Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Luke 2 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A royal birth happens where no one expects it, angels break the night for workers no one listens to, and two elders at the temple become the first to frame the moment for the world. Luke 2 is not a cozy holiday vignette; it is a revolution of humility, patience, and promise. We walk through the chapter’s four scenes—Bethlehem, the fields, the temple, and a twelve-year-old in deep conversation—and trace how God turns status upside down to make joy accessible to everyone.

We talk about why shepherds hear the news first and what that says about credibility, class, and God’s priorities. We sit with Simeon and Anna, whose long obedience becomes the platform for blessing, and we hear their words as a gift to anyone who has waited through silence. Then we linger on Jesus’ growth in wisdom and stature, exploring what practical wisdom looks like, why formation is embodied, and how obedience and learning go together without apology or hurry. Along the way, we name the everyday humanity in the story—the parental panic of losing track of a child, the temptation to overlook the lowly—and contrast it with the steadfast character of God who keeps promises, honors humility, and brings peace to those on whom his favor rests.

You’ll leave with SPEC takeaways you can use today: examples to follow like the shepherds’ joyful witness and Jesus’ obedience, promises to claim about light for the nations and lasting peace, and a fresh vision for growing in integrated wisdom. If this conversation reoriented your view of power, waiting, or worship, share it with a friend, subscribe for more a chapter a day, and leave a review to help others find the good news.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck, and this is Pastor Holland, and we're talking Luke chapter 2. I'm going to outline it, then we're going to find some observations and make some interpretations about the nature of man and the character of God. And finally, using spec, uh, sin to avoid, promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey, and knowledge to believe. We will make an application that you can put into practice today. All right. So Luke 2, verses 1 through 7 start off with the birth narrative of Jesus in Bethlehem. Verses 8 through 21, angels announce the good news to shepherds, and then they worship. They have this experience of worshiping God because of what has been revealed to them. Verses 22 through 40, Jesus is presented at the temple, and Simeon and Anna testify uh to God's anointed Messiah, the Christ. And then finally, 41 through 52, the boy Jesus is in the temple, growing in wisdom and stature and blowing the minds of religious leaders everywhere. All right, so let's get into some observations that we see in Luke 2. What do you see first here?

Pastor Holland:

Uh love that Jesus' parents lose him. And uh as a father of four, uh, yeah, it's kind of like it's like a home alone moment where they do the count and they're like, I'm pretty sure he's with us. Let's keep it moving. And they just totally um leave their son slash savior of the world. Yeah. Um and I just, you know, I appreciate the reality that that's included.

Pastor Plek:

Like, don't you know? I mean, Mary, I mean, don't you know that your son is going to be the savior of the world? How could you be so just what lazy? Fill in, fill in the word, un irresponsible.

Pastor Holland:

It's like, haven't you ever gone on a trip like with family vacation, and you got like three cars, and everyone they they want to get in a different car to ride with their cousins, and you're like, okay, I think we have everyone and then you leave one behind. Yeah, okay. Tell me you haven't done that.

Pastor Plek:

Is that would that make this is the I'm not would that be a sin to leave your child a home, child alone? It was an act, it wasn't on purpose.

Pastor Holland:

It was an accident. You know, is neglect part of that? I'm just saying his parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey.

Pastor Plek:

That's why you never assume. Okay, so all right, so yeah, that was a struggle. I I do appreciate it. It was a real parenting moment. Joseph and Mary were real people who had uh their oldest son, 12 years old, and they're where is he? All right, okay, how about um what would it be why shepherds? Like they are most unrenowned people. If you're gonna announce the the if you're gonna give a birth announcement in the sky, like if you're gonna send off fireworks that says Jesus is born, and you wanted to do it for a publicity stunt, you would probably do it with the most important people around, but they chose shepherds who nobody cared about what their word was or their testimony. Why does God do that?

Pastor Holland:

Number one, Jesus is in the shepherds, he's the good shepherd. That's right. He's got a special place in his heart for the shepherds and the sheep. Also, there's a whole theme of um humble estate, obscurity, you know, like the flip-flop of how you expect things. He's going to um the poor, the outcast, the outsider, and is kind of making everything happen there just to show God's peculiar glory of how awesome he is, you know, in the same way that he chose Israel in the Old Testament, not because they were big, not because they were strong, but he chose what was weak and small to magnify the glory of his name.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Uh I kind of love also that Anna is brought in this story as a prophetess who was a widow like her whole life. She was married for seven years, and then she's 84, like seven years, her husband dies, and she stays a widow, and she fasts and she prays. And I'm assuming she doesn't have children, and she just simply goes and worships God day and night in the temple. And that's a prayer warrior.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I love that. You also have Simeon who's elderly. Yeah. Um, and in the previous chapter, you had Zechariah and um Elizabeth, who are elderly. You see like a lot of just these first two chapters, vindication of the righteous elderly, right? Who have been faithful to God through hard times, persevered through barrenness, being becoming a widow, and you know, in a lot of ways, have like reproach from others of like, oh man, you don't have any children. That's you know, that's so sad. Oh, you lost your husband, that's so sad, have endured these things, and yet God vindicates them and works a special blessing in their life, um, you know, as a uh just honoring their faithfulness. I think that's really awesome.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I love also um Jesus. This kind of goes old, young, old, young Jesus as a 12-year-old just sitting among the leaders of Israel, you know, talking Torah, asking questions, yeah, challenging them in a way that they weren't offended. They were just like, Who is this kid who thinks this deeply and knows so much?

Pastor Holland:

That's awesome.

Pastor Plek:

Um, I, you know, I would have loved to have been there for that one. Um, that would have been a cool experience. Okay. Yeah. Um, what else you see here?

Pastor Holland:

Uh angels, more angels. Uh, first couple chapters, yeah, lots of angels. You see Gabriel, now you see all the angels with the shepherds. Um, uh, and it's like, man, obviously God is doing something big here, you know. And uh the you see angels all throughout the Old Testament, um kind of attending to God's special work and the world. And here we see them again, just really confirming the divinity of Jesus, um, the uh uh with with their words, with their testimony about him, and then uh yeah, just kind of magnifying the awesomeness of who he is.

Pastor Plek:

All right, one more on this one. G verse 52, last verse that we see there. Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God. Man, how could he increase in wisdom if he's fully God? Or is that in his humanity or is it like development as a human? What do you think?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, well, uh so I think this is kind of cool. Wisdom in um scripture is not only just like understanding certain key concepts and things like that. It's wisdom is actually practical. It's the practical application of God's truth in your life. Right. And so to grow in wisdom is, I think, his, you know, his brain, his human brains developing, and uh but at the same time, it's he is putting into practice the things that are true.

Pastor Plek:

Right. The one thing that God has never done before was be human. And so you're growing in that experiential uh aspect of that knowledge of experiencing what it is to truly be human. Yeah. Okay, let's get into uh some uh some truths or some principles about the nature of man. Um I think we are prone to forget stuff, yeah, yeah, like our kids. Uh Mary and Joseph losing track of the kids.

Pastor Holland:

You've never lost your kid somewhere, and you're not alone.

Pastor Plek:

You are not alone.

Pastor Holland:

Uh even Mary, who's blessed for all generations, also did that. Yeah. What else you got? Um let's see what we got here. Uh so I love um, where is it? First. Uh I just lost it.

Pastor Plek:

I have one while you're looking for it. Okay, let me find it. You got it. We are all seekers. I love Simeon and Anna. They waited, they longed, and they found fulfillment in God's redemption. And not everyone's gonna get to hold the baby Jesus, but uh God for them, they were just seekers of who were waiting for God. There's genuine people out there waiting for the Messiah to come, and it's just a matter of time before they uh knock and the door will be open. Seek, ask all that, and you will be answered. I love the fact that uh Simeon and Anna waited long for God's redemption.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, well, I had so a couple thoughts. What we were prone to overlook um or even despise the humble and the lowly. And so, like, I'm just looking at, you know, thinking of um, first of all, you know, Mary and Joseph, and then you think about the shepherds, and then you think about these older folks, like widows, and these are like everyone that um God is really using and working powerfully in their lives here, um, are you know, groups of people we tend to overlook or ignore. Um, and so I yeah, I think that's a a shift from one, that's the nature of man to overlook um certain groups of people, the marginalized, the humble, the lowly, but also the character of God is to honor those people. Yeah, um, that he sees them um in their humble estate, in their lowliness, and honors them.

Pastor Plek:

Um, how about this? God is generous. Yes. Verse 10, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. He is giving Jesus to the world, and he is the Christ. And um, what a gift that God gave on Christmas.

Pastor Holland:

Amen. He keeps his promises. Nice. Um, character of God. He uh, you know, the promised Messiah after 400 years of silence, you know, it wasn't that God uh had forgotten his promise, but he was waiting for the fullness of time and he'll always keep his word.

Pastor Plek:

How about God is uh a great story writer, or maybe he's humble. He puts himself not in the mansion, but in an inn because there was no room for them. And whether that was because they didn't have enough money or whether they didn't have connections, he went to, I mean, when we're talking about there's no place for the inn, they're basically, you know, in the back alley of the hotel somewhere, um uh or like wherever, and they are where the animals are, which is sort of disgusting to think about, and not exactly the most sterile place for a baby. Uh, very exciting how humble uh the Lord truly is. Um let's move into some spec. All right. So sin to avoid, promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey, or knowledge to believe. What do you got, Holland?

Pastor Holland:

All right, example to follow. Uh verse 40, the child grew and became strong and filled with wisdom. You see a um a growing in, and then, you know, parallel to that, verse 52, Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature. And so you see the the parallel of him uh growing in wisdom, right, but also growing in um strength or stature. And I think it's important for the men listening. Like there's a a calling on your life as men to steward uh the body God has given you to seek not only wisdom, but also strength, that you can be effective as a protector and a provider.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. How about this example to follow follow? The shepherds spread the news with great joy. Verse 17 through 20. They were super excited. There was something transformative about just the message that the savior had come into their lives. Um, can you say sin to avoid, uh, forgetting Jesus?

Pastor Holland:

Well, you know, is forgetting a sin, though? I mean, I just I maybe I just have compassion for Mary.

Pastor Plek:

This is where you're just like I've done this for support. I mean, I mean, it's okay. Like, you know, like how about don't misplace Jesus?

Pastor Holland:

Don't misplace Jesus. Are you saying this like metaphorically now? Okay. See, like that's how it goes. It works today. Don't don't misplace him or forget about him. That's good. Um, promise to claim uh a light for revelation to the Gentiles. Understanding uh that you know, the hope of Jesus for the whole world, all the nations of the world.

Pastor Plek:

How about knowledge to believe? He brings peace to those on whom his favor rests. That's good. So you can sit in that joy that he's gonna bring you peace if you've trusted him as your as your Lord and Savior.

Pastor Holland:

Uh example to follow, hold on. If you're any kids listening, oh nice verse 51. Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them, to his parents. He submitted to his parents, and his father treasured stuff in her heart. Yeah. Be like Jesus.

Pastor Plek:

Be like Jesus and obey your parents.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, thanks so much for uh listening and watching today. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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