Christmas is a Reason to Sing | Songs of Joy - Luke 2:8-21 (Dec 18) 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.

If you're new with us this morning, we want to just take a moment to welcome you.

Maybe you're here with some family.

We're about to celebrate some child dedications.

We're very excited for that.

We'd love to meet you this morning.

So we've set up an area just for you.

It's called guest reception.

There's going to be a friendly face there at the end of the service.

Love to meet you.

Put a small gift into your hands.

Answer any questions you might have about our church after the service, and I'll be back there to meet you as well.

A few announcements that we want to put before you.ca.

I also want to put before you an exciting men's conference that's coming up in February.

Many of you are familiar with the men's conference that Hope Oakville runs called Free Indeed.

And we have the exciting opportunity to participate in this men's conference.

We're going to be joining Redemption Durham out in Whitby for this conference on February 3rd there.

It's a Friday-Saturday conference.

And you can sign up for that at hopeoakville.ca slash freeindeed.

It's going to be an exciting time where we get to be preached at specifically to men.

God's charge and how he wants us to live for his glory and for his exaltation.

And so we wanted to put that before you.

Rich and Krista Monteith with Tatum and Oakley.

You guys can come up onto the stage over here.

And Joel and Megan Dugard with Wesley.

I'm already up here, so just the other half with Eden.

And then Devin and Zach with Eden and Haven.

You guys can stand up here on the stage.

Three things are happening today as we dedicate these childs to the Lord.

The first is just that, that these parents are standing here on the stage to dedicate these children to the Lord, recognizing that these children are a gift from God and wanting these children to be used for his purposes and for his glory.

Second thing that's happening is that these parents are standing, committing to raise these kids according to the principles of God's word.

This is increasingly important in a day and age where it's harder and harder to do that.

But we're reminded of Paul's instructions in Ephesians 6 4, where Paul says that we are to bring children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

And of course, the instruction of the Lord is the truth that is found in his word.

Third thing that is happening is that we as a church are coming alongside these parents and these families to support, encourage, and spur them on in this awesome privilege and responsibility of parenting.

So I have some words for you, families.

This is a special time in the life of your family, and I think I speak hopefully on behalf of the church right now when I say it's exciting to celebrate this with you.

It's an important day, an important decision that you're making this morning to raise your children according to God's word.

There's a few things I want you to understand.

I want you to understand that this does not indicate or foretell your child's salvation.

The Bible says that salvation comes only through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and the repentance of sins.

This needs to be their own decision.

Rather, this is about you guys.

This is about the commitment that you're making as parents to show Christ to your kids and to raise them in a God-honoring way so that hopefully they too, like you have, will understand the gospel and give their lives to the Lord.

Now, each of you guys have chosen to read a verse over your child.

And so, Joel, I'm going to start with you as you have the mic there and uh yeah.

And uh Wesley means Western Edge.

So we said, it's elastic.

He's always uh he's always dressed so nice.

Yeah.

I feel embarrassed standing beside him, so I'm gonna stand a little farther away.

Thank you.

And this is Oakley and Tatum.

That's amazing.

This looks like a really cozy sweater, too.

I want to wear a sweater like this.

Oh, this one's trouble.

You're trouble.

You're gonna make me lose my salvation and have to rededicate myself to the Lord.

You know, I should have been prepared with the verse that we're gonna read.

Is it gonna be up on the screen, eh?

I told all these people to be prepared and have their Bibles here, and here I am not prepared.

Eden, we chose this verse for you.

For the Lord comforts Zion, comforts all her waste places, and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Ard garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her.

Thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Cute, but trouble.

Nothing but trouble.

And here's another Eden and Haven.

Deuteronomy chapter six, verses five and seven, where it says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them while you sit in your houses, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

I want to ask you guys two questions as you make this commitment to raising your children in the Lord, and you can answer, I will.

First question I want to ask you is this Are you committed to raising your children according to the principles of God's word?

Is it your honest desire that they be used by God for his purpose and glory?

And you can answer, it is.

Amen.

Well, on behalf of the church, we're committed to help you in that.

We look forward to the day that we get to celebrate alongside you your child embracing the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.

Let's pray for them, church.

Father, we thank you for this time.

And God, we stand alongside these parents as they commit themselves to you, Lord, asking for your help and the strength of your Holy Spirit as they commit themselves to raising these children in the Lord.

God, I pray that you would increase the love of these parents for you.

God, recognizing that the most important thing that we can offer our children is a model of what it looks like to love and adore Jesus Christ.

I pray that these words that we just sang, joyful, joyful, we adore you, would be the banner over our lives, Lord, that there is nothing that these parents desire more than you.

God, I pray for these children that you would impress on them the truth of your word, that you would give them a hunger for your word.

And God, that they would see their parents diligently studying your word and living their lives according to your word and live in the pursuit of the same thing.

God, we pray that you would connect these parents to people in this church for their growth and mutual edification.

God, that they would have resources to lean into as they walk the challenging and difficult path of parenting.

And God, we pray that all of these children, Lord, would surrender their lives to you, that they would be saved by you at a young age, that they would place their faith in Jesus Christ, recognizing their sin and their need to turn from their sin to find hope and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Lord, there's no other name under heaven by which we can find salvation.

And so we praise you for Jesus.

And we praise you for these parents committing themselves to you in this endeavor.

God, thank you.

We pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

I want to give a round of applause to these parents.

As they make their way off the stage, why don't you guys just stand up and take a moment to greet one another before grabbing your seat again?

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can grab your seat.

Some of you guys are looking at me confused up here, wondering why I'm up here, worried that I'm about to start singing for you, and I just want to affirm for you that that is not the case.

If you guys have your Bibles, and I hope that you do, you can take them and open them to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

We're gonna be doing things a little bit differently this morning.

Often we'll sing a few more worship songs before getting into the message.

Uh, but we're gonna have our message up a little earlier in the service this morning, and I hope that it will be quickly apparent as to why we're gonna do that.

I want to talk to you this morning about Christmas music.

We started a new series this morning, a mini-series, two uh Sundays long, called Songs of Joy.

I don't know about you, but I find that Christmas music is a bit of a contentious subject, isn't it?

There are those who love it, and there are those who groan when the fur they hear the first Christmas song playing in the grocery store.

I can side with both teams, both team pro Christmas music and team anti-Christmas music.

I've spoken before of my hatred for the song Feliz Navidad.

I'm sorry if that's your favorite song.

I can't hear it one more time.

Our family, though, we love Christmas music, and for the about the month and a half that leads up to Christmas Day, you will find often Christmas music playing in our living room.

I think if you were to total up the amount of time that we spend the rest of the year listening to music, versus the amount of time we spend listening to music in the season leading up to Christmas, it would probably be close to the same.

We love Christmas music.

I found my wife, sorry, we've gone through seasons where we have listened to so much Christmas music that in July I've found my wife humming Christmas songs and caught her and said, That's not a song you heard from the radio, that's a song you still have in your head from Christmas season.

Now, as long, again, as it's not Felice Navidad, I'm pretty happy about that.

It's okay.

All that to say there's something about Christmas music, isn't there?

And there's something in Christmas music that as a pastor, and I trust that you as a Christian enjoy as well.

I love that you can walk into a mall, and that mall is completely sold out to the consumerism of Christmas.

You see Santa and the elves, and yet over the speakers, you can hear Christmas hymns.

You can hear deep theological words that likely, if you were to pull the average person, people would have no idea what it means to sing mild, he lays his glory by, born that men no more may die.

My favorite Christmas lyric is what the gladsome tidings be, which I think in this day and age kind of sounds like uh when you stub your toe, you know, you're walking in the kitchen, ah, my toe, what the gladsome tidings be.

I'm not sure exactly what that means.

But it is a delight to me to be able to walk in these public places, these secular places, and hear of the Christmas story being sung.

I truly believe that the tradition of Christmas music is a great tradition, and this is why.

Because when you truly understand the meaning of Christmas, when you truly comprehend the Christmas story, you are given a reason to sing.

Christmas, in the fullness of all that happened on Christmas Day, is a reason to sing.

And if you're in Christ and you believe the true story of Christmas, you have a song to sing whose meaning is infinitely deeper than any secular song could ever match.

When you come to grips with this story and the reality of what Christmas is, it implies that you have a song to sing in the darkest night of your life.

And so I want to take this Christmas music tradition and I want to help you see in Scripture that because of Christmas, you have a reason to sing.

I want you to leave this morning with a song stuck in your head, a song whose lyrics speak hope to the hopeless, a song whose lyrics shine light in the darkness of this world, a song whose melody brings clarity to all suffering in this world.

And I want you to leave declaring to this world this powerful Christmas song, a truth that transforms our life, a truth that is discovered when we truly understand the meaning of Christmas.

So you can open your Bibles to Luke chapter two if you're there already.

I want to read it with you.

It says this in Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 21.

Luke 2:8–21

And in the same reason there were sorry, 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 Saviour who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a 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 he is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds 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.

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 shepherds told them.

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

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

Church, we have a song to sing because of Christmas.

And as we engage with this text, why don't we begin our time by praying?

Father, we thank you for the truth of Christmas, and Lord, it's my desire that the true story of all that Christ accomplished by being born a baby would not be lost in the busyness of this season.

God, would you help us to have minds that are focused on the true meaning of Christmas?

Lord, on the meaning that gives us the deepest sense of joy when we truly understand.

And so, God, in this time that you have us here, that you have our minds set on the Christmas story, Lord, would you speak to us powerfully by the presence of your Holy Spirit?

God, I'm so thankful that your Spirit is here to speak to us the word that we need to hear.

And so, God, we commit to you and confess this, Lord, that we are here to listen.

And so we pray, change us, God.

I pray this all in the name of your son.

Amen.

I want you to see that we have a reason to sing because of the story of Christmas.

And I want to really ask three questions.

The first question I want to ask is this why we sing?

Why do we sing?

Why do we have a reason to sing because of the Christmas story?

What's going to happen in this story in Luke chapter 8, chapter 2, verses 8 to 21, is the angels are going to appear to the shepherds and they're going to burst out in song.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And so, in this first point, as we address this question, why do we sing?

As we answer the question, why we sing, I want to think about the details leading up to that glorious Christmas song sung by the angels.

I want to ask this question: what was it that caused them to burst out in praise?

I want you to see a few things.

The first reason why we have a reason to sing at Christmas is because we find in Christmas a monarch for the meek.

We find a monarch for the meek.

Now notice in verse 8 that this story takes place in the context of a shepherd's field.

And if you heard the Christmas story before, you know that the shepherds were the outcast of society.

It was the very nature of their job to be.

If you were a shepherd, you really could not partake in the life of the city.

You had to live on the outskirts, and many of them even lived very far away from the life of the city.

They couldn't partake in regular city life.

They wouldn't have a home.

Their home was with the sheep, taking care of them in the field.

And because of the shepherds were often looked ignored and cast out by society, society, they were often looked down on by society.

In every way they were outcasts.

Even though their role was important, especially for the life and functioning of the tabernacle and the sacrifice, their position was meek.

They were outcasts of society.

Now, this is significant context for the story of Christmas.

Because in chapter 2, verse 1, I want you to see what Luke tells us.

He tells us in chapter 2, verse 1, that in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Who is Caesar Augustus?

Well, Augustus was the emperor of Rome.

And here you have in the baby Jesus and Augustus, two rulers being compared.

Those in the area surely would have known Augustus.

He was the ruler of Rome.

And as a ruler, he was completely obsessed with himself.

He was one of the first emperors to really create a cult of worship around him, people to constantly praise his name.

Archaeologists have found inscriptions of people writing almost like worship songs, praise songs, to Augustus.

One of them speaks of Augustus as a god who it says whose birthday signaled the beginning of good news for the world.

And legend would have it that Augustus would be born of a serpent.

And other inscriptions have been found that declare that he's a god, a savior, a peacemaker.

All of these exact words.

And it's in this context, in this land that is ruled by Augustus, that the angels come to declare that there is a more powerful monarch at hand.

There is a more powerful king, there is a more present ruler coming to the shepherds.

Even though Augustus reigns today, what the angels declare is that there is a new king coming, there is a new Lord coming, and he's coming in the form of a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths.

See, rather than Augustus, who is a God who brings good news and makes peace, what the angels declare is that it is a baby, Jesus Christ Himself, who truly is good news, who truly is salvation, and who will truly bring peace.

Now, church, I want you to take this to heart because as we consider the reasons we have to sing, you need to understand that the Christmas story is not for the high and for the elite.

The Christmas story is for the lowest of the low.

So often, knowing our own sin, knowing our own insufficiency, knowing our own weakness, knowing our many failures, we feel like God could never love us.

We feel like we would be cast out by God.

And yet, here, from the very beginning, what God wants us to know is that His Son came to the most cast out.

The further you feel from God, the less you feel like you're worthy to stand in the presence of God, like you're worthy to be saved by God, the more you can be aware because of this story, because of the Christmas story, that God came for you.

He came for the lost.

And the more hopelessly lost you find yourself, the more eager is Jesus to find you.

This is the amazing truth of the Christmas story.

Second thing I want you to see is that we sing because in Jesus we find a light for the lost.

We find a monarch for the meek, but we sing because we in Jesus we find a light for the lost.

And so look what happens in verse 9.

It says, An angel of the Lord appeared to them, to these shepherds who were in the field at night, and it says, The glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

Now we need to take a moment here just to pause because probably every Christmas season we reflect on this story, and in many ways it kind of starts to become like this little kind of cute story to us.

We think of Charlie Brown's Christmas, we think of Handel's Messiah.

We kind of lump this story into many of the other traditions that we participate in during Christmas.

But I want you just to take a moment to imagine that you were a shepherd in the darkness of a field at night, in the pitch black, you're sleeping with your sheep, and all of a sudden a blazing ball of glorious light appears in the middle of the darkness of night.

And immediately these shepherds were aware that this wasn't just any light.

This was the glory of the Lord shining around them.

And in that very moment, the shepherds opened their sleepy eyes, they looked to this light, and they sensed that they were in the presence of the very God of the universe.

It was the glory of the Lord shining around them.

Now I could imagine that in that moment, as they sense that they are in God's presence.

I could imagine what could be going through my mind.

Could you imagine?

You wake up in the middle of the night and God is standing at the foot of your bed.

Well, you might begin to think about your life differently in that moment.

That might provide some context and clarity to the way that you've been living, might it?

It makes sense that the shepherds then are filled with great fear.

They're standing in the presence of the holy God.

The angel's message to these shepherds is this fear not.

That sounds like some unhelpful advice, doesn't it?

You ever been afraid of someone and something and someone turns to you and says, hey, just don't be afraid.

You're like, oh, well, thank you.

That was really helpful.

I'll just not be afraid of this totally terrifying thing that I'm afraid of.

And yet that's not the angel's advice.

The angel says, fear not, and then gives a positive command.

Notice what the angel says, fear not for behold.

What the angel's saying is, Shepherds, this isn't a time to fear.

I want you to focus on something else.

That word behold means to look.

What the angel's saying is, instead of focusing on this thing that's bringing you fear, I want you to focus on something else.

We'll get into what the angel says exactly to focus on in a moment.

But what the angel wants to bring to these shepherds is comfort.

The light that appears with the glory of God that shines around them is not a light that is to be filling them with fear, it is a light that is to be filling them with hope.

It is a light that is to be guiding the lost.

And surely as our minds read this text and we think about this light that is shining in the darkness of the field, we should think of Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2.

Isaiah 9:2

And in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2, it says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Isaiah 9:2

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shone.

Now the context of Isaiah 9 and the darkness that this light is shining in is really found in Isaiah 8, where we're told that the darkness here is that the people of God, rather than turning to God in Isaiah 8, we're told that they turned to mediums and necromancers.

They had the option, they had a God who was very much saying that to them, I'm here for you to turn to.

I'm a God who longs for you to be present with me, and yet these people were turning to mediums and necromancers instead of turning to God.

Now it's my guess that if I were to preach and apply Isaiah 8 to us, that I would not find many people here who are turning to mediums and necromancers.

But we certainly have the experience of placing our hope in things that are not God.

And what Isaiah 8 is saying is that the darkness of this world is that we have a heart that is dysfunctional.

The darkness of this world is that the tendency of the human heart, rather than turning to God, who is truly the only refuge, who's truly the only firm foundation, who's truly the only one who we can plant our feet firmly on, we will turn to the other things of this world.

This is the darkness of this world.

That might take the place of mediums and necromancers?

What are the things that you are turning to that are not God?

What are the things that you are chasing, believing that if you would just have this, it would end your suffering.

It would bring you joy.

Maybe instead of mediums, you're chasing status to be viewed at work or by your spouse a certain way.

Maybe your pursuit is just comfort in this world, and so you're buying as many things so that you can just live a comfortable life, just keep the suffering out, entertain yourself until you can forget about the pain of this world.

Now, if God were to appear to you in the midst of that pursuit, in the midst of that darkness, I would guess that you, like me, and like the shepherds, would be filled with fear.

It's the same fear that Adam was filled with.

After having eaten of the tree that he was told if he eats of he will die, he stood in the presence of God, and what did he recognize?

He stood naked and ashamed in the presence of a holy God.

It's a fear of knowing that not only have you lived in darkness, you have loved darkness.

That's what the apostle says, John says, he says that light has appeared in Jesus Christ, but rather than loving the light, the people loved the darkness.

And this is the darkness of the world, that rather than loving the light that God shines, we love the darkness of our sin and rebellion.

Take hope in this truth, church.

The darkness of your sinfulness, the darkness of your life is a darkness which Jesus came to shine in.

That's the very darkness that Jesus came for.

Jesus came for the lost.

You know what that means?

This is a really comforting reality.

This is a really amazing truth that should cause our hearts to abound in praise and joyful song to God.

That means that if you don't recognize your lostness, if you don't recognize the darkness that is in you, you can be sure that Jesus didn't come for you.

Jesus came for the lost.

Jesus came for those who could not do it themselves.

Jesus came for those who recognized they needed a savior.

And so I want you to see another reason we have as to why we sing at Christmas.

The third reason I want you to see is that we sing because there's a savior for the sinful.

Sorry, there's a savior for the suffering.

And so the angel declares this truth: fear not, for behold, and then look what the angel says.

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

It's very significant for us to understand what the angel brings here.

What does the angel bring?

News.

Now, to us in our day and age, that sounds like a burden.

Is anyone sick of hearing news today?

I know I am.

I was just talking to someone recently who said that it's kind of like a habit of them, whenever they open their phone and open up the internet, they go to Yahoo to see the news.

And in my mind, I was like, what are you doing?

We don't need any more news.

Like, I don't know about you, but I just feel like news comes flying into my face and I can do nothing to block it out.

I don't want any more news.

I'm sick of news.

Well, this wasn't the case.

When the angel said to the shepherds, I bring you good news, the shepherds weren't thinking about Instagram.

Shepherds weren't thinking about Twitter.

Shepherds were not thinking about some clickbait headline.

What the angels brought was good news.

Imagine for a moment a less connected world.

We're overly connected, aren't we?

Last week, as I was preaching, I preached from an iPad and I forgot to turn my internet off, and I had notifications coming in as I was preaching about news.

Imagine that we weren't as connected.

Imagine that news traveled by word of mouth, by people traveling from town to town.

Well, in that case, in a world where news is more scarce, news is more valuable.

And so the shepherds hear this news, and I'm sure their hearts are filled with joy, good news, of great joy.

Well, tell me the news.

I want you also to understand that it's significant that Christianity is fundamentally about good news.

To say that we are Christians who believe in the gospel is to say that we believe in good news.

That's what the gospel is.

The very root word of the gospel of the gospel is good news.

That's significant because Christianity is not a religion about advice.

It's significant that when the angels appear to the shepherds, they don't come to the shepherds and say, Hey, I got some great advice for you.

It's not like a stock tip, it's not any sort of advice.

And this is how Christianity differs from every other world religion.

Every other world religion, what it brings you is not good news.

What it brings you is advice.

Hey, if you live a certain way, you can appease God.

Hey, if you just do this and this and this and this, then you'll find true enlightenment.

What other world religions bring you is good advice.

What the gospel brings you is good news.

Church, this is reason for our hearts to rejoice in singing.

In the gospel, we have good news.

What's the difference between news and advice?

What difference does it really make in our life?

Well, could you imagine for a moment that in this time while we're preaching, you know, during the message, this would be really relevant if it happened, all of our phones started buzzing.

We started to realize that Newmarket was being invaded by some sort of enemy nation.

Okay, it seems hard to believe.

Well, maybe not in this world.

It seems kind of like the world's a boiling pot of water, doesn't it?

But imagine for a moment that Newmarket's being invaded.

Well, what might meet do in this moment?

Well, the thing that we should do if we recognize that Newmarket's being invaded is look for some military advice.

Maybe a military advisor who tells us what to do.

Do we go to war?

Do we go to battle?

Do we hide in our homes?

What do we do?

We're looking for advice.

We want to know what to do, how to survive.

But imagine that as we receive that news, minutes later we also receive other news that says the battle is over.

The army came and defeated the enemy.

There's no more battle to be fought, there's no more war to be waged.

Well, that would change things, wouldn't it?

That would change the reaction.

No longer are we looking for advice, now we're just celebrating in the good news that something has been accomplished for us.

And you need to understand that because of Christmas, we get to celebrate the second example.

Christmas is celebrating good news.

The good news that Jesus Christ came to win the battle that we could never win.

He came to deliver us from our sin.

He came to be our Savior.

At this moment, as you consider this truth of the good news of what Christ has done, your heart has found a reality that is way more significant than anything that secular traditions of Christmas can offer you.

Like you want to talk about having a holly jolly Christmas?

Think about this for a moment.

That you have been saved by Jesus Christ for an eternity.

There's nothing, nothing as significant as this news.

That there is a savior for the suffering.

Not only do we find in Jesus a savior, we also find a Lord.

And I want you to see here the fourth reason why we sing.

Because we've we found a sovereign for the sinful.

A sovereign for the sinful.

So that in verse 11, the angels say this, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

We sing because in Jesus we find a Savior and a Lord.

And we need to recognize this reality: that to follow Christ, it's not just to be saved, it's to follow Him.

This is why the message that Jesus came, the moment that he began to preach, was follow me.

Deny yourself and follow me.

And the good news is that we are invited to step off the throne of our own heart, to no longer try to be our own king, our own ruler.

We are invited to follow the Lord of the universe, to live in the relationship that we were created to live in, because Jesus has come to be our Lord.

The last thing I want you to see, but why we have a reason to sing in these verses leading up to the glorious angel's song, is that we have a reason to sing because there's an assurance for the agnostic.

An assurance for the agnostic.

Look what happens in verse 12.

This is really interesting.

The angels say this to the shepherds, and this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

The angels give to the shepherds a sign.

And what this is doing for us is it's grounding this story in history.

This is a real story.

This is why in chapter 2, verse 1, when Luke introduces the story, he doesn't say once upon a time.

This story does not begin with a narrator's voice, like Star Wars with the running words.

Instead, it says, in those days.

And Luke is tying the story of what happened to the shepherds in the field and the angels.

He's tying it to history.

He's tying it to time and space.

It's important that we recognize that.

That this is a story that happened in history.

It is a true story.

And the angels want to impress that on the shepherds, and God wants us to understand that this morning, that this is a true story.

These shepherds were actual people.

And Luke cares that we believe this as history.

And so the shepherds are given a sign, a sign that would be fulfilled a few verses later.

The sign was that they would find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths.

Could you imagine being the shepherds in that moment?

I mean, we've kind of normalized babies lying in mangers, haven't we?

If you look in my living room right now, we have like four toys of baby Jesus laying in a manger.

We've just normalized that.

But could you imagine we did the child dedication and my wife looked at me and she said, Hey, where's our baby?

And I said, Oh, she's just lying outside in the pig's trough.

You would gasp, your hearts would sink, you would say, What kind of parent are you?

Probably would revoke your membership in this church, maybe, hopefully, knowing that I'm that kind of parent.

But you would say, This this is this is shocking.

Why is the baby in the pig trough?

This is exactly what the shepherds say.

Wait, why is the baby in the manger?

Why is the baby with the cattle?

Why is the baby with the dirty animals?

Like if there's anywhere you're going to find a baby, it's not laying in a manger.

And yet this prophecy that the angels give to the shepherds is fulfilled just verses later.

The shepherds know exactly where to look.

They find the baby laying in a manger.

Why is this important for us?

Because God wants us to have assurance that this is a true story.

This story we read is true truth.

We love true stories, don't we?

We love just stories.

We love any story.

Our hearts are attracted to story, whether it's Lord of the Rings, whether it's Marvel and superheroes, whether it's romance, we love to see stories unfold.

We love to be gripped by a good conflict, by plot and climax, but most of all, we love resolution.

Have you ever thought about why we love story?

Why is it that every human being just loves to be engaged in a good story?

Why is it that we love to see conflicts resolved?

Why is it that at Christmas time, some people will even watch movies, also known as Hallmark movies?

I don't know if you can even call them movies, that are intentionally bad movies, and they love watching them.

Some people are offended by that last statement.

The plot is predictable, the acting is bad, and yet many of us love to watch these stories.

Why is that?

It's because God has put in the human heart, in every human heart, a longing for resolution.

And to be sucked into a story that resolves, even if that story is told in the most cheesy possible way you could imagine, it still brings satisfaction to our hearts.

And you know what you find in the Christmas story?

You find that the resolution that it offers, the conflict that it satisfies, the plot that it engages you is not a myth.

It's not a fairy tale.

It's not a story that ends, that you take out of the DVD, put into the DVD case, and put away.

It is a true story that has immediate relevance for your life.

And this is what the show the that God wants us to understand this morning, that this story is true, that the hope that Jesus offers to us by coming to us as a baby is a true hope.

And some of you need to hear this because unlocking this story of what happened when Jesus was born, of what happened in the virgin birth, believing the mystery that Jesus is both fully human and fully man, that is the very key to understanding the life of Jesus Christ.

Because the reality is this, isn't it?

If we understand what happened at the incarnation, if we understand what happened when Jesus came to this world being fully God and fully man, then we can understand what happened for the rest of Jesus' life.

It's not hard to understand how Jesus can walk on water when we understand that Jesus is fully God and fully man, born of the Virgin Mary.

It's not hard to understand how Jesus can heal sickness when we understand that Jesus was born fully God, fully man.

It's not hard to understand how Jesus has power and authority over demons and can cast demons out of people when we understand the incarnation that Jesus came to this world born of the Virgin Mary, that he was Emmanuel, God with us.

And it certainly makes it not hard to understand how this baby could die on the cross and be resurrected three days later, defeating death and offering to all who will believe life.

It all begins with the incarnation.

This is why J.R.

Packer says, this quote's going to come up on the screen.

He says, It is from misbelief, or at least inadequate belief, about the incarnation that difficulties to other points in the gospel usually spring.

But once the incarnation is grasped as a reality, these other difficulties dissolve.

Parents, this is why it's so good for you year after year to teach your children the Christmas story.

Because once they grasp the reality, the true truthfulness of the incarnation, the fact that this happened in time and space on planet Earth, they'll be able to grasp the reality of the rest of the miracles of the gospel.

And the reality that Jesus could die and defeat death being raised three days later.

That's why we sing.

But I want you to see also what we sing.

What is it that the angels declare?

Well, in verse 13, the angels appear, and it says, suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

The only fitting expression to all that we read in verses 8 to 12 is that a host of angels appears and begins to declare the glory of what had just happened.

It's the only fitting way to put a bow on this story.

Notice the way that the angels come.

It says that they come suddenly, in a great multitude, to express the praise of God.

There's so many things to draw out here.

Notice that the angels come suddenly.

It's not like this one angel that's speaking to the angels, or sorry, to the shepherds, needs to go and then and then assemble a whole crew.

Hey, listen, we gotta do something.

I got a little project for us.

Come and just sing this song for the shepherds.

Instead, the angels suddenly appear and they suddenly burst into song.

Why?

Because that's what they're doing 24 7.

24 7, we're told in Revelation that the seraphim and the elders are bowing before God, they're declaring holy holy.

Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Why?

Because God is eternally worthy of praise.

And so the angels show up and they appear suddenly because they're just doing what they live to do: worship God.

Notice that the angels come in a multitude.

They're a heavenly host.

This is the same word that's used for a troop of armies.

The angels have been listed by God to sing God's praise.

And so they come with this express mission we're told in verse 13.

To praise God.

And so they say these words: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

Now we need to take a moment to tackle this question.

Here is the burning question that hopefully I can answer, given the fact that the series of this, or this the title of this series is called Christmas Songs.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, Do the angels sing?

You'll notice in verse 13, in my translation, in the ESV, it says that the angels were saying.

And so that's really going to ruin this series that's called Christmas Songs, if half of the songs that we're looking at are actually just sayings.

And so I want you to think about this for a moment.

The reality is that the angels, here's what we do know, they are praising God, it says in verse 13.

And it's this infectious praise that leads to the shepherds exiting their presence, glorifying and praising God.

All throughout scripture, there is a connection between praising God and singing God's praise.

So that we find this all throughout the Psalms.

That to praise God is best expressed in song.

And so it's very likely that what we find here is the angels singing praise to God.

Now that's my scriptural argument.

Let me give you a practical argument, okay?

If there are any in here who believe that this isn't a song, you say I'm a literalist, and if it says saying, this isn't the angel singing.

Well, if that's the case, I'm going to follow you around for the rest of your life, and every time you sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I want to stand right beside you and make sure that you say Hark the Herald Angels said.

I'm just kidding, by the way.

Some of you guys are like, serious, this guy's really intense about these angel songs.

I want to follow you.

I forgot the other song I was gonna say.

Angels We've Heard on High.

Singing sweetly over the plains.

Well, I want to continue to sing that it's singing and not speaking sweetly over the plains.

And so let's just suffice to say that this is a song.

If nothing less, just do it with me so that we can still call this series Christmas songs, songs of joy and not sayings of joy.

Now, the song that these angels sing is a song that ascribes glory to God.

And so you read that in verse 14.

They say, Glory to God in the highest.

This is the only fitting response to everything that they've just witnessed with the shepherds.

The shepherds have just been told that good news of great joy is coming in their presence.

And so it's fitting that the angels rejoice in this reality that Christmas has come down.

This is really the overflow of their hearts.

The reason why we sing is that our hearts are overflowing with the glory of the Christmas story, with the reality of what has been accomplished on Christmas Day.

And so, can I ask you this morning if your heart, like the angels, is focused on the true glory of Christmas this season?

I need to tell you that as a pastor, I have such concern for our church.

I have concern for my family, but I have concern for our church that in this day and age, increasingly we lose the opportunity to really declare what Christmas is all about.

And listen, I love all the other stuff.

I love the lights, I love the Christmas songs, I love the gifts, I love the social gatherings.

But do you recognize that each of these things, all that they are, are pointers, signs that point to the true reality of Christmas.

The reason why we can celebrate these things with sweetness is because they're reminders of what Christmas is all about.

And so this is what I want to pass on to my children.

I want to pass on to my children that the reason why we hang lights is because of the prophecy that we read in Isaiah 9, that Jesus came as a light to the darkness.

The reason we put up a Christmas tree is because of what it reminds us of, a more important tree, the tree that Jesus came as a baby ultimately to be hung on.

I want to give gifts to each other to remind ourselves of the more important gift that we've been given by Jesus Christ, eternal life in him.

See, all of these things are good, all of these things can point to the true reality of the gospel.

But my question is this have these secondary things become primary in the way that you celebrate Christmas?

And I feel great need that we do everything we can as Christians to redeem the true meaning of Christmas.

This is why the elders decided that next week on Sunday, despite the fact that we know it's inconvenient in many ways, despite the fact that we know it breaks up regular tradition, we decided to meet on Christmas morning.

Because we truly believe that Christmas Day is a special day.

And that its specialness is found in the story that Jesus Christ came as a baby.

And that a Christmas Day, December 25th, is a special day that we celebrate with our families.

How much more should the church gather to celebrate it together and bring praise to God just like the angels did?

And so I know I'm happy to take my kids out of their normal routine to say this, that this is what Christmas is all about.

Isn't that some of the most impactful things that we remember in our childhood?

Some of the most impactful things in our life is when we take a break from the norm, isn't it?

Some of the most impactful things you can do is cancel one really important thing to go to another really important thing.

You know what you have the opportunity to declare?

This thing is more important.

And I just believe that as we meet together on Christmas morning and the world looks at us and scratches our head, their heads, and says, says, What are you doing meeting together on Christmas morning?

When there's so many other things to do, so many gifts to be opened, so many turkeys to be prepared, and we say that we meet together to declare this: that Jesus has come and that that is good news, that there's no better news in the world.

I want to be careful to say this is not a sin thing.

So as we look at other churches that aren't meeting on Sunday morning, this is absolutely not a oh, we're better than them, we're more serious than them.

Only to say that I would hate to lose the opportunity to redeem from secular culture what Christmas is all about, what the angels sing here, bringing glory to God in the highest.

Angels sing glory to God.

And they say that that glory really is that on earth, peace is with those with whom God is pleased.

This is really the glory explained in one phrase.

The glory is that peace has been offered to mankind.

This is the glory of the Christmas story.

Now, the reality that what the angels summarize the Christmas story as is peace reminds us that we can't really understand the Christmas story unless we first come to grips with our sinfulness.

Peace doesn't make sense unless there's not war, does it?

Peace can't be appreciated if you don't understand that at one point you were an enemy of God.

In order to really appreciate the gift of Christmas, you must first come to recognition that you once lived as an enemy of God and that God sent Jesus to make peace with you.

If you're not willing to accept that hard truth that you are a sinner in need of saving, that you are an enemy of God in need of peace, you can't accept the gift of Christmas.

Christmas, the Christmas story really comes to us with a bit of an insult, doesn't it?

Can you imagine for a moment, Christmas Day, seven days from now, you wake up, you come to the church service, then you go home and you share your gifts with your spouses.

Now imagine your spouse has two gifts for you, and you know you do the field test.

Any of you guys do the field test?

I always do the field test.

I'm the youngest child, I just have to, it's who I am.

I always do the field test, and you can tell the book, right?

Especially if it's not hardcover, but if it's hardcover, you know, you run, I got all these tricks.

Let me know if you want them.

But imagine that you can tell there's two books that your spouse has gotten for you.

You open the first book, you're excited with that giddy, childlike Christmas joy, and you realize that it's a book about dieting.

And you look to your spouse and you say, Are you trying to say something about me?

You say, Okay, well, you know, maybe it was a one-off.

And so you open the next book and it's about selfishness and overcoming selfishness in your life.

And you realize that in order to accept this gift, you need to come to terms with this reality that you are overweight, or at least your spouse thinks you are, and you're prideful and selfish.

It's a hard gift to accept.

But if you do accept it and the situation actually is true, it's a great gift.

Now you get the illustration.

This is how the gospel comes to us.

The gospel comes to us, and it cannot be appreciated unless we first come to terms with the reality that we are sinners who have lived in enmity against God's kingdom.

We've lived our life declaring war with God, saying, I don't want you to be the ruler of my life, God, I want to be the ruler of my own life.

It's not until we recognize how we have lived in sinfulness that we can truly appreciate the peace that is offered in Jesus Christ.

This is the peace that God offers.

This is the peace that our hearts sing about.

This is what we sing, the glory of God, glory that's given to God because peace has been offered in Jesus Christ.

Last thing I want you to see is how we sing.

And as we think about how we sing, I'm gonna invite the worship team up.

And I'm sure that by this point you understand why we started our message so early.

I think invite the worship team up now.

One of them is gonna come up, and then the rest are gonna follow.

We started our message early because we wanted to give an opportunity just to respond to this message that God is giving us this morning in praise.

It's fitting that we talk about the reason to sing, that we end by singing.

And as we think about that, I want you to think about a few things at the end of this passage that inform us how we sing.

Notice first that the shepherds sing urgently.

They say, Let us go over to Bethlehem, and it says they made haste.

And we as a church must recognize that we the response to the Christmas story is a response of urgency.

In a world that's filled with consumption, that's blinded to the true reality, we sing because the world urgently needs to hear this message.

But I also want you to notice that we sing declaratively.

So that the shepherds they go and they make known to everyone the saying that had been told to them concerning this child.

And it's the same reason we sing.

We sing because we have a message to declare to the world.

We sing because we have a gospel, we have good news to share.

Third, I want you to see that the shepherds they sing passionately.

Their hearts are filled with wonder.

We're told in verse 19 that Mary treasured these things up in her heart.

We sing these songs because it takes it's the opportunity for us to declare the same, to treasure these things, to ponder them in our heart, to use this time to say, God, this is the greatest news of my life.

Can you stand with me as we consider these last two ways of how we sing?

It's like the Mary did, we sing meditatively.

Says that Mary, verse 19, pondered these things in her heart.

We sing because we want to claw our hearts away from any distraction to say that this Christmas season is all about Jesus.

Lastly, I want you to see this.

We sing purposefully so that the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God because of all they heard.

The reason we sing now, the reason we sing these songs at the end is to respond, declare to God that we have a reason to sing, that because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we have a reason to declare his praise.

So let's declare his praise together.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can take a seat.

So good to worship with you, worship the King who is worthy of our praise.

Wanted to put a few things before you before we end our time this morning.

I want to give you a quick update on the special offering that we started a few weeks ago.

A few weeks ago, we announced that we were doing a special offering over this Christmas season.

We're supporting a number of local and global uh charities that we just trust are fulfilling the mission that God we that we feel God's given to us to make disciples of all nations.

So a portion of the proceeds of this special offering are going to that.

And a portion of the proceeds are also going to making up a deficit that we find ourselves in as a church in our operating budget.

We're about uh$70,000 behind on our budget.

And we're going forward in faith, trusting that the Lord is going to provide as elders.

We're not worried.

Uh, we trust and we feel so convinced that God has called us to this region to make disciples, uh, to see lost people saved, saved people matured, and mature people multiplied.

And so we're going forward in faith, but we're just asking for you to give to that special offering and can on top of your regular giving, so that we can just do that better.

So we just wanted to give you an update.

The special offering last I checked is at about 10% of the 40,000 that we wanted to raise.

And so we just want to put that before you and ask that you would give to that, trusting that God is going to use these resources for the establishing of his kingdom in Newmarket and around the world.

I also wanted to announce something to you.

As the elders go forward in faith, we truly believe that God is calling us to mature disciples in our church that are multiplying disciples.

That's our mission.

That's what we live for.

And so even though we're behind in a deficit, we're continuing to move forward in faith.

And so we have an exciting announcement for you.

We've uh hired Adam Ogborn.

Picture's gonna come up on the screen of Adam and his family, as the director of family ministries.

This is a yeah, give it a little clap, little cheer.

This is something that we feel is just God's providence.

Adam is a teacher here at ANOVA and it just so happened that he was uh his contract became part-time in January.

And so it was fitting.

We didn't have resources for a full-time family director, and we were able to work alongside ANOVA and work out uh a portion of his hours to go to ANOVA, and half of his hours is full-time hours to go to the church.

And so Adam is going to be serving as the director of family ministries.

That means he's gonna be support providing support to our youth ministries and to our kids' ministries.

Now I want to take a moment just to thank uh Hanya, who has been doing an amazing job in kids' ministry.

Can we clap for her as well?

I'm so thankful for Hanya, and uh, she's gonna uh continue to serve there, and we're incredibly grateful for the way that she's serving the Lord there and instructing our kids in the Lord, and uh incredibly grateful for her.

Uh if you have any questions about Adam, I'm he's here.

You can uh congratulate him.

Yeah, ask him.

Don't I mean she's kidding, you can ask me or the elders as well, and we'd love to uh talk to you about that.

Church, I hope you had an amazing service worshiping God because he's worth the worthy to be worshipped.

Go knowing that you are loved.

Have a great week.