WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:03.359 You know, we really don't know what Jesus looked like. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:31.920 Our story book Bibles don't do us much help, don't offer much much help painting a pic picture of Jesus as meek and mild, particularly because the only time the Bible really talks about what Jesus looks like is in Revelation when the Apostle John, in isolation on the island of Patmos, writes about this person that he sees, the second member of the Trinity, Jesus himself. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:51.840 His hair is as white as wool, his eyes are like flames of fire, his face is as radiant as the sun, his feet are like burnished bronze, and out of his mouth comes his tongue a double-edged sword. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.840 And he is filled with fear. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:01:04.719 So how can we, as sinful as we are, have any interaction whatsoever with such a being, with such a God? 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:13.439 That's the question that each of us needs to answer tonight, and the question that our passage answers for us in Luke chapter 2. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:15.280 Let's turn our attention now to God's word. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.239 Luke chapter 2, familiar words, verses 8 through 20. 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:28.239 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:37.359 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:45.120 And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:51.359 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:53.920 And this will be a sign for you. 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:58.959 You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:11.360 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. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:20.879 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. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:35.680 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger, and 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. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:41.280 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:51.120 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. 00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:52.879 Would you pray with me? 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:09.919 An ancient account, Lord, of the turning point in all of human history. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:15.759 Many here have read it many, many times. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:25.759 So open our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit and show us Jesus one more time. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:28.639 And we pray it in Christ's name. 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:29.680 Amen. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:42.080 A mythological account, one that we love to hear, and one that we loathe to hear. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:54.879 The Cyclops, three orb-eyed immortal giants, are imprisoned in the pit of Tartarus. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:17.920 And Zeus, together with his brothers, rescues the Cyclops, and they, in return for the rescue, give him the clap of thunder, the flash of lightning, and the smoldering bolt with which he uses to oppress all immortal and mortals alike. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:42.319 It's a story that we love to hear in the sense that we love to hear of the great, powerful rescue of a helpless one that couldn't help themselves, but at the same time, a story that we loathe to hear because it describes one who has such power used to oppress those underneath him. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:44.639 Now, of course, it's a story. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.759 And we are too sophisticated to believe those things. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:51.439 Right? 00:04:54.160 --> 00:05:06.079 We're too sophisticated to believe that God's like Zeus, meaning that he's just this great ogre in the sky ready to blast us when we step out of line. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:17.600 Well, if we're too sophisticated to believe that, then why do we consistently live our lives as if we're trying to measure up to a God who behaves that way? 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:22.639 How do we relate to God? 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:34.639 How do we have any interaction with this great being holy and mighty and powerful? 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:41.199 The Bible tells us that He's done something on our behalf that we couldn't do for ourselves. 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:46.000 The Bible tells us that we have peace with God through the person of Jesus Christ. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.199 Now, I don't want to be really complicated tonight. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:06:06.639 Instead, just to say two things very simply, that in light of the fact that we have peace with God, the first is that we can rejoice because he's entered into our situation so that he can be with us. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:20.399 And the second, like it, to rejoice, not only because he enters into our situation so that he can be with us, but that he comes so that he can unite us to himself. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:24.639 So let's just consider those two things real briefly. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:33.040 What does it mean that we can rejoice because we have peace with God because he's entered into our situation to be with us? 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:47.279 Well, the entire scripture up until this point has been growing in the pains of childbirth, as it were, as if to get ready for this one monumental moment in all of human history. 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:55.839 Since the very first word in the book of Genesis, we're told that this person will come to deliver those who were oppressed, God's people. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:08.480 And when the fullness of time comes and Jesus is born, all we really get is this little short sentence that says, You'll find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:11.519 And we want to say, What? 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:21.439 He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and He comes for you. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:32.959 He's the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the mighty God, and he comes for you. 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:52.720 He's the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the bright morning star, the second member of the Trinity, the one who could robe himself in galaxies, clothes himself instead in humanity and strips of cloth and is laid low in a manger. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:59.199 So that he could be with you, so that he could be like you. 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:05.439 And so that he would know your pains and your joys and your struggles, your temptations. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:17.600 We first learn of what this message of peace would be as the angels appear to the shepherds. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:25.759 You know, I've said this before, but but we we read about angels in the Bible and we think they're just as common as pennies. 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:30.800 But it's been 500 years since the last time we saw an angel. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:36.639 Up until this point, God's been in some ways silent. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:49.360 And in some ways, not only do our storybook Bibles not do us any service about what Jesus looks like, but neither do our ornaments do us any service about what these angels look like. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:51.919 They paint them as sweet. 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:53.120 They are not. 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.840 And one appears. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:13.600 And these cowboys that have lived outside all their lives fighting off wild beasts, they're terrified. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.919 The actual word says that they're filled with fear. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:22.960 But in the original language, it has more of a, they're shaking in their skin. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:24.080 They're terrified. 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:25.279 They're undone. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:35.840 And to make matters worse, it's not just one that appears, but then a multitude, a whole sky is full of these warriors from heaven. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.000 What would their news be? 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:41.279 Don't be afraid. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:52.639 For behold, we bring you good tidings, good news that you who are once far off from God can be brought near. 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.120 I know it doesn't say all that right here. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:10:06.000 By the blood of Christ, God come down from heaven so that he might be with you. 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:23.200 I told the story eleven years ago that when I was very little and afraid of the dark, my parents taught me a very important thing that I could remember. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:33.679 All I had to do when I was afraid I could take out my hand and I could just simply say, God is always with me. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:36.159 Those five words. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.519 God is always with me. 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:54.960 A year and a half after I shared that story, I learned that it meant a great deal to another, but this time it wasn't a child, but rather an elderly woman on her deathbed. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:02.639 She had come to worship because she was visiting there for baptism here, and I told the story there, and she heard it. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:26.080 And she found that in the dark and in the twilight moments of her life, when she was afraid about what was to come, she would stretch out her hand and her fingers almost now at the end of their earthly use, and say again, God is always with me. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:34.639 It's a message not just for children, friends, it's a message for the most mature theological professor. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.960 And some are here tonight saying, it can't possibly be true. 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:42.399 God doesn't want to be with me. 00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:45.600 You don't know who I am, you don't know what I've done. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:48.159 He wants to be with you. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:51.360 He came for you. 00:11:52.720 --> 00:12:03.120 We get a taste of that not only because we can praise him, because he's entered in to be with us, but because he's entered in to unite us with him. 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:20.080 We get a sense of what that uniting might look like when we compare and contrast the shepherd's response to the angels when they see the angels to when they see the baby child Jesus. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:27.679 These cowboys that live out on the range are terrified when they see these warriors from heaven, and rightly they would be. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:29.440 Any one of us would be as well. 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:34.399 And why are they so afraid? 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:39.840 Because the text tells us the glory of the Lord shone around them. 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:43.440 It is the very glory of God. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.960 It is not light that they possess, not glory of their own. 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:50.399 Like the moon, it reflects the glory of another. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.960 And when they see the glory of the Lord, they're filled with fear. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.600 But do you notice when they go and visit the child Jesus, they're not afraid. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:03.440 It's the glory of the Lord. 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:06.480 It's his glory that they're afraid of. 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:14.399 Now I know, don't tell me after the service, now his glory was temporarily veiled, and maybe later on, you know, I know all that to be true. 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:18.399 But I wonder if the text is intentionally telling us something. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:26.559 I wonder if it's intentionally contrasting the shepherd's reaction because of how Christ would use his glory. 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:45.039 That the moment of his greatest glory isn't in the way that John describes it in the book of Revelation with all this fire and swords, but in a manger and on a cross. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:53.919 I wonder if that tells us something about with whom he would like to unite. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.200 Now you just got to think about who these shepherds were. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:13:59.360 They're nobodies. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:16.879 They're despised by society, unreliable witnesses, and not allowed to testify in court, and not permitted to worship in the temple because they are unclean. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:21.440 And God came to them first. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.759 And I wonder if he's wanting to say to you and to me too, do you see that you're just like them? 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:35.600 Do you see that at one time you too were nobody? 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:38.720 And that you're not worthy before me. 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:43.919 And that if I were to unveil all of my glory and all of my majesty, you would be undone. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:52.799 But if we were to really see how God uses his glory, we were to see that it's not to cause fear and dread. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.440 But to unite us with himself. 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:04.480 Through his life, death, and resurrection and second coming. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:06.720 What would be the response? 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:08.639 What would be our response? 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:10.960 Well, the shepherds tell us, don't they? 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:16.879 They returned, rejoicing and glorifying, giving praise to God. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:24.320 The response, of course, is to give praise to God for Him making peace with us, but it's also to go back. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:29.759 They didn't go on some book tour, they didn't start some blog, they didn't become instantly popular. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:37.039 They were still shepherds, with backbreaking, arthritic making, sleeping on the ground jobs. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:42.000 What enabled them to thrive? 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.000 What enabled them to keep going? 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:50.480 The glory of God revealed to them in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:54.879 And the message of peace. 00:15:57.679 --> 00:15:59.679 And so it's the same for us. 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:06.720 The glory of God doesn't deliver us out of our life circumstances, but rather roots us in it. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.360 How can we thrive? 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:27.600 How can we continue on in the muck and the mire of this world by knowing that the Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world, and you can have peace with him. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:29.200 Amen? 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:30.320 Okay. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:36.879 Lord, we bow before your throne. 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:44.799 Knowing, Heavenly Father, that there's nothing that we bring. 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:52.159 Even our best works are like filthy rags. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:04.400 But you, O Lord, have made a way, so that we can have peace with you. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:22.799 Heavenly Father, tune our affections afresh for you, so that we might sing and know joy in our hearts. 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:26.799 And we pray it in Jesus' name. 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:27.759 Amen.