[4:00 p.m.] Christmas Eve Family Service — The Glory of the Incarnation (Luke 2:8-20)

If you were able, would you please stand for the reading of

God's Word this Christmas Eve? We'll be reading from the Gospel

of Luke, chapter 2, beginning with verse 8.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night.

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory

of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great

fear. The Angel said to them, fear

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'll find a baby wrapped in

swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the

heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the

highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is

pleased. When the angels went away from

them into heaven, the 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 they've been

told to them concerning this child.

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

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

heart. The Shepherd's 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.

You may be seated. The Gospel of Luke begins with

this opening declaration. Luke writes in as much as many

have undertaken, to compile a narrative of the things that

have been accomplished among us, and just as those who are from

the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and

have delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also,

having followed all things closely from some time past, to

write an orderly account that you may have certainty

concerning the things you have been taught.

As Luke begins his gospel, he tells us that everything he is

recorded for us, written down in the Holy Scriptures, in the

Gospel of Luke, has come from eyewitness testimony.

It's an orderly account that Luke has recorded that

generations of people just like you and just like me would hear

these words and read these words and have certainty that every

single thing that we hear and every single thing that we read

and these pages is true. What that means for us on this

Christmas Eve, that as we gather together and we hear and

rehearse the Christmas story, once again, we are coming

together not to hear a fable or a fairy tale.

It's not an allegory or some kind of metaphor for joy or

peace. Of the Christmas story is the

eyewitness account, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and

the Savior of the world. This is history.

In fact, it's the turning point of all of history.

And there were witnesses. In fact, what we hear in the

Gospel of Luke is that there were two witnesses, 2 witnesses

that represent a cosmic display, the entire universe that God has

made bearing witness that Christ is born.

Those two witnesses are heaven and earth.

And on that night, 2000 years ago, heaven and earth met in a

small village in the middle of nowhere in the Middle East

called Bethlehem. And there heaven and earth met

and declared that Christ is born.

And so we gather tonight, not for the sake of tradition or

ritual, because this is what we do in our culture, but we gather

tonight to hear once again the eyewitness testimony that Christ

is born, the witness of heaven and earth, that your Savior is

here. The first witness that we see in

the Gospel of Luke is the witness of heaven.

Once you look with me at verse 8, Luke tells us in verse 8 that

the same region there were shepherds out in the field and

they were keeping watch over the flock by night, and an Angel of

the Lord appeared to them. Now children, I want you to

imagine what it would be like for you to keeping watch over a

bunch of sheep and you're straining your eyes in the

middle of the dark trying to make sure that you have all of

the sheep that have been entrusted to you.

Maybe you're counting all of them and as you're straining

your eyes to make sure 12345 all of a sudden in the darkness a

light appears that illuminates the night sky.

In verse 9 it says an Angel of the Lord appeared to them and

the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled

with great fear. Now anytime you see the word

glory in the Bible, it's often associated with light,

brightness and shining it. The glory of the Lord is His

very presence. And the word glory literally

means weight, heaviness. It's that when you are in the

presence of God, you can feel it.

And for these shepherds outside of Bethlehem, they could see it,

light illuminating the darkness, and it we we're told by Luke

that they were filled with fear. Now, that might seem like a

strange response to you, but if you're really putting yourself

in these shepherd's shoes, you would be afraid to where did the

light come from? And then as you trace the light,

you see that it came from the glory of God accompanying the

presence of an Angel. And suddenly in verse 10, this

Angel begins to speak. The Angel says, fear not, for

behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be with all

the people. For unto you is born this day in

the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

This Angel is declaring that not only Christ is born, but it's

the fulfillment of prophecy. Now what you need to know about

the word Christ. When we say Jesus Christ, we're

not saying Jesus is his first name and Christ is his last

name. But the word Christ is a title.

It's the Greek word, original language of the New Testament

for Messiah. And the Messiah was the

long-awaited Savior king who was going to come to save God's

people from their sins. So in other words, this Angel is

telling a bunch of shepherds that the Savior King has finally

come and he's long been foretold.

And the prophet Micah, Micah 52 Micah the prophet says that the

Savior, this Savior king would be born in Bethlehem.

And then in verse 12, the Angel goes on and says, there will be

a sign for you, and you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling

claws and lying in a Manger. This sign was foretold years

before by the prophet Isaiah. This Isaiah 7 verse 14.

Isaiah 7:14

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the Virgin will conceive and bear a son, so call his name

Emmanuel. What's the point?

All of the scriptures have been leading up to this moment.

All of the prophets waiting for the birth of the Savior, King,

the Messiah, the Christ. All of heaven has been waiting

for this moment when Christ the Savior would be born.

The prophets foretold it would be in Bethlehem.

The prophets were told that he would be born of a virgin.

The prophets foretold that He would be the King of kings and

the Lord of Lords, that the government would be on his

shoulders, that He would being priests and salvation to all who

trust in His name. And here's this Angel declaring

that all of this has finally come to pass.

Heaven is bearing witness that Christ is born, and it's not

just one Angel. But then in verse 13, we're told

suddenly it was a multitude of angels, the night sky filled

with a multitude of a heavenly host praising God and giving him

glory. You see, when you are in the

presence of the glory of God, and you truly see God for who He

is, you cannot help but glorify Him.

God's glory is his presence. Our response and worship is to

glorify Him. And that's exactly what the

angels do on this night outside of a little village named

Bethlehem. These angels praise God and they

give him glory. Why?

Because Christ the Savior was born.

They sing glory to God in the highest on earth.

Peace among those with whom He is pleased.

Christ, the long-awaited Savior, King offering peace, not just

the absence of fear, but the kind of peace that we need

between US and God. You see, because this Savior had

come to be born in a Manger in order to die on a cross.

This is the second witness we see here in the gospel of Luke.

Not just the witness of heaven. We also see the witness of

earth, the shepherds. Verse 15, the angels went away

from them, from heaven, and 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.

Now I want you to pretend that you know a king is coming, a

king that everybody's been waiting for, and you know that

this king is going to be born. If you were writing this story,

how would you announce that king?

Would you bring a band and trumpets?

Would you bring an army? Who would you tell first?

Would you go and gather all of the kings and kingdoms of the

earth and make sure that they're the first to hear that the

long-awaited King of Kings is born?

That's not what God did. God sent his angels to a bunch

of lowly and humble shepherds, keeping watch of their sheep by

night. These shepherds were the first

to hear that Christ the Messiah is born.

And as they heard this, they went in verse 16 and they went

with haste and found Mary and Joseph and a baby lying in a

Manger. If you were writing this story,

the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the

long-awaited Savior King, the Conqueror who's finally come to

set us free, where would that baby be Born In a palace,

amongst jewels and treasures. That's not what God did.

No, God sent the King, his son, to be born in humility, in a

Manger. And so here's the scene.

The long-awaited Savior King in the form of a weak and helpless

baby, born in a barn, lying in a Manger, surrounded by sheep and

shepherds. Why did God do it this way?

So that you and I could be witnesses to you.

See, God sent his Son Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,

not with a sword in his first and not with an army, but he

sent them into humility to take on the sin of our flesh.

Jesus Christ was born in a Manger in order to die on a

cross. So that this Christmas Eve, just

like the many Christmas Eves that have gone before this one,

we would gather together once again and tell the true story

that our Savior is here. And so the question for all of

us tonight is this. Are you a witness to see just as

Christ came to us 2000 years ago, The story is not over yet,

and one day Christ will come again in his second advent.

Until that day comes, He comes to us now.

He comes to you. He comes to you through the

scriptures. He comes to you through prayer.

And He comes to you tonight as we gather together and sing

these carols. He comes to you and as we gather

after this with family and friends, we give gifts, we're

bearing witness, we're joining with the shepherds and all the

host of heaven, and together we are declaring Christ the Savior

is born. Let's pray, Father in Heaven,

help us now to receive this gift, the gift of your Son who

died in our place on the cross for our sins.

We pray as we tell this story, as we hear it again, as we sing

it to one another. We pray that it wouldn't just be

words on a page. We pray that you, Jesus Christ,

the very word of God would penetrate our hearts, that we

would receive you as our Savior and that and gathering tonight

and worshipping you as your as as our Savior, that we as your

people would join with all of heaven and all of the earth to

give you glory and to worship for you have come down to be

with us. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.