Tag: Luke 2

December 25th 2023: Jonathan Scott

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I want to welcome you here on this most special of Days, which we remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. What do you enjoy about Christmas? Is it receiving gifts, having nice things to eat, being on holiday from school or work with your family? These are special things to look forward to. But I want to tell you this morning of the greatest gift ever given, a gift foretold for centuries and is still the greatest gift 2000 years after it was given to us.

The First Christmas an angel appeared to some shepherds and said ‘I bring you good tidings of great Joy.’ (Luke 2: 10-11). The announcement must have come as a surprise to the shepherds. They were afraid; they did not fully understand all that it meant, that the saviour is born. Here is the most important event in the history of the world so far, and they were the first to know that the Saviour had come. What a privilege.

This is a story of a baby born in the most lowly of stables, despite being the King of Kings . He is the One who can save each and everyone of us in more ways than one. The prophet Isaiah foretold this 700 years before the birth,

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

(Isaiah 9 verse 6-8).

God made lots of promises throughout the Bible about the Saviour coming. For hundreds of years God’s messengers, the prophets, had spoken about the Saviour, whom God would send into the world. Can you guess how many promises there were? 50, 100, 200, 300? The answer is more than 300 promises about the Saviour and what He would do. God had even given 30 specific promises about the events of Jesus’s death on the cross and how He would rescue His people from their sins. The Bible says, “When the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His son.” (Galatians 4:4).

At exactly the right time in History, not a year too soon or too late God, sent His son into the world. He waited for everything to be ready for His promises to be fulfilled. For centuries God had been preparing the hearts of His People for the coming Messiah, Jesus.

Very often we do not prepare to celebrate Christmas as we should; we are in such a hurry there are so many things to be done at the last moment. God was not in a hurry. He chose the century, the year, the month and even the day when the Lord Jesus would be born. He had prepared everything with much care.

It is mentioned even back to Genesis about the promise that the saviour is coming, and here in Isaiah 9 we see this lovely promise of God that His son will be born who is,

‘Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’

Not only is it promised that the babe is to be born, but it is promised of who He is to be born to. Isaiah 7: 14 reads, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” A wonderful miracle was going to happen in the body of a young lady, who had never been together with a man. No other baby was ever born like this one. Joseph was not the father of Lord Jesus Christ, God is His Father. The Son of God, who had always been with the Father in heaven, became Man. The Holy spirit worked in a mighty way, so that Mary would be the mother of this baby, who is God and Man in one person. He is Immanuel, which means God with us. We are not able to understand such a mystery, that the Son of God should live in the womb of Mary, before being born that first Christmas. Yet finally, when everything was ready, the promised Saviour was born. Every one of the promises concerning His birth, life, ministry and death were fulfilled exactly as God had said.

The Birth of Jesus Christ: Luke 2:1-7

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration whenQuirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels: Luke 2:8-20

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

Many People were surprised by the place chosen by God for the birth of the Saviour. The people must have thought that the most important person in the history of the world should be born in a palace and surrounded by rich people. But no, the promised Saviour was born in a dark stable which was used to keep animals. Mary took the little baby, wrapped Him in cloth and laid Him in a manger (which was an animal feeding trough). The stable was a dirty place and didn’t smell nice either. The Lord Jesus was born in complete poverty.  The One who had created the universe, the King of Glory, humbled Himself as a little baby, who was weak and dependent upon His mother. God became Man, for Jesus Christ is fully God and Fully Man. Why was this necessary? Why did he come?

The Bible tells us that He came to save us from our sins (1 Timothy 1:15). We had disobeyed God and the only way that we could be saved from our sin was that the Son of God became Man and that He should die and rise again for us on the cross at calvary.

News spread over the countryside by the angel to the shepherds that the Saviour had been born in Bethlehem. People were so excited to see the Saviour, the shepherds went at once to see the baby. Are we so excited every day to get up and see and worship our saviour? We all go through seasons when we feel closer to God or feel more distant. It is important to note that this is not just a story that is told at Christmas time. It is completely true. It is important to look further than just to Bethlehem and the Saviour being born in a manger.

The Lord Jesus didn’t remain a little baby. He grew up and became a man. He was perfect, the only one who never sinned. He always obeyed His heavenly father. He would be conqueror over death and would conquer God’s enemy Satan.

God kept His promise. One day on the cross He took the punishment for our sins. He paid for us in full, not with gold or silver, but with His own precious blood. His life. We do not deserve such love. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross and rose again, He won the victory over Satan. If you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you can take this promise for yourself.

Summary

From Isaiah delivering the promise of God, that the Saviour is coming, to Jesus being the fulfilment of this promise in being born in as a baby in Bethlehem, all the way to dying on the cross for our sins, this story we hear every Christmas time is about the greatest gift that we could ever receive: Jesus Christ our Saviour, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This Christmas, if you haven’t come to know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour I would urge you to listen to these words from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Take the words from Isaiah earlier of God being with us (Immanuel). If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, the babe that was born in Bethlehem will be your Saviour and He will be with you until the end of this age helping and guiding you through each and every situation. Please let the best gift this Christmas be that you accepted the baby that was born in the manger as your Lord and Saviour, knowing His love that He has for you, and you can share eternity with Him.


For those of us here, who have already accepted the Lord Jesus as our Saviour and received the greatest gift of all, your salvation, why not take a moment today to remember the goodness of God in that He kept His promises that He would send a Saviour, therefore we can trust Him to keep the other promises He has given to those who have trusted in Him – that He will never leave or forsake you? He truly is Immanuel, God with us, until we are finally home with Him for eternity.

The first Carol we sang this morning was, ‘O come all Ye faithful.’ It is my favourite carol because of the words in the chorus, ‘O come let us adore Him.’ For all that He has done for us, it has got to be our pleasure to do exactly that. Come and adore him for the rest of our days. We have done that throughout this morning, but my challenge is to you and me, Knowing the truth that the greatest gift has been given to us, and that He is with us in every situation, now can we adore Him each and every day of the coming Year ahead? Because He deserves all our adoration.

January 15th 2023: Philip Meiring

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Luke 2:41-51: The Boy Jesus

“Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:49

This is such a profound, prophetic answer precipitated by such a common incident of life. We have all heard those highly emotional words of Mary from our own mother’s, haven’t we? “Philip, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” (Luke 2:48).  Remember the embarrassment of the scene? Your mother’s red eyes, your friends looking on and your dad shuffling uncomfortably in the background.

But this was different. It wasn’t a thoughtless adventure on Jesus’ part. He had been left behind! Have you done that too? Left a child behind? I have. That’s mega-embarrassing!

Notice the pivotal word here, “father”. “Your father and I…” “My Father’s house”. This answer is most profound. It is not a statement to counter embarrassment or guilt, rather it is an emotional declaration from the heart of the boy Jesus, saying out loud what he had already come to realise within his own consciousness. Jesus knew he was indeed, “The Son of the most High.” God was directly his “Father” and he was captivated.

The questions found in verses 49-50 would have been unfeeling and impertinent questions had not there been plenty of clues as to the probable whereabouts of their son. Having returned to Jerusalem, they spent near on a whole day looking in the wrong places. Had they not noticed his intense delight at the Feast of the Passover celebrations and the spectacle and worship of the Temple?  Everything about their son was uniquely of God, His birth, His names, His conversation and especially His behaviour day on day – otherworldly holy – you might say.

You see the Temple was that one special place of God dwelling with His people. It was there that God’s people could through sacrifice and worship come especially close to their God. To the people it proclaimed, “God with us – Immanuel.” However, God was certainly not restricted to His Temple since He is the God of heaven and earth, but it was His appointed place and designed to meet His requirements.

If one of Jesus’ school mates in Nazareth had asked Mary where Jesus was, she would probably have often answered, “He’s up the workshop with His dad …spends most of His time up there!” You see over the 7 days of Passover, the Temple for Jesus had become a home from home. It is clear that Jesus’ parents were struggling with His identity. He’s just like other boys but yet He’s so different. You can see that in v50 and v51, they couldn’t get the pieces of the jig-saw together. Astonishing things were happening but they still “did not understand”. However, in v 51 you can see that Mary is keeping the pieces safe in her heart. She was treasuring up the words of God.

Providentially, it was important that Mary and Joseph did not have the full picture at this stage. Just think how it might have impacted upon their family life. The realisation would have been overwhelming and Jesus might have had a less than a normal upbringing.

Do you find you have a lot of questions? Well, take heart. Great theological minds have struggled with passages like this one down through the centuries. This story is a powerful example of the two particular incarnation truths expressed in Hebrews and Philippians:

  1. He was “Made like his brothers in every way”    Hebrews 2:17
  2. “Taking the very nature of a servant.” Philippians  2:7

 “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.” (Luke 2:52) Jesus, the eternal Son of the most High, in His voluntary state of humiliation had to grow and develop. We can only tip-toe with great care to the edge of this incredible mystery. The self-existent One chose to have a childhood. We can truly say, our Saviour is indeed one of us. We see him as baby, toddler and adolescent! And this is not the superman Jesus of the apocryphal writings either, doing meaningless stunts e.g. making clay pigeons that fly away.

What are we to make of this amazing Jesus? The data of Scripture clearly shows that He did not have a dual personality. He was one and the same person as He was before time began. He had two natures, the one from eternity and the one which He took on at the incarnation. He was fully God and fully Man at one and the same time. Augustine said “He became what he was not, but did not cease to be what he was.”

How could he become like us then? Again, the data of Scripture would lead us to the conclusion that “He places in abeyance for a time and by Covenant agreement, his right to draw on the resources of his own Godhead” but instead “he drew all his strength from God through the Spirit.” He had “the Spirit without limit”. Dr Hugh Martin [1822-1885]

An example of this is here in the passage at v46.  This is mystery of all mysteries.  Mary and Joseph find him at an open university session held on the Temple terrace. What was Jesus doing? He wasn’t teaching (although His insightful answers would have been “amazing” to hear and were “astonishing” to His parents), He was listening to the Word of his Father (the Law and the Prophets) expounded and confirming His growing understanding with questions and answers. Because he was the Son of the Most High and knew the Holy Spirit intimately, His conclusions were spiritually astonishing.

As impossible as it might seem, Jesus’ earthly spiritual pilgrimage was mediated by the Holy Spirit similar to how it is with us. Jesus had to assimilate Scripture and pray like us but without sin to hinder and a perfect Father-Son relationship to sustain.

  • “Taking the very nature of a servant.”                 

In one sense we have already touched upon this but look at that verse v51 and take it in conjunction with v 52. “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.” Why is this statement here? Did it mean that from now on Jesus was going to be good? Does it imply that until the Feast Jesus’ behaviour had been a bit up and down?

Not at all. He had declared openly to his parents His true identity. The feelings developing over time in His heart had been irrepressible. He was the Son of the Most High, directly and not by adoption. He could have stood immediately upon His status and ordered everyone in His sight to prompt obedience.

This statement is astounding. It is our Saviour “Taking the very nature of a servant” expressed at this time in His being an adolescent boy, under Law, honouring His mother and father. Down to Nazareth is literally down. From Jerusalem at 2,500 feet to Nazareth at 680 feet below sea level! Jesus was on the downward path of His humbling and fulfilling that crucial role of servant. The road was to lead into obscurity for 18 years. Most likely He became head of the family looking after His siblings and putting bread on the table from His carpentry trade. How He must have longed to be on the road teaching folk about the way of salvation. But whilst it seemed wasted time, it wasn’t. Every bit was necessary for our salvation. What a truly wonderful Saviour we have. Truly indescribable! 

This morning, we have two fathers if we are believers. Our biological earthly father and our Heavenly Father who has adopted us. And what is true of Jesus should become true for us.

  1. Is the Father’s business your business? Is it the main driver in your life to be in fellowship with God about those things that please him?
  2. In your servanthood as a believer, no step down should be too low. How low have you gone for Christ?
  3. Is your holiness gaining “favour with God and men”? Is your holiness attractive?
  4. Do you realise? He knows just how you feel.  He’s been there before!

Have you got two Father’s? And I am not talking about a biological father and a step-dad? You need to be adopted by the one in Heaven. It can happen immediately the moment you repent of your rebel ways and trust in His Son who took your penalty at the cross 2000 years ago. You won’t have to wait for adoption papers or trial visits etc. The cost was entirely borne by Jesus himself. The Fatherhood of God is a free gift that he offers you right now.

December 25th 2021: Ian Middlemist

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Luke 2
The answer to that longing has come.

“For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
      Isaiah 9:6

May the peace of Christmas be with you. Certainly, with the children there is anxiety and excitement that leads up to Christmas. It can be exhausting. Then comes the thrill of opening presents. After all of the excitement and noise of unwrapping presents, there’s a lull as children play with their gifts. It’s like the peace of mother and child after labour pains, the agony and expectation and the doubts, ‘Am I going to make it?’ Certainly, as an onlooker, you can think, ‘Is this all it’s meant to be?’ Then, for the majority, there’s that moment of peace as mother and child are skin to skin. Wonderful.

Well, our Saviour has come! Could He really fulfil the promise? Could such a wonderful child be born to this world? There is this longing of scriptures of the Old Testament times. Yes, indeed. All throughout Luke’s infancy narrative, we find many references to peace. The Prince of Peace has come, that is what Luke is telling us. Zachariah was told that this special boy would restore relationships horizontally and vertically between men and between God. Mary was told her greater, special boy, the Lord Jesus, would sit on the throne of His Father David, reigning forever as King. This is the Kingdom reign described in Isaiah 9. Zechariah sang of the coming of God’s of tender mercy, that He would guide our feet into the path of peace.

The shepherds were told of this King, listening to the song from heaven of the angels, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, Peace to men on whom God’s favour rests.’

We rejoice this Christmas Day; God sent His Son, the Prince of Peace, who rules over His land in peace. He is a peace-giving and a peaceable Saviour. He speaks peaceable words that bring restoration and joy.

In His coming, our Saviour achieves peace. God didn’t send into this world a good politician, a diplomat. He stands in the gulf between men and God. Through the cross He bridges the gap, that chasm between men and God. The chasm is too deep for us, we need Jesus, that bridge. Because of His incarnation, we have this mediator between Man and God. The Son came to take on human nature. The Father will never renege on His holiness.

We all think of Christmas Day in different ways. Will you keep peace? The demands of the perfect Christmas are very high – the peaceable Christmas where no one falls out. The Father demands upon mankind are very high – unattainable for us on our own, yet not unreasonable. We mess everything, but praise God, Jesus did not mess up this day. He came and He lived for us. He achieves peace. Dear friends, as you think about the achievement of Jesus’ incarnation, of His coming to reign over you as the Prince of Peace, are you realising that? Are you going to maintain that peacefulness today?

God has led us, He has been with us, yet we often lack that sense of peace within us. We complain about being lonely, but He has been there. Maybe we complain about the lack of gifts. But God has given us the greatest gift. We should be all about peace. We should pray for peace, that we will be those who are living under the peace of Christ. God is near to us. He achieves things by His coming, by His living the perfect life, by His going to the cross, by His ascension, He achieves peace. It is settled, it is done. Peace has been made you and your Creator. Praise His name.

Secondly, He brings peace. When you know Jesus Christ, you know peace. He has driven that definitive blow to enmity itself. God has created us and given us life and this gift. Let’s celebrate that. Let’s be thoughtful of others and express our love. Think of family, the homeless. Man wants to remove God from the picture, to be thankless., to forget about the real meaning of Christmas Selfishness leads to anger and anger leads to violence. When you are right with God, peace ensues between God and Man. Peace must radiate from within towards others. Jesus came not to ponder peace in some ethereal idea, but to bring peace. The baby Jesus lying in that feeding trough was destined to die on a cross. As He died on the cross He carried the hatred of people towards God. He died so that we might be forgiven and experience peace and would also be peacemakers as well.

He achieves peace, He brings peace and He sustains peace. It’s a lasting peace. We know that unofficial story of that ceasefire in the First World War where those soldiers met and sang Silent Night and they played a game of football. It’s a wonderful, uplifting story. We all know that just a moment later the gun fire returned. It was short-lived. We know that any peace made on this horizontal level is short-lived.

The peace that the shepherds heard of must be more than a brief moment. There are manufactured peace treaties made, that look like peace, but really underneath the animosity is still there. May be some families are saying today, ‘I’ll keep my mouth shut for mum. I want to keep mum happy today, it’s a special day for her. I’m not going to say the things that I want to say.’ Brother and sister are going to get on today for mum. That’s fine, but it’s just going to last a day, isn’t it?

This perfect peace that Christ achieved in His coming is utterly secured by the Father. That’s why we speak of this justice being higher than any other. This justice has brought forth this plan of the Incarnation, of the cross, of Jesus’ work of salvation, of what He achieved. Justice itself came up with this. Therefore, it is a permanent solution. You know where you stand with God. I know where I stand with Him. I know that Jesus is my Saviour and I know that my salvation is secure. The Father will never take that away from me. He will never change His laws, His mind. He will never grow tired and weary of me. He will stay with me forever and ever because of Jesus. I know because Jesus came I will always be fundamentally at peace. I don’t always work it out in this lifetime because sin still remains, yet I am at peace.

Let’s make sure we spend some time realising God is for me, God isn’t against me. He will be with me forever. We have a wonderful song to sing, the Christmas message. Praise God with songs all year round. We really will be at peace, peace will reign where ere Jesus is King and Prince of our lives. “Peace I leave with you.”

December 19th 2021: Alan Davison

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Luke 2:1-14

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
Luke 2:14

Christmas in our culture has become quite controversial. Nativities sometimes change the words of Christmas carols so as not to offend people. Advertising in the media does not portray the Nativity of the Bible. How do you present the Christmas story to someone who doesn’t believe in it? Is a fresh approach needed? No, not really. We need to simply tell it as it is, in the way Scripture portrays it.

Luke sets the scene, in verses 1-7, telling us about the birth of Christ. Given that this was the birth of the long-awaited Messiah, we might expect, humanly speaking, that there would be a huge fanfare for this – royal announcements, town criers going out in every street. But  God chooses to tell a bunch of shepherds first. Shepherds weren’t exactly respected in Israel at this time. Shepherding was something families would consider the younger sons to do after the older sons had respectable occupations. But God, I think, is making a very important point here – The Messiah is for everyone.

Jesus came for anyone who would accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. When Samuel arrives to anoint one of Jesse’s sons, God rejects the eldest sons. The youngest, keeping the sheep, was chosen. In human culture people become marginalised for different reasons. Shepherds were expected to protect the sheep, spending nights out in the open. Certainly, this group went from humdrum boredom to terror – the glory of the Lord shone around them. The brightness of the glory of God reveals sinfulness. This is why the angel says, “Do not be afraid.” The angel has good news, for all people. This Messiah, the Saviour of the world, can be found in an animals’ feeding trough. The angel was joined by more angels. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”(Luke 2:13-14). The Scripture says they specifically said. The Greek word for this means ‘to lay forth, to relate in words.’ Having said that they simply spoke this declaration, I’m sure that so many angelic voices sounding forth the glory of God would have sounded melodic and lyrical to human ears.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).

I think this verse really splits in two, based upon two locations. First of all, the angels declare ‘Glory to God’ but they make the point that God is ‘in the highest.’ The initial focus is in heaven. Christmas is something that would not have happened without God. We need to remember that Christmas is a celebration of what God has done for us. For many people, Christmas is simply food. Perhaps to others it’s family or may be simply the capacity to have a party. But the Bible makes clear that we are celebrating a person – Jesus.

The angels are declaring glory to God for what has just been given. We read of the gift in verse 11, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

There are three titles for Jesus in one verse: Saviour, Christ and Lord. Jesus’ name is the Greek version of Joshua. It means ‘Saviour.’ The Jews were very much a religious people and knew a Saviour was prophesied to them throughout all the scriptures that they had. But they were not so clear what they needed to be saved from. In this time, many thought they needed to be saved from the Romans because there was an occupation of their land. But they were simply the latest in the line of foreign occupiers. If Jesus had come to save the Jews from the current occupiers, the Romans, this would have been a temporary solution. Sooner or later, another oppressor would turn up and they would need another saviour.

But this gift of God was also Christ, another Greek word for a Hebrew term, in this case, ‘Messiah.’ This tells us that this saviour has come to do God’s will because He is the anointed One. He is the one set aside for the purpose of salvation. In Old Testament times those set aside for God’s work – kings, priests and prophets – would very often be anointed with oil to publicly demonstrate that they had been set aside to fulfil God’s will for the people.

There is also another term Jesus is referred to, as Lord, declaring His divinity. This Savour was also from God as much as He was God Himself. As human beings, we cannot save ourselves from our own sins, so God had to come to be the ultimate Saviour, to be the One who will save everyone from their sins. Not from the Romans, nor from any other invading empire. God was coming to deal with something much more dangerous. Interestingly, it is Joseph who is told, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). God spells it out to Joseph.

Ever since Adam and Eve, sin has been Man’s greatest enemy. It broke our relationship with God and ultimately let death into creation. Very often, people blame God. But sin creates a debt which needs to be paid for by someone. Even in our culture, people can have their debts cleared, but someone, somewhere must bear the cost for that to happen.

In the case of sin, it is God who bears the cost of our sins. But don’t miss how this will happen, ‘For there is born to you.’ God will live a human life. He won’t just appear fully formed as Adam was. He will actually be born, staying for nine months in Mary’s womb. Jesus would experience every aspect of what it means to be a human being – fully man, yet fully God. Divinity veiled in flesh. Jesus would be the ultimate definition of meekness; strength under control. He was and is God but chose to accept the limitations of a human body. When He was hanging on the cross of Calvary He could have called on legions of angels to save Him, but He didn’t. He stayed on that cross until He died because that was how He was going to save His people from their sins. He was the only One who could save us.

Jesus is also important because He links the two location we are talking about. Jesus was born. He did not come into existence at the Incarnation. When Jesus talks about coming into the word, it is only once He refers to being born, “Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37). To have come into the world, Jesus must have been somewhere else beforehand. Jesus has always existed. He chose to be born so He could work out the salvation plan for man.

From a spiritual perspective, His birth and death were planned. Jesus acted because He chose to do so because He loved us.  

The second location is on earth, “And on earth peace.” Israel, at this time when Jesus came, had a kind of peace. Nowadays, we refer to it as the ‘Pax Romana,’ which was imposed by the Roman legions. It was a peace in the sense of an absence of open conflict. But the fact is, strife remained. There were people who were rebelling against Rome. It continues today to be a land of conflict. The peace spoken of here is God’s peace, the promise of One who has been born, who will bring peace to the world from God. The angels are described as a multitude of the heavenly host. God sends His army to announce peace. This is not imposed upon humanity but a promise of what is to come. It fulfils Isaiah 9:6,

“For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Men, for the most part, will initially reject this peace. Even in Christ’s infancy, Satan would try to eradicate God’s peace, through his agent, Herod. God’s peace is different. Goodwill towards men! Note, not ‘amongst men.’ Goodwill should be a permanent state of our character, not just at Christmas.

“Goodwill towards men.” Goodwill to is have favour upon someone. It speaks of an on-going relationship, a truly warm feeling upon someone. This is goodwill from God towards men. Because the Saviour has come the relationship can be restored.

At Christmas time we are celebrating the fact that God looks upon us sinful people with favour because of what Jesus has done for us. This peace of God is directed to us who are believers, just like the shepherds, who came away glorify and praising God. Others heard them and thereby became aware of the news. The scriptures tell us the shepherds simply marvelled at what they heard. Later, in the gospels we hear of other people who marvelled at what Jesus said and did. In so doing, they were drawn to Him, they wanted more of what He offered. But many of these people didn’t act on what they heard. God was interested in the shepherds so much so, they become the first human heralds of the birth of the Messiah.

God remains interested today, kin those on whom His favour rests. This is something we should be celebrating. Christmas is a day for us to remember God became man, fully man, and lived a human life full of human experiences, good and bad. Jesus did all of this without sin so He could offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay the debt of our sins on that cross at Calvary.

Celebrate and remember what and whom you are celebrating. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).