Luke 2:1-21 – Family Carol Service – Advent 2022

Luke chapter two, verses one to twenty-one.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This was the first registration when Cornelius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each in his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest room.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, 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 the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

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, among those with whom we are fleece.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among those with whom he is free.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Go to up over to Beth.

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby laying in a manger.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told to them concerning this child, and all who had heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up 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 to them.

At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Well, I don't quite know how I follow that.

Well done, guys.

Welcome to the grown-ups as well.

My name is Mark.

I'm one of the leaders here at the church, and that was fantastic.

My goodness.

Well done to Sarah and Jenny and Owen and Cameron and the City Kids team for putting that together as well.

We've never done a family carol service before.

Um and it was great to be able to do it for the first time ever.

I think we got off to a really good start.

You guys look fantastic.

I wish I looked and felt a bit more Christmassy than I do right now, but that was brilliant.

We're gonna talk, we're gonna talk three times together and we're gonna sing in between.

So just short little uh moments.

What day is it next Sunday?

It's Christmas Day, that's right.

Next Sunday is Christmas Day, and what do we celebrate on Christmas Day?

Yes, that Jesus was born.

That Jesus was born, that it was Jesus' birthday, that's right.

That's so we have we have presents and we have yummy food because it's a party, because we're celebrating that Jesus was born, that it was his birthday.

Now, can you remember?

It was in the reading, can you remember what town was Jesus born in?

Bethlehem.

Bethlehem, that's right, and we were given another name, the city of David.

The city of David, that's right.

So Bethem and the city of David are the same place.

I wonder why that's important.

Why is it important that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

Because Mary and Joseph had to come a very long way, all the way from the back up there in Nazareth, all the way down to where Bethlehem was.

Why is it important that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

Well, I'm gonna tell you because this is our first point.

Because for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem, it means that God keeps his promises.

Did you know that, grown-ups?

God keeps his promises.

Long time ago, long before Jesus was ever born, God made a promise that his son would come into the world and you would know that he would be his son because he would be born in Bethlehem.

Now we think the promises are quite important, don't they?

Yeah, it's not good to break promises, and sometimes we do.

Sometimes we promise to do something.

Promise we might promise to help our mum or our dad, and then we get we forget, like, oh, I broke my promise.

Or some people break their promises to us, but do you know what?

God's not like that.

Because God always keeps his promises.

You guys have been doing a song about that, haven't you, in City Kids?

About God always keeping his promises.

And so the first thing that we remember this morning is that God did just as he had promised.

The reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem, born in the city of David, is because God, the God of the Bible, the God that we believe in, the God who came down to earth, always keeps his promises.

When someone, when someone keeps their promises, how does that make you feel?

Good.

Yeah, it makes you feel glad and makes you feel happy.

And that's exactly how we're supposed to feel.

We're supposed to look at God and his promises coming true and celebrate and rejoice and be happy.

Imagine if I said to you that at the end of this service you would all get treats.

If I kept that promise, would you be glad?

Well, let's just see.

Do you know Jesus was no ordinary baby?

And do you know why?

Well, when you were born, did an angel show up to your mom in the hospital?

No.

No?

No.

Did uh did any shepherds come in and ask to see you?

No, it was all very strange, wasn't it?

Uh so Jesus is a bit different to everybody else.

And there's lots of angels in the story.

We've got some angels here.

Where are our angels?

Give me a wave, angels.

Yeah.

And the prettiest angel of all is Cameron, our very own angel Gabriel, who is who has shed his angelic being.

Does anybody know what an what an angel is?

Angels live in uh live in heaven with God, don't they?

Um, but okay, I don't.

Um angels are like um God's postmen that and they send messages.

Have I been talking to you about my talk?

Because that's exactly right.

Angels are uh are heavenly unpost.

Uh uh they they they work, I think, with better regularity.

Uh they are God's postmen.

And what do postmen do?

Post people, they post letters.

They well, they post and they deliver letters, they deliver messages, don't they?

From God.

Uh, that's what these angelic messengers do.

Do you want to be an angel, Jacob?

No.

Uh and so the angels came with a message, and so they spoke to this uh to the shepherds, and they said, Do not be afraid.

Born today in the city of David is a savior, he is Christ the Lord.

Now, savior is a bit of a strange word.

Uh, so I'm gonna I'm gonna help us all understand that with because nothing says savior, like my unicorn rubber ring.

Now, if somebody was in trouble in water that was out of their depth, that it was too deep for them, what you would do is you could throw this rubber ring in and they would grab onto it and it would rescue them.

And a savior is a rescuer.

A rescuer or something that rescues is the same as a savior.

And so Jesus came to rescue us.

Now, not from deep water, what did he come to rescue us from?

From our sin.

And what's our what's our sin?

Sin is a is it can sometimes be a bit of a strange word, but let me tell you, our sin is our uh our demanding our own way.

So the baby who was born in the manger came as a rescuer, not to save us from deep water, but from our sin.

And Jesus lived a life that was perfect.

He never demanded his own way, he was never selfish, he always kept his promises, he always did what was right, and yet at Easter time we remember that he died on the cross.

Did he die on the cross for his own sin?

No, he died on the cross.

Yeah, he died on the cross for our sin.

So that we could ever so that we, like if this was attached to the rope, could be brought home to God.

So Jesus is not just born to keep God's promises, that was the first thing that we were considering, but born to be a savior.

So grown-ups, what do we remember?

Remember that God always keeps his promises, and so Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and that Jesus is a rescuer, and he's a rescuer not just that little boys and little girls need, but that we all need, right?

Because we all grown ups, even grown-ups, sometimes, especially grown-ups.

So that's the second point.

Jesus was born to keep God's promises and born to be a savior.

So remind me, in the angels' message, what did they say that Jesus was?

A savior.

A savior.

What does that mean?

Uh God rescues us.

God's God's rescuer, that's right.

But the angels also said something else about him.

They said that uh not only was he a rescuer, but they they used another different word, Christ.

That he was Christ the Lord.

Now, I wonder what Christ means.

You know, some people think that Christ is Jesus' surname.

Isn't that a bit silly?

Yeah.

So if if Christ is not Jesus' second name, I wonder what it means.

Anyone know what it means?

Yeah.

Well, I've got another prop that might help us understand what it means.

Oh, it means king.

That's right.

The word Christ, this looks good on me, I think.

Um, no, um, the word Christ is a very old word meaning king, and not just any old king, but God's special king.

And so when the angels come to the shepherds and say, a savior is being born today, he is Christ the Lord, he's saying that the one who's coming to rescue us is God's special king.

He is the Christ.

Now, where are kings normally born?

In a palace, or in those days, they would be born into palaces or castles, but not this king wasn't born in a palace, but was born here in a stable, and not and in a bit, do you know what a manger is?

This is what the cows would come and eat out of.

So manger is a feeding trough, and so Jesus had to be laid there, and so he's a very different king, isn't he?

That this king is not born in a palace, but born in a shed, in a stable.

If Jesus is God's king, who do you think that he's king of?

All the humans, yeah.

Everyone.

If Jesus is God's king, then he's then he's king of everything.

Yeah.

He is king of everyone.

Do you think that means everyone in this room?

Yeah.

Everyone on the earth.

Everyone on the whole earth.

That's a great answer, Nathan.

If Jesus is God's king, then he's king over everyone.

Now, sometimes kings die and a new king comes, but at Easter time we remember that our king came back to life, never to die again.

So, how long do you think Jesus is going to be king for?

Uh, a thousand years.

Oh, longer than that.

Nope.

Forever.

Forever.

That's a great answer.

And so here's the thing that we need to remember is that Jesus is the king forever, and the king for everyone, including the grown-ups.

He's an everlasting king.

He is God's eternal, everlasting king.

These guys are really well taught.

This is like this is like the offstead assessment for city kids.

It's like they're doing, they're doing brilliantly.

That's right.

Jesus is king forever and the king for everyone.

What have we learned?

We've learned that Jesus came to fulfill God's promises.

He was born in Bethlehem, just as God had promised long ago.

That he came to be our rescuer, our savior, to save us from our sins.

That's why another angel came and spoke to Joseph in another part of the story, saying, Call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

And how did the shepherds respond when they heard all of this?

When they heard that the king had been born, did they say, not really all that bothered?

I'll just stay here and look at my sheep.

They went to see him.

They went to see him.

And were they glad?

They were, of course they were.

They were glad and they got up and they moved.

And then when they did see him and they left, who did they tell?

Everyone.

Everyone.

They told everyone.

And that's what that's what meeting Jesus will do.

Some people don't believe.

Some people don't believe in Jesus.

Some people uh didn't believe the shepherds, I'm sure, that day.

But when we encounter Jesus, when we meet him in the manger, or when we meet him in the in God's word, the Bible, one of the things that happens in us is it makes our heart glad, it makes us rejoice, and it makes us want to tell others about him.

That's the shepherds.

They were so excited about this amazing gift that they went to tell everybody about him.

Now, I cannot wait to hear about all of the cool stuff that you get next Sunday.

Because I'm sure that you're gonna get lots of wonderful presents from all of the people who love you so much.

But today, let's all remember that Jesus is God's King, fulfilling God's promises, and has come to save us!

Thank you for listening to this week's sermon.

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