Lowly King for Lowly People - Luke 2 : 1- 20

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Say anybody have to run around trees to get here today. Yeah, didn't we all?

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Our house, you think your house is solid until that wind. I think it was rocking us to sleep, but maybe keeping us awake, you know what

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I mean? Last night, that was some wind. But on the other hand, we still thank the Lord for the rain.

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You know, because they said, Oh, you haven't got enough rain yet. So I do thank the Lord for that.

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And wanted to remind the ladies that you have a ladies Bible study Saturday, the 21st at 10 in the morning and be going over chapter 15.

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And if you don't have the lesson for that, you can contact me and I can email you that.

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And also, pastor has been talking about having a biblical counseling course.

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And so I said, write that out. So we get it straight and put this on your calendar. And I'm going to read what pastor has written here starting on March the 11th.

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And I'm going to say Saturday, March the 11th at 11 a .m., we will offer a course on biblical counseling.

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This is for anyone who is interested in finding healing in Christ or helping someone else heal in Christ through his word and spirit.

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Jesus is able to free anyone from every sort of mental illness.

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We will meet on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.

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Remember, put that on your calendar, the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

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And feel free to invite anyone outside of faith Bible church who may be interested.

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So put that on your calendar and anybody who would like to attend. I guess you could just attend, but also let pastor know.

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And I find it very interesting when we talk about biblical counseling. I don't know if we've said this to you, but when

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Harold and I and John were talking with pastor about coming to the church, he said, before you ask me any questions,

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I want to ask you a question. He said, do you feel that the Bible is relevant in every situation in life?

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And then he more or less said, if you don't believe that, I don't, I'm not interested in coming. And I just say, amen, brother.

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And I just say that to you. And that's where he's coming from. The Bible can, has answers for individuals.

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And so I would say, if you're interested, that'd be a good course to attend.

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And let's open in a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we come before your throne this morning and we realize that you are in control of all things.

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You desire us to have a relationship with you. And we thank you for that Lord. We pray this morning as we go into this service and as we sing hymns of praise to you.

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And as we listen to your word brought by pastor, that you would speak to our hearts, open our hearts,

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Lord, to your Holy spirit and to the leading in our lives, Lord, help us to draw closer to you in all that we hear and listen to today, speak to our hearts,

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Lord. And we will thank you for that. We know that there are some that are not feeling well in our congregation.

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We think of some of them that are infirmed and cannot come Lord. We uphold them before you today.

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We would pray that you would just give them real peace today as they think about you.

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And we would thank you for that. And we pray now in Jesus name. Amen. Good morning and thank the good

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Lord for his blessings upon us. And let's stand and sing. Today, I'm going to read from Micah five, two through six.

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It's Micah five, two through six. I'm reading from the ESV. But you,

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O Bethlehem, if Ratha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old, from ancient days.

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Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth.

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Then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the

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Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God. And they shall dwell secure for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

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And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men.

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They shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod and its interests.

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And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

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Thank the Lord for his word. Please stand. It's nice to see you all this morning.

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And what a blessing it is to worship together on Sunday, especially after the storm, to have the power to be able to sing together and also to sing

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Christmas hymns not on Christmas because the text calls for it.

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So please turn with me to Luke 2 verses 1 through 20. Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 20.

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And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

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The census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

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

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Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

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So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

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And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

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Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

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Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

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For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior who is

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Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

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So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another,

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Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the

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Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

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Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child.

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And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

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But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising

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God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them.

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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we get to celebrate the birth of your son,

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Jesus Christ, this Sunday. Father, we're thankful that his birth was orchestrated from long ago and went on as it was planned.

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Nothing, according to your plan, was risky or in jeopardy because you are the sovereign

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Lord. Father, we pray that even during this time of hardship and storm, that we would learn to trust you and delight in you as the sovereign

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Lord who could bring about the birth of his son the way that he has intended fully.

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In Jesus name. Amen. Today's text is the birth of Jesus.

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And oftentimes when we sing about this or when we hear a sermon on this, a lot of the times the sermon has all these extra fluff of what it could have been, what it meant, but it's nowhere in the text.

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For example, a lot of ink has been spilled over why

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Jesus was born in manger because there was no place for him in the inn. And a lot of the times we incorporate what inn looks like, maybe holiday inn.

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And there's some innkeeper who is harsh. They want to reject this new couple, a pregnant wife, and Jesus' birth.

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From his birth, he was a reject, right? It tells a good story, but we just don't know.

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Today, what we want to do is celebrate

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Christ's birth according to what scripture says. It's fun to psychoanalyze people in scripture, but if the text doesn't warrant it, we just can't.

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And for us, for people of Faith Bible Church, I know that scripture itself is more than enough, that it tells us more than what we can handle.

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It's hard enough to fully grasp what God has to say to us this morning.

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We don't have to go beyond that. So today's text shows a humble birth of a humble king in a lowly city,

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Bethlehem, surrounded by those who are from a humble background.

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And this sets the tone for what kind of humble king, King Jesus is.

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He didn't come in the palace of Caesar or Herod.

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He didn't come with the dignitaries and priests welcoming him. He came unknown in a small town to an unknown couple, and later greeted by unnamed shepherds, whom we'll not know their names until we ask

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Jesus later on. That's his humble beginning. And that sets the tone for his whole ministry.

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But of course, his humble death, his humiliating death on the cross to die for his humble people who are lowly enough to cry out to him,

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Save me, Jesus. That's the humble king we worship.

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And this text is the beginning of that, the birth of this humble king.

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So the main point of this text is when the humble Davidic king was born to save, his lowly people joyfully celebrated him.

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When the humble Davidic king was born to save, his lowly people joyfully celebrated him.

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The first point is that the humble Davidic king is born according to God's sovereign plan.

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The humble Davidic king is born according to God's sovereign plan. The birth of Christ, the king, starts with a seemingly unrelated decree from a pagan

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Roman emperor. And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

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When Augustus ruled the Roman Empire, there actually was peace all throughout the empire.

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And we call that the Pax Romana. That's Latin for peace of Rome. The civil strife ceased because before Augustus, there was, there were, there were civil wars in Rome.

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And this peaceful reign was quite long. Now, the irony of this text is that the focus of this text is not the

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Roman emperor who accomplished his peace in the biggest empire of that day, but a baby born in a manger.

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And the second irony of this text is that the baby born in a manger would bring a greater peace, an everlasting peace, which would make

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Augustus Pax Romana only a blink of an eye in comparison. Now, in the ancient time, the census was taken for two purposes.

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And we actually went over this in Sunday school because we went through the book of Numbers.

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Military service and taxation. In this case, because Jews did not serve for the

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Roman military, this was for taxation purposes. Now, verse two introduces a historical problem.

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Quirinius officially governed Syria only after Herod the Great died in the

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A .D. So, after B .C. Now, this would not fit well with Matthew's birth account because Herod the

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Great was alive during Jesus' birth. He's the one who massacred all the

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Jewish boys in Bethlehem. However, if one can understand the verb to govern, not as to serve as a governor as an official title, but to administer, to administer over a project, right?

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Quirinius, although not holding the title of governor, administered the census under Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome, in this particular region, it would make sense.

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It does not have to historically be inconsistent. And this would make sense because Quirinius was a well -known administrator of Rome.

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He was a talented statesman. And here, when we read it this way, the

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Bible and the historical record do not have to contradict each other. Now, knowing the historical setting,

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Luke narrows down to the newlywed couple, Joseph and Mary. Joseph also went from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

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Now, this trip would be actually a long trip, especially without cars.

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It was a 90 -mile trip from Nazareth, a small city up north, and then to Bethlehem, which is also a small town, seven miles south of Jerusalem, a 90 -mile journey.

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The focus of these two verses, however, is not the long journey, but the significance of the destination,

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Bethlehem, the city of David. And this is because Joseph's lineage and house is that of David, King David.

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The focus of these two verses, in fact, the whole section, is to tie

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Jesus' lineage, although through his stepfather, to David.

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The Roman census caused Joseph, a Davidite, to return to his

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Davidic hometown, so that his wife would give birth to the promised

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Davidic king, David, David, David. And what's the significance of returning to Bethlehem?

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Well, God promised that his messianic king would be born in David's hometown in Micah 5, 2, which

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Brendan read for us this morning. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will come forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

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And here's another irony. God used a pagan emperor's census decree for taxation to fulfill his promise of sending

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Jesus Christ at the right time and at the right place.

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And it really shows that God places the right people at the right time, at the right place, to fulfill his promise to his people.

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Even an idolatrous pagan emperor is not out of reach to God's sovereign plan of redemption.

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Now, when they reach Bethlehem, as God promised centuries before, after all,

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Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, and Isaiah was a prophet before the fall of Jerusalem in 586

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BC. So centuries before. Mary gives birth to Jesus in Bethlehem.

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And this is important because Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, not on the way to it.

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If you watch any history channel about a series about Jesus, what these historians do is they often discount the validity of the

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Bible, but they will take any other account of Jesus. No matter how many more centuries after it was written.

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Right? Let's ignore the New Testament, which was written in the first century, the same century that Jesus was born and died.

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But let's look at some books hundreds of years after, with unknown authorship.

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So when this happens, you will actually notice that these history channel series might depict

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Mary giving birth in a cave outside Bethlehem, just outside of Bethlehem.

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And this comes from apocryphal sources. Apocryphal means sources that are not in the

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Orthodox Bible, right? Biblical sources, but rather they're outside sources, external sources with questionable authorship and validity.

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And here Luke's account totally refutes that notion that Mary gave birth just outside of Bethlehem, inside a cave, because the birth pangs started on the way.

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And this is important because God's word is fulfilled flawlessly.

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When God has predicted and prophesied that his Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, well, he will be born and he was born in Bethlehem.

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Close to Bethlehem would question

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God's authority and validity of his word. And for God, close enough is just not in his vocabulary.

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And verse seven details a humble beginning of this king. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

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When Jesus the king was born, there was no fanfare. There was no royal announcement.

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There were no dignitaries from Herod's palace waiting for him. And there were no priests of Levites worshiping outside.

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It was just Mary, Joseph and the newly born baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger, a feeding trough, a food bowl for the livestock.

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And this is because in a public shelter where one would stay, if it got too cold outside, they would bring the animals in because they cared about their animals not dying and let the animals live on the first floor with any guests who might be staying over.

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And because there are animals there, there is a feeding trough because they might want to eat during the night.

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And hence, Jesus is laid in a manger because that was the only place that was suitable to put him for this newlywed couple.

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Now, of course, as I mentioned, there's a temptation to ponder, why was there no room at the inn? How come the innkeeper is so mean?

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Why would they reject this young family? She is pregnant, right? We just do not know.

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Luke does not tell us. God does not tell us. We just cannot speculate why they ended up there other than the fact that it was

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God's will. However, from this setting, we do find out what kind of king was born on that day.

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It's a humble king, not born inside a palace, but some public shelter or a cave.

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A lowly king, not sitting in a throne, but lying in a manger.

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He's an unassuming baby. That's the king of Israel.

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That's the promised Messiah. Now, the birth of Christ tells us a lot about what kind of king this is.

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And for Christians, it totally changes and paints how we approach this king.

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We do not worship a pompous, condescending king, but a lowly, humble king who did not receive a fanfare or a feast.

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And that is exactly his characteristic. Jesus is lowly and humble.

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He is gentle and unassuming. Christians, you worship a king whom you can approach without any source of anxiety.

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Oh, what if I say the wrong thing? Oh, what if he doesn't like what I wear?

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This king welcomes you without any disdain. This king is the one you can call out without being put on hold.

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This king is the one you can fellowship with at the closest distance.

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And how do we know? Because this lowly, humble king was utterly humbled in his humiliating death on the cross so that he may save you.

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So that you may belong to him forever. When this king became man, he was lowly and humble from birth to death.

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And he died so that you may have an everlasting access to this king without any of your merit, without doing any good works, does not depend on you.

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And you think you need to do something, prove him something to approach him now.

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Oh God, I read my Bible every day. I don't skip my

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Sunday worship. Now I have a good relationship with Christ. That's not what we see in this king.

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You can approach this king because he is humble and lowly in heart.

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That's who he is. And he faced the lowly and humble death after his lowly and humble birth.

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So that lowly and humble people like us may have a relationship with him.

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Now, what is the proper response to the birth of this king? When the heaven proclaims the birth of Savior to the lowly, they faithfully confirm to celebrate him.

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When the heaven proclaims the birth of Savior to the lowly, they faithfully confirm to celebrate him.

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Now, the second section of the birth narrative unfolds the cosmic response to the birth of this king.

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Verses 8 -14 describe the heavenly proclamation of Jesus' birth.

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Then the verses 15 -20, as Dr. Daryl Bach says in his commentary, the earth's response to the heavenly proclamation.

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There's both heaven and earth, and they respond in faith.

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First, verse 8 introduces a setting for the heavenly proclamation.

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Now, they were in the same country, shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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The setting is, it's at night. It's dark outside. And the shepherds are taking care of their sheep at night.

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Now, here I need to correct this common notion where many dramatize the shepherds by claiming that they were hated by society, their social rejects, and how beautiful it is that the people who are hated the most get to celebrate

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Christ's coming, right? And as many of you probably heard that maybe from other sermons, radios, books, songs.

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However, this is far from the biblical view of shepherds. After all, in the

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Old Testament, some of the most famous and celebrated men were once shepherds.

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Think Abraham, Moses, and David.

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And in the New Testament, the church, right? The metaphor for pastors and elders are shepherds.

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Do you think that the biblical audience of the first century would read this and think,

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Ah, Jesus came to the most hated people, the trash of society.

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No. Shepherds in the New Testament, that metaphor is used because of the caring and humble leadership that they are required to provide, not because they're to be hated.

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One thing that we know about the shepherds, however, is that they were from a humble position in society.

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Shepherds were not kings. Shepherds didn't serve kings. Shepherds were far away from the temple.

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They were not the big names. They didn't wear the big wigs. They were just lowly, common folks.

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They didn't have a high position. That is one thing that is biblically accurate to the view of shepherds back in the first century.

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Now, this night, however, was unlike any other nights. Verse nine,

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Here, the light from the glory of the Lord contrasts with the darkness of the previous verse.

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The word for shining is, in fact, used to describe the sun shining in the morning.

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So you can imagine what kind of great, immense light was shining in front of these lowly, humble shepherds.

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Lest the shepherds only tremble in fear and not receive the message at all, the angel assures them not to be afraid.

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Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

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Now, the reason for the lowly shepherds to not fear is the good news that will bring tremendous joy to all people.

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Now, this is not a universalism of, oh, yes, Jesus came and everyone will be saved, right?

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But rather, all people is read in the context of Luke 1, those who fear

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God. For Mary's song of praise, it's those who trust

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God. It's those who call upon God because there's nowhere else to rely on.

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It's those people for whom Jesus came for. The birth of Christ is not a personal joy, but a corporate celebration.

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And verse 11 shares the reasons for the significance of this day, this baby.

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For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is

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Christ the Lord. First, the content of the good news is unfolding this day.

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They're not waiting for another day. It's happening now. That's why they can be joyful, joyous.

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Not only that, it's happening in Bethlehem, David City. And that has a significant repercussion.

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It's the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies happening right before their eyes.

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And they get to be the audience of that. Third, this baby is a savior, the

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Messiah and Lord. In the Old Testament, the main character, the main person who is called savior is

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God. The most number of times the word savior is used, it's

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God delivering his people from their enemies. And in the

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Old Testament, the Messiah is not called savior in any of the prophecies.

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Yet, here we see the connection between the two roles.

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On this day, the deliverer of God's people is born in David City, and he happens to be also the promised

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Messiah. He's the one to deliver his people like God.

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And one could say it hints that he is God. And he is also the promised

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Messiah whom the prophets all spoke of. The child who will deliver his people will deliver them from their greatest enemy, sin.

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And he also happens to be the Messiah and Lord. Now, how will we know this good news will come true?

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As we have seen through Luke 1, there is a pattern. Whenever an angel announces something that sounds so good to be true, the angel's response isn't, yeah, just believe it, carry on.

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No, he always gives a sign. Again, Christianity is not about blind faith.

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If you're taught growing up from a church, you just believe, that's not the nature of Christianity.

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Christianity always gives evidence. And here, the sign is a baby in a manger.

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And this will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.

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How will you know that Savior has truly come who's the Messiah and Lord to Israel?

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A baby born inside a palace wrapped in golden clothes? A baby born inside a temple holding on to the

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Ark of the Covenant? No, this unassuming baby will be wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a food bowl.

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That's the sign that God has sent

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His Savior and Messianic King. That's the sign.

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And that is enough for the shepherds to believe. And this angelic announcement then ends with a choir of angels praising

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God. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

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The appropriate response to the birth of this baby is the highest praise to God.

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Now some translations, because they look at older manuscripts that were found more recently, have something like peace toward men who are blessed or who have goodwill.

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Something like this. And that's because New King James Version and King James Version, they were working with manuscripts that they had during the time of King James.

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So they didn't find more manuscripts, which we found way more in the last century.

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Now the main point, however, is that as the heaven receives the highest praise upon the birth of Jesus Christ, peace is established on earth.

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This is the restorative peace that reconciles man and God together.

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The relationship which was shattered by sin finds its true complete healing in the birth of this baby.

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And how both heaven and earth respond is that of praise. Because of this baby, there will be true peace on earth.

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And that is something to even long for to this day.

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But just as the angels praised God, we also can praise

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God. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace.

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Because of Jesus. Because he reconciles us to God whom we have rebelled against.

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That is the true foundation of any peace. One's relationship with God.

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How you stand and where you stand before God is the foundation of all restoration.

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Now what's the response from the shepherds? So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass which the

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Lord has made known to us. They discuss to check out what the angel said was true.

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Now, let us do it now. And this response, this immediate response is similar to Mary's response to check the sign of the pregnant relative

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Elizabeth who was barren for decades. She immediately laughed. It is an immediate response to the message from God.

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It's an urgent response to the word from God. No dilly -dallying.

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They get there in haste and they indeed confirm what the angel announced.

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A baby lying in a manger. A New Testament theologian,

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Donker, describes this scene this way. Death of spiritual commitment is determined by the quality of one's fidelity after the majestic voice is no longer heard.

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Death of spiritual commitment is determined by the quality of one's fidelity, one's faith, after the majestic voice is no longer heard.

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It's easy to be faithful after a heart -moving worship song and not sin.

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It's easy to be faithful after an impactful sermon and obey

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God. But what Donker is saying, but the quality of faith, that's shown when you can't hear that anymore.

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When you don't hear that choir, when you don't hear the chorus of that faithful worship song.

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But you have to face obeying God or worshiping myself.

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It's when you get home, you're not around your faithful fellowship.

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When you don't hear God's word preached, when you don't hear the Bible that's being read.

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Do I sin or do I obey God? And these shepherds show the first picture of that.

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What do they do when they no longer see the angels? When they're gone, the choir's over, they urgently and faithfully obey

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God. That is the test of quality of faith.

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When you can't hear it, but you believe it. And this sets off a series of faithful responses.

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Verse 17, the shepherds let people around Mary and Joseph know why they're here.

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The angels came, they celebrated, they told us that to this day the

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Davidic King has come. He is the Savior. He is the promised

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Messiah. The fact that they told the people around shows that they believe that.

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The sign, an unassuming baby wrapped in swaddling cloths was enough for them to believe.

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That's why they told people around. Hey, why are you guys here? You're shepherds.

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Well, you wouldn't believe what this means now. Because there is a baby in a manger.

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That is the sign for the restoration of God's people. Verse 18 shows their response to the shepherds' testimony.

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They marveled. Again, this theme of God's words being fulfilled, causing the crowd to marvel, happened in Zechariah, where Zechariah, a mute man, says,

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Yeah, I'm naming my kid John, not Zechariah. The crowd marveled. Faithful fulfillment of God's word always results in the audience marveling.

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And from the response of many, verse 19, zooms into a personal response of Mary.

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But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

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Mary, when she saw this, she didn't think of this as trivial.

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She pondered them in her heart. She deeply thought about them. It was a mental jawbreaker.

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Always there. Barely melting. Hard as a rock.

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Cannot be crunched or destroyed. It was in her heart. And most likely

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Luke asked Mary or one of Mary's children about this to put this on record.

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When the shepherds, unnamed shepherds, these aren't the most famous shepherds. They were just unnamed shepherds near Bethlehem.

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When they unannouncedly visited Mary Joseph and the newly born baby,

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Jesus, Mary didn't think, ah, that's just a random occurrence.

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It was significant. She may not have known what it meant for Jesus to be savior, that he would have to die for his people.

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But she knew it was significant. That her baby boy was not just an ordinary baby boy.

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And then the shepherds depart and they're praising God as they're departing.

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This is a picture of a faithful response to God's proclamation of Jesus.

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From beginning of hearing to the end and also all through the middle, it's that of joyful celebration.

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Right? It's not that, oh wow, that's cool. Yeah, there is a baby. Oh yeah, let's go back. No, they were going back and they were praising

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God. Praise God that the Messiah has finally come.

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Praise God that he will restore Israel. Praise God that God is with us.

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Now, when this humble

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King's birth was proclaimed, those who celebrated his birth were the lowly and humble.

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Some unknown shepherds and unnamed crowd around the young unknown couple,

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Mary and Joseph. This is a picture of their faithful response.

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In order to respond faithfully to Jesus Christ, Luke tells us, you don't have to be influential.

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You don't have to be powerful. The only response to the proclamation of Jesus Christ is a faithful confirmation of the word given to us from God.

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When you hear about Jesus, whether from the Bible or someone who has evangelized to you, do you believe what the

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Bible says of Jesus? Now, you don't need a seminary degree.

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You don't need to know the Bible forward and backward. When you hear about Jesus, who he is and what he has done, will you urgently confirm it like those unassuming lowly shepherds?

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Are you willing to check him out or is he of no interest to you?

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Ah, that's just old news. I've heard it before. That's the difference between the faithful and unfaithful response.

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How do you respond to the news of Jesus? Whether you're saved or not, is it that of an urgent joy that can't stop the praise from coming out of your mouth?

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Or is it that of a disinterest?

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I've heard that before. Tell me something newer. Tell me something

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I don't know. Will you rejoice at the fact that Jesus took your sin and bore the wrath of God that you deserved so that you may be free from sin and death once and for all?

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The shepherds did not even know it to that extent, yet rejoiced greatly. How much more reason do we have to rejoice this morning, knowing the full picture of what he has done and what he will do?

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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that the

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King Jesus we worship is an unassuming lowly king.

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We don't have to prove our worth to him. We don't have to prove our skills.

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We don't have to prove anything to him because he is a lowly king who is not distant, but extremely close.

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And he sets up no requirement for us to meet, to approach his heavenly throne because he made it himself on the cross.

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Father, we pray that you would give us the heart of joy that these shepherds had, the crowd had, the marvel, the wonders that these people had when they only saw a crying baby in the swaddling cloths.

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Because that sign was enough for them to know that God has visited them.

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May we be grateful for what we have been revealed, what we have been given in your word, in Jesus' name, amen.