There was a girl who was quoting John 3, 16 to
her mother. She put it this way, For God so loved
the world that he gave his only forgotten son.
At this time of year, we wonder, even in the
midst of the season in which we celebrate his
birth, he isn't the forgotten one in the midst
of it all. Who is this Jesus of Christmas? Who
is the Christ of Christmas? To answer that, of
course, we have to go back to the original documents
and there see what they say. Who is this one
Jesus of Nazareth? The Jesus born in Bethlehem
means it. The original documents of the Gospels.
Last Sunday morning we saw that in the Gospel
of Matthew, this Jesus of Christmas is the Son
who has come to reign. This afternoon we want
to look at the Gospel of Luke. And notice that
he is presented there as the Savior who has come
to die. And Lord willing, then, next Sunday morning,
we will talk about Jesus as he is presented in
the Gospel of John, the Word who has come to
reveal. This afternoon, let's think about Luke's
Gospel, primarily in the second chapter, where
he is presented to us as the Savior who has come
to die. Luke records for us the details of the
birth of our Savior. While Matthew simply notes
the event, it is the physician Luke who goes
into detail regarding the events surrounding
it. And we can be grateful for these intriguing
bits of detail that are recorded. We learn why
a couple who lived in Nazareth ended up at Bethlehem,
and why it was there that Jesus was born. It
is in Luke only that we learn about the appearance
of the angel and their announcement to the shepherds.
It is there that we learn of the shepherds going
through the manger scene and adoring the baby.
Why did Mary come to Bethlehem? It could be that
Joseph's desire was for her to come so that he
would be sure to be with her when the baby was
born, likely it was sometime during the... third
trimester that they journeyed on their way from
Nazareth to Bethlehem. It could be as well that
she went along with Joseph in order to escape
the social pressures that must have been mounting
in Nazareth because of the rumors that were going
around. And it may well be that they were both
aware of the Old Testament prophecies, too, regarding
the birthplace of the Christ. We do not know
how long they were in Bethlehem before the birth
of the child. The popular notion is that they
arrived in the city just in time for the birth,
and yet more likely the text would seem to indicate
that they were there for a period of time and
then the birth of the baby took place. The text
of Luke does not either tell us why it was that
the babe was born in a stable. There is no cause
to believe that the innkeeper was a villain,
as he is often pictured. It simply says there
was no room for them in the inn. If, in fact,
they had been in Bethlehem for a few days or
even weeks prior to the birth of Jesus, it may
have been that the family that they had stayed
with, Joseph's family, were simply crowded at
this time. And for such a thing as the birth
of a child which needed privacy, there was no
room there either. Whatever, the Lord God himself
arranged for the son to come into the world born
in a manger. The record emphasizes the humble
and ordinary circumstances of his birth. And
it also emphasizes the apparent poverty of Joseph
and Mary. Now, for the heart of our study this
afternoon, I want us to look at verses 10 and
11, which recounts for us what the angel said
to the shepherds. Do not be afraid, for behold,
I bring you good news of a great joy, which shall
be for all the people. For today in the city
of David there has been born for you a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord. This angel is the first
to announce the good news that the Savior has
come. In order for us to expose the text a little
bit, let's ask some questions. The first question
let's ask is this. Who is the Savior that the
angels announce? Well, in the text we learn that
this Savior is none other than Christ the Lord
himself. The term Christ is the word that means
Messiah, the Messiah of Israel, the anointed
one of God, the one who will fulfill the offices
of prophet, priest, and king. God's anointed
one, the one who will fulfill all of the Old
Testament prophecies. He is Christ the Lord,
not simply a man, but the Lord himself on his
life. He is deity. He is the Old Testament Yahweh,
the Lord, Christ the Lord. We can say safely
that no other Savior exists than Christ the Lord,
nor can any other Savior exist but Him, because
a Savior must be especially qualified to save.
In the first place, a Savior for mankind must
be both God and man. so that he is qualified
as man to identify with him, and he is qualified
as God to intercede on behalf of man before God.
And so Jesus Christ uniquely fits this qualification
as the God -man. Furthermore, a Savior must be
sinless himself in order to save. And no mere
man who has ever been born into the world can
claim that, for all have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God. But Jesus Christ, the Lord,
came sinless. And thirdly, he must be willing
to act as the Savior. He must be willing voluntarily
to give himself in order to save mankind. And
so no other Savior does exist, nor the Savior
can exist, than this one who is Christ the Lord.
Then we ask the second question, when is this
Savior coming? Well, in the text, the angel says,
for unto you is born today in the city of David.
Today. That was a day 2 ,000 years ago. But it
was the appointed day. It was the prepared time
when God sent forth his son into the world. As
J. Robert Chapman wrote it in the hymn that we
sometimes sing, one day when sin was as black
as could be, God sent his son. born of a virgin.
At no time previously had a Savior come. The
prophets had thundered, Thus saith the Lord,
for hundreds and hundreds of years. Angels had
appeared on various occasions. Miracles, indeed,
had occurred in the history of the world. And
who could number the multitudes of sacrifices
that had been offered on the altar of Israel?
as an atonement for sin that my friend no savior
had ever come a provision had been made until
the savior should come on this day and he was
born today in the city of david that was god's
time the perfect time for him to come and then
we asked how did the savior come well the angel
tell us he was born unto his born this day. He
did not come with pomp. He did not come with
a rending of the heavens and enter on a white
charger. He did not come with trumpets sounding.
He did not come after a worldwide announcement
had been made, but he came quietly and humbly.
He had entered the womb of a virgin and united
himself with... sinless humanity. He was born
then, born into the world as a baby. Is there
anything that is more vulnerable, more helpless,
and may I say more natural than the birth of
a baby? The birth of this baby, the Savior came.
And of course it was essential that he be born
this way. He simply could not come down out of
heaven to the earth to die for sin. He had to
come and fully identify with us in our flesh
and blood in order to be our substitute, in order
to be our savior. And so he came in the only
way that he could come and be the savior to die.
He was born. And then a fourth question. What
is the result of the Savior's coming? Well, I
would suggest even in our text there's a threefold
result. The first is suggested by the angels
when they say, great joy. Great joy. That is
the first result. They announced it with joy.
And they say to them, we bring you good news
of great joy. And so the Savior's coming has
resulted in joy in the world. I tell you, apart
from that, there would be no joy. There would
be no smiles. There would be no friendly greetings,
no cars for laughter and merriment. His coming
results in joy being present in the world. In
Luke, joy is always associated with salvation.
An example of that would be in the 15th chapter.
when he talks about the three parables, the things
that were lost and then found, a sheep, a coin,
and a son. And in each case, when that which
was lost was found, there was great joy that
resulted, a picture of a sinner repenting and
coming to the Lord. Joy is always associated
with salvation in Luke's writing. Luke talks
more about joy than Matthew and Mark put together.
Joy is one of its themes. What is the result
of the Savior's coming? Well, again, the angels
tell us it is glory to God. After the one angel
had announced the birth of the babe, there was
a multitude of these angels who appeared. And
they said, it's interesting they didn't sing
it, as far as the text says at least, but what
they said together in a chorus of spoken word
was glory to God in the highest. The coming of
the Savior has resulted in the glory of God because,
you see, in his coming, God has been pleased
to expose himself in his love and mercy for us.
If the Savior had not come, we would never have
known that apart from the word of God. And now
we have more than just God's word. We have God's
living proof of his grace, his love, and his
mercy. It is the coming of the Savior. And so
his coming has resulted in the glory of God.
God has glorified himself through the coming
of his Son to save mankind. And then finally,
the coming of the Savior results in peace among
men, with whom he is well pleased, as the text
says. There is no peace in the world when the
Savior does not reign. Our world today scrambles
desperately to find peace. Not only in various
quarters of the world, but worldwide, there is
a search for peace and a peace giver. The Prince
of Peace has come. And if only the world would
receive him, there could be peace. There is peace,
however, among those with whom God is well pleased.
That is, those who respond to him in faith, those
who are his own through faith in Jesus Christ.
There is peace among those with whom God is well
pleased. There is peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And there is the peace of
God that we may know consistently day by day
as we commit our cares and anxieties to him.
This is a peace the world can never know. There's
a world that results in the coming, that comes
from the coming of the Savior. There's a result
of that. There's a peace that I hope you know
today personally within your heart. Then finally
I would ask this, what is the scope of the Savior's
coming? Again, we see in the words of the angels
when they say that he was born for all people.
I bring you good news of a great joy which shall
be for all the people. For today in the city
of David has been born for you a Savior. You
see, the scope of his coming, first of all, embraces
all the people. Now, in the context of Luke,
likely it refers primarily to the Jewish people,
for all these people. And yet we can say that
there's certainly the hint that not only for
the Jews, but for all the people of the world
he has come. There is no race, there is no family,
there is no tribe, there is no nationality, there
is no language group in all of the world that
is left out. He has come for all the people of
the world. That is why we are so impelled as
a church to have a mission, a mission to reach
out to our communities and to reach out to the
world around us in lands that most of us have
never been to so that all the people might hear
that he has come. There's a more personal aspect
to it that the angel said, for unto you. He was
born this day a Savior. You see, it's not just
for all the world, but it is for you. There's
a personal aspect here. For you, for me, that
he came. For the mass, yes. But for us personally
as well, he came. And that's a wonderful truth.
At an evangelistic meeting a number of years
ago, a man was asked to share his testimony.
It was announced that he would. He was known
in that city for his wicked crimes and heinous
sins. The night of the meeting came and he sat
down near the front. For the time seemed close
for him to give a testimony. A note was passed
up from somewhere in the back to him. It had
his name on it. He opened the note and it said
to him, How can you testify at a meeting like
this with all the crimes that you have committed?
How dare you to show up? At first the man thought
that perhaps he should leave, because he knew
what he had done, and everybody there knew what
he had done. But then it was announced that he
should come and give his witness, and so he stood,
and he read the list. Then he said to the people,
you know, all of this is true. I have done every
one of these things. He says, the good news that
I want to share with you tonight is this. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief. And he went on to say, and he
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for
ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus Christ came personally for you, for me.
And he offered a price which has become the propitiation
or the sacrifice that has satisfied God. wrath,
and God's holiness. The Savior has come. Did
you know that neither Matthew nor Mark knew that
title for Jesus even once? I think it's found
in the Gospel of John, but once. Luke uses it
at least twice. He calls Jesus the Savior. When
one is called a savior, it implies that there's
a danger, there's a threat, there's a ruin, there's
a destruction that needs to be avoided and from
which one needs to be rescued. And you see, that
is exactly why he's called the savior. For he
came into the world to rescue, to deliver you
and me from the ruin of our sins and from the
condemnation of hell that we eternally deserve.
Have you ever considered what it would be in
your life if Jesus had not come? If there were
no Christmas? If there were no cross? If there
had been no blood shed for you? Have you ever
considered what it would be for you if none of
this had occurred? Or where would you be today
if Jesus hadn't come? Even more provoking, where
would you be a hundred years from now if Jesus
hadn't come? But thank God the Savior has come.
He is the Savior who came to die. In the Old
West, there was a constant threat in the prairies
of fire. The prairie fires were terribly fierce.
The grass was often very high. In the summertime,
the grasses grew dry and brittle and hot. When
the fire started, because of whiting or some
other source, fires roared across the plains,
sometimes miles in width, the flames leaping
10, even 20 feet into the air. The smoke could
be seen for miles and miles. Dangerous was the
position. of a traveler in those days when a
prairie fire was moving toward him with the speed
of the wind. The only escape that a traveler
could have, he could not outrun it, was to stop
his wagon and to light a fire himself and allow
another fire to rage. And once that fire had
raged, before his... wagon into the midst of
that earth that had already been scorched. Once
he was there, he was safe. For as that fire roared
toward him, it could not burn a second time that
which had already been burned. As we come to
this table of the Lord tonight, let us remember
that we stand on scorched earth. That we stand
here remembering the cross where the Savior died.
The wrath of God has been once and for all poured
out upon the Savior, the wrath that you and I
deserve. So we stand rescued. We stand delivered.
We stand safe tonight on the ground of the cross,
the ground that has been sanctified by the very
precious blood of our Savior. And so as we come
to the Lord's table, let's rejoice that the Savior
has come. Let us rejoice in what he has done
for each one of us. Let's do that by bowing together
in prayer right now and acknowledging him, thanking
him, and confessing any sins in our lives so
we would not dare come to this table with unconfessed
sins, knowingly in our lives. For to do that
is to come and partake of judgment. It is to
partake of the Lord's table. in an unworthy manner.
So let us bow together in prayer and prepare
our hearts. And as we do so, I'm going to ask
our service to come to the cross. With our heads
bowed still, let us recall that our Savior told
us to remember him in this ordinance until he
comes. On that night in which he was betrayed,
the Lord Jesus met with his disciples and with
them he took bread and gave thanks and then broke
it and shared with them. Let's give our prayers
thanks in a little different way tonight. I'm
going to ask you to pray out loud after me. Pray
out loud at this congregation. Dear Lord Jesus,
we thank you for your body offered up for our
sins. We give ourselves afresh to you and present
our bodies as a living sacrifice. We remember
you in this ordinance and give thanks for your
work of salvation.