Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Pastor Bill Luebkemann makes this observation concerning how God chose to announce the birth of Christ. It's announced to the lowliest form of all people at the time, which was shepherds. He could have come in the year 2000 and commanded live coverage on all the cable news networks, but no. Out here to the lowliest form of people, shepherds, is this good news of great joy announced.

Here we have Jesus being born and laid in a manger in town in a dirty, filthy feeding trough, the lowest possible thing. And then you have this heavenly choir show up and talk to these shepherds. In a way, it's funny the choir didn't show up above where he was lying, at least. He's in the trough there. You'd think at least they would do their Christmas cantata above him lying in the trough, not out in the field somewhere.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel of Marlton presents Hope From the Word, a daily time of Bible study and application taught by our senior pastor, Bill Luebkemann. In just a couple of days, Christmas will be here, but the celebration of Christ occurs every day on Hope From the Word.

Today we're in the Gospel of Luke where the birth of our Lord is so faithfully recorded for us. It's a timeless message that's worth more than a one-day-a-year glance, wouldn't you agree? With a more in-depth look at the Christmas story, here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: So we are going to continue in Luke, something we really never did before at Christmas time. Everybody else does it at Christmas time, and I always try to do something different than everybody else. So after having Calvary Chapel of Marlton for 11 years, I thought maybe it might be nice to look at the Christmas story at Christmas time, and probably won't do it again for another 11 years. Anyway, if the Lord tarries.

Last we were in Luke chapter one. We looked at the angel appearing to Mary in verses 26 to 38 and Mary's willingness to be used by God in whatever way He would have it. She ended by saying, "May it be to me as you have said." And then we popped over to chapter two, and we looked at the birth of Jesus.

We saw that a census was going on, that Caesar Augustus—we looked at a little bit about who he was—and then that he issued this decree that the census was going to be taken. And we see how the Lord God putting all the pieces in place just to orchestrate this one event that's going to take place on this one night in Bethlehem. And even going to the length of having a census and making everybody go back to their town that they were from just to get Mary and Joseph in the right place for this to happen. You have to believe that this was all done and orchestrated according to God's plan.

And Joseph taking Mary from Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem because that's where he was from, that's where his family was from, that's where he was going to register for the census. And by the way, you could just put a little equal sign next to that: census equals tax. They had to register to be taxed. That's why they registered. And it's no different today.

And by the way, I was reading the difference between the tax man and the taxidermist. The taxidermist leaves the skin. So they were going uphill to register to be taxed, and while they were there—a lot of myths and fables are shattered when you read this here because you get this impression from watching movies and TV and looking at manger scenes that she arrived and the baby was just ready to pop out as soon as she got there. And that's really not what it says. It says while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. They could have been in town for a while before the baby was born.

But either way, Jesus was born there in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. I always grew up thinking the manger was the little barn thing. We put the manger under the tree. That's the manger, and all the figures in it and everything. But the manger was the trough that the animals ate out of that had hay in it, and there was probably slobber all over it because the animals ate their hay out of the trough. And she placed his little body in that like a bassinet, only it was a feeding trough for animals. That was the manger part of it.

Actually, some people feel he was born in a cave. Of course, there's no way to prove really where he was born, but it was not at the local Holiday Inn, we know that. And no bassinet, no baby room. Mom hadn't had time to paint and decorate the room and set it all up with the right colors and get all the stuff that we have now, no bridal shower. Her family back in Nazareth—she was probably happy to leave Nazareth because I'm not certain her family was really too happy with the fact that she was pregnant. They didn't really understand how this could be. And maybe she told them, "Well, it's a God thing," and they said, "Yeah, right. That's what they all say."

So she may have been happy to go to Joseph's town, get away from her family. But no baby room, no gifts and everything. They didn't know it was Christmas, so they didn't even know to buy gifts. And here they were placing him in this feeding trough. Now, here's where we're going to get into today. The shepherds in verse eight: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Look, this happened at the same time or right after he was born. We're going to see, if we get that far, that the wise men, who were really Magi, who were not kings and probably not from the Orient, by the way, and there probably weren't three of them either. But beside all that, those guys didn't show up for another year or two. And they weren't there that night. They could have showed up when Jesus was two years old. And if he was an early talker, he might have even chatted with this company of wise men. But that's another topic, maybe we'll get there, maybe we won't.

This happened contemporaneously with the event in Bethlehem. At the same time, right afterwards, there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby. How close were they? Well, they were close enough to get over to Bethlehem the same night. So they were real close. And they were watching the flocks at night. And some people say, well, this couldn't have been in December because they don't watch their flocks at night over there, it's too cold. But the truth of the matter is they do watch their flocks at night. It could have been in December.

Again, the date December 25th, that was picked in the year 200 or 300 AD. Somebody guessed. I don't know how they figured it out, how accurate it is, nobody really knows. Some people think it's real accurate, some people think he was born some other time of the year. It doesn't really matter for our purposes.

But while this was going on, it may very well have been in the wintertime. There were shepherds living nearby. Now, I think we need to remember a few things about shepherds. First of all, not well respected. They had a bad reputation. They were hustlers. One writer said that they had a habit of confusing "mine" with "thine." And as they traveled around, they would steal things, and what was yours became theirs. And they were not of good report. They were not looked up to. They didn't have a very large social circle. People didn't want to hang around with shepherds, except perhaps other shepherds.

They were not even allowed to testify in court because they couldn't be trusted. You're a shepherd? Get out of here. We don't want to listen to you. So we have to consider here who these people were that the angels appeared to out in the fields. They were shepherds, pretty much the lowest if you could look at this as a caste system, which it wasn't, but if you did, they kind of be at the lowest level of the caste system. Not respected, not looked up to, bad reputation. Nobody wants to hear anything from them. God would never appear to those people. Angels would appear to the priests, right? And the elders and the Pharisees and Sadducees.

But it shouldn't be lost on us here that the angel appeared, and the whole angel choir appeared to this basically lowest form of human life that was known at the time to these people. And I think the whole idea that Jesus was a shepherd and that we are all sheep shouldn't be lost on us here, either. And he's our shepherd, and he's the great shepherd, and he shepherds his flock with love. And so the idea that he would also send these angels to appear to shepherds, you can see some kind of a connection there as well.

This was no mistake that these were chosen. It wasn't like the angels popped through the fabric of space and time and didn't know where they were going to pop out at. I also have a little ornament, it's the portal thing from Star Trek, the gateway to forever or whatever they called it. They jump through and they wind up somewhere else. You press the button and it says, "I am here and there and everywhere. I am neither life form nor machine. I'm both and neither," and all kinds of illogical things. You could just take a whole bunch of illogical things, put it together, and it's perfect for Star Trek.

The angels, this was not a mistake. They didn't just pop through and accidentally set our GPS wrong and we are here where the shepherds are. We meant to be at the temple, but we might as well play the song here. Okay, guys, get the band going, step with it. No, this was on purpose. They approached these shepherds here on purpose. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby. They were tending their flocks, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

So it was nighttime. It was after the baby was born. The shepherds were out in the fields watching their flocks. They were tired, dirty, worn out, all those things, not well respected, out there alone. Nobody wanted to talk to them, just killing time, protecting their flock from the animals. And all of a sudden, this angel appears in verse nine. "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified."

Look, I don't know what it's like when an angel appears to you, but it must be scary because every time an angel appears, they always say the same thing: "Do not be afraid." So I don't know if they're big or scary or have a mean look on their face. I don't think the mean look, but who knows? This angel appeared to them, I assume in the sky. Maybe he was sitting next to them, but it had to be quite a sight to behold when an angel of the Lord appeared.

And by the way, it says the glory of the Lord shone around them. What does that mean? What is the glory of the Lord exactly? In the Old Testament, it was the pillar of cloud that followed the tabernacle around through the desert. It was a fire at nighttime. And what was it when it appeared to these people? Did it make the nighttime appear to be daytime? Was it some bright, beautiful thing? Was the whole place lit up?

What's it like when the night sky is lit up? I saw the space shuttle go up once about 10 years ago. I was in Florida, reading the newspaper. It said the space shuttle is going up tonight, and I said, "Wow, I can't believe my good fortune." And I dragged my whole family over to the coast, and we watched the thing go up at like 10:00 at night. And it lit the sky up like it was daytime. And we were seven miles from the thing. It was bright as anything. It was unbelievable what it did.

And that was just the space shuttle. This was the glory of the Lord. I can't imagine what this was. I can't imagine what it would be like to be there and someone says the glory of the Lord's going to shine around you. Well, you're going to know it. It's not going to be a normal day or normal event. And they didn't know what was going on. This angel appeared to them, and it's bright and lit up. And the angels—who knows if he's got a sword or whatever, or maybe he's 20 feet tall. And it's bright, and they don't know. Is it the end of the world? Is it an earthquake? What kind of lightning storm is this? Lightning is bright, but it doesn't stay bright for a long time. And they were terrified. "Sore afraid," I think some versions might say.

But the angel said to them, what angels so often say—and another thing here, I kind of said this already, but it just goes back to how interesting it is that the angel did not appear to the priests. He didn't appear to the religious leaders. He didn't appear to the Pharisees or the Sadducees, the elders. He didn't appear to all the people who would have thought he would have appeared to them. And they didn't really much care about the Lord's coming, as we're going to see when we get to look at the story of the Magi, if we make it that far.

When the Magi came to Jerusalem and asked Herod, "Where is this Savior supposed to be born?" and he called all the experts in, and they all told him Bethlehem. And the wise men went off to Bethlehem. We didn't see the scribes or elders or the Pharisees following them. We don't see them in any way being interested in what's going on here. Just, "Ho hum, yeah, to be born in Bethlehem. See you later," and they go back about their business, unaware and seemingly uncaring that this very thing that has been written about, that they're so-called experts on, is really happening right there at that time. And they don't even know it.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Look, the first thing the angel says: "Don't be afraid." That's how we know they were afraid. Then he says he brings them good news of great joy. Now, I think that's a very interesting phrase. I was thinking about, well, what is good news? Good news is when you're out shopping and you find what you're looking for. It's good news we got all the Christmas shopping done. That's good news. You got a pay raise at work. That's good news. It's Friday night and Ragazzi did not run out of the New England clam chowder. Good news. There's lots of things that qualify as good news.

But this says that it's good news of great joy. Not just good news of joy, not just some joy or great joy. It doesn't just say, "I bring you great joy. I bring you good news of great joy." So this is the best news. This is the greatest news. This is the best thing that could ever possibly happen. I'm bringing you news that is so stupendous, it's better than any news you can see ever.

Look, we know what bad news is because we can put on the 11:00 news, and that's all it is: bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. Weather, sports, bad news, bad news, bad news. And then they throw in some other stuff that's not even news. So it's bad news, bad news, no news, bad news, bad news, no news, then weather and sports, and then more bad news and whatever. And that's, I guess, what people want to watch.

But this was good news. You wouldn't find this on the 11:00 report here. And it was good news of great joy. It was the greatest news. It was the best news, the greatest thing that could ever happen. That the penalty for sin is about to be undone, paid for, canceled out. Oh, it's the best thing ever. That a separation between man and God is about to be eliminated for those that put their faith in this Christ.

"I bring you good news," he says, "of great joy that will be for all the people." Look, that's another important thing that we shouldn't overlook. Not just some of the—this is not good news of great joy just for the scribes and elders and Pharisees. This is not good news of great joy just for the Jews. This is not good news of great joy just for some select few people.

This is good news of great joy that will be for all the people. All the people, everybody. As many as live and breathe and suck air into their lungs, all people are included. You are not the one person that's excluded from this arrangement. No one is excluded from it. And it's announced to the lowliest form of all people at the time, which was shepherds.

As we said earlier, could have been announced in so many other ways. He could have come in the year 2000 and commanded live coverage on all the cable news networks. And he could have expected at least to be in a four-star hotel or a five-star hotel with proper linens and things and proper meals and what have you.

But no, out here to the lowliest form of people, shepherds, is this good news of great joy announced. Here you have Jesus being born and laid in a manger in town, in a dirty, filthy feeding trough, in the lowest possible thing. And then you have this heavenly choir show up and talk to these shepherds. In a way, it's kind of funny the choir didn't show up above where he was lying, at least. I mean, he's in the trough there. You'd think at least they would do their Christmas cantata above him lying in the trough, not out in the field somewhere.

You kind of get the impression here, you kind of see the contrast between the glory of the Lord, which is shining around these shepherds—a good representation of the kind of people that he came for—and over here you have Jesus being lying in a manger, feeding trough, in a back alley or in a cave somewhere. Today I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the Gospel.

By the way, good news there is evangelize. It's the Gospel. It's kind of like these people are being given the Gospel right here, if you will. Good news, that's what the word Gospel means. It's kind of like you get the idea these angels are even preaching in a way to these shepherds, telling them what the good news is and why it's good news.

Verse 11: "Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." This town of David, well, this is Bethlehem. This is where David was from. And of course, Joseph was of the house and lineage of David, so that's why he's going back to this place to register for that tax. And at the time, Israel was waiting for a Savior.

They were not looking for a Savior in the sense that Jesus was a Savior. They were looking for a Savior in the sense that he would be a king, a powerful leader, someone to kick butt, if you will, kick the Romans out of town. Israel was not a sovereign nation at this time. Israel hadn't been a sovereign nation since they were carried away into captivity in Babylon.

And that was around like 580 BC. So for almost 600 years, they hadn't been a sovereign nation. And they weren't a sovereign nation again until after World War II, by the way, but that's another topic. So here they have the Romans in control. They don't have any sovereignty. They haven't had sovereignty for 600 years. They don't even know what it's like. I mean, if you take today's date and subtract 600 years, you're back to 1408. That's how far back it was that Israel had known being a sovereign nation as of the time of Christ. So it was a distant recollection.

And they're expecting a Savior who's going to kick the Romans out and set up their empire and restore the kingdom and their sovereignty, and that they can be their own nation again and run the other guys out of town here. I don't think they imagined that they needed a Savior to forgive their sin. I don't think people imagine that today. If you talk to a non-believer today, people do not—this is not the first thing that comes to their mind: "I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior."

If you're born again, of course, you know that, but the average American probably thinks that they're saved just because they're an American. We celebrate the 4th of July, how can we not be saved? Independence Day and everything. But that's not the news here. The news is that today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. This is a Savior to save you from your sin and to save all of us from our sin. And yes, we need one.

It's like we're out in the ocean sinking in sin, and a big vessel shows up, and they lower down a boat and come out to get us. Or they throw us a life ring and say, "Hold on, we'll pull you up." Mankind was drowning in sin and still is for those that have not accepted the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And this Savior at this point had only been born. He still had some things to do before he ultimately paid the price for the sin on the cross. But what the angel said is that this good news of great joy for all the people, the greatest news that could ever be had, is that a Savior has been born to you. Not just to the leaders. He's talking to the shepherds. "The Savior's been born to you." And I might add that applies to all of us here today. He was born for all of us. He is Christ the Lord.

Some people say today he wasn't the Son of God, he was just an important person. But the Bible says he was Christ the Lord. Some people say today, "Well, he wasn't Christ the Lord when he was born. He worked really hard and prayed a lot and served God a lot, and he became perfect over a period of time." No, that's not what it says here. It doesn't say he will be Christ the Lord at some point in the future. He was born, and he was Christ the Lord. He is Christ the Lord. He was at that time Christ the Lord.

Guest (Male): We're going through a Christmas series here on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. For a CD copy of the message, call 856-983-1662. That's 856-983-1662. You can also replay today's program and catch what you may have missed at ccmarlton.org.

Another great way to listen to a program you enjoyed or access other teachings from Pastor Bill is through the Hope FM app. Go to ccmarlton.org to download the Hope FM app today. It's available on all platforms, and it's free. We want to invite you to join us here at Calvary Chapel of Marlton.

We have a Sunday morning service which begins at 10:00. We also have a midweek service as well on Wednesdays at 7:00. It would be great to have you here with us. Look for our directions and more information about the church online at ccmarlton.org. And would you please send us an email sometime today? It would be nice to hear from you and learn how the Lord is using the program in your life this Christmas season.

You can also email Pastor Bill from our website at ccmarlton.org or just call us if that's preferred: 856-983-1662. We'll have more Hope From the Word from Pastor Bill's Christmas series next time. We'll see you then.