[8:00 p.m.] Christmas Eve Candlelight Service — The Glory of the Incarnation (Luke 2:8-20)

Amen. Would you please stand for the

reading of God's Word this evening we will be in the Gospel

of Luke reading this birth narrative.

I'll begin at verse 8 of Luke chapter 2 and read through verse

Luke 2 · chapter mention

20. And in the same region there

were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock.

By night an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory

of the Lord shown around them. They were filled with great

fear. The Angel said to them, you're

not. For behold, I bring you good

news of great joy that will be for all the people.

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

is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a

Manger. And suddenly there was with the

Angel the multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and

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

among those with whom he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd

said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this

thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the

baby lying in a Manger. And when they saw it, they made

known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherd's told them,

that Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her

heart. And the shepherds returned,

glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as

it had been told them. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Please be seated, Father, as we

come to this time of Your Word preached.

Only You can change us. Holy Spirit, we pray that You

would give us new eyes, new ears, hearts to beat for You,

and a mind that thinks correctly.

Holy Spirit, remove anything, boredom, distraction,

discomfort, noise of any kind outside or inside that keeps us

from hearing the wonder of this true story.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior being born.

We pray this in your name, Amen. Many of you tomorrow are going

to hear words that you have heard, probably most of your

Christmases. You've said it and you've heard

it. And the statement is this is the

best Christmas ever. See, you know, you've said it.

You'll hear it. I'm one of five children, and

now I'm a father of five children.

I can't remember a Christmas or someone in our family didn't

make that statement. 1976 was a big year.

I remember specifically what made me say this is the best

Christmas ever. It was a specific bike, which

I've talked about before, but that wasn't the only thing under

the tree. 1976, the toy maker Kenner had come out with

essentially a doll for boys. It wasn't what would eventually

come. Something called My Buddy, which

I never had, but this was Stretch Armstrong.

This was a doll superhero made of latex.

And if you opened it up, which many of us did, to see what was

inside, corn syrup and sawdust, what was its purpose?

To grab it and to stretch it as far as you could.

He was built like a bodybuilder. You would grab a sibling or a

friend and you would see how far.

And they said you could stretch it up to 7 feet.

And we did. My wife recently said, you know,

you only talk about the toys you received at Christmas.

What about all the women in the church?

Well, let's talk about what you had under the tree in 76.

Many of you had a baby doll, a doll which toy companies were

competing to see who could make the most realistic doll, could

simulate things that real babies do.

And in 1973, three years before Kenner came out with Stretch

Armstrong, they created a baby that would actually eat food,

food that was in a package that you would have to continue to

buy, that you would then mix with water and with a real

spoon, you would feed the child. And if you push the level on the

baby's back, that baby would chew.

That food would not be digested, but it would empty into a real

diaper. And then you would have the

privilege of changing that baby's diaper.

How many of you had that? A lot of women are raising their

hands. I wonder what names fought to

win the title of that toy. What won this title?

Baby alive. Thank you.

This is the best Christmas ever. Three sisters.

Each of them had their own baby alive.

Each of them played with it endlessly.

The best Christmas ever. Past few weeks if we As we've

looked at the fullness of the incarnation, I've made the

statement in each service that the older we are in Christ, the

greater Christmas should be. Not just the older that we are,

but the older we are in Christ. Spurgeon says it this way.

After you have heard this story of the birth of Christ for 50

years, you see more of the fullness of the incarnation than

you did it first. And that's why for us who have

been walking with Jesus for a long time, this should be the

best Christmas ever. And next December 25th, the

same. And on and on until Christ

returns and we actually do see him in His fullness.

For many of us, though, we tend to think I've heard the story.

What can be added to the story? What's added to the story isn't

the elements, it's the eyes of the Sinner saved by Grace being

opened to the awe and wonder that he saved a Sinner like me.

I want you to think for a moment about what you just heard me

read and what had to take place in order for us to gather to

celebrate. I don't mean the hours of

practice, the hours of study, you scheduling and getting your

friends and family here. I'm talking about God's plan to

save his people. When sin entered the world,

we're told about it in Genesis 3.

God's plan was to rescue, to redeem his people, and the only

way it was going to happen is if Christ Jesus became a man in the

fullness of time when God Himself desired for it to

happen. There were shepherds out in the

field doing what they had been trained to do.

They had no idea that what they were about to experience was

going to happen. There was no prediction that

this would be the night, but when each of those shepherds

were being knit together in their mother's womb, God knew

that this is the one when I'm ready, that will hear the

angel's voice. This is another one, and this is

another one. And they're going to hear that

angel's voice that says today in the town of David as Savior is

born. And they're the ones that are

going to be overwhelmed with fear, and they're the ones that

are going to see this multitude of angels and hear them say

glory to God in the highest. Those were real men, real

shepherds. And it shows us in Luke's

account of how God works. When He is ready, He reveals

himself and He reveals himself through His word.

And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, at some point in

your life, He revealed His word to you.

You didn't deserve it, Neither did I.

But He revealed it to you, and He offered you in that moment

irresistible grace that caused your heart that wasn't just sick

and immoral to beat. For Him to suddenly see that

these words about Jesus are true, that He truly is the one

who came when God demonstrated His own love for us, and this

while we were still sinners. Christ died that night.

The shepherds, when they heard what was said, received that

word. They received that message.

If you're in Christ, there was a moment in your life where you

received that word and you rested in Jesus alone and by

God's grace, because you were made new, a new creation.

You wanted to follow him. You wanted to seek Him.

Luke tells us that when the angels had gone back into

heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us go and see this

thing that we've been told about.

They went with haste. Verse 16 says, and they found

Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a major.

I want you to hear this. Most of us have wrong ideas

about the incarnation. Throughout history there have

been wrong ideas about the incarnation because people

couldn't comprehend and can't comprehend that this baby and

the Manger is truly and fully a baby, 100% human baby.

He cried like you cried. He nursed like you nursed.

He slept like you slept. And while at the same time, this

baby was fully and truly God. Unless God opens our eyes and

our ears to believe this, we never would.

It's inconceivable, but it's still true.

When the shepherds got there, Luke tells us that the word that

was revealed to them, the word that they received, they now

have responded and they're present with the one to whom

those angels spoke. They see Jesus, they see this

baby, they see the mother of this child, they see the earthly

father of this child. We're told that they speak about

what they had been told concerning this child.

And verse 18 says, and all who wondered at it, what the

shepherds told them, but I wanted you to see verse 19.

I really want you to anchor here.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in their

heart, in her heart. I want you to think about this

for a moment. Tonight God planned from all

eternity this moment when the angels would descend, when they

were proclaimed that this child had been born.

The child is just like any other child that's ever been born,

except there's no sin in him. That's why it had to be

conceived by the Holy Spirit and a virgin.

But in every way he's human. But he's also fully God.

He took on that which was not his flesh, and that flesh he

still has this day risen, ascended, reigning as our king.

But when the shepherds got there, Speaking of what they had

seen, revealing to Mary and Joseph what had been said, Luke

tells us something really significant about Mary.

Now think about Mary for a moment.

She's just given birth, real birth, real birth that humans

have been giving since the beginning.

Pain, anguish, exhaustion in the midst of a city that is noisy

and loud in a stall because there's no room in the end.

And what does she do? Luke tells us that she treasured

these things and pondered them in her heart.

Most of us don't do this very well, and it's why Christmas for

Christians doesn't continue to get better every year and even

every day. Each day with Jesus is not

necessarily sweeter than the day before because of what it means

to live in this fallen world. But when we are pondering Him,

treasuring Him, our affection for Him swells.

The word ponder means to weigh. It means to consider.

Many of you are mothers or grandmothers.

Many of you will become mothers and grandmothers.

Some of you want to be mothers. And that's not been what God has

willed. At this point.

It's hard holding a child. This mother, Mary, is not

holding anyone that has ever been born like him.

You couldn't tell that from a distance.

His cry, his hunger. He's a real baby.

He's not a pretend baby. He's not partly God and partly

baby human. He's fully human, fully God.

This child is Mary holds him. I want you to imagine what she's

pondering. I imagined Mary went back to the

first words the Angel spoke to her.

Fear not you're going to conceive a child.

I imagine she remembered what Elizabeth said to her when she

went to see Elizabeth, when she said, the mother of my Lord,

Speaking of the child growing inside her nine months.

It wasn't faster than that. This child Jesus was knit

together in her womb. And now as she holds him to her

chest and she ponders and weighs all that has been said about him

that the shepherds have said tonight a savior has been born.

What does it mean that he will be a savior?

I want you to hear this, and I want you to think deeply about

what you hear. A moment ago, we confess our

sins publicly, and then Rob encouraged us.

In a season of private sin, sin is not just a few bad decisions.

Sin is not just missing the mark.

Spurgeon said this about sin and it connects to the Incarnation.

Please lean in and listen to what he says.

He who came to save men today in the town of David as Savior is

born. He who came to save men is no

other than God. Therefore he alone is capable of

viewing sin from God's standpoint and of understanding

what was due to God because of man's sin, Spurgeon says.

You think, perhaps, that you comprehend sin, but you and I

cannot do anything of the kind. We often think we can comprehend

other people's sin, but you and I cannot do anything of the

kind. Sin is an evil too monstrous for

the human mind fully to know its heights and depths, its links,

its breaths. But Christ, who is God

Incarnate, fully knew what sin meant.

He had plumbed it to the very bottom and knew how deep it was.

He had gazed up on it and felt all the horror of its

unrighteousness, ingratitude and turpitude.

It's sinfulness struck his sinless mind with all its awful

force, and overwhelmed his holy soul with a horror which none

but he could bear. And that's why he had to be God

and that's why he had to be mad. The baby that Mary is holding

took a first breath just like you did.

Most people average between 20 and 22,000 breaths a day.

Jesus breathed like a normal human until the word tells us He

breathed his last. Just after he said into your

hands I commit my spirit. Jesus Christ was born to live

the life that you and I were called to live but never could.

And he did it perfectly. Jesus Christ was born to die the

death we all deserve to die. And that is the gift of this

Savior. This man.

Mary doesn't understand all that is going to happen in the next

33 years. But that night, she's pondering,

weighing, chewing on the things that she's heard.

Do you know how to ponder? Do you know how to treasure

something? Yes, you do.

Pondering is meditation. We as believers should be

meditating up on what God's Word says about His glory, about His

greatness, about His goodness. So often our pondering is

centered on anxiety, and anxiety is meditation.

It's meditating on all that's broken, all that could be lost.

There's no question that as a human mother, Mary would have

had moments of anxiety. But in her pondering, those

things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory

and his grace. I imagine most of you this

season have felt the anxiety of it, the busyness of it.

Tonight my prayer is that you would leave this place, maybe

even just pondering that one verse unto you.

This night a savior is born. Maybe you came to this place

tonight not knowing you need a savior.

Or maybe you came to this place tonight not thinking you need a

savior. Or maybe that there are many

saviors. But this is the truth.

There aren't many saviors and there aren't many gods.

There is one, and the God is the one to whom this night we

celebrate His birth. That word was revealed to the

shepherds. They received it and responded

by moving with haste to Bethlehem about telling Mary and

Joseph what they heard about this child that today in the

town of David, his Savior's been born.

This baby's the Savior. Mary pondered those thoughts and

imagine all the thoughts she pondered.

Imagine that she looks at his little toes.

Imagine. Imagine is she feels his hand

grasp her finger and while this baby is grasping his finger,

this same baby is upholding the entire universe by the word of

his power. That is awesome.

I'm not sure how much time the shepherd spent there, but when

they left, they left praising and glorifying God.

Why? Because what had been revealed

to them was shown to be true. And tonight, whether you

expected it or not, the same word has been revealed to you in

song, in liturgy, in prayers, in the public reading of Scripture

and a sermon. Have you received that word?

And the word is not just instruction.

The word is not just a list of exhortations.

It is a person, the only person who could save you.

You might have thought for a moment tonight, after publicly

confessing our sins and then having a season of private

confession, and then having the words of assurance spoken from

the gospel, that what a strange thing to sing, so joyful a song

is. Go tell it on the mountain.

But that's the point. You have been forgiven if you're

in Christ. The sin that you and I have is

no longer held against it us. The penalty has been paid.

The greatest gift that could be given has been given.

Indeed, heaven could give no more.

If this is brand new to you, we would love nothing more than to

tell you more about Jesus. Even this night as we continue

in worship and clothes in a moment in prayer.

This could be the night that you receive what has been revealed.

If that happens, tell someone. But for those who've already

received, who've already believed, it's very easy to just

move through the motions. Treating Christianity is this if

it's nothing more than a worldview, instead of this

intimate union with Christ, the transcendent and personal God.

If this Christmas you can't say this is the best Christmas ever,

there's one remedy. Ponder, Ponder him.

Ponder his word. Treasure up him.

Last thing I'll say those two words, treasure and ponder,

written in the imperfect mean that it's an activity that is to

continue. Most likely you're not pondering

the great things of the Lord because you're pondering and

treasuring lesser things. And if you contended to ponder

and treasure lesser things, then indeed each day with Jesus, each

Christmas we celebrate His birth will not be better than the one

before. But if you surrender to Him, and

you look at his word, and you humbly come and say every day

there's so much about you I don't know, teach me.

Lord your word, He will, He promises.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for

they would be filled, filled by the one who was lying in the

Manger when those shepherds arrived.

Father in Heaven, what a gift for us to be together tonight,

to remember, to rehearse, to anticipate, to encourage each

other. Father, if there are those

present who for the first time in their life have heard things

that they've never known, overwhelm them.

Bring them to yourself. Friend, if you want to know what

it means to have a relationship with Jesus, just simply pray,

telling Christ that you're a Sinner in need of a Savior and

that there is only one. And simply pray for Christ to

forgive you and rest in Him alone for salvation.

If that is a prayer you pray this night or sometime soon

after, tell someone who is a faithful follower of Jesus that

they may encourage you. And friend of tonight you can't

came and you admit I just am checking a box, Pray even now.

Oh Lord, teach me to ponder. Teach me to chew on Your word.

Teach me to know that as I do it, because I'm in You.

You are living in me through Your Spirit.

Oh Lord, lift our eyes to behold once again the glory of this

birth, this life, this death, this resurrection, this rain,

and Your promised return. We pray this in Jesus name,

Amen.