Gift Messengers

Luke 2:1-9

Verses 1-5

All this fulfills what had been written in the Old Testament hundreds of years earlier. The Christ would be born in Bethlehem, that he would be born of a virgin and that he would be from the lineage of David. Both Mary and Joseph were from the lineage of David which makes this possible. Because they were from David’s lineage they went to Bethlehem, but because Mary was also from the lineage of David, Jesus was as well since Jospeh was not his biological father. This also fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah that a virgin would give birth. If you don’t know what that means, ask your parents later because that’s their responsibility.

Verses 6-7

While they are there, Mary goes into labor. This probably wasn’t the most surprising thing since she had probably just ridden some kind of animal about 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. But God was using every detail to orchestrate his plan. You see God is soverign over all things. It was not coincidence that all these things played out the way they did. God was in control in the same way that he is in control now. But if there was a census going on throughout the Roman world, there were people travelling everywhere. Towns were not full of hotels like they are now. It seems the entire area only had one inn and it didn’t have any room. We aren’t sure of what the exact setting Jesus was born in. Was it a cave that held animals, was it a stable, was it a family home that had an area where the animals lived. We don’t know. What we do know is that the God of this world humbled Himself to the point that God the Son when leaving heaven to be born as a helpless child on earth, was then laid in a feeding trough. You want to see love, that is love, that the God of the universe was placed in a feeding trough.

Luke 2:8-21

Luke 2:8-14.

So after Jesus is born, there are shepherds that night in the field keeping watch over the sheep. Now I want you to picture this for a second. There are no street lights. There’s no flood lights, which may be what some of you are more used to anyway. The only light is the moon and the stars. And then all the sudden the glory of God is shining around them. We don’t know what exactly this means, but we know in Revelation it says that in the New Heaven and New Earth there will be no sun because the light of God will shine. So I imagine this was really bright. So they were scared, and you would have been too. But then the angel tells them in verse 10, “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.” The Angels tells them that the messiah that the Jewish people had been waiting on for so long had been born. The one God had promised was finally there. But there are three words in verse 10 that are really important. “All the people.” This savior was not just for the Jewish people. He was for all people. As the Old Testament said over and over again, God was going to save the nations as well. The message of the gospel is good news for all people. Christ The Lord has come into the world. He came with a specific purpose. That purpose was to save us from our sins. His purpose was to die on a cross. And he rose again, defeating the power of sin and death. He gave us the hope of eternal life. If you are here today We celebrate Christmas for a reason. We celebrate it because it is a demonstration of how great God’s love is. His love is so great that He sent his Son into the world for that purpose. And God loves you. God desires to see you personally come to believe in Him and be forgiven of your sins. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. That is available for anybody that believes Jesus rose from the grave and that confesses him as Lord of their lives.

But these three words give us a challenge. The words “all the people” don’t just go from the Jewish people to us. They include all the people of the world. What if somebody got you a Christmas gift one year that was really nice. I mean really nice. It was the best gift ever. But nobody ever told you about it. Maybe you had heard of it, but nobody really told you how to go get it so you didn’t. Maybe you heard about it in passing and didn’t think much about it. Maybe somebody told you something that was not true about it so you didn’t think it could be any good. Or maybe nobody ever told you anything about it, so you lived your whole life without ever knowing you could have had this gift. That’s how billions of people across the world are when it comes to God’s gift of salvation. Billions of people all across the world have never been told the truth about God’s gift of salvation through Jesus. And for this reason, they live their whole lives without knowing it’s available and therefore never receive it. There are billions of people in need of hearing the gospel message. Unless somebody goes and tells them, they will not hear about this gift.

Luke 2:15-20.

What are we to do? That’s the question right. What is the answer to these people not knowing about Jesus? What is the answer to them not not knowing the true gospel story. It’s found in the response of the shepherds. What was the first thing they did, they went to see what the angel was talking about. That’s a pretty natural response I would say. But the key to their response was in verses 17 and 18. Verse 17 sounds like they told just Mary and Jospeh what they had heard. They obviously did tell them. We know that in verse 19 Luke writes that Mary treasured and pondered everything she heard in her heart. But verse 18 says all who heard it. The Shepherds were not just telling Mary and Joseph. It looks like they were telling anybody they could. Why? Why were they doing this? Because God had done an incredible work in their lives and they wanted to make that known. He had revealed to them the savior of the world and they felt compelled to tell. Guys and girls, this is the answer to the lostness of the world. It is people going to the nations and proclaiming what God has done. It is people going and telling people that God loves them and sent His Son to die for them. God has given you a gift that he wants to give to others. How willing are you to take the message of that to those who haven’t received it. At your age it starts with family and friends. People at your schools. Maybe one day in college it looks like you taking a summer or semester and going somewhere to take the name of Jesus. Maybe then God calls you to the foreign mission field. But God’s message is for all people, and that is to whom it needs to go. If we live as the shepherds did in verse 20 where it says, “And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them,” we will end up where God wants us to be. If you live that way and God calls you into the foreign mission field you will be ready to go. If God calls you to stay here, then you will know. But we must live with an appreciation for what God has done for us and a passion for those who have not heard.

Closing: As we get ready to close here is what we are going to do. I am going to say a prayer over you, and then we are going to collect our missions offering. One thing we can all do is support those who are currently serving overseas. Southern Baptists do this through the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. If you have come prepared to give tonight you can come and place your money in here. Then, we are going to have a time of prayer for the nations. I am going to ask Steven to open for us. If you feel led at any moment to pray, please do. When we are done, I will close us out.