Transcript

Good morning, church. It's great seeing all of you here this morning. On this Sunday before Christmas, we are continuing a series we started at the beginning of December that we're calling Christmas According to Luke, Christmas According to the Gospel of Luke. And today we'll be in that part that all of us know From Luke, chapter 2, verses 1 through 14, in a message we've entitled the Incarnation. The Incarnation.

At the heart of Christmas is the doctrine of the Incarnation, the miracle that God the Son took on human flesh. That's what the word incarnation means. It means in the flesh. It literally means in the flesh. Without ceasing to be God, he became fully man.

The infinite became an infant. The Eternal One entered human history. And at Christmas, we celebrate the staggering truth that the Creator entered into his creation. Creation and became one of us. God did not send a message from heaven.

He sent his Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Lord. But here's the question. What does this Incarnation mean to us? What does it mean to you? Why should it move our hearts?

Why should it change the way we live? Because too often the true meaning of Christmas gets buried in all of the glitter, all of the lights, all of the wrapping paper, all of the holiday festivities. And we enjoy the celebration and we overlook the Christ of Christmas. What is the meaning? If we're not careful, we can celebrate Christmas and forget about Christ.

What about you? Have you overlooked Christ? Perhaps you feel the way Michelle did as we watched her testimony earlier. In the testimony video, she said that she came to a point in her life where she recognized, something's got to change. There was an emptiness in her.

She said, something is missing. Maybe that's you today. You're saying to yourself, today, something's got to give, something's got to change. I can't keep going the way I've been going. Something's got to give.

There's something missing in my life. She said nothing changed until she came to the point in her life where she turned to Jesus as her Savior and Lord. She said after that, all the guilt, all the shame was lifted from her and taken upon him. You see, that's what this Christmas story is really about. It's about the Christ Christmas.

Have you come to that place yet in your life where you're ready to hear the good news about the truth of Christmas, of how God in his incarnation stepped into this world? Born not in a palace, but in a stable, Born not to a throne, but to a manger, announced not to the elite and the wealthy, but to some shepherds watching over their flock at Night. As we turn to the book of Luke, chapter two, we can see the great historian Luke, who writes a very accurate historical record of the incarnation of the birth of Jesus and the announcement of his coming to those shepherds by an angelic host. And I believe that when we listen afresh to this story today, that we can have the true message of Christmas revealed to us. And I pray it would be revealed to you today.

Because as we look at the text today and as we focus closely on the announcement by the angels, I believe that we'll see three divine titles that will reveal the real meaning, the true meaning of Christmas to all of us. Let's dig in. Luke, chapter two, verse one. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 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 savior 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 host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.

This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three divine titles that reveal the true meaning of Christmas to us. The first title that we see, we see it in verse 11, the angelic host are announcing this to the shepherds. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior.

That's the first divine title that we see proclaimed by the angels. The angels came, saying, we bring good news of great joy and the first title they reveal is the title Savior Luke, as he writes his story, his gospel. We read in chapter one that he did a careful study, that he, that he interviewed people and he gathered all the information. And the book of Luke is one of the most amazing historical records of the first century. No other historian was writing with the level of accuracy and acumen that he did.

And we can see that he tells us that they were in Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar Augustus, who was the Caesar of Rome. And so what he's done is he's called for a census, he's called for a registration so that he can tax people accusing. You thought they did the census for a lot of reasons. Well, the main reason is so they make sure they can collect taxes. And so he's taken this census.

And so as a result, Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, they're actually living in Nazareth in Galilee. But they have to coincidentally go back home right before Jesus is born. They have to go back to the, the, the homeland, the tribe of Judah, which is based out of Bethlehem. I say coincidentally, I don't actually believe in coincidences. I believe in God incidences.

Caesar Augustus thought he called for the census. He probably woke up one morning and said, for some reason, I feel like calling a census. I think God told him to do it because the prophets had said that he would be born to the line of David, which Luke makes a big deal about, doesn't it? So, so we will know he's born in the line of David and that he's born in the city of David, which is Bethlehem. There are no accidents with God.

There are no coincidences with God. There are only God incidences because God is sovereign. And so he's born in Bethlehem. And these angels appear, they don't appear to a bunch of rich people. They appear to these humble shepherds working third shift.

These are some blue collar guys. This is a stinky job, but somebody's got to do it. And they're up at night. And that's who God designed to announce the birth of his son too. He announces it to the shepherds keeping or their flocks at night.

And so we see this record. The word savior could be translated deliverer. It could be translated rescuer. And perhaps the shepherds, when they heard this, they were thinking, I wish somebody had rescued me from third shift. I'd like to get on first shift.

You know, everybody has something that they feel like they need God for. But, but often we, we feel like we need him for things that actually is not Our true need. There were probably people in Israel that. That thought they needed a deliverer from Rome, from Roman taxes and Roman oversight. They thought they were looking for a political savior.

Some were looking for maybe an economical savior, someone who could make sure they got paid regular. Some were looking for a kind of savior from this or that. And maybe that's you today. I do need a rescue. I need a rescue from this.

And you're thinking it right now. What that is, that's really weighing heavy on you. But may I say to you there's a deeper issue. Underneath all of the issues, there's a deeper issue, and it's the reason Jesus came. He came to save us from our sin that leads to death.

You see, death is at work in us even now. It says in the Book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That word sin literally means to miss the mark. To miss the mark. We might have tried our best.

We aimed at the bullseye of being good. But we missed the mark we can't even keep. Here's what's going to happen here in a couple weeks. We're going to make all kind of New Year's resolutions. Forget about keeping God's law.

We can't keep our own resolutions. We're going to say, I'm going to lose £15. I'm going to do this. I'm going to join the gym. You can't get a place in the gym.

You can't get a parking place in the parking lot at a gym in January. Just wait till February and sign up. There's plenty. It's like a ghost town when you go in there. We can't keep our own resolutions.

We are sinners. We fall short. It's who we are. But we need a Savior to recognize that. We need the Savior that Jesus is.

We have to first recognize our own condition, don't we? We have to admit I'm a sinner. And there's an appointment coming with death that none of us can miss. And am I ready? Do I have Jesus as my Savior if I recognize what he came to save us from?

Because in Romans 6:23, it says, for the wages of. Of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. He's a savior. He didn't come to save you from all the circumstances of life. He'll help you with them.

He came to save you from the consequence from the wages of sin, which is death. You'll see it at Work already in the world today. Death in relationships, death that leads to divorce, death that leads to brokenness, death that leads to indebtedness, death that leads to frailty. Death is at work already. But he's ready to do a new work in you that comes because you've been set free from sins.

Why did Jesus come? Why was this baby boy given? Well, we see it in First Timothy, chapter one. Christ came into the world to save sinners. That's why he came.

This baby came to die. That's why he came into the world. He came to die as a sacrifice in your place. Where are kings born? Kings are born in palaces.

Where are lambs born? They're born in stables. This Jesus came as Savior to be the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. That's who this Jesus is. The shadow of the cross overshadows the cradle.

That's who he is. He came as Savior. Imagine you're drowning in deep water and you're out there drowning. There's someone standing on the shore and you're calling out, help, Help. And they throw you a manual.

10 Ways to Learn how to swim. That wouldn't be very helpful, would it? To get. Or maybe they're standing on the shore going, paddle harder. Try.

You know. No, do this. You know, you don't need an instruction manual. You don't need a tutor. You need someone to jump in, someone that knows how to get you out of deep water that you don't know how to get out of.

You need someone to get wet with you, someone that would leave the comfort of the shore and jump in over their head and take your place and rescue you. And that's what Jesus has done. When we focus this story of Christmas, we must pay close attention to the good news, which was announced by the angelic host born unto you to you this day in the city of David. A savior he was born to save. Jesus is the Lamb of God.

That's what Christmas means. He came to die and take our place and rescue us from the consequence of sin. That's the first title. That's the revelation of the true meaning of Christmas. He came as savior.

And then we hear a second title. We hear a second title. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ. This is not his last name. His name is not Jesus Christ.

Like, that's his last name. That's not his last name. That's a title. It's not like Gary Combs. That's my last name.

That's my Family name? No, that's his title. Jesus Christ. Christos. In the Greek, Anointed one is the translation.

Christos is a translation of the Hebrew word from the Old Testament. Messiah means the same thing. Anointed one. Over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament prophesying one who was to come, who would be the anointed one of God, called the Messiah. And then in the New Testament, which is written in Koine Greek, Christos.

We say it in English, Christ. They were waiting for him. And so here the angels saying to the shepherds, even though these guys were blue collar workers and they barely got out of synagogue, you know, they barely got their bar mitzvah, now they're doing what their dads did, their grandfathers did, etc. But they know that story. They know we're waiting on Messiah.

We've been waiting for centuries on Messiah. They know that. And the angel says, a Savior has come. He's the Messiah. He's the fulfillment of every single one of God's promises and prophecies in the Old Testament.

The mathematical likelihood of that is so minuscule as to approaching 0% possibility that anyone could fulfill all 300. Yet he does. We hear in this language, unto you is born this day. We hear an echo from the prophet Isaiah who prophesies this in Isaiah chapter 9. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

We, we hear the echo of the prophets in the sound of the angel's announcement. He is the long awaited one, the Messiah. That he was born in the city of David, which is Bethlehem, is an amazing thing. Did you choose where you were born? Anybody?

Maybe somebody be like, if I could have, it would have been in another place. I don't know. You didn't get to choose your parents, did you? You didn't get to choose where you were born. God chose where his son would be born.

He told the prophet Micah centuries before where he was going to be born. Micah 5:2 says this Bethlehem. Ephrathah, you are small along the clans of judo. One will come from you to be ruler over Israel. For me, his origin is from antiquity, from eternity.

He was born in the very place that God said he would be born. And where else would he be born? He's born to the line of David. He's the Messiah. He's born in Bethlehem, which means house of bread.

Where else would the bread of life be born except in the house of bread? This is Jesus, the Messiah, born right where God said he would be. The long awaited one. There's A story in John, chapter four of a Samaritan woman who has a conversation with Jesus as she's going out to draw water at the well near the city of Sucar. This woman has a conversation and she's there by herself when this Jewish man talks to her, which is an unheard of thing.

She's an outcast in her own village. She's a broken woman with a broken past. And she's drawing water in the middle of the day. That's not the time of day you want to be drawing water. But she does it because she's tired of all the gossiping women looking at her and looking down their nose at her because she's with her fifth man and she's not even married to him.

And she's filled with grief and shame and. And she just hates that she's having this conversation. And he's asking her all of these questions that are piercing her heart. And finally she opens her heart up to him and she says this. I know that Messiah is coming.

He who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things. And then Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. It's the clearest answer he gives anyone. No other person does he give such a clear answer to his identity.

I, who speak to you am He. I am the Messiah. I am the long awaited one. I am the Christ, the Son of God, the anointed one. He gives her this answer.

The promise became personal. He says, I'm He. And he talks to her. She goes running from him into her village of Sucar, the place where she always hid her face. Now she's wide open.

She goes right in there. Come and see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?

She had a changed life because she encountered the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. He changed everything. You know, there's something about waiting and waiting that makes the heart grow sick. It makes it grow weary. You wait and you wait and you begin to doubt the longer you wait.

Through the years, it's been my privilege to sign a reference letter for people seeking to adopt. They'll come to me. They'd be like, I need, you know, I have to have a reference. And if you're a church member, they want the pastor's reference that you're actually attending and that you'd be good parents. And it's this process of this package that.

That young parents that want to adopt a child have to put together. And then it's a great expense. You wouldn't believe how much it costs to adopt the child. And, and then there are the legal implications. And, and, and you have to put your heart essentially out there for anyone to squeeze.

You're already heartbroken because you're childless and you want a child so desperately. And now you put it out. You filled out all the paperwork, you've turned in the money that you saved up and people donated to. And now you're on a waiting list, waiting for a phone call.

And then the day comes, the day comes and they say, they say, we've got a little girl for you. She's going to be born and they'll tell you the date. And her mama is 17 years old and she wanted to find. And she's looked up your history and she saw your photograph and your story and she thinks you're the one that God wants to have her baby, to raise her child. The whole story is hard in so many ways, but beautiful in so many other ways that God himself wants to adopt us into his family.

But oh, the waiting and the hope. And now here the woman at the well says, finally, finally, Messiah is here. He's more than a philosophy, He's a person. He calls us to more than a religion. He calls us to a relationship.

He's the Savior, the long awaited Messiah. The Christ.

And that leads us to the third divine title. Unto you is born this day in the city of David. A savior who is Christ the Lord.

He's a rescuer. He's a savior. He's the Messiah, the long awaited one. But oh, hear this. He's the Lord God.

As the Messiah, he comes and he becomes human. He takes on human form. But he's the Lord. Not giving up his divinity. He is God.

He commands the seas and the waves and the storms. He turns the water into wine. He caused the dead to rise up and come back to life again. He is God. He is the Lord.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David. A savior who is Christ the Lord. Kurios in the Greek language. The King, the divine one. His majesty is in view here.

He's the Lord of all. You see, this is the confession that the apostle Paul calls us to, that we would call him Lord. It begins by an admission. I need a savior. It begins with an admission that I'm broken.

Something needs to change and I can't. I've tried. I can't change myself. I can't fix it. I'm drowning.

I need a rescue. That's a starting place. But you don't have to stay there. You look to Jesus as savior. You say, save me, Lord, save me.

But it doesn't finish there.

It begins with an acknowledgement that now I no longer want to be in control. I no longer want to be in control of my life. I bend my knee to you as king, as Lord. You see, during the time of Caesar Augustus, he began a new religion there where they would call him divine and that people would be as they would go to pay their taxes or as they would appear before a Roman centurion. They had to yield to Caesar.

They'd have to say, caesar is Lord. Many first century Christians were martyred because they would refuse to say Caesar is Lord because they had already said jesus is Lord. Have you ever said that? That's what the apostle Paul says to the church at rome. In Romans 10, 9.

He says, if you confess with your mouth. To confess with your mouth means to say it. I think you say it out loud, Jesus is Lord of my life. And if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, maybe you'll be saved. Is that what it says?

If you join the church and do good, you'll be saved. Does it say that? No, didn't say that. What does it say? If you say Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Not maybe, not later, not. Plus, there's nothing to add to what Christ has done. He's done all that's necessary to pay for you. You were drowning in sin. He has rescued you.

Why go back to being in charge of your own life? Why not surrender every detail to him? Jesus is Lord. I believe it. He has conquered sin, death and the grave.

He's risen again and I believe it. He's Lord of my life. I have some keys in my pocket. They open a lot of different things. One of them gets my car started outside there.

I got one. Here's key to my church office. Here's key to the front door of the church. Here's a key to the janitor's office. I think here.

I don't know what, I might need that sometime. There's a key to my house. Yeah, I've got. And I got another set of keys at home because I don't like carrying everything I got in my pocket. It's just too much.

And got a lot of keys. You've got some keys too, I bet in your purse and in your pockets they open a lot of things, you know, there's some keys you can't see. You've got keys to Your heart. You got keys to your marriage, you got keys to your parenting, keys to your parents, keys to your workplace, keys to your finances, keys to your identity, keys to your sexuality, keys to your singleness and how you'll treat that. Keys to keys to everything in your life.

And they all open different doors of your life. And perhaps you've already said, Jesus is Lord, but you're holding back a few keys.

May I say this to you? Jesus is either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all.

The very key you're holding back is the place that you aren't saying, jesus is Lord. See, it's one thing to say, I need a savior, Jesus saved me. It's another thing to say, I surrender my will to you, my life. I am your servant. You are my Lord, my CEO, my boss, my master, my leader.

Here are the keys. Take them all.

Of course, there's this human problem we have. We tend to take them and put them back in our pocket. Then we get up the next morning and go, what's gone wrong? And we realize, oh, I took it back. I took this back or that back.

It's a journey. As you grow in Christ, you finally learn. Sometimes you think, I feel like I could handle this part of my life better. I'm afraid if I give it to you, Lord, you might do something I don't want. So I'm going to keep that one apart.

The rest of it, I know, is a wreck, so you can have the wreck. But this little part right here, I feel like I'm doing pretty good. And it's that little part that you're doing pretty good in that's going to get you in the most trouble.

And so give that key to him especially, and give him your life and call him Lord. Because Christ calls not only for our admiration, but for our allegiance. He is Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. Make him Lord of your life. He's Lord.

This Christmas, will you recognize it? See, that's the story that we're talking about this morning. That's the story announced to the shepherds. And they run to go and see this sign of this Lamb born in a stable, this Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world unto you, not the person next to you, not the person behind you, you unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. Let's pray.

Lord, I pray first of all for that person that's here today. And they came in on a thin thread. They came in drowning. They came in underwater, empty, hurting, knowing that's why they're here. They need a savior.

Is that you, my friend? Right where you're at, being honest with God? Why not turn to him right now in prayer? Prayer is just talking to God. Pray with me.

Pray like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. That you were raised from the grave and that you live today.

I believe that. Come into my life today. I confess you as my Lord and my savior. I surrender my life completely, every area to you. I ask you to save me and to adopt me into your family.

I want to be a child of God. I want to follow you all the days of my life. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing Lord, that's why he came to save you. Others are here. And you're a believer.

You're a follower of Jesus, but you're going through a season right now where you've taken some keys back.

You've taken back a relationship that's an inappropriate relationship. You've taken on something financially that you shouldn't have done. You've. You. You've gotten into an addiction that's really hurting you.

You don't know how to quit.

Why not rededicate your life today? You're a believer, you're a follower of Jesus, but you've gotten yourself in a fix and call out to him. Have mercy on me, oh Lord.

I rededicate my life to you. All that I am and all that I have are yours. Afresh.

You are my Savior, my Christ and my Lord. In Jesus name, amen.