Christmas for You - Luke 2:8-20 (Dec 24) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Amen.

Amen.

It's so good to be together this evening and to celebrate one of the most, if not the most, important Sunday of the year, the year that we get to celebrate, or the Sunday that we get to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

My name's Miles Holmes.

If I haven't met you, I'd love to meet you after the service.

Uh, I'm the lead pastor of this church.

And if you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can open them up to Luke chapter two.

And our ushers are gonna make their way to the front of the aisle here.

And if you don't have a Bible, you can slip your hand in the air.

They're gonna see you and get a copy of God's word into your hands.

And if you don't own a copy of God's word, consider this our Christmas gift to you.

You are serving us.

We would love if you would take this home and read it, and we trust that your life is gonna be blessed, as this is the very word of God.

This is as though God were speaking in this room to us right now as He will, as we open up God's Word to Luke chapter two, and see what he has to say to us.

Now I want to start our time together, maybe taking us to a place that it's a little unfitting with all the sweetness of the children up here reading such a sweet Christmas story and singing such sweet Christmas songs.

I think you're gonna be surprised.

But I want to take you back to World War II.

Maybe a little unfitting, but it's good that we go there.

And I want to take you to 1940, very much the beginning of World War II.

And there stands a man whose influence over the next four years would leave an indelible mark on history and really bear relevancy even to us today in the freedom that we experience.

Now, this man's name, I'm sure there are many that come to your mind, but the one I have in mind is Winston Churchill.

And for the 65 years prior to that moment, Winston Churchill was being shaped in his upbringing in a way that had perfectly suited him for this moment.

The events that had happened in his life, his experiences, and especially his suffering had kind of forged him in this crucible that had made it so that this moment, as he stood before the Second World War and was prepared to lead his nation and really the Allied forces through the Second World War, he was prepared.

In fact, Churchill understood this himself.

When Churchill would look back on his appointment as prime minister, which would happen just hours after Hitler's attack on the West, he would say this.

He said, I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this trial and for this hour.

And in many ways, as you read about Churchill's life, you begin to understand that like if you were to try to handcraft, if you were like to play God and try to prepare a man for this moment in history, I don't think you could do it.

So many things had happened in his life that had prepared him for this moment.

He was born into a family of political heritage and political hierarchy.

He was educated in a military academy.

And at a young age, he had experienced military conflict that would give him sort of like a ground level understanding of war.

And shortly after that, he had gained, uh, for such a man at such a young age, he had amassed a massive political resume.

It felt like destiny.

So much so that even his contemporaries who perhaps did not believe in God would look at this man and say, surely this was predestined, surely God's hand was in giving this man to us at this specific time.

And the reason why I want us to reflect on this this evening is because in many ways, and to an even greater degree, it is the same with Jesus.

Now that is my daughter who is calling out.

She loves the sermon so far, and she's saying, preach, this is great.

Joel gave you 20, she's saying, I'm giving you 45, all right?

Just keep going, Dad.

This is the best sermon I've ever heard.

Also the first and therefore the worst sermon I've ever heard.

I mean, back to the message here.

The reason why I want to reflect on Churchill's life is because I think this sort of like his early life preparing him for this moment in destiny, preparing him to be the prime minister who would lead his people through such a great world war, it really reflects what happens in Jesus' coming.

As we begin to understand the details surrounding the coming of Jesus, what we see then is that Jesus, with utmost relevancy, is able to be our king.

His coming shows us that he is a king fit for you, no matter how you walk into this place this evening.

Jesus is perfectly forged by the destined hand of God to be a savior for you.

And so I want us to look at this together, and I want you to see that when we truly understand the way Jesus came, we begin to understand that no matter where we are in life right now, no matter how far apart from God we feel right now, we begin to understand Jesus came for us.

And so the first thing I want you to see is this Jesus came to a place we can reach.

Jesus came to a place that we can reach.

Now, your Bibles are open to Luke chapter 2, and I want you to notice that in Luke chapter 2, verse 4, we're told exactly where Jesus is born.

Luke 2 · chapter mention Luke 2:4

It says, 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 of the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Now, Jesus, we're told, is born in Bethlehem.

And Bethlehem, of all the towns of Judea, I don't know if you could make an argument that there is a town more insignificant and more small than Bethlehem.

Not only small in its population, it was a small town, but also small in its historical significance.

It had no political power or say in anything that happened within Judea or within Rome.

And it really had no economical influence.

There wasn't much money flowing out of there.

So that really we could say that Bethlehem could be wiped off the map and people would not even know.

It wouldn't even make frontline news.

In fact, as we look back over history, there's very little that is told to us by historians about Bethlehem because of its insignificance.

And so it should be striking to us when we hear that the king of the universe, the man who would claim to be the king of the universe, the man who we just sang 2,000 years later, is the king of all kings, it should be significant to us that he is born in such an insignificant town.

And it should be significant to us because isn't it true that that royal hierarchy, I mean, we're kind of removed from this historically, and yet we still understand that if you're born of like this royal heritage, often you come in this kind of like triumphant and famous way.

Jesus in no way comes like this.

Where most kings are born in a royal palace surrounded by luxury that's symbolic of their power and their privilege.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Where most are born to royal parents whose prestige earns them a great amount of attention.

Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph.

Where most kings are born to royal attendants who already have all of the festive celebrations ready and feasts prepared outside the can the camp.

Jesus is born in obscurity.

In fact, in 2013, when Prince George was born, his birth was covered worldwide.

In fact, I'm sure that there are some people in this room, not like myself, I could be probably the furthest removed from this people of group, this group of people, but my wife is becoming more and more like this.

You're kind of like royal family junkies.

You live for it, don't you?

In fact, you probably took the day off.

When you heard that, you know, this prince was being born, you took the day off.

Crowds showed up to the royal palace to celebrate, to party, world leaders from all over the world sent their congratulations.

It was widely celebrated.

And here is Jesus, the king of the universe.

He's born in Bethlehem.

There was no one there of significance.

And in fact, as you talk about Jesus, the one who would claim to have rule over the entire universe, we see that his parents are actually there because they are ruled themselves.

They're forced to Bethlehem.

And while this would fulfill Old Testament prophecy that a Savior would come from the same city of David, the reality is that Joseph and Mary go there because they have no other choice.

We read in verse 1 that Caesar Augustus was taking a census.

And so they had no choice but to go to Bethlehem.

It wasn't their choice.

They had no place to give birth to a baby there.

And here we find the one who sustains all existence.

The one who not a single speck of dust can drop in this room, apart from him sovereignly allowing it to.

The one who you've no you've never taken a single breath in your life apart from it being affirmed by a sovereign yes from the hand of Jesus Christ.

The one who has never allowed your heart to beat one single time outside of his sovereignty.

Here we find that king with that authority, with that rule, being corralled into the lowly city of Bethlehem.

Now, if it wasn't enough that he was born in this lowly, insignificant, forgettable town, he was also born in the lowliest of places.

See, even in Bethlehem, Jesus couldn't get to the areas that were exclusive.

And so while his parents were there, you know the story, they they looked for an inn.

And we sing the song, there was no place for him to rest his head, they couldn't find anywhere for him to sleep, they couldn't even get into the inn.

The inn was full.

And so they found themselves with nothing but a manger to lay their baby in.

They were sitting with the animals.

What's striking about this?

In many ways, the manger is out in the open world.

Like you could not be more open access than to be at a manger.

That was like the next thing would be like public property.

That's like being born on someone's front lawn.

And he was laid there, and sovereignly had placed him there, himself there, so that he would be in the only place that had no restrictions, the place that all would be welcome to.

And I want you to see this that the fact that Jesus was laid in a manger, it shows that he came to a place that you could reach.

We understand this, right?

Jesus, he came to earth, but he came from heaven.

And for all eternity he had dwelt in heaven.

Heaven was perfect.

There was no sin.

He had all power and no limitations.

And now he finds himself in this lowly, dirty, disgusting manger, the lowliest of all places.

You know what the problem was?

The problem is that while Jesus dwelt in heaven for all of eternity, that because of our sin, we could not reach that place.

That was a place that we could not reach.

Oh, we've we've tried to reach it.

In fact, the whole history of humanity is really a history of men and women trying to reach heaven.

As early as the Tower of Babel, you might have heard of this story before in Genesis 11.

For the people of earth, they decided we're gonna build a tower that will reach all the way to heaven.

And they couldn't do it.

And every day, up until this day, mankind has been trying to reach heaven.

In fact, this is the way that Christianity separates itself from every other world religion.

You know what every other world religion tells you?

You know what every other religious philosophy tells you?

It gives you a system that you can climb the mountain and reach heaven yourself.

You know what the problem is?

The problem is that you and I have tried that.

And we've been faced with the reality check that we are horrible mountain climbers.

That if righteousness is the thing that causes us to climb the mountain, to reach heaven, to reach the place of God's presence, we cannot do it.

While every other religion is trying to reach heaven, Christianity says that if there's any hope for life, if there's any hope for salvation, if there's any hope for joy in your life, then heaven needs to come down to us.

Heaven needs to reach us.

And so it's so significant then that at the very beginning of Christmas, that at the very birth of Jesus, when he is a baby and he has no power to go anywhere, he chooses by his sovereign hand to be laid in the lowliest of all places so that anybody could come to him.

No one would be outside of his reach.

See, Jesus, he couldn't come down to a throne room.

Then it would only be those who are of like significant social stature, who have some sort of like external prestige.

It could only be those who could reach him.

Jesus couldn't even come to an inn because the reality of an inn is that it takes some sense of financial resources in order to get into that inn.

And so if he were born in an inn, then there would be a sense of like there's only so many people that can come to him, and it's only those who have resources.

He wasn't born in a religious temple, then it would only be those of righteousness who could come in.

Jesus must come to a manger where there are none so low that they are cut off from access to him.

You know what that means?

That means the gift of Christmas is the reality that the king that you need, the king that can provide the eternal peace that you've been looking for your whole life, the king that can provide that satisfaction that you've been, it's like feels like you've been running on a treadmill to find, but you never can get.

You don't have to go anywhere to find him.

Secondly, I want you to see this though: that Jesus came in a position we can attain.

He came in a position we can attain.

The second thing I want you to notice is who Jesus came to.

We read this already, but I want to read it again in verse 8 and verse 9.

It says, 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.

Now, if we're watching the movie of Christmas right now, those of you who are like keen movie watchers, you're trying to follow the plot and you notice inconsistencies, you're taking note.

You're saying, okay, the shepherds, that's pretty random.

Like the angels only appeared to a few people, so the shepherds, they're gonna be important in this story.

So I gotta take note.

And yet, what you come to recognize is you get to the end of the story of Jesus' life, and you get to the end of the New Testament, and the shepherds, they never show up again.

They're only here.

And your question, if you're watching, if you're like, you know, on the edge of your seat watching the plot of Christmas, your question is like, what's with the shepherds?

Is this some sort of like bad movie writing where they brought the shepherds in and they had like this grand like side plot with them and it's gonna be awesome, and but they just forgot about it?

Or is Jesus planning on releasing like Christmas, the Christmas story too?

You know, Christmas Unleashed, the story of the shepherds.

What is going on with these shepherds?

Because they are of no significance.

Like, this is not the cool, let's show up in Tom Cruise's, you know, house sort of character in the Christmas story.

The shepherds are lowly.

Again, they're insignificant.

Many of them were thieves, and so people like you did not want to invite the shepherds to your Christmas party.

All your nanaimo bars gone as soon as the shepherds get there.

And yet, here the angels appear to the shepherds.

Now, the angels had appeared a number of times already.

It wasn't like the angels were like, oh man, we forgot to appear to someone, we should probably appear to the shepherds.

They had already appeared to Mary.

And they had pronounced to Mary that she would give birth a virgin birth to Jesus.

They had also appeared to Joseph, confirming for Joseph that Jesus was of the Holy Spirit.

And so the question we ask here is this: why do they have to appear to the shepherds?

Well, the mode of the message is often as important as the message itself, isn't it?

And it's so relevant that when the mess when the angels come in in verse 10 and they speak to the shepherds, look at what they say.

They say, Fear not, for behold, I bring great new good news of great joy.

And you see these words in Luke chapter 2, verse 10, for all people.

Luke 2:10

For all people.

Now, those of us who come to this church, you know that I'm horrible at math, and so anytime I start talking about math, people, you know, they turn off the trust in me.

And yeah, this is what I know about the word all.

That if the angels come and proclaim that Jesus is for all people, that means that there is no one who He did not come for.

He came for all, to invite all to experience this good news of great joy.

The rest of Jesus' life would be a testament to this reality.

That the most necessary thing you need in order to position yourself before Jesus, who is the king of the universe, the most necessary thing you need is an understanding of your inadequacy.

See, throughout Jesus' life, the one who would accept him would be the ones who had nothing to offer him.

And the ones who would reject Jesus and even put him on the cross, they were the ones who kind of like walked around with their chest up.

They were the ones who kind of walked around like, well, when Jesus comes, you know, he's gonna need me.

He's gonna need me.

If he's gonna have any sort of political power, he's gonna need me.

And yet it was the ones who had nothing who recognized Jesus' true worth.

Listen, can I ask you a question?

And and you can respond by looking at the person that's in this room if this is fitting to you, okay?

A lot of shame.

You can just heap shame on them right now.

Do you have a person in your life?

It's impossible to buy anything for them.

Okay, you can look at them right now, you can just say, shame on you right now.

Okay, I see some people looking at their spouses.

That's great.

That is great.

You know, this these people, they have everything.

Unless you're like going and taking out a loan and buying them like a Tesla, there is just nothing that you can put underneath the Christmas tree that is gonna be good enough for them.

It's impossible to get a gift that they can appreciate because they don't, there's there's just nothing they need.

There's nothing that they're gonna open up under the Christmas tree and say, oh wow, this is so life-changing.

Thank you so much.

They're gonna open it up and they're gonna go, uh, that's a gift.

Yeah.

Now, I believe that the reason the gospel is is so it's it's like not only not good news, it's irrelevant news to us, is because so many of us believe that we already have everything we need.

We are deluded by this lie that Satan loves to put out in every corner of our culture that that we already at least have everything that we need, or that we're already on the path to find everything that we need.

Yeah, can I ask you to reflect on your life for a moment?

Do you really have do you really feel in this moment like you have everything that you need?

I mean, if we honestly do self-reflection right now, that the reality is that none of us do.

Like whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian and you've been living your life seeking that promotion or that money or that car or that house, the reality is like like you you are on the journey of getting what you think you need.

But doesn't it seem like it's always just around the corner?

Don't you notice this with materialism?

I mean, materialism it preaches that our joy will just be found in another thing.

A bigger house, a better phone, a newer car.

The Abby's dollhouse Lego set, and I put that one in for the kids, okay?

Some of the kids are like, What?

What does he know?

How does this guy know anything now?

Some of the parents are like, Man, I wanted to get it, but it's like uh I couldn't do crying Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve anymore.

You run the treadmill of materialism thinking, if I just get this next thing, I'm I'm gonna be happy.

And yet what what's the problem?

The problem is that when you get the iPhone 27x.7e, the iPhone 28P version 7.4 comes out the next day.

And all of a sudden yours is old and outdated, and you realize, no, okay, it wasn't this thing, it's the next thing.

No, it's not it's not this promotion, it's the next promotion.

It's not this relationship, it's the it's the next relationship, it's not this vacation, it's the next vacation.

And it's like this endless treadmill that you can't get off, you keep running on, you keep thinking, oh, just a few more kilometers, and I'll finally find what I'm looking for, but you cannot find it.

And what if, what if this This Christmas, the best gift you could receive were that the Holy Spirit were to come in your life and were to strip away the mask and for you to look in the mirror and see that you actually have nothing.

You're surrounded by everything.

You have all the wealth in the world, you have all the family in the world, your life has been free from suffering.

But when you really boil it all down, you have absolutely nothing.

I am convinced that if the Holy Spirit were to do that work in you now, revealing that your whole life has been chasing vanity, it would be the greatest news you could ever receive.

Because in that place you could see the eternal value of Jesus.

You would come to be in a position, the position that you need to be in in order to find Jesus.

The position of having nothing.

He comes to those who have nothing.

He comes to those who are like the shepherds.

They can't contribute to the story, they have nothing to offer, and Jesus calls them.

This is what he says in Isaiah 55.

He says, Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come by and eat.

Come by wine and milk without money and without price.

And what does Jesus offer us?

Well, while we read this, the angels tell us in verse 14, he says, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

This is what God offers us is peace.

Now, biblical peace is not what we often imagine it to be.

We often think of peace as being prosperity and freedom from trouble, but peace biblically is the end of enmity.

It's the end of warfare.

And if Jesus, this Christmas, is offering us peace, then we really need to make sense of what this peace is.

We need to ask this question: how are we at war with God?

Because if we don't understand what the peace solves, what the peace is offered to, then we can't understand this gift.

And so I want you to understand there's two primary ways that you might be at war with God.

The first is maybe you're here and you're just not religious.

You're like, this is not for me.

I'm here just because, you know, I'm I want to please mom.

And she invited me, and you know, I'm just this is my Christmas gift to her.

I gotta listen to this weird guy with this weird shirt.

And there's too many Christmas trees.

Like, who has seven Christmas trees in a room?

That's just too many.

These people are weird.

Maybe that's you, and it's easy to understand your enmity in this sense.

It's easy for the irreligious person to understand that they're that really by their life they're saying, I don't care what God says, I want what I want.

Of course, that's an all-out launch against the kingdom of God.

But but do you understand that it's also in an entirely different way?

It's also the religious person who's also at war with God.

Because the religious person says this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be good.

And I'm gonna do good things.

I'm gonna be a good person.

You know, I'm gonna love other people.

Like Jesus told me to love, I'm gonna do that, and because I do that, now God has to give me a good life.

Now God has to bless me.

And so the religious person, they kind of set themselves up to wear like this mask of religiosity and to live a certain way, and they expect because they walk on this path that they've sort of made up themselves, this good life that they've sort of decided upon themselves that good things are gonna come into their life, so that when good things don't come into their life, well, there's this frustration.

God, how could you treat me this way?

God, I've given my life to you.

You see that even our most religious efforts, that what they do is they they pose hostility to God.

They say to God, God, you owe me better.

You owe me something.

See the gospel, it comes into the midst of our irreligious and religious enmity to say this.

Peace can only be attained when we recognize our hostile attacks.

Gospel peace comes when you say, I uh not only have I done bad things, but even the good things I've done to be my own savior, to kind of even those things, they assert my independence over God.

See, gospel peace comes to those who say, like, the only way that I can ever have peace with God is if He will offer it.

It's if He will give me forgiveness.

It will only be by the sheer grace and forgiveness of the party that I have opposed my whole entire life.

And Christmas, Christmas tells us that that grace and forgiveness has come in a manger.

Which leads us to our third point.

Jesus came in a person we can receive.

Came in a person we can receive.

Look at verse 10 and 11 with me.

It says, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born at this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Should should blow our minds.

Jesus was born, meaning that he was a man.

And yet this man that was born as a baby in Bethlehem, we're told in verse 11, is also the Lord.

While he is fully God, he is also fully man.

This is the mind-blowing reality of Christmas, isn't it?

That the very Lord of creation would take on humanity and in that moment would become the most helpless baby, the one who holds all things in his hands, held in the hands of his mother.

I love how Augustine says it.

He says, This man's maker was made man that he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast, that the bread might hunger, the fountain thirst, the light sleep, the way be tired on its journey, that the truth might be accused of false witness, that the teacher might be beaten with whips, the foundation suspended on wood, that strength might grow weak, that the healer might be wounded, that life might die.

And you see, this reality that Jesus became a man, being fully God, became and took on flesh, this changes everything about Christianity.

It means that Christianity, it's not a psychology.

Christianity is not like a mindset that you need to embrace.

Christianity is not a moral framework that you need to understand.

Like if you do this, then you will live a good and righteous life.

Christianity, it's not a it's not a philosophy that you can, kind of glasses that you can put on to understand life.

At the end of the day, the very core of Christianity is a historical person whose name is Jesus Christ.

And at the heart of what that man offers us this evening is relationship.

So that John, the Apostle John, in chapter 1, verse 18, he says these words no one has ever seen God.

And aren't those words so true?

You've never seen the Father.

And for many in this room, that's like the hurdle that's keeping you from God.

You say, so many have said to me, you know, I would follow God if you were in this room.

You know, if God were talking to us in this chair, all of a sudden, like there would be no argument.

I would, I would have to follow him.

And we recognize that part of the most troubling thing about God is that he is unseen.

And we live in a day and age where more than ever we need to see things to believe them.

We need to understand the science behind it.

And that is good.

That's why it should be amazing news for our modern minds that Jesus has been seen.

His voice has echoed in a room just like mine does now.

His flesh has been seen just like you see me now.

Jesus has been seen by humanity.

So that John goes on to say in John chapter 1, verse 18 that no one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at the Father's side, that is Jesus Himself, has made him known.

John 1:18

In Jesus, you have seen God.

His voice has been heard, his flesh has been seen.

And so the question remains for us: will you receive him?

Not will you embrace this moral guideline, not will you throw away the other philosophies of your life and embrace the philosophy of Christianity?

Those are all important.

But the most important thing, the most important question we can answer is, will you receive the person of Jesus Christ?

Will you believe that Jesus is who he said he is?

That when he would claim to be the king of the universe, that those were the truest words that had ever been uttered in the history of humanity.

Listen, so there's so many good things at Christmas, isn't there?

You know, tomorrow morning is gonna be such a sweet time for so many of us.

So many of us will open such sweet gifts.

That's awesome.

Yay.

It's amazing.

But for the forgiveness of sins, I mean it's it just does not even compare.

It does not even compare.

It's such a small, my minuscule thing in comparison to the forgiveness of sins, which are so necessary.

Any gift you can get, nothing can compare to the gift that is offered to you in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so this Christmas, I mean, let's let's celebrate those things.

Those are good things, but man, do they pale in comparison to the hope that is offered you in Jesus Christ?

You know, there's nothing in this world, there is nothing in this world that can support the weight of your hope.

You as a human being, you were created to hope.

And you spent your whole life hoping in these things that none of it can support.

It's always let you down.

And you know what the king offers you this evening?

He offers you a person who can sustain your hope.

It's the same with love, isn't it?

Like, haven't you kind of spent your whole life looking for a love that could truly satisfy?

And you know, you look at your husband, and maybe they're okay.

But man, there are some days that they let you down.

And you know what's offered to you this Christmas?

Is a love that will never let you down, the love of the person of Jesus Christ.

Nothing in this world can support the weight of our joy, and it's offered to us.

All these things can't do it.

Jesus is here.

Through his word, he is crying out to you, calling out, I came to Bethlehem in a manger so that you might receive this gift.

I came to a people undeserving, so that there is no chance that you would not qualify it for it.

And so now the question remains will you receive him as king?

I'm gonna invite the worship team up, and they're gonna sing a song over us, and I'll just ask you to remain seated in this time and just allow the truth of this song maybe to penetrate deeply into your heart.

Maybe in the quiet the moment you can close your eyes, you can even raise your hands and just reflect on the truth of Christmas for you and all that is offered to you in Jesus Christ.

And let me pray as we enter into this time of reflection.

God, thank you.

God, thank you for Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the gift that he is.

And so now as we take this time to reflect on that gift and all that he had done and his humble coming, God, would you be here with us and by the power of your Holy Spirit press this truth deeply into our hearts, God?

Lord, we give you all the praise in this moment.

All the glory is yours.

Glory to you in the highest.

Amen.