil, thinking all about me, myself, and I, the other unholy trinity.

The other unholy trinity is the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. But it's all about me. And in so thinking that it's all about me, we absolutely disobey God, and we hurt, and we sin against each other.

Have you ever noticed, maybe it's hard not to, that this year has been just terrible? Absolutely awful. Nobody saw this pandemic coming, and it isn't even much of a pandemic if you think about it. You've got a 98 chance of surviving if you actually catch this thing.

But the global economy has melted down. We've watched as people have been losing their jobs. And have you noticed that the politicians, they don't seem to be any kinder to each other? The rhetoric is at a fever pitch of hatred.

The world is full of malice, and the reality is that you and I have all participated in it. And there's a bunch of blame going on, a bunch of blame. Oh, it's your fault. This politician did not quick enough to stop the pandemic.

It's their fault. Their policies brought this upon us. It's them. And then the other side says, no, it's them. And we all pick a side, and we throw rocks at each other, thinking that somehow by doing that, we can justify ourselves.

The reality is this. Haven't you figured it out yet? The pandemic is not their fault. It's mine.

It's yours.

These are the consequences of our sin. And God has allowed us to suffer the inconvenience of a global pandemic that kills very few, but has shown us to be the wretched, miserable people that we are, plunged into utter darkness.

And so with that, our gospel text brings us this word. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. Registered for what? A tax. And oh, what a title this man has.

Caesar. Not just Caesar. He's Caesar Augustus. You could almost hear the vibrato and the bass and the echo going along with it.

Augustus.

But he, like so many sovereigns of the ancient world, was a false god. And people worshiped him as God on earth. But he died, just like other men do. But you'll note then that here, when history had run its course, Moses and the prophets had prophesied for many centuries that God would send us a savior, one to redeem us, one to set us free, one who would be the light, who would lead us out of the darkness.

And Christ chose to be born under the boot of the Roman Empire. He didn't come to rule and to reign. Scripture is clear that though he wasn't by nature God, he didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Instead, he humbled himself and he took on the form of a slave. Doesn't even have citizen status in the Roman Empire. Just somebody being governed by them. And we know how ruthless they were. This was the first registration when Quirinius was the governor of Syria.

All went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. Why? Because he was of the house and the lineage of David.

And those words should have given him some status. He is the rightful heir to the throne of Judea. He is the one who should be sitting on the throne of David, but there is no throne of David. Because the line of David squandered what they had received from their parents, from their ancestors, from David himself.

And they plunged Israel into great ruin and misery and idolatry. Even bringing into the temple of God itself cult male prostitutes. The worship of Asherah, Baal, Molech. And rather than turn when disaster was upon them, they persisted in their sin and their unbelief.

And God made good his word through the prophet Jeremiah. And they were taken into captivity. And the reign of David came to an end with Zedekiah. For hundreds of years, the line of David languished in complete obscurity.

I mean, it doesn't get any more obscure than Nazareth. Like I said earlier this week, village of 50 families maybe. And what was David? What was the son of David, Joseph? What was he? He was a day laborer, construction guy.

He painted houses, worked in stucco, wood, wood, things like that. It doesn't get any lovelier than that. And so he doesn't even have the freedom to stay in Nazareth. The edict of Caesar Augustus has gone out.

And he's got to head back to the town of his ancestors, to the city of Bethlehem. And we're going to note something here. That when you look at all the greeting cards at Christmas time, the way they depict Mary.

You always have the blue sky. The sun is long gone. You have the stars coming out. You always have that beautiful star, the star of Bethlehem shining. And then you can see Mary in silhouette as she heads towards Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

I hate to break it to you, but Joseph couldn't afford that. Not with a job he had. Which means that Mary more than likely walked. She walked from the city of Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem. Now, if you are pregnant in your ninth month and your baby's a little overdue, walking's not a bad thing.

I would note that Joshua was a little late. He's been late ever since. But when Barb, my wife, was pregnant with Joshua, Joshua was taking his dear sweet time. He was probably playing Nintendo. We're not sure exactly.

We haven't confirmed or denied this report. But what ended up happening is these were the days before we had the internet. And so my wife had this book and the book was called, What to Expect When You're Expecting.

And she followed the book as if it was the Bible of pregnancies. I had, I learned things I didn't even know existed all from this book. And so she consulted the book and of course consulted her physician and said, My son is late.

This is not a good sign. And I am miserable being pregnant. Please tell me what I should do. And the doctor says, Well, we're not going to induce you yet. Why don't you walk? And she looked it up in the book and the book says walk.

And so my mother-in-law was in town. And so you know what my wife and my mother-in-law did? They walked. They walked the streets of Seattle up and down the hills. They marched this way and that way.

They marched to Pike's Place. They went to the Columbia Center. They went all over town.

And guess what?

They only had to do that for a couple of days. And Josh said, Enough!

Enough!

I'll put the Nintendo down. Well, it's not exactly what he said. But I got that nudge in the night. And my wife said, It's time. Well, it took them a few days to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And Mary, when she got there, it was time for her to give birth.

It makes sense if you think about it. But I want you to consider this. More than likely, Mary is 15, 16. She's definitely not in her 20s. And I want you to think about this. Giving birth is a scary proposition for any woman, yet alone a girl in her teens.

And she's not at home. She's not with her mother. She doesn't have her normal family network to be there with her. And the text tells us that the King of Kings, the God who spoke the universe into existence, that he ended up being born in a barn because there was no place for them.

It doesn't make any sense. How is it that we not, do we not know that this girl was carrying in her womb our God, our Savior, our Lord? Why were there not people saying, Oh, please take my accommodations.

And oh dear, here's some hot water and some towels and some things to help you with giving birth. None of that is even mentioned here. Which means that it was just her and Joseph. They were kind of on their own.

And at the end of it, all they had were, well, a swaddling closet they can gather up. And when it was all said and done, they placed Christ into the feeding trough of animals. When kings are born, there's usually bells that are told.

Criers go out and announce the good news. But with the birth of our Savior, there was nothing. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. They didn't even know it was him. That's how blind we are, how steeped in the darkness of sin we are.

But now the angels come to the rescue. And part of me wants to just think that the angels are sitting there looking at what's going on,.

Going, Do they not see this?

How can they not see this? And I can see Michael and Gabriel having a squabble going,. We've got to do something. Now, this is Roseborough's interpretation. This is total apocrypha. It's not in the text.

But you sit there and you sit there and go, What? You can see the angels just looking over the rails of heaven going,. This is amazing. God, rather than giving them what they deserve, those rebels, sending them all off into hell, he has had compassion on them and sent them a Savior.

God himself has rolled up his sleeves and gotten into the fray and has become a slave. Angels long to look into these things. And I dare you to think of anything more loving and sublime than this. And so in that same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

We learn from Jerome, the church father, Jerome, the fellow who translated the Bible into Latin. He grew up in Bethlehem. He grew up here. And he writes and tells us about the fact that Jesus, where he was born, was practically over the same spot where David was born.

And that these hills where these shepherds were, which are just outside of Bethlehem, were the very same places where David had taken his flocks as he cared for the flocks of his father, Jesse. And so in honor of the man who was a man after God's own heart, the king who Christ would possess his throne and rule and reign from for all eternity in a world without end, the angels then decide that they're going to let the secret be known.

The thing that everybody had missed, they're going to announce then to lowly shepherds. So an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.

We've all had an experience where we've been outside, outdoors in the dark. And man, it can get really dark outside sometimes. I remember one time being on a camping trip with my brother, which was a mistake, by the way, agreeing to do this.

But we were on a camping trip, and my brother, he liked to prank me, I liked to prank him. And he thought it would be a really fun idea to wake me up from a dead sleep in the dark of night in the middle of nowhere with a very bright flashlight.

And of course, whatever he said, there was violence that followed, and I'm still in therapy over that. But the whole point is that using a flashlight in that way in the dark was quite effective. And he wasn't even an angel, and he definitely scared me.

And so these angels appear, and they are holy. God is holy. We are not. But they appear in the darkness, and the text says that they were filled with great fear. But the angel said to them, fear not. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

What an amazing thing. God has entrusted a good news message, the gospel, to shepherds, and expects them to share this message with others because this wasn't just for them. This is a message of great joy and good news for all people.

And you'll note how faithful these shepherds were in delivering the message that they had received from God. And here's what they heard from the angel. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord, a Savior.

The city of David, Messiah, it's all there. They are the first to receive the good news of the birth of our Savior and the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Humble shepherds. Not King Herod. Not the high priest.

Not the seminary prof.

No.

Shepherds.

And he says this will be a sign for you. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And then 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.

Have you ever stopped to think that every time we sing the glory of pottery, every time we sing these glories in the liturgy, Christmas is there for us. Every divine service where we sing these words.

So when the angels had went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go to Bethlehem and let us see the thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. These are pious shepherds.

They understand that they have heard from God. And so they went with haste. They didn't dilly-dally. They went right to it. They went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

And I want you to think about this. When we think about God and our sin, we think if God is going to show up, what do we expect? A whirlwind, a tempest, an earthquake, bolts of thunder, lightning, darkness, smoke.

All the things that would shake us to our core. Standing in front of God. And we know that this is what we should expect from Him because of our sin and rebellion. But I want you to note that these men, after being instructed by an angel of God, hearing the heavenly choir, who can say they've heard that?

Few have.

None are alive today. That when they get there, that rather than seeing an angry, stern face of God, they looked into the face of their God, and there he was.

And they went,.

Oh, he's so cute. Because that's what everybody does when they see a newborn baby. And there he was. Little nose, little eyes, little fingers, little toes.

Nothing to fear.

And that's the point. Rather than get what we deserve, we got a humble baby. A humble Savior. And there he is, lying in a manger, sleeping, breathing. And just like any other child after he was born, he took his first breath and he cried, I never expected God to be like this.

But that's how God comes to us. Indeed, it is good news. A Savior.

One who would grow.

And every time I sing that hymn, the one we sang as a sermon hymn, when we get to those lyrics, I keep telling myself, this time I'm not gonna cry. And I have yet to pull it off. Nails, spear, shall pierce him through.

The cross be born for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh. The babe, the Son of Mary. So our God comes to us as a baby. With a virgin singing a lullaby, sitting in a manger, not a palace. And all of this is good tidings for us.

Because as it says in our epistle text for tonight, when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

By the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit. You see, the one thing that we all have in common with David is that each and every one of us can say along with David that in sin did my mother conceive me.

But Christ was not conceived in sin. Everything about his conception just screams holiness. Purity. How sad it is that each and every one of us, our birth, was tainted with sin. But you'll note that Christ talks about the fact that in the waters of baptism, we're united with Christ.

And that we are born again according to the Spirit. And so our second birth is pure and holy, just like Christ's birth. He was born pure so that we could be reborn pure. And all of this he's poured out on us richly God is not chintzy when it comes to love.

He's not chintzy when it comes to grace. He doesn't piecemeal mercy out. He bestows it on us, pours it on us richly. The picture is so beautiful in Scripture. It's like oil running down the beard of Aaron.

It's over the top. It's rich. So now being justified by his grace, we now have become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The prophet Isaiah said it well. Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him.

And they shall all be called the holy people. Sinners called the holy people. And this was fulfilled. Because all who believed in Christ, who were baptized into his death and his resurrection, after his death for our sins on the cross, his victorious resurrection from the grave on the third day, and his ascension into heaven, the word went out.

The good news that was first proclaimed in Bethlehem now is announced to the whole world. Christ, your savior, has been born. He suffered, bled, and died. Repent and be forgiven. And all who have been brought to him, united with him, and had their second birth are called holy people.

Hagioi in Greek. You know the word is saints. The prophecy is fulfilled. But listen to this. He also said that they would be the redeemed of the Lord. And indeed, we are purchased from slavery to sin, death, and the devil.

We are no longer slaves to sin. We are adopted children of God because we have been redeemed by what Christ has done for us. This babe is exactly what we needed. And we will be called those who are sought out.

And you have this picture here then of Jesus, the good shepherd, going and chasing after and hunting down his lost sheep. And we will be called a city that has not been forsaken. So brothers and sisters, take heart this Christmas.

Take heart this great Christmas. Even note this, that God has not forsaken us. He has not left us in the darkness of sin. And he cares deeply that you have been enslaved to the devil. And he himself has sought after you.

He has redeemed you. He has made you holy. And you have not been forsaken. You have been saved.

Merry Christmas. In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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56744.

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