The Greatest Gift Luke 2:8-20

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So I just wanted to show you, we didn't have to use this, Isaiah did well. So graham crackers come in handy, yeah, and straw does too.
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Ever since I was a child, I've been an avid news watcher. My dad frequently had the news on in the evening and we would sit down to watch
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Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw or Peter Jennings back in the day. Now most days, when one watches the nightly news, it's pretty ordinary.
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You forget about what happened even a week or two later. However, there's some news that when it's delivered, people never forget it.
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Every generation has those memories of a major world event that are so significant that the people living during that time remember where they were when it happened.
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People remember the bad news delivered and the good news. People remember where they were on December 7th, 1941 when the
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Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor that largely brought the Americans into World War II.
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That was bad news and the people of that generation never forgot it. Then the people from that generation also remember the good news.
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The good news, of course, would be D -Day on June 6th, 1944, the Allied forces invaded the beaches of Normandy, which began the liberation of German -occupied
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France. The memory from my lifetime that I will never forget, nor will many of you, were the attacks on the
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World Trade Center and the Pentagon, September 11th, 2001. The news delivered that day is something that just sticks in your memory.
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It's etched in your mind. Now today, in this morning service, we are celebrating
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Christmas. And Christmas, if you think about it, it's really a time that's all about news.
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And it's not about bad news, but it's about good news. In fact, it's about the greatest news of all.
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Now, about two months ago, we started the book of Matthew. So we've recently seen the
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Christmas story. I've joked that we had Christmas before Christmas because we saw the story of the
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Magi from the East who came to see the child Jesus. So we saw that perspective of the
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Christmas story. And we had both represented up here today during the children's program. Today, though, we're going to see the other perspective, and that is of the perspective of the
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Jewish shepherds. It's interesting that the Bible does that. They have one perspective that's from a pagan representative, and that, of course, is the three wise men, the
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Magi. And then the other perspective is from a Jewish perspective, and that comes from the shepherds who were in the field.
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So what we're going to see today is the news of a savior king coming into the world. And this news was delivered to the shepherds, to you and me, and to the whole world.
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And what this sermon today is calling you to do during this Christmas season, and not just during this
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Christmas season, but always, it's calling you to set your mind on the most important news of all, to set your mind on the most important news of all.
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And we're going to see three reasons why in our text, Luke chapter two, verses eight through 20, and I encourage you to turn there at this time,
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Luke chapter two, verses eight through 20. If you're using a Red Pew Bible, I don't have the page number, but Matthew, Mark and Luke, it's the third book of the
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New Testament, and chapter two is early on, of course, in Luke. Now, earlier in the service,
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I read the birth of Jesus Christ from verses one through seven of Luke two. And in the verses following, we're going to see this news, this great news, get out.
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And this is how it happened. Verses eight through 10. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
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And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
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Let's stop right there. Now in verse eight, we see these Jewish shepherds are watching over their flock in close proximity to where Jesus was born.
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Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so they were somewhere in that region.
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In verse nine, these shepherds get the surprise of a lifetime. A messenger from heaven, an angel, appears to them.
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As a messenger from the Lord, this angel brings the glory of God along with him. This past month,
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I wrote an article in our newsletter on the glory of God, and what
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I specifically mean by that is the glory that comes with him when you are in his presence.
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And throughout the Bible, when God took on human form, which is called a theophany, what would happen is that this bright light would come with him, the brightest light anyone has ever seen, brighter than the sun, so much so that you would be blinded if you see this light.
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And so this is the light that comes upon these shepherds as they are in the field.
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And what happens when humans see the glory of God with their eyes? They are frightened. People fall to the ground and are speechless.
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This is why all throughout Scripture, angels always say what when they appear? The first thing they say is, do not be afraid.
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This heavenly creature coming to earth to speak to humanity, they always say, do not be afraid.
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The angels' words to them are no different in verse 10. That's precisely what they tell these shepherds.
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And this brings us to the main focus of our sermon today, and that is news. The reason they come is to share news.
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And this is not the bad news that was delivered to the American people on September 11, 2001, or any of the bad news you can think of.
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This is so much different. This is very good news. The greatest news.
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Now in the second half of verse 10, the angels say, I bring you good news of great joy. The angel does not just say,
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I bring you good news, right, he's emphasizing how incredible and how important this news is.
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These are shepherds who would have known the Old Testament. They know about all these prophecies from the
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Old Testament that are predicting that there's a Messiah who's coming into the world and he's going to change everything when he comes.
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And so this would have been long -awaited news for them. He was the hope of Israel, this
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Messiah who was going to come into the world, and he's finally came. And you have to understand that this would have been the biggest moment of their life.
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So it's good for us here to put ourselves in the shoes of these shepherds. Now with the
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Messiah coming, the word Messiah means anointed one, and the word
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Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. And the
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New Testament is written in Greek. This is why we call it Jesus, Jesus Christ. It's not his last name.
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It's a title attached to his name. Now the question we must ask ourselves, is this good news only for Israel or is it for the whole world?
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Well, the end of verse 10 gives us this answer. The second half of verse 10 says, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
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And we're going to see why this isn't just referring to the Jews, this is referring to the whole world. The angel tells us what this news is in verses 11 and 12.
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For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is
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Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
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The angel reports the news that happened not too long before. I mentioned the
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Magi story. Jesus would have been about a year old when the wise men appeared to Jesus. But here, when the shepherds appeared to Jesus, he had just been born.
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So it's right after his birth. And these shepherds find out that he's not only the
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Messiah, but also God. If we look carefully at the text, we can see that here. And that's the teaching throughout scripture, is that Jesus, he's not just a man, he's
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God also. He's fully God and he's fully man. And Christ, as I mentioned, means
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Messiah. And the Lord here, as we see in this text, the word Lord is another word for Yahweh, which is the name for God in the
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Old Testament. And so that's where we see here that he's not just the Messiah, he's also God. So this is the great wonder of this day.
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Christmas isn't just isn't a celebration about a great man who was born. Well, it certainly is that, but it's so much more than that.
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Christmas is a celebration about God becoming a man. Ponder that for a little bit.
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I love going out at night looking at the stars and just thinking about the one who created all of that, the one who created all of this, became one of us.
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He became a human. We can't wrap our mind around how wonderful and how incredible that thought is.
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This is a great way to use your mind. So often our mind is used towards so much trivial things. But how often do we meditate on the reality that God became one of us?
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Now, this news that the angel reported, why does this matter? Why does this matter to everybody in this room right now?
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And there's people probably all over the world. They're wondering, why are we recognizing this birth so much?
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And why are so many countries all over the world celebrating Christmas? In fact, the whole world celebrates this holiday.
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That's pretty unique when you think about it. The birth of this child is so important because this baby is the only hope for the world.
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And that's a major statement I just made, but it's a true statement. When Mary was pregnant, an angel of the
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Lord appeared to Joseph and told him in Matthew 121, she will bear a son and you shall call his name
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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So he's the
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Savior not just for Israel, but he's for all the people. As we saw in the second half of verse 10, he is called
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Savior because he delivers people from their bondage to sin and brings them to God.
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In fact, the name Jesus, you know what the name Jesus means? It means Yahweh saves. The Lord saves.
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That's what the name Jesus means. Now 40 days after the birth of Jesus, he was presented at the temple.
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Simeon in Luke chapter 2, verses 30 -32, that's a little further down here. This is what
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Jesus said concerning Jesus and why his birth is important for everybody in the world.
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This is what he said. He said, my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples a light for revelation to the
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Gentiles. So who are the Gentiles? A Gentile is simply a non -Jew.
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Jews and Gentiles. So in other words, everybody. And the rest of the
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New Testament gives the big picture. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins.
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That's why he came. He was on a rescue mission to save sinners. And this is something that's offered to the whole world.
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John 3 .16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
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Acts 4 .12 says salvation only comes through Jesus Christ. It says there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved.
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God sent his son into the world to become a man, to save sinners, and not only to do that, but also to become a king.
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So he's a savior king. The people whom Jesus saves will be the ones who will populate his kingdom.
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Think about how interesting that is. The kings in world history, they serve the people who are in their land.
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Everybody who is in their land. But in this case, Jesus is going to populate his kingdom with those who are his.
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Those who are saved by his blood. Saved by what he did for them at the cross.
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This is what Luke 1 .32 says, it says, he will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the
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Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
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And of his kingdom, there will be no end. So this is a forever kingdom that he is going to take part in.
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It's interesting, when you read the Old Testament, you see all these kingdoms in the history of the world. And in the book of Daniel, there's this one kingdom that comes in that says, will not be replaced by another.
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Every kingdom in world history eventually dies, and it's replaced by another. But this is the only kingdom that goes on forever.
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And what scripture tells us is that the king of the world is also the savior of the world.
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When he came to this world the first time, he came in humility.
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He was lying in a manger. He lived in the town of Nazareth. Nobody knew where Nazareth was.
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This was a no -name town. That's where he started his ministry, was in the region of Galilee.
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And yet, this is what God chose. This was the plan for his son.
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This is the life he would live. He lived a life of suffering. He lived a life where he was our sin -bearer.
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We just saw that in Matthew a couple of weeks ago, right? He came to fulfill all righteousness. He came to identify with sinners, knowing that we would have no hope apart from him.
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John 3 .17 says, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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He comes the first time to save. He comes the second time to gather his people and to judge.
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But the first time is to save. Now, if you believe in Jesus, if you sincerely have faith that He went to the cross so that you might live, and you recognize, you realize you're a filthy sinner who needs
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Him, that you could never earn your own salvation, if you realize this, and your trust is 100 % in what
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He did for you, then you will be with Him in His kingdom forever. That's your future. And your future could not be brighter.
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So you can see how wonderful this news is. This is the first reason you must set your mind on the most important news of all this
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Christmas. The King was born to offer salvation to all people, including you. The second reason why you must set your mind on the most important news of all this
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Christmas is peace comes only to those who believe. And we'll see this in verses 13 and 14.
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As the shepherds were still standing outside, they went from seeing one angel to a multitude.
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This is what verse 13 says. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
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God. Okay, let's stop right there. A heavenly host is literally thousands.
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Thousands of angels. Could you imagine that? Imagine a stadium full of people.
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Just countless angels. These angels are praising God for sending
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Jesus to the world as the long -awaited Messiah. And they praise God and say in verse 14,
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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.
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Now, let's take a second to think about angels here. Do you ever wonder why angels,
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God -created angels, what's their purpose? I think as humans, right, we're always so fascinated with them.
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And you know what? They're fascinated with us. It says that in 1 Peter, it says that angels long to look into redemption.
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And specifically, redemption, of course, is for us, humanity. There is no redemption for angels.
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Fallen angels are demons and Satan. There is no redemption plan for them, but there is for humanity.
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And angels are so fascinated by that. And we're fascinated by them as well.
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Hebrews 1 .14 tells us God's design for them. It says that they are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.
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One of their main roles is to serve you, to serve the redeemed. They also praise
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God continually. Do you remember they count in Isaiah chapter 6?
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Isaiah is before the throne of God. And Isaiah, he's awestruck as he's in God's presence.
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And angels say to one another, they say, Holy, holy, holy is the
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Lord of hosts. In Revelation 4 and 5, angels are worshiping
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God and they say the same thing. They say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
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So you get the picture. Angels stand in the presence of God and what they do is they worship
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Him continually. And this is what they're doing here. They're praising God. And this is the model we are to follow.
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We should be in the regular pattern of praising God because He is worthy of our praise.
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So do you do that? Ask yourself that question. As you go through the day, do you tell the
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Lord how wonderful He is and for who He is and what He has done? This is something we must do.
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God created us to worship Him. He's worthy of all the praise, all the honor, all the glory.
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And when you come to know Him, you realize this. And as you grow, you come to know this more and more.
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Now, in the second half of verse 14, the angels address humanity here. This is what they say.
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They say, on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased, with whom
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God is pleased. Right? So the question we need to ask here is, who is
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God pleased with? Now, this verse has been interpreted wrongly by many.
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The wrong way to interpret this is peace on earth and goodwill toward men, meaning that Christ brings goodwill to all humanity.
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Some manuscripts say this, but what the ESV says, that's the version that I'm using here, and that's the version that's in the pews.
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What the ESV says is correct, that peace among those with whom
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He is pleased. And maybe you've heard the wrong interpretation from maybe a song or a
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Christmas play, peace on earth and goodwill toward men. One of the reasons it's been interpreted wrongly is because of the universal statement in verse 10, that the salvation that Jesus brings is to all the people.
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But we should not take this wrongly. It is to all people in the sense that the offer of salvation is to everyone.
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But the benefits of salvation are only applied to those who believe, those who receive it.
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There is only one group that has peace on earth, and that is the redeemed, the elect. These are those whom
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God is pleased with. As Romans 5 .1 says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So God is only pleased with you if you are united to Christ and belong to the family of God.
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And you get to that point by believing that Jesus earned your salvation for you. He did this by living a perfect life, by dying a substitutionary death on the cross, and by being raised bodily from the dead.
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He did this on your behalf. And God is not pleased with you if you do not have a relationship with Jesus.
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Because God's only pleased with you if the righteousness of Christ has been counted to you. If the righteousness of Christ hasn't been counted to you, when
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God looks at you, he sees your sin. And what does a holy God do with sinners, right? It's only judgment for sinners.
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Romans 8 .8 says that those who are in the flesh, or the unbeliever, cannot please
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God. So I ask you today, do you have peace with God? Do you believe that Jesus died in your place and paid the penalty that you deserve for your sins?
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If you genuinely believe this, then God is pleased with you. And if not, then you do not have peace with God.
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So this Christmas, that's the most important thing you can do if you haven't done this, is to make sure that you have peace with God by believing on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And so what will you do with the most important news you've ever heard, right?
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A lot of news we hear, you don't really have to do anything with it, right? But this is news that you have to respond to, which is why it's so important.
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That's why it's the greatest news of all. Because it's going to impact every human. And what you do with Christ determines where you will spend forever.
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Jesus is the gift that God has offered to the world. So will you receive him and have eternal life?
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The second reason you must set your mind on the most important news of all this Christmas is that peace comes only to those who believe.
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Now our third and final point, and the third reason you must set your mind on the most important news of all, is that God's people treasure this news.
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And we'll see this in verses 15 through 20. After the shepherds heard this world -changing news and the angels praising
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God for it, they desired to go and see him. Let's look at verse 15 together.
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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
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Lord has made known to us. So this is what they did, verses 16 and 17. And they went with haste and found
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Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
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Okay, so the shepherds found him and we see that there were others there along with Mary and Joseph, right?
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These people aren't named, but there's other people present. And this is important as we're going to see the point here of this passage, of this main point, this third point.
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As the shepherds were standing in the barn, as Jesus was lying in the manger, they reported the wonderful things the angels had told them about this baby, that he was the long -awaited
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Messiah and the Savior of the world. And verse 18 tells us that those who were also present heard the shepherds share this news.
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So what is their response to what they heard? It says in verse 18 that they wondered what the shepherds said.
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The people reflected on the news they heard and saw with their eyes, but this text hints that they may not have believed it.
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All it says is they wondered at what the shepherds said, right? They thought about it, but they stopped right there.
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The text leaves you hanging about whether or not they received or rejected it. Now, it may have had an impact on some as they considered its importance, but their immediate response to this news is not what it should have been.
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God creates us to be emotional creatures, right? And if you believe this news, it's going to do something to you emotionally.
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All right, we're about to see that right here. Now, Mary's response is shown in contrast to theirs.
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And her response is the correct one. Verse 19, But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
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So Mary believes this news, this news about Jesus Christ, this good news, the gospel.
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She believes this news with all of her heart and she treasures it. The news brought her great joy.
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She did not just ponder its significance, she embraced it fully. And in verse 20, the shepherds have the same response as Mary.
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Verse 20 says, And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising
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God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
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So we see the shepherds also treasure this news about the
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Messiah. And as they praise God, as they go back to the field, right, that would be a hard day to go back to work after you just experienced all of that.
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This is where we need to ask the question, what is true belief in Christ? What is true saving faith?
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A hundred years from now, none of us will be here, right? This is why this is so important for you to hear right now.
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True belief in Christ is so important to understand, and it's often been misunderstood in our culture.
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In our culture, true belief has been reduced to merely believing in your mind that something is true.
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You might ask someone, do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus? And they say, yes, but it stops right there.
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People say, yes, there is a God. Yes, I believe that Jesus died and rose again.
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Now, this is part of true belief, but this is not the whole thing. If we stop here, we've missed it.
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To believe is not only to think that God is there and that Jesus died and rose again to save sinners.
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You can believe that and go to hell. But true belief is also treasuring
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Christ, to value Him, to love Him, to count Him as most dear to you.
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That's the response. Because when you come to faith in Christ, you worship God, right?
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You treasure Him in your heart. So have you embraced this news with joy?
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Have you embraced it fully? Or do you just believe the facts? The facts of what Jesus did.
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That's half of it. But what about the other half? Do you treasure
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Him in your heart? And you know this by the way you live, right? He's the most important one in your life. James talks about belief in God, right?
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In James 2, I think it's James 2 .9 or 19, one of the two. He says, you believe that God is one.
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You do well. But then he says, so do the demons. And the demons are going to hell.
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The book of James is all about faith without works is dead. Faith without treasuring
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Christ is dead. Because if you treasure Him, then you know you have true faith. So do you treasure the thought of who
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Jesus is and what He has done? True belief is like that of Mary and the shepherds.
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And they're in heaven right now rejoicing and praising God. So ponder this news and treasure it.
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So the third reason you must set your mind on the most important news of all this Christmas is that God's people treasure this news.
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And we ought to treasure Jesus all the more. We can always treasure Him more, right?
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So to summarize what we've seen this morning from our text. There's three reasons why we must set our mind on the most important news of all this
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Christmas. And we've seen the King was born to offer salvation to all people. Peace comes only to those who believe.
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And God's people treasure this news. We live in a world where good news and bad news is constantly coming across our radar.
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And 2 ,000 years ago, an angel from heaven delivered the greatest news of all to the world.
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The Savior King has come. And so the question is, will you receive Him or will you reject
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Him? Now in this room, this news has already changed many of you. Many of you have a relationship with Christ.
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You're walking with Him. You're heaven bound. But in a room this size, some of you probably haven't.
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And so my encouragement to you is to believe. If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart.
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Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the greatest promise there is.
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So will you embrace it today? And you might say, well, how do I come? How do
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I do this? Well, you believe it, right? You believe the message. You believe the news and you treasure it. And then the best thing you can do after that is talk to someone who you're confident is a
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Christian and say, would you take me along and help me understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ?
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And that's what we exist as a church to do. The mission of our church is to grow in Christ together.
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God doesn't design lone ranger Christians. He designs a community. That's what a church is.
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It's a community of people who come together to follow Christ, to learn more about Him, to learn how to live.
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And so if you're here today and you're just visiting, we'd love for you to join us and to walk with Christ together as a church.
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And so we can teach you what it means to be a follower of Christ and to teach you to follow the narrow path, the road that leads to entering the presence of God forever with joy forever with Him.
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So I just want to make that clear to you today. So my prayer is that everyone in this room would know
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Christ as Lord, Savior, and treasure. Let's bow our heads as we pray.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for this news. And may, Lord, everyone in this room treasure this news that Christ came into the world.
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And as the Scripture teaches that you love the world and you love the world by sending your
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Son to save sinners. And Lord, if we examine our heart, what we know to be true is what the
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Bible teaches. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And yet,
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Lord, you created us to be your image bearers. We are your image bearers. You created us to be with you forever, to have fellowship with you, to enjoy you, to reflect you.
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And so I pray, Lord, that anyone here who does not know Christ today, I pray that you would rescue them from that position of bondage to sin and bring them to you.
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And for the rest of us, Lord, who do know you, my prayer is that we would treasure you all the more.
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That we would show clearly that you are number one in our life. That we would reflect you more.
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And I pray that your Holy Spirit would do all of this. And it's in your Son's glorious name, we pray,