The Response of the Shepherds

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, December 27, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn in your own Bibles to the second chapter of Luke's Gospel for this, our fourth and final meditation in this portion of the Word of God, Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2. And I shall read the verses that will form the focal point of our meditation this evening, verses 15 through 20. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2, beginning with verse 15.

0:46 And it came to pass, when the angels went up from them, that is, from the presence of the shepherds, into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem. And see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they saw it, they made known concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child.

1:27 And all that heard it wondered at the things which were spoken unto them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken unto them. Let us again pause briefly in the presence of God to plead for the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon the ministry of the Word of God.

2:05 Let us. Let us pray.

2:11 Our Father, we remember your own word which says, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. And as we pause with your word open before us, we would acknowledge that we have no power to open up its truth to our own understanding. And yet we thank you that you have sent the Holy Spirit for this very purpose.

2:41 To take the things of your truth and to make them known to our hearts with an inward and powerful illuminating ministry so that we will not merely be threading words through our eyes and having words pass over our ears and our minds. But oh, that these words may sink down deeply into our hearts and that we may embrace them in faith. And in obedience, Lord, do minister to us as we now give ourselves with serious attention to your own holy word through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Confirmation of the Angel's Good News in the Shepherds' Experience

3:32 Now, as we come to examine these verses tonight, as I've already intimated, this is the fourth and final study in this familiar portion of the Word of God. And because the passage is. Self as Luke gave us this narrative of the birth of Christ and its attendant circumstances focuses upon the word which the angel brought to the shepherds. I have used that fact as the organizing principle.

4:04 And so we have thus far considered the setting of the good news of the angel verses one through nine. And then the substance of the good news of the angel. Verses 10 and 11 verses 10 through 12. And then we began this morning to consider together the sequel to the good news of the angels.

4:30 And the first element in that sequel is the adoration of this great multitude of the army of heaven recorded in verses 13 and 14. Now, tonight, we take up several more strands of. Luke's account of this sequel to the angelic visitation. And the first element is set before us in verses 15 and 16.

4:58 And I am calling it the confirmation of the angels good news in the shepherds experience. Verses 15 and 16 record the confirmation of the angels good news in the shepherds experience. The good news of the angel was this. That there had been born in the city of David a savior who was Christ the Lord.

5:28 And a very unique and unusual sign would be given to them confirming this fact. The sign being that the incarnate God would be found wrapped as any other peasant child would be wrapped in swaddling clothes. And in a most humble. Condition, even in the feeding trough of a brute beast, he would be found wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

5:58 And now in verses 15 and 16, the shepherds confirm in their own experience this good news of the angel. And there is something fascinating about Luke's account of that confirmation. And two things. Stand out in Luke's account.

6:19 First of all, the unwavering faith in the word of God manifested by these shepherds. And secondly, the unswerving obedience of these shepherds to the word of God. Look at the language of the text. And it came to pass when the angels went up from them into heaven, the shepherds literally were continually saying to one another.

6:46 In other words. They were of one mind in this matter, and they had a one track mind among them. They were continually saying one to another. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.

7:02 Now notice. Not in order to see if this thing has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. There is no if in the entire passage. Their conversation.

7:17 One with another is a mutual commitment to go to Bethlehem in order to see what they are absolutely certain has come to pass. Do you see that in the language? Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing, literally this word that is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us. And they came with haste.

7:46 They came with haste and found both Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. Now I say in this account, the gospel writer is careful to underscore this element of their unwavering faith in the word of God. They are convinced that the word spoken by the angel has come to pass. They desire to go to Jerusalem.

8:16 Not. To examine. To see if. But to confirm that the word of the Lord has indeed been fulfilled.

8:26 And so their unwavering faith in the word of God precipitates this concert of mutual concern. Let us now go even unto Bethlehem. And mingled with that faith, as there will always be in true faith, is this strand of obedience. Their unswerving obedience to the word of God.

8:51 And this comes out in the nuances that perhaps we miss in the English, but is there in the original. Let us now literally go through even unto Bethlehem. And the indication is not only of urgency, let us go now, but let us go through even unto Bethlehem. So apparently there was either the.

9:16 Arduous element of the amount of distance that had to be traveled. It could be that there were peculiar dangers by thieves along the path that they had to traverse. We do not know, but in their own minds, going even unto Bethlehem was no little matter at that time of the night. Furthermore, it was a costly obedience.

9:39 They had to leave the shepherds. What will our boss think? What will the owner of the flock think? What will we say?

9:46 What will we say? If one of the sheep is rent and torn by a wild animal while we are gone, what will happen if we come back and find that half a dozen sheep have been stolen? Well, there's no indication that these things would in any way deter them from a path of unswerving obedience to the word of God. For when the angel said by the authority of the Lord, this shall be the sign to you, they recognized in that statement.

10:15 An implicit command to go to Bethlehem in order to observe this sign. Now, the result, then, of this unwavering faith in the word of God, this unswerving obedience to the word of God, is beautifully and simply stated in verse 16, that they came and found exactly what God said they would found. They found both Mary and Joseph. And the babe lying in the manger.

10:49 Not that Mary and Joseph and the babe were all together in the manger. And again, you know this from the original, that the verb for lying is not a plural, but a singular verb. So that they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. Now, what happened at that point?

Faith Precedes Sight: The Principle of Believing to Know

11:06 Well, at that point, they had confirmed with their physical eyes what they had already realized. They had realized by virtue of unquestioned faith in the word of the living God. So that sight became the confirmation of faith, not the way into faith. So that, in a sense, they fit the description that comes much later in John's record.

11:38 Blessed are you because you have seen and believed, Jesus said to one of his disciples. But blessed rather. Blessed rather are those who, having not seen, believe. And here the angels, who had, I'm sorry, the shepherds who had not yet seen, believed.

11:56 And because they believed in the path of faith, which always gives birth to obedience, they are then privileged to see with their eyes the very thing which God had said through the angel. And that underscores one of the most fundamental principles. And that underscores one of the most fundamental principles of all of the truth of Scripture. And it is that if you and I would experience spiritual realities, we must, as it were, cast ourselves upon the naked word of the living God.

12:31 And we believe in order to know. And we must never reverse that. We do not bring the Almighty to the bar of our standard of what we believe to be credible. We do not bring the Almighty to the bar of our standard of what we believe to be credible.

12:45 And when God, when we believe, we believe in the truth. God has conformed to all of our dictates of what is reasonable and credible. And if it satisfies us, then come to faith. No.

12:55 God comes to us with His own authoritative word. And He demands a faith response. And in that faith response, then there is blessed experience. Paul could say of the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, God be thanked that when you receive the word of God, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God which works in those that believe.

13:30 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. And the point in this passage that parallels the Luke account of the experience of the shepherds is that when the apostle came to Thessalonica and he brought a message, he says there were those at Thessalonica who received that word as the word of God and it worked in them as they believed it. And they confirmed in their experience the validity, the reality of all that Paul preached, but only as they received that word in faith. And so verses 15 and 16 set before us

The Proclamation of the Angel's Good News by the Shepherds

14:14 the confirmation of the aim, the angels' good news in the experience of the shepherds. Well then in verse 17, there is brought before us what I am calling the proclamation of the angels' good news by the shepherds. Once there is the confirmation in their own experience of this word of good news by the angel, then we see immediately an activity of proclamation. Verse 17.

14:46 And when they... When they saw it, they made known...

14:51 Now notice carefully what they made known. They made known what? Not concerning the bright light that burst upon them on a Judean hillside.

15:07 Not the brilliant display of the glory of God that was shattering and shocking to them on that dark night. No. Nor did they make...

15:19 They made known that spectrum of that awesome sight of the angels, the myriads of the army of heaven. It says they made known concerning...

15:32 Here we come back again. The saying or literally the word which was spoken to them about this child.

15:41 They made known one thing according to the text. The word which was spoken to them. Now you see how the emphasis falls again. And again upon that word which was spoken to them of all the things they could have talked about.

15:57 Once they saw with their own eyes, they said this is but a confirmation of the word on which we pinned our hopes. We will now bring that word to others for salvation comes by the word. Not by all of that passing phenomena. The brilliantly lit heavens, the sight of the Antichrist, the angelic host, faith comes by hearing.

16:24 And hearing by the word of God. The shepherds having understood that in their own experience. Now when they turn from being observers and become proclaimers, what do they proclaim? The text clearly states they proclaimed that very word which was spoken to them about this child.

16:50 And what was that? That word. I have good news. Unto you is born a Savior.

16:58 Christ the Lord. In the city of David, the shepherds became evangelists. They became a band of evangelists telling anyone who would listen not about the angels, not about the angel, and not about Mary,

17:16 not about St. Joseph, but they made known the word about this child. They talked about a Savior who was the incarnate Lord, who was God's Messiah, who was the promised one of Micah 5, whose goings forth have been from of everlasting, who would be born in Bethlehem. That's the message.

17:45 So the good news that came to them by the angel is now echoed and sounds forth from the shepherds themselves. And surely, there is a very pointed word of application to us. Is not this what I've attempted to do the past two Lord's days? To cut through the myths and the unprincipled sentiment that surrounds the event in our calendar called Christmas and to draw your attention again and again and again to verses 10 and 11, almost perhaps, ad nauseum.

18:28 Why have I done that? Because the shepherds have set an example for me. When all the unusual events had passed, one thing was left for them, the reality that a Savior had been born. And having come to grips with that reality by the word of the Lord, they now proclaim that word to any who will listen to them.

18:56 And it's interesting to note as well that they did not go to the local priest and ask permission to become evangelists. They were not professional clerics. They were not trained preachers. They were humble shepherds.

19:14 And yet, once they had heard and confirmed in their own experience the word of God, they could not but speak the things that they had seen and they had heard. And they waited for no permission, from any ecclesiastical court. They began to open their mouths and to speak. They felt something of the experience of those lepers recorded in 2 Kings chapter 7.

19:41 Some of you will remember that story. When there was a great famine in the land and then God came and routed the enemies of God with His own mighty power and there was all of the plunder left. And these two lepers came upon this and when they saw all of the food and the bounty, they said, we do not well to hold our peace. And they went back to those that were starving and told them the news of the mighty victory God had wrought.

20:11 Well, these shepherds knew something of that spirit. We do not well to hold our peace. Why we shepherds upon a Judean hillside, why we should be chosen to receive this message. A Savior is born to us.

20:28 The incarnate God, Christ the Lord. Why chosen to be the recipients.

20:35 Why should we be given that unique sign? Why should we behold with our eyes the fulfillment of that very word? We do not know but surely if God is so favored us, we do not well to be silent. And so they opened their mouths uncoerced.

20:55 No one sent them off to a seminar on personal witnessing or soul winning made easy or ten motives to evangelism. The text is beautiful in its simplicity. When they saw it, they made known concerning the saying. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

21:19 Their hearts were filled with the glowing, burning reality of the word of God that a Savior had been born. And so now they proclaim the angel's good news to all who will listen.

Application: Our Call to Proclaim the Savior

21:35 And surely we ought to be like them should we not. If we have embraced that word and we have confirmed its validity as men and women, boys and girls of faith and in our own experience know of a certainty that Jesus Christ is our own Savior and Lord and that peace spoken of in the chorus of the angelic host, that great, host of the army of heaven, if we have known that in our own hearts, how can we be willfully and perpetually silent in the midst of a world that desperately needs to hear not some sentiment

22:19 about a poor pregnant maiden sitting on a donkey that's nowhere to be found in the Bible going all the way to Bethlehem. A world that needs to hear something more than some mushy sentiment about peace and peace and peace and goodwill. A world that needs to hear in all of the confusion, in all of the burdens, in all of the open wounds and sores of our own society. A Savior has been born and He is mighty to save and He still extends the scepter of His saving grace and mercy.

The Reaction to the Shepherds' Proclamation: Marveling vs. Treasuring

22:59 Well, we must hurry on to verses 18 and 19 in which we have set before us indeed, these verses, the reaction to the good news proclaimed by the shepherds. You see how Luke is making everything center around that good news brought by the angels, now echoed by the shepherds. And we have in these verses the reaction to the good news proclaimed by the shepherds. First of all, the general public who heard, verse 18, and then this specific individual Mary.

23:35 Now let's look at the record.

23:38 After the shepherds make this proclamation,

23:43 we read, and all that heard it wondered at the things which were spoken unto them by the shepherds. When the shepherds made known the message of the angel with respect to the birth of a Savior in a specific place who came as Christ the Lord, there were people beyond Mary and Joseph who heard about this. Now who were they? Well, the text doesn't say.

24:17 In all likelihood, perhaps some of the people who were nearby in the inn to which the stable cave was attached. Perhaps along the way when they came into the general area and were making inquiry as to what specific manger would hold the Christ child, they met various individuals and perhaps after this happened they went back and said, look, we came and asked you, we came, we saw, we found, and they made known the word. But whoever it was, the text clearly implies that it was probably not a few who heard this message of the shepherds and all that heard it.

25:03 So that there was more, were more than one or two, perhaps a few, a goodly number who heard their message. But now Luke describes the response of this general group of people in one word. They wondered or literally they marveled. Now on the surface of things you may say, well that's commendable.

25:24 But if you trace through the scriptures this concept of people marveling, you'll come to a different conclusion. For often, even in Luke's gospel, men marvel in the midst of the most blatant expressions of unbelief.

25:42 The most blatant expressions of unbelief. Just turn over to Luke chapter 4 for an example.

25:53 Jesus is back in the home, his hometown of Nazareth as a grown man. He's begun his public ministry. He's in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

26:04 He begins to expound the scriptures. And this is the response, verse 22 of Luke 4. And all bear him witness, here's the same word, and watch, and wondered, marveled at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son?

26:28 And he said unto them, doubtless you will say unto me this parable, physician, heal yourself. Whatever you, we've heard done in Capernaum, do here in your own country. And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. And then he goes on to give that illustration of the word, the sovereignty of God manifested to Gentiles in the midst of two desperately needy days in the history of Israel.

26:54 And the passage ends with this crowd seeking to kill him. From marveling at his words, they try to kill him.

27:06 And the reason was their unbelief.

27:10 And even amongst believers, Luke records at the end of his gospel, chapter 24, in verse 41, another clear example of this marveling, this amazement in a context of unbelief. Verse 41, And while they still disbelieved for joy and wondered, marveled, same word in the original, he said unto them, while they still disbelieved and marveled. Now, can you read between the lines and see why the people who heard the message of these shepherds marveled? Surely, there must have been a ring of reality

27:54 when these humble peasant shepherds gave forth the simple facts of the angel's visit and his message. No doubt there was something in the minds of people that forced them to acknowledge this cannot be mere pious humbug. These fellows aren't prompt. They're not crazy.

28:18 They're not clever enough to think up some kind of a wild religious scheme to start a new religion. To count, there was something of a ring of reality in what they said. And when people accepted the validity of their testimony, they were amazed. There's no indication that that amazement led to faith.

28:39 They were amazed.

28:42 They marveled. And as we compare Scripture with Scripture, they probably fit the category described. And I've only given you several specimen passages. This theme is found throughout the Gospels.

28:55 It's found in the book of Acts, Acts 13, 41. Paul quotes from the Old Testament and says, Behold, he despisers wonder. Same word in the original. Marvel and perish.

29:11 And I cannot help but think as I have reflected upon these past days, as we've been meditating for two Lord's Days on this passage, contemplating something of the richness of Luke's account of this whole scene of the birth of our Lord. Can it be that there have been not a few sitting in this place who have been forced to say, as I hear the words preached and expounded, as I see them with my own eyes in the text, there is a ring of reality. There's a note of authenticity. I can't discount all of this as pious humbug.

29:52 This is amazement. My friend, to marvel and to be amazed is not enough.

Mary's Response: Treasuring and Pondering the Word

30:01 In contrast to mere marvelment and amazement, there is set before us this beautiful, beautiful description of Mary and her response to the same word. Look at it. Verse 19. But, and one again gets the impression that there is the contrast.

30:22 The crowd that heard it merely marveled, but Mary did something else. And what she did is described in these words. Mary kept, literally, Mary was continually treasuring up. Now notice what she was treasuring up.

30:39 All these, here we're back to it again, sayings, literally all these words.

30:48 Pondering them, a more literal rendering would be continually throwing them together where? In her.

31:02 What did Mary do?

31:05 Mary was not taken up with all the miraculous phenomena. Remember, she had had a visitation from an angel as well. But she was not taken up with that. Mary was not taken up with the unusual angelic visitation to the shepherds.

31:25 When the shepherds proclaimed in her hearing the word which was spoken unto them by the angel, a Savior is born, Mary was continually treasuring up those words. She was continually throwing them together in her own heart.

31:48 Mary, the one through whom the God was brought to us, her personality yielded up to the Holy Spirit, became the human instrument through which there was the enfleshment of the second person of the Godhead. But as Mary came to full-blown New Testament saving faith in the sense that we understand it, faith in terms of the accomplished redemption of Christ, she came exactly the same way we must come, by treasuring up the word of God in a believing heart. Because, though she's mentioned

32:33 one or two more additional times in the gospel records, the next time you find Mary, you find her in Acts chapter 1 and in verse 14, part of the 120 who are waiting for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit to be sent upon the people of God as the purchased privilege of the accomplished work of the redemption of Jesus Christ. And so Mary is set before us not as a co-mediator or mediatrix. She is not set before us as something halfway between God and man. She is set before us as a noble woman,

33:18 set before us as an admirable woman from henceforth, from henceforth, she shall be called blessed. But she is also set before us as a fallen daughter of Adam who needed the salvation that was brought in her own son after the flesh. And she came to faith in Christ by receiving and meditating upon the word about Christ.

Application: The Way of Faith for All

33:44 And that's exactly how you and I come. Think of it. She didn't come to faith because through her womb Christ was brought. She didn't come to faith because an angel visited her.

33:57 She came to faith as you and I come to faith by treasury.

34:07 And oh dear friend, I plead with you tonight. Don't look for God to give you the visit of an angel. For the visit of an angel is not the way of faith even for those who had the visit of an angel. The way of faith is the way of receiving the testimony of God concerning His Son.

34:31 And from the human side the reason some of you are not saved is because you have in your own mind whether consciously or unconsciously you have built up this notion that the word preached by the man and men that you know and you understand them to be your friends and fellow sinners they admit their sinnerhood. They admit their humanity. You see the signs both of their sinfulness and their humanity. Continually.

35:00 And you feel well it's too simple that I should simply receive that word preached from that book that is opened before Him and before me upon my lap. There must be something more. I must at least feel a divine twitch somewhere. Simply to take the naked word of God and say oh God you have said concerning your Son hymns to me I will in no wise cast out.

35:29 I must wait for something more. My friend how can God make it any plainer? What more could Mary have than the visit of an angel? Hail thou that it highly favored blessed art thou among women.

35:47 Power the most high shall come upon thee. That which is begotten of thee shall be called Son of God. But she was not saved because God chose her as the vessel through which He would bring His Son.

36:05 She came to faith by embracing the word of God. Oh dear children do you treasure up what you hear in Sunday school and from mom and daddy in devotions and in the preaching of the word? Do you seek to treasure it up and think about it? Do you seek to throw it together continually mulling it over in your mind saying what did I hear on Sunday that really applies to me?

36:36 And do I really know that Jesus and the Christ and the Savior that mommy and daddy and Pastor Martin and Pastor Nichols and the others talk about? Oh dear children don't expect that God is somehow going to come and visit you in some unusual way. You must take the word of God to heart in the language of Proverbs 2. You must seek after it with all your heart hunt for it as for hid treasure.

37:07 You know what it's like. To hunt for just a quarter that your dad may hide somewhere. I used to have a lot of fun with my kids playing a game once in a while. I'd take 50 or 100 pennies and I'd keep them occupied for an evening hiding them ten at a time in different places.

37:21 And then they had to find them. Oh they had great fun but oh the earnestness with which they'd hunt for those pennies. God says if you hunt for the truth like hid treasure then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Ye shall seek me and find me.

Mary's Diligence in Understanding God's Plan

37:38 When you search for me with all your heart. Now think of it. Mary had all the responsibilities of a young mother. The heart can get pretty cluttered up can't it?

37:48 Be a Martha's heart very quickly. But amidst all the responsibilities she had she had time to treasure up those sayings in her heart and cast them together to think about them. A little different word is used later on in chapter 2 where Mary again is found reflecting upon certain events and she's seeking to make sense out of it. How does it all fit together?

38:17 She had not yet come to that full-blown intelligent comprehension that we have so readily through the completed revelation but she wasn't careless. She was trying to fit it all together.

38:32 And in God's time it all came together and she realized that the one whom she brought forth as a little virgin maid was her very Savior and Lord and she gave herself to him and she entered into the crowning work of his redemption when on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came with power. Mary with the other hundred and nineteen was filled with the Spirit and entered into the full-blown privilege of a new covenant saint of God.

The Lasting Influence of the Good News on the Shepherds

39:06 Well I must hasten now to conclude by looking at verse 20 where we have in the final analysis a description of the lasting influence of the good news upon the shepherds.

39:22 You see a lot of people start off with a bang and they end with a fizzle. Well what about these shepherds? Well the narrative closes with this description of the lasting influence of the good news upon the shepherds. Look at the account.

39:38 And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen and heard and here we are again even as it was spoken unto them.

39:55 Now what did they do? Well the first thing they did it says they went back to their appointed sphere of responsibility. The shepherds returned. Well returned where?

40:06 Well to the place from which they came. That was a Judean hillside. May have been an hour two three later may have been the next morning we don't know how long it was but they returned. They went back to the fields back to the sheep back to the dark night if it was night time back to an ordinary day if it was day time.

40:28 No more angels no more army of heaven no more voices no more chorus of praise just sheep grass wolves thieves and life in all of its ordinariness. They returned. They returned. They returned.

40:51 But the scripture says they returned doing two things. They returned and it's stated in the tense that emphasizes it was a resolute return no halting no hesitation it was a return they went back but then they were continually doing two things glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen as it was spoken unto them. They went back in the aorist but then two present participles continually glorifying and continually praising God. In other words it stuck.

41:37 After the angel was gone and the angelic host were gone and all the strange and exciting and wonderful phenomena were gone they continued to glorify and praise God. Why? Because they had believed the word of God and the one thing that really mattered amidst all the fireworks the one remaining abiding reality they had the Savior who had been born had been received and they glorified and praised God that they had heard and seen that which paralleled what had been spoken to them even that word spoken by the angel

Application: Glorifying God in Ordinary Life

42:22 a Savior has been born and in that sense we are on exactly the same footing that they are. We have no angels we have no bright light of the Shekinah glory flooding the sky but we have the same word and if that word is embraced we too can return to life in all of its ordinariness in all of its humdrumness in all of its arcing pressures in all of its distracting nagging concerns and in all of its in the midst of it we can be found like they glorifying and praising God for what? For the things

43:07 that we have heard and seen with the ear and the eye of faith as faith has embraced that which God has spoken in the word and oh dear people with all my heart my prayer for us as a congregation is just that that as we have drawn near to God near and by I trust the enablement of the spirit though we have not seen an angel or heard angels I hope as we've given ourselves to the study of the passage it's been almost as though we have and we've come as a number of you have expressed to a new appreciation of the narrative as it's given to us by Luke

43:51 but now our meditation will return God willing next Lord's Day to Philippians the ordinariness plodding on verse by verse chapter by verse chapter by chapter there won't be the fireworks of a special Christmas message there won't be the excitement of saying well I wonder what will come out of that passage I've heard that so many times it'll all be the ordinariness again but oh if we've captured something of the word of God in faith then we should be found as a people glorifying and praising God to a degree that hitherto perhaps we have not known glorifying him for the great mystery of the incarnation for the display

44:35 of sovereign love in the sending of the Son of God praising God that he's fulfilled all of his ancient promises made over centuries and now in the fullness of the time he did send forth his Son and the Son has come and the Savior has not only been born but he has lived he has died he's been raised from the dead he has ascended to the right hand of his Son his Father he has sent forth the Spirit and one of the great functions of the Spirit has been to embody in this blessed book the full disclosure of all that God ever intends to make known to his people until the Lord himself comes and the next direct revelation

45:19 will be the sight of this returning Savior that will be the next direct revelation when the heavens part and there is the voice of the ark angel and the trump of God and the Lord himself shall descend no angel will announce that coming and point to a manger the angels will attend him as he announces his own coming and with glory and power he will come not in weakness lying in a feeding trough in a cave somewhere in Bethlehem but coming in power coming in glory to consummate the blessings of the purchased redemption for all of his own

Final Exhortation: Embrace Christ or Face Judgment

46:04 but to crush with everlasting destruction all of his enemies my friend you may look upon the Christmas narrative with a look of ho-hum you may go further and even say well that's interesting you may go a step further and even marvel and say that's amazing but my friend if you do not come to the point of the shepherds and of Mary of embracing that one who was born as your only hope of salvation in life when he returns he will crush you he will crush you with eternal judgment

46:47 and I would not be true to my commission as a minister of the gospel if I did not tell you that we have his own word the son of man shall come and there shall be gathered before him all the nations Matthew 25 Jesus is speaking and then shall the king say depart from me ye cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels oh don't be amongst that number when the good news that the angel first proclaimed the good news echoed by the shepherds has been proclaimed in your ears this night unto you

47:31 is born a savior who is Christ the Lord oh this night embrace him say oh Lord there is much I do not understand and cannot fit together but this much I know that I am a sinner I am one who needs just such a savior who can reach down with the arm of omnipotent grace and touch even the likes of me Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost oh cast yourself upon him this very night young person child man woman and woman boy and girl and for those of us who are his people may God grant

48:15 that we shall with renewed determination go back return to life in all of its ordinariness and there glorify and praise this great God who has sent us so wonderful a redemption in his own beloved son let us pray as we bow together in prayer and ask God's blessing upon the ministry

49:00 of the word I'm going to ask that Pastor Franklin who's visiting with us this evening would lead us in our closing prayer would you please Pastor Franklin is a presence of making real truth we do ask that you will be

49:44 with those among us who may marvel and believe this that oh God be pleased with us look how we give them a sense of urgency and grace

50:15 and mercy upon us and for our gathering together in the light of your coming amen