The Candle of Joy // Pastor Bobby

Glad you're here this morning.

We just continue to celebrate God's goodness and the opportunity we have

to hang out together.

And it's been a good week.

We enjoyed the celebration of the things that God is doing over this past

week. And I announced last week that we had our family gathering and.

And all those things.

So we're rolling very quickly toward 20,

25. And I remember in the 80s,

one of my thoughts was,

is that we'd never get to this year.

So welcome.

Glad you're here.

Glad we made it right.

So anyway,

a couple things just to make you kind of aware of.

And indeed,

the kids are going out on Sunday evenings this year.

They used to do this on Wednesday evening,

but they're going out caroling on Sunday evenings.

And they've kind of targeted different areas.

They're actually coming to my street tonight because we've got folks on

our street that had once been able to attend the gathering,

but now no longer able to attend because of health and stuff.

And so I'm excited they're going to be on our street this evening sharing

just the joy of Christmas because that's what today's message is really

about. We've been walking our way through the Advent wreath and the

Sundays leading up to the celebration of the birth of Christ,

and really that's what Christmas is.

So today's text is probably one of my favorites.

I mean,

I like the story of the shepherds,

I like the message that we see in the shepherds accounting of Christmas.

And yet I have this question that I want to read the text first,

and then I'll ask all the questions I want to answer,

because it's my turn.

All right,

here we go.

Sorry. Luke 2 Luke,

Luke 2:8–20

chapter 2,

verses 8 through 20.

This is how it reads.

And in the same region,

there were some shepherds staying out in the fields,

keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

and they were terribly frightened or sore afraid,

whichever you like.

And the angel said to them,

don't be afraid,

for behold,

I bring you good news of great joy,

which shall be for all the people.

For today in the city of David,

there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths or swaddling clothes,

whichever you like,

lying in a manger.

Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,

praising God and saying,

glory to God in the highest and on earth Peace among men with whom he's

pleased. And it came about when the angels had gone away from them into

heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another,

let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened

which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the

baby as he lay in the manger.

When they had seen this,

they made known the statement which had been told them about this child.

And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the

shepherds. But Mary treasured up all these things,

pondering them in her heart.

The shepherds went back,

glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen,

just as had been told them.

All righty,

let's pray together.

All right.

Our Father,

we just bow before you,

giving thanks and praise again that you've loved us.

God, it's this season of the year that we really get to celebrate your

love for us.

And not that we don't celebrate all the time,

but it just becomes very real for us when we focus our hearts and our

mind and our attention on the birth of Christ.

God, that you had a plan and a purpose and God,

you worked out that plan.

And we've been looking at it as we consider the message of the prophets,

as we consider the prophetic location and how you directed everybody's

attention to this place,

to this manger,

to this child,

to Jesus,

our Savior,

our Lord God,

we thank you that today we get to see the result,

at least in these moments that Jesus brings.

So God help us to recognize what you desire for us and in us.

And we pray it in Jesus name,

Amen. I don't know how many of you are like me.

If you're old,

then probably you are like me in a way.

But when I read the first part of this passage,

verses 8 through 14,

I only hear Linus voice.

Anybody with me there?

You know,

I mean,

the whole Charlie Brown Christmas thing.

And David was sharing with me this morning that when they were getting

ready to sign the contracts to do the Charlie Brown cartoon Christmas

special, that Charles M.

Schultz said that he would not sign over the rights to the work unless

the Luke passage was included in the story.

How about that?

But seriously,

I start reading this,

and all I hear is Linus.

And in my mind I see this little boy with his blanket in a spotlight on a

stage, right?

So I love this story.

Maybe there's some nostalgia to it with regard to Linus and Charlie

Brown. But when we read this,

there's some really large implication to what God is accomplishing

through this particular episode in the announcement of the birth of

Christ.

And so I want us to kind of make our way through it.

I went to Columbia Bible College in the 80s and Columbia Bible College's

sort of motto was to know him and make him known,

okay? To know him,

to know Christ and to make Christ known.

The idea that part of the core of who we are is to know Christ our Lord,

and then to let the world know Christ through our testimony that we're

supposed to be the ones to make him known.

Now God has done everything that God set out to do,

intended to do.

I mean,

God wrote the birth of Christ in the stars,

and we're going to look at that through the wise men next week,

okay? But God announced it all the way back in the garden.

And I keep sharing this,

that in the cursed sun,

what we see is that God told them that there would be a time and there

would be a one,

there would be a seed of woman that would defeat and conquer and crush

the head of Satan.

So God foreshadowed,

foretold, gave us the sort of plan of redemption all the way back at the

fall, and then started to communicate that not just through prophetic

speaking, but you start to see God move in the lives of individuals,

right? You see God saving a family from the flood.

And the picture that we see from Hebrews as the baptism of Noah and his

family through the flood.

And then you see Abraham is this sort of lonely,

kind. I always impression.

Get this impression of Abraham being kind of wandering in the wilderness

of Ur.

And God goes,

excuse me,

I need to talk to you a minute.

This idea that God has chosen a person and called him out for a covenant

relationship with him,

you see,

and gives him instruction and direction.

And God just starts working this plan together for what we celebrate at

Christmastime is the birth of the Messiah,

the Christ,

the Anointed One,

our Savior,

our Lord,

and all of those things.

And then.

And then this episode,

this sort of glimpse in these verses of chapter two of Luke is very

specific in my mind.

I mean,

Luke's a researcher,

Luke's a scholar,

he's an educated man.

And not being a contemporary at the time of Christ's birth,

he did the research.

So I've heard people say,

well, how did Luke know that?

Well, in my mind,

it's obvious.

Luke had a conversation with Mary.

You see,

Luke did some research to discover the story so that he could write it

down and that God by his spirit could Preserve the story for us so that

we can read it today.

And it says,

and in the same region,

there were some shepherds.

Remember last week when we talked about Bethlehem?

Bethlehem is a little town of about a thousand people a couple square

miles. All around it are olive groves and vineyards and.

And grain and sheep and goats and all this kind of stuff.

So you got some shepherds out in the field,

and they're watching over their flock.

There's no street lights,

you know,

none of that stuff.

There's shepherds and there's sheep,

and sheep are doing what sheep do,

and shepherds are doing what shepherds do.

And they might have a little campfire right there,

but then all of a sudden,

boom. You know,

I.

Every time an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them,

and in my mind,

it's all instantaneous.

And the glory of the Lord shone around them.

This is out in the fields at night,

and now it's daytime,

right? The glory of the Lord shines.

And poor shepherds,

man, you know,

they're simple guys.

You know,

I remember one year we had a gentleman.

Randy did the story of Christmas from the shepherd's perspective,

and he dressed up like a shepherd,

and he did the whole portrayal of the angels coming in,

telling. It was cool.

But the shepherds are not these complex characters.

I mean,

these are the guys that,

yeah, they're not involved in the.

In the government.

They're not involved in the politics or the Roman Empire stuff.

They know sheep.

They hang out with sheep.

I've even told you,

most likely they smell like sheep.

They're not welcome at all.

The best Christmas parties,

right? They're not included,

you know,

in the social events of the towns and cities.

They hang out with sheep.

But on this night,

God met with these guys out in their field.

See, the glory of the Lord shone around them.

Of course,

they were terribly frightened,

but the angel said,

don't. Don't be afraid,

for I'm here to tell you the most important thing.

I mean.

And I mean,

go ahead,

read into it.

God sent me to give you a message.

That's what we hear in this.

God sent me to give you a message.

And so the.

So the shepherds are trembling and fear.

And he says,

I bring you good news of great joy,

which shall be for all the people.

That the good news is for everybody,

y'all. Okay?

The great joy that comes with the good news is for everybody.

That's why when I read that particular verse right there,

for somebody to come up and tell me,

well, God didn't mean for the good news to be for every person.

Excuse me,

I think he does mean for the good news to be for everybody.

Okay, for today in the city of David,

there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign for you.

All right,

so what do we have?

We have this idea that.

That God is making Christ known,

right? He's announcing the birth of Jesus.

Yeshua, God is salvation.

God is announcing the birth of the Savior,

our salvation.

Okay.

All right,

so it's good news for everyone.

And. And as we walk this out,

we're starting to see that the shepherds understand what God's done for

them. Here's the challenge for you today.

I want to go ahead and give it to you.

This is the first time for the morning.

I get to do this four times this morning.

But here's the challenge.

Do you understand the responsibility of God making Christ known to you?

You understand the responsibility of that?

Is it just because God wanted you to have fire insurance?

You see,

God has entrusted to us the good news of great joy.

It's like a report.

I've told y'all before.

I don't like watching news.

I read headlines just because I like to keep up with some kind of aspect

of what's going on.

But I don't watch a lot of news.

I don't read a lot of the.

I might read the first couple of lines and go,

eh, you know,

that kind of thing.

But think about the report that the angels were entrusted with to the

shepherds. Can you imagine?

The selfish angel,

Forgive me,

I'm going to go there.

But here you go.

The selfish angel goes,

God, why do I have to go tell the shepherds they smell bad,

right? God,

can't you let me go to the palace?

God, can't you let me go to the door?

That big pretty house on the corner,

right? Y'all know where I'm going with this.

See, God sent the angels because angels are messengers.

That's what it means.

God sent the angels to make the report to the shepherds,

one of the lowest levels of the society at the time.

And the angel shows up and I,

in my mind and understand,

I'm visually,

you know,

kind of.

I'm thinking,

the angel sitting there poking at the fire,

got a little campfire there because it's out in the.

Out in the fields and they're poking at the fire and all of a sudden,

pow. The glory of the Lord and an angel standing before them,

right? And I'm going,

pow.

I mean,

that would be my Response,

I don't know about you.

I mean,

you know.

And then the angel goes,

whoa, whoa,

whoa, whoa,

whoa. Wait a minute.

Don't be afraid.

Wait till you hear what I get to tell you about.

Isn't that the coolest thing?

Wow. And then he says,

guys, now why would the angels tell the shepherds how to find Jesus

unless the intent was for the shepherds to go find Jesus?

Isn't that cool?

And this will be a sign for you when you realize,

get up off the ground and realize,

you got to go find this kid.

Right? Sign for you.

You'll find the baby wrapped in these cloths,

this tightly wrapped,

swaddled thing lying in a hay trough.

Suddenly, there.

The whole choir showed up at that point,

y'all. Suddenly there appeared with the angel,

a multitude of the heavenly host,

praising God and saying,

glory to God in the highest and on earth,

peace among men with whom he is pleased.

Now, I know this is not the King James translation,

but when you get into translating,

remember, God's very specific about these things.

You see,

God is announcing his gift to all mankind.

But here's what we know.

Not everyone's going to receive the gift.

Not everyone's going to receive it and take it,

okay? But those who do,

please God.

See that?

And it says,

and it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven,

that the shepherds began saying to one another,

let us go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened

which the Lord has made known to us.

See, the angels did their job.

The angels did what God had instructed them to do.

The angels came and shared their report.

All right,

you know,

you almost see the news clicker going,

all right,

here's the latest news,

guys.

Christ is born.

And the angels were like,

all right,

fine, no dilly dally now.

Let's off to Bethlehem right now.

You know,

then there are those of us who have a little OCD after our names ago.

But what about the sheep?

Guess what?

Guess what?

With this news,

the sheep are not the priority,

okay?

I mean,

probably the sheep don't belong to the shepherds anyway,

okay? They're just tenders.

They're just out there taken care of.

But the message that was delivered to the shepherds was of supreme

importance. Let's go right now to Bethlehem and see this thing which the

Lord has made known to us.

Now, I want you to see that in there,

that little prepositional thing there.

That God had an intent and a purpose and prioritized us to get this

message, right.

Those shepherds,

the stinky lowly,

low class,

not invited to the party.

Shepherds got an invitation from God to come to the party,

Okay? I mean,

that's a big deal right there.

And they came in haste.

Can't you just see,

you know,

a group of shepherds running through Bethlehem.

I mean,

picture it.

I want to.

It's got to be real.

It's not just the story that we see in the Charlie Brown Christmas thing,

okay? This is real.

Shepherds are running into town.

They found their way to Mary and Joseph.

Remember, there's not that many.

They're not like multiple hotels in town.

They're these caravan stopovers.

And they find their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the

manger. And when they had seen this,

what did they do?

All right,

back to the sheep fellas.

No, because they knew that what they had seen was of supreme importance

and priority.

They made known the statement which had been told them about this child.

And all who heard it now remember,

Bethlehem's crowded.

There's a group there.

And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the

shepherds.

But Mary treasured up all these things,

pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they

had heard and seen,

just as had been told them.

Make him known.

See, Christ's birth is good news.

You know,

Paul very succinctly defines the gospel as the death,

burial and resurrection of Christ.

Well, you don't get to that without the birth,

the birth of Jesus,

the birth of the Christ,

the birth of the Messiah,

the anointed one of God.

And here is a people group that have been conditioned and prepared for

this for centuries at this point to anticipate and expect this Savior,

the God is salvation.

Yeshua. The whole idea that the anticipation of it and these lowly

shepherds who have resigned themselves to this low place in life,

this place of the only thing that's important about them is that they

keep the sheep alive.

And yet God said,

I want you guys to know my salvation.

Oh, man,

that gives me chills right there.

Because I remember the first time somebody.

You know,

I remember my Sunday school teachers at Cali Self Memorial Baptist

Church. I remember those little ladies in the nursery.

I knew them later.

I didn't know them when they were changing my diaper,

but I did know them later in life.

You know,

they were also the cooks on our youth retreats.

You know,

I didn't think about it until I was an adult,

but I thought about it.

I Thought,

you know,

when they're in there serving our breakfast at the retreat centers and

that sort of thing.

And then it came to mind to me that these are the same ladies that kept

me in the nursery,

right?

But you know what they were doing,

right? They were sharing and showing me the love of God.

They were my Sunday school teachers.

They were probably some of the first ones that ever read this passage of

scripture to me.

Why?

Because God had given it to them.

God had shared his love with them through the birth of Christ.

And they took it upon themselves to share it with other people and

children. They did what God expected them to do in making the report and

announcing the birth of Jesus.

It's a joy,

joy to the world.

I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people.

It's joy to the world.

And then I love down here it says,

and the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they

had heard and rejoicing.

This is why the Advent wreath and the anticipation of things.

We start out with the prophets and the promise of God for hope and

salvation and life and God's presence and God's love.

Emmanuel. And we see all that and we go,

God had a purpose and a plan and he brought it to be.

And now we see the announcement of it.

And angels show up with the shepherds and they go,

pay attention.

Okay. People have been asking me about Christmas Eve worship gatherings.

We have two.

We do one at 5:30.

If you have any opportunity to choose,

I would Recommend you choose 7:00 because 5:30 is going to be packed.

Here's why.

Families with children come in early so they can go do other things.

7 o'clock is a little more laid back,

a little more relaxed.

But here's what.

And I love what the announcement video says.

You know,

there's a lot going on in the world around us right now.

Particularly important that on Christmas Eve we hear what God wants to

say. Better than that,

we hear what God has said.

Listen to this line right here.

Glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen,

just as had been told them,

right?

I think Christmas Eve worship gatherings are cool.

First church that I was in outside of seminary,

we didn't do Christmas Eve.

I could tell you stories,

but anyway,

I won't.

But then when I went to be a pastor in Maryland,

I did Christmas Eve every Christmas because I think on Christmas Eve it

is particularly special opportunity to focus on why Christmas is about

Jesus. Okay,

Now I love opening a good toy too.

Right? I mean,

I do,

but that's not what it's about.

And it's important for us.

It's important for us to let the world see what's important to us about

Christmas. Okay?

All right.

So now here's the responsibility.

Satan loves to steal God's stuff.

Okay? He loves.

Thief comes to steal,

kill and destroy.

Satan loves to steal God's stuff.

And if we simply allow this season,

this celebration,

to be about anything less than the birth of Jesus.

I'm not saying don't get together with your family.

I'm not saying don't buy presents.

I'm not saying don't sing Jingle Bells.

But what I am saying is make sure Jesus is in the middle of it.

To let it become less than that is to allow Satan to steal God's purpose,

plan, and design.

And it gives you the opportunity to let others know why Christmas is

important.

So when it comes to the Advent wreath,

we first light the candle of the prophets,

which is the candle of hope.

God announced his hope for centuries before the birth of Jesus.

We like the candle of Bethlehem,

which is the cannel of peace.

O little town of Bethlehem,

how still we see thee lie.

It's not scripture,

but it rings in the head for some reason,

right?

The peace of God,

Christ, Jesus,

he said,

my peace I leave you.

Not peace like the world gives peace,

that comes from the Father.

Those of you who practiced Advent during your life growing up,

how many of you had a pink candle in your wreath?

Did all right?

You know why?

The pink candle,

I said last week you got the purple ones.

Because a lot of the announcement of the birth of Christ was to the upper

class, was to the royalty,

to the kings,

to the wise men,

you know,

to the magi,

all that sort of thing,

right?

I'm going to call them wise guys all next Sunday,

y'all. So you know,

anyway. But the royalty reflects Christ's kingship.

Candle to the shepherds was the candle of simplicity,

the candle that God's announcement was not just to a certain class of

people, but it was an announcement to all the people.

And that's why God sent angels to tell shepherds.

So we light that candle of the shepherds.

It's a pink candle in some traditions,

and the one I like to keep up here,

because God meant for all the world to know.

And now it's our responsibility to go and tell,

okay? If you don't know Jesus,

guess what?

You don't have anything to tell.

So we want you to know Jesus.

We want you to meet him.

If you haven't met him.

We'd love to introduce you.

We'd love to tell you about him.

We'd love to tell you the hope,

the promise,

the life,

the love that God has offered in his son.

We're going to sing a song in just a minute.

I'm going to invite you to respond to God,

not to me.

If you don't know Jesus,

please be the first one to come down here and we'll pray together.

I'll introduce you.

Maybe you got something else you want to pray about.

I'll be right here to pray with you.

Or turn to somebody next to you in the room somewhere,

grab somebody,

go. Will you pray with me?

That's fine,

too.

All right,

just pray with somebody.

But more than anything,

let's just praise God like the shepherds did on their way back to the

sheep. Here we go back to the dark field,

the campfire and sheep.

But what a night it's been.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for today and for your love for us.

And thank you,

God, that we can celebrate your love.

God, we can celebrate Christmas because we have the reason.

God, we've got the message.

We've received the salvation,

the Savior.

So God,

let us have joy in this season because that's what the.

The shepherds did.

They went back rejoicing.

So God,

let us show the world our joy as we make Jesus known in our lives to

those around us.

And we pray it in Jesus name.

God, we want to praise you now and we thank you for the opportunity.

Amen.