What happened here, in this simple manger, in a small town, in a tiny corner of the world, on an ordinary night, would become the center of all human history.

Let me tell you about one of my best Christmases ever. It was 1999. Rachel and I were still in college and had been dating about two months when we decided to take a day trip to Chicago at Christmas. Now, when you’re an unmarried couple like we were, you got to do it all in one day. And so, since we lived in West Michigan, that meant seven hours on the road for five hours in the city. It was dumb, but exciting. So we did it. It was fun. And we went, and we shopped like two broke college students, mostly with our eyes. She bought me a watch. I bought her a sweater. We stopped off at a fancy little coffee shop. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Starbucks saw our little place. And, at one point, somewhere on the Magnificent Mile, we, I saw a Christmas tree ornament for sale, and I bought one. For us fellas, side note, if you ever find yourself shopping for a Christmas present for your girlfriend and you decide to buy a Christmas ornament for us, you might as well just go ahead and buy the ring while you’re right there at the store anyway. Save yourself some time, because a tree ornament for us implies that we have a Christmas tree for us, which we didn’t. Where do you hang it otherwise? At least not yet. In her mind, we didn’t have that Christmas tree, right? I’m just saying, if you buy shared home decor, you’d better know what you’re doing.

Okay, but I did know what I was doing. We were engaged the next month. We were married the following Christmas, and we just celebrated 25 years back in Chicago. This Christmas. So, here’s the ornament that I bought for her. It’s a little, little manger scene. All the little lambs are looking at the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. I was 21, and I was a brand-new Christian at the time, but even I knew then that if Rachel and I got married, what we see right here in this ornament was going to need to be the center of our marriage. Because what happened here in this simple little manger in a small town in a tiny corner of the world, on an ordinary night, would become the center of all human history. The God who created our world had entered into it. He physically came vulnerable, helpless, and weak to save those who are spiritually vulnerable, helpless, and weak. And the work he came to do to die in the place of sinners in need of a Savior would bring about the greatest spiritual transformation that the world has ever seen. You’ve heard the Christmas story read from Luke chapters one and two. Let me briefly show you four things that we learn about our Savior, Jesus, from this story.

The first is that he’s a Savior for all. One of the most famous parts of Christ’s birth story is that he was laid in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And this part of the story has been expanded over the years to include a heartless innkeeper who turns away Mary and Joseph, probably because he hates Christmas, right? He’s twisting his evil mustache. I don’t know why people have inserted all sorts of meaning into this housing issue. Things like Jesus was homeless. He wasn’t. They were on a trip to Bethlehem. His home was back in Nazareth. Or they’ll say Jesus was poor. He wasn’t. Although he certainly did love the poor throughout his lifetime. Joseph was a carpenter. He had a pretty good job. Now. Jesus was not turned away at the end and laid in a manger because of some evil done to him, or to identify with some problem in the world. We don’t have to leave the story to learn why this manger was used. A sovereign God orchestrated that night precisely to show that this is a Savior for everyone. Now, in a moment, the shepherds are going to show up. Let me ask you, if there had been room in the inn, how would the shepherds have ever found Jesus? I imagine the angels instructing the shepherds, and you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying at one of the ends.

Or perhaps a guest room. You’re going to have to knock on some doors, right? It’s not going to work. Listen to the angels say why. Listen to the angel, and this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. You see these shepherds with, with, with no attachment to this family had to find this baby, and they had to know when they found the right baby. And so, God gives them a unique, publicly accessible location to find the promised Savior. And this is such an important aspect of God’s plan of salvation. When a baby is born, most of the time, the people that show up are our friends and family. Random strangers don’t usually just run to the hospital to see who’s been born. I assume they discourage that down at Mayo, right? People just showing up. Hey, what do you got in there? You know they’re not going to let you in there. But in this case, God has orchestrated the exact details of Jesus’ birth to show the world that all should rejoice, that all are invited because Jesus and the salvation he brings is for everyone the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus will eventually expand across the globe. Everyone is invited to come and to see him, and to meet him, and to find peace in him.

The second thing I want you to see is that he is a Savior who brings glory to God. Maybe the most famous line in all of Luke chapter two are the words of the heavenly host of angels praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Now, usually when we think about this verse, we focus in on the peace. Jesus came to bring us peace, and he certainly does that without Jesus coming into the world as a man and living a sinless life and dying on the cross to bear our sins, punishment, and rising again to conquer death. Without that, we would have no hope of peace with God. We would not have it. But if you trust in Jesus, you have peace with God and hope for eternity because of it. That’s how Christmas impacts us. Okay, that’s what it means. That’s what it brings to us. That’s what it means for us. It reconciles us back into a peaceful relationship with God. But we don’t want to lose sight of the even greater purpose of Christ’s advent, which is to declare the glory of God. Now, if you’ve spent any time here at Calvary, you’ve heard me define glory before. Glory is greatness on display. Okay, the greatness of something made visible. It’s the greatness of something or someone. You can see it because of the praise of others.

So when you clap your hands, when your team wins on the field or after a theatrical performance, you are making the greatness of the thing you just watched audible and visual. When Jesus comes into the world, what do the angels declare? Glory to God in the highest. The Savior who’s been born is first and foremost a display of the glory and the greatness of God. Christ is the culmination of a redemptive history that a sovereign, powerful God has been unfolding for years up to this point. A promise was made in Genesis chapter three that Satan would be crushed by the descendant of Eve. A promise was made to bless the whole world through the nation that he would form with Abraham. A promise was made that there would be a king who would always sit on the Davidic throne, ruling over God’s people. A promise was made that a man would come and die in our place for our sins, that he would be a sacrificial lamb taking our punishment. And all these promises, all these promises are made by God. They’re not human promises. They’re not. They’re not things that we came up with. God said, this is my plan. I’m the one that’s going to bring this about. Let me just pause here and say, aren’t you glad that these are not man-made promises? Think about man-made promises. We have a particular problem with promises, don’t we? We tend not to keep them.

But the Lord is neither a liar nor a failure. Every part of every promise of every stage of his plan hinged on God becoming a man, being Emmanuel, which means God with us. It hinged on him coming into his creation. Christ’s birth is a powerful, dramatic moment in human history where the glory of the Lord is what’s on display. So, when we think of Christmas, we shouldn’t allow our view of what we’re celebrating to become too small. We can become too focused on ourselves at Christmas time. And I’m not. I’m not referring to that, that selfish way that we’ve commercialized Christmas. I mean, we have done that, but that’s not what I mean. I’m saying that we can get so focused on what God has done for us in Christ that we lose sight of the fact that Christ glorifies God, not us. In fact, what happens to us when we’re saved through faith in Jesus is that we become part of the God-glorifying chorus. That’s what we’re doing here tonight. We’re joining in the God-glorifying chorus. I’d like to say that we become part of God’s audiovisual department, and you can see that in the other two items that I want to show you here from, from Luke chapter two. The third is that Jesus is a Savior to be shared. So the shepherds find Jesus in swaddling clothes.

He’s laying in a manger just like the angel said he would. I like how it says that they went with haste. I bet they did. I bet they did. I’ve never been confronted with a chorus of angels, but I imagine if I did, it would put a pep in my step. Right? So I’m. I would be rushing there as well. And when they get there, it says they make known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. If you look at verse 18, it’s up on the screen there. Do you see where it says all who heard it, all who heard it? This implies a crowd is gathered around. If it was just Joseph and Mary there, they wouldn’t write all Luke wouldn’t have written. All. Jesus is going to draw crowds. He’s going to draw crowds throughout his entire ministry, and he’s doing it on day one. There’s a crowd already there. He’s God has orchestrated for him a public birth. I bet most of you ladies with kids here today are really glad that God did not orchestrate a public birth for you, right? But he had to in this case. Why? Because this birth isn’t just a private event. It’s a public announcement. His birth is an announcement. And the shepherds are the first people to give that announcement. They’re handing the message on to everyone they see. And so what is it that they’re handing on? It says they’re handing on that which had been told to them.

So what is it they’re handing on? Let’s review. Unto you is born this day a Savior? Who is Christ the Lord? Jewish people had been waiting for their promised Savior for thousands of years. The shepherds are saying, here he is. The one that we have been waiting for our entire lives is now here. Now, that might not mean very much to you tonight. You might. You might not really think much of that at all. You might be thinking, that’s fine for them, but I’m not Jewish. I don’t follow the Old Testament, so I’m not waiting for anyone. I’m not waiting for a savior. Well, I will grant you that you are probably not Jewish. Although if you are Jewish, we’re glad you’re here. Glad you came. You probably don’t know the Old Testament very well. Lots of people don’t know the Old Testament very well. Many more have no interest in what it says. But even if those categories don’t apply to you, I would guess that you are probably still interested in a savior because we’re all interested in a Savior. Everyone is looking for a savior, I mean, what is a savior? What is it? It’s someone who rescues and someone who brings salvation from anything, really. A lifeguard is a kind of savior, right? If you’re out there in the water kicking and flailing, you’re trying to save your life.

And then. Then the lifeguard dives in and scoops you up and swims to you to safety. That lifeguard is a savior. Spread that idea over all of life right now. Does it appear to you that people are out there just swimming strong, doing great in the problem-free kiddie pool of life right now? Or does it look more like people are angry and confused and cynical and desperately grasping for some kind of intervention that will rid the world of evil because they’re drowning in it. Everyone. Everyone is always looking for the next thing. They’re looking for the regime change, the laws to change. They want other people to change. They go to therapists to try to figure out what it is that they have to change. Self-medicating is on the rise to try to escape reality. People are trying to manipulate the world around them, to create a sense of safety, to stave off the danger of reality. I would suggest to you that even if you haven’t followed the Old Testament promises of a Savior, you certainly understand the need for one. And that’s the message of Christmas. See the message of Christmas, friends, that is, we share it with the shepherds, the crowd. We’re in that crowd. We hear what they say. I’m sharing with you tonight what they shared with that crowd.

That God has intervened. God has sent a Savior, a lifeguard for those of us who are drowning in sin, who feel overwhelmed by the chaos and the brokenness and the evil of this world. This happened. This happened in human history. The God who created the world entered into it to save sinners and to save us from our own sinful hearts and to keep us from drowning in the evil of others. And I’m telling you what things are happening. Things are happening around the world with this gospel right now. As the tide has risen on evil and hopelessness, so has the perceived need for the Savior, Jesus Christ. Spiritual curiosity and hunger are on the rise, especially among younger generations of people. Particularly the 13- to 28-year-old Gen Z generation. The dissatisfaction with the self-assigned purpose and meaning has created a desire to find truly good news that is rooted in the Creator God, not the fake posturing and nonsense that were flooded with daily, every ten days, a new gospel-centered church is planted in France. France. That is some of the hardest spiritual ground in the world. And the and the. And every ten days, there’s a new church popping up across that country. The gospel is spreading like wildfire across Iran, as the underground church is reaching out and people are joining with it. And the government doesn’t know what to do with it.

It’s become a national problem for them because so many people are coming to Christ. There’s a quiet revival that’s taking place across the United Kingdom right now where there’s been a huge jump in church attendance among those in the 18- to 44-year-old bracket. And we’re seeing similar rise here in the United States. People are desperate for a savior and they’re finding their way to the Savior. The last thing I want to show you tonight about our Savior Jesus, is that he is the one who lifts our praise. Verse 20 says, the shepherds returned to their fields, glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen. This act of worshiping is the culmination of everything that we have seen in the story up to this point. See, the shepherds knew the Savior was for all, which meant he had to be shared with other people, and that all the credit then would for this salvation needed to be turned into praise, because it demonstrated the glory of God’s fulfilled plan. And so, they’re singing and they’re praising. Thank you, God, for this baby. Thank you, God, for this coming salvation you have saved us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. That’s our song. That’s the doxology. We don’t know that we do not create what we need or we don’t find what we need. We receive what we need from God.

The shepherds wouldn’t have known. Our doxology. But they certainly had the words. They might have walked back that night, back to their fields, singing Psalm 150. Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with trumpet sound. Praise him with lute and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals. Praise him with loud crashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. We’re going to respond tonight in praise to. We’re going to do it more quietly, though. We’re going to sing Silent Night, light our candles as we do every year here at Calvary. But maybe, maybe this year is different for you. Maybe you’re starting to see beyond the traditions of Christmas and the trappings of Christmas, and you’re starting to see the faith in Jesus that is the foundation of Christmas and the reason that we celebrate. If you are drowning in your sin, if you are frustrated by evil, if you are dissatisfied with the saviors that the world has to offer you, can I invite you tonight to put your trust in the Savior that God has provided for you? Stop trying to find your own or be your own. Find the one that God has provided. He is the true Savior and he has come to rescue you. Would you pray with me?

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