Last Week: The unparalleled act of love by the ‘God of All Creation’, being born a human…the enormity of the sacrifice, limiting HIS BEING… What HE did: Conception! Gestating for 10 months, then being birthed in those conditions… The LOVE it took to do all that…to be incarnated!
This Christmas morning is about: What are we to do in response to this LOVE? How do we live our lives because of The Savior / The Messiah / The Christ / The Incarnation of The Triune God ???
Are we amazed? Are we curious? Are we driven to know and experience MORE of this Incarnation of GOD? Last week the Scripture was our guide to understanding the Love it took to be BORN as a human. This week The Scripture guides us in our response to the Christ Child. Might we let the fullness of what God has done move us to action that glorifies God!
LUKE 2:13-20 (NCV)
13 Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising God and saying: 14 “Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God.”
- A single angel had announced the birth of the Messiah…
- Then the one angel is joined by a heavenly host to give us the significance
- This is a look ahead to what God / Christ would ultimately accomplish:
- #1: Max Glory (Heaven & Earth)
- #2: Peace with our creator based on HIS Grace (Redemption)
- Perhaps this short message was repeated between ‘Hallelujahs’!
15 When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about.”
- It is recorded the angels went back to heaven, why did they go?
- Did the shepherds now realize: ‘This will be the only announcement’
- They do not wait for more information… There is no debate about what to do…
- What they have just witnessed moves them to action…
- They get revelation from God and they become ‘Curious’… and they act!
How curious are you about Scripture? About ‘Real Christian Discipleship’?
16 So the shepherds went quickly and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a feeding trough. 17 When they had seen Him, they told what the angels had said about this child.
- They get there and find exactly what the angel said:
- Stable / Wrapped in Pieces of Cloth / Feeding Trough
- They shared the account of the visitation by The Angels (Very Intense Story)
- The response of the Shepherds was to share what they knew! (let that sink in)
18 Everyone was amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
- Everyone who were blessed to hear this were ‘Amazed’
Amazed ~ To regard with admiration, to be filled with wonder, to reverence, to adore, to be astonished. The other two places Luke used the word translated here as ‘Amazed’:
~ Lk. 7:9: How Jesus responded to the faith of the Roman Centurion
~ Acts 7:31: How Moses responded when HE encountered ‘The Burning Bush’
When you are truly amazed by something it changes the way you think and act.
19 Mary treasured these things and continued to think about them.
- She held this revelation in very high regard (She valued it)
- Mary was to spend the rest of her life thinking about this night!
- She most likely was very curious to learn more…
20 Then the shepherds went back to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen and heard. It had been just as the angel had told them.
- This night would forever change the way they though and acted
- They continued being shepherds, they worshiped & gave thanks while they did
SUMMARY:
Angelic Announcement / Revelation: The most important thing about ‘This Child’ was that He would glorify God by providing access to peace with God. This could only be The Messiah of Scripture! Once the message was declared to the shepherds, they were curious to know EVERYTHING they could about ‘This Child’. Their amazement became action! Once the Shepherds put it all together they told others what they knew and believed. The amazement of the shepherds became the amazement of others! THIS KIND OF AMAZEMENT = BIBLICAL SALVATION!!!
How have you and will you respond to the Birth of Christ?
Application:
What does peace look like in YOUR life?
When God reveals Himself to YOU, how can YOU be more curious to pursue Him?
When YOU gain biblical understanding about The Gospel, how do YOU communicate it to others?
In YOUR daily life, how do YOU live with worship and thanks because of the Biblical Gospel?
How can YOU specifically be like the shepherds (and Mary) this Christmas and in the new year?
John 1:14
So the word of God became a human being and lived among us. We saw His splendor (the splendor as of a Father’s only Son), full of grace and truth. (PHILLIPS)
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (NIV)
The Word became flesh and lived among us. We gazed on His glory, the kind of glory that belongs to the Father’s uniquely existing Son, who is full of grace and truth. (ISV)
The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw His true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From Him the complete gifts of undeserved grace and truth have come down to us. (CEV)
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. (MSG)