If you're looking at the bulletin on page 5 or in your Bible's Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 20 is our passage. This morning is we make our way through the Gospel of Luke. This is the most well-known Christmas passage and we're doing it in October. But I think you'll find, I hope you'll find what I found in studying this, is you see things you missed. You discover new things when you see it outside of all the Christmas stuff and so may the Lord bless it as we read it now. Look with me at Luke 2. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus but all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Carineus was governor of Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. 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 to be registered with Mary is the trod who was with child. And while they were there the time came for her to give birth 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 end. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with great fear. 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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 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. 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. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph in the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. God's holy word, let us pray. Holy Spirit this word will be meaningless to us unless you make it come alive. And so we pray that you will, that you Lord Jesus would be precious in our sight that we with the shepherds would be filled with wonder at who you are. And so Lord I ask that you would make this word alive. You would soften hard hearts of unbelief that are inside of us. You would correct wrong thoughts that we have about you and what it means to follow you so you alone can do it. Bring glory to Jesus we ask. Use the name we pray on the end. Great commentator Michael Wilcock who wrote, here is a great commentary on the gospel of Luke said that this event from one point of view that we just read this event from one point of view is the greatest moment in history, the turning point of history. The greatest moment ever, the greatest moment ever from one point of view that he's here, he's here. The simple is that the promise that was given in the Garden of Eden all the way that was when the gospel was first told in Genesis 315. The gospel was first said that there will be the seed of the woman will crush the head of the servant, serpent. And that they waited and they waited and they were promised after promise. We wait through Noah and through Abraham and through Isaac and through Jacob and through Moses and then Joshua. And all these different people waiting, generation after generation, and then he's here. You see to be Christian, the follower of Jesus means to see the world through the lens of this event. To see the world through this event that Jesus has come in the world and he has lived the life that we could never live and he died the death that we deserve. Folks, that is not just something one part of your life and then you have all these other parts of your life. This is the event and every aspect of your life must be seen through this rescue event. This person, everything must be seen through Christ. We'll see today that we often don't live that way. We often live as though we believe this in a very abstract way or very far off way. But our lives don't reflect that we believe that Jesus Christ really came here, really lived, now everything is different. Do you and I, this is a question, do you and I really believe that this was the most significant event in history? Then why don't we live differently because of it? We'll look at two questions today. One, the first question is this. Who is really in control of the world? So even if you're not a follower of Jesus or you have questions about Christianity and you're here today, we're so glad you're here today. We hope that we really hope that we, with all our junk and religion, don't turn you away from Jesus. Here Jesus, don't just look at us. We're wildly disappointing. And weird and snobby and all those other things. Look at Jesus. Here's the first thing. Ask a question. Don't you want to know who's really in control of things? Don't you really want to know the answer to that question? This passage answers that. Now the second thing, how can you really find peace? Two questions. Christian, non-Christian, everyone's trying to find answers to these questions. Who's really in control of your first point? How can I really find peace? And then so what? Who's in control? Where's peace? So what? Let's look at our first point together. Who is really in control of the world? And based on what you live your life at, it's who you think as a control is dictating how you live. It is. So we'll look at two things to answer this question. Is Caesar in control or is God in control? Is Caesar in control? That is his man in control or is God in control? So we'll look at Caesar and then we'll look specifically at Bethlehem and what God's doing. So let's think about Caesar. It looks as though Caesar has always been in control. If it's not Caesar, put it in another ruler, put it in someone else, put it in another powerful person. Caesar was at the top of the triangle, scholars that look at first century culture said that the culture was built like a triangle. And that the emperor was at the very top of the triangle. That means he was the most powerful person in the world. And you see that in verse 1, in those days the decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. He was at the top of the triangle. And as you go up down the triangle, there are more people but less power. So at the very bottom of the triangle you have, as we'll see in a few minutes, the shepherds and all the other people. But right now Caesar is at the top of the triangle and he is so powerful that he's able to give a decree to the world. And that's what he means, the whole world because that was the known world at the time. Organized by Caesar and this Caesar was a Caesar, a man named Octavius who came to power through much bloodshed and through brute force. And he's at the top of the triangle and he's so powerful that he gives a decree to the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire was so powerful they could tell people what to do over in Bethlehem, right? That's some power. So here's Caesar at the top of the triangle giving out his decree and the decree was this. Tell us who you are and we get money from it. For a simple. We're going to tax you. Where is your daddy from? Go there. We like your social security number. Identification please. That's what this is. That's what this is. So a decree is given out from the man, the most powerful man in the world. That's the point. He's the most powerful man in the world. And so the point that Luke is trying to make here is the power differential. You know the difference between it's so great folks because you have this Caesar, the most powerful man in the world, who gets a decree and then you have this peasant carpenter named Joseph and his teenage pregnant wife. Who are obeying this decree? So actually the question who's in control? The person who gets the decree or the person who obeys the decree. The power differential here is like the difference between the White House and the Waffle House. Look at this. So who's in control? That's the question. Because Luke is writing to Theophilus who is he's farther up on the triangle. And so he's lining himself with Jesus and these followers who are at the bottom of the triangle. How can this person be in control? And so he's forcing the question who's in control? Is it Caesar? Is it the White House or is it the Waffle House? Who's in control? And this drama of this moment that there is no room for Jesus. Let me ask you this. Do you think there was ever room for Caesar? Oh you better believe it. You know the kind of guy that would just sort of buy out like a whole room, like a whole floor of rooms, right? That kind of thing. In fact this guy Octavius, he loved to build buildings. That's a lot of Caesars wood, a lot of emperors wood, build buildings. This guy had a real fear of lightning and he would build buildings all the time. But if it ever was struck by lightning or lightning was near, he'd just stop building that building. This guy Octavius, he would stop building that building and build another one. So you think if he wanted to go to Bethlehem, do you think he would have found a room? I guess what? This one, there's no room for him. There's no room in a winking-dink little town like a Bethlehem for this saver. So who's in control? Let me come on folks, who's in control? That's what Luke's doing in this passage. It looks like Caesar's in control. But then let's look at it from the other perspective. The perspective that Luke is weaving throughout this story. Because did you know that the census that Caesar is demanding, this decree to go to your ancestral home to register so that he might tax you? Do you know that this census is called Joseph to leave his town where he currently lives and to go to Bethlehem and Bethlehem is the city of David? Do you know that this census is carrying out God's promise? See, something Caesar didn't know is that the promise king of the universe, the eternal Alpha and Omega was going to be born in Bethlehem. So yeah, go to Bethlehem. Okay. Do you see what Luke's saying? See, we look from one perspective. It looks as though man is in control, as though evil wins. But we know from Galatians 4.4 that in the fullness of time, that is in the fullness of time, he was born of a woman born under law, that in the fullness of time, that means that Jesus Christ was born at the perfect time, the time of Pax Romana, the Roman piece. Or the emperor who thinks he's in control at the top of the triangle, who thinks he's in control had a system of roads and a way of communicating things that was unlike anything before. And so those very roads under the Roman piece, under the Roman ruler, those roads were used for the transmission of the gospel to the entire world, who's in control. See, God used Pax Romana for his reign. The reason that's important for us, it's really, really important that you're able to answer this question. If you're awake, if you didn't carry a goal post down the center of Oxford last night, and you're awake, you're going to realize that everything looks like a big mess right now. You're honest. It looks, it looks like evil wins. It does. It doesn't, it just never appears as though God is in control. And here we are, this little group of people, here we are assembled here. What kind of hope do we have? Because it looks like we're so outnumbered. But what Luke is telling us here in this passage, what God is telling us, is that what God has promised, God will fulfill. And that is through the evil actions of men that God fulfilled His purpose. Do you remember what Joseph said to his brothers? What human for evil, God meant for good. That's like the subtitle of the Bible. This is exactly what the disciples were clinging to as they were experiencing persecution really for the first time in the early church in Acts 4, where they said, in truly in this city of Jerusalem, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. Those are some enemies, guys, that's really scary stuff. And here's what they say, they did whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. The point is, God is in control of the world. And God is going to win. And the only way that we can have any confidence in this world, because we're always going to look ranking, from the world's perspective, from Caesar's perspective, we're always at the bottom of the triangle. We're always nobody's. It's where it always looks. But God uses the evil intentions of man to carry out His plan. He can't be beat. And folks, that is the only way Christians have ever lived with boldness in the world, period. They haven't lived with boldness because it looks like they have all the power or they have the political clout or any of those things. The only reason that Christians have ever had boldness in the world is because they know that God is invincible and His plan will not be stopped. And if Caesar tells you to go to Bethlehem, you're carrying out His plan for crying out loud. Have we lost that? Maybe have you ever had that? Have we ever had that? Are we trying to appease the powers that they... God's in control. It looks like man's in control. He's not. God is. So, let's look at our second point. That's the important thing. If you can answer that question, who's a really full of the second thing? How can I really have peace? Every single person, every human being in this room right now, is looking for eternal, lasting peace or shalom as we call it. Everyone, here's what this message is saying to us. This passage. Peace that everyone's looking for must be imported. It must come from outside of you. It has to be proclaimed to you. In other words, we're trying to find... And we've been told that we can somehow manufacture it, that we can find it in our world, that we can find it. We can find peace of mind. We can search for it over and over and over again. We can do it. We can earn it. We can somehow bring it. Here's what I'm saying. It has to be declared by God. You know why? Because He's the one that's the offended party. This passage is telling us that peace has invaded the world. And that peace has been proclaimed that He's just peace on whom His favor rests. God's shalom must come outside of you. In every single religion, every human religion is trying to fix the world. There was a pastor here from England, from York, and he said, oh, that's a really secular place, and it is. There are very few churches that preach the gospel. And he said something that I thought was so powerful. He said, because we asked him, how do you do ministry where people have no concept of Christianity or concept? He just said, well, he said, I tell them they have a religion. Secularism is a religion. He said, every human being has a religion. In other words, every one of us have a God that we're using, whatever you call it, family you call it, working, pleasure, you can call it whatever. Everyone has a God that we are trying to use to save ourselves. He says, I just tell them that their gods are working. You have a God. Your God actually, it might need Presbyterianism. It might be IPC. Your God made me the past. But every single human being has a God that you're relying on to save you and your gods failed you. And so this good news is peace has come from outside of us. Look at verse 8 with me. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angels said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who has Christ the Lord. This peace, first of all, is news. The gospel, the good news, salvation, is news. Notice the angel doesn't say, I bring you great teaching. Behold, I bring you some great advice that's going to help you get your life together. Behold, listen, I bring you a great program. I bring you a great celebrity. I bring you a great figure that's going to help you figure life out. I bring you news. I bring you news. And you know what news is? News is true. Whether you and I believe it or not, it's just true. News. From the outside, God has brought his peace. News. News. I don't want you to notice who this news is for, for unto you, for unto you, a Savior is born this day. Undo who? Undo shepherds. That's shocking. I know we're used to it because they have the cute shepherds. They all look like Osama bin Laden in our, listen to Tiffany Sains, right? The long shepherds sort of thing or so. This is not, this is scandalous. First Peter one tells us that angels long to look in the gospel, long to see how it would be unfolded. They're waiting, they're waiting. The angels love the promise of rescue and renewal. They love to hear about the gospel. And so at one point in time, God's, he's finally going to dispatch them to tell the news. Okay, it's coming. Now in the fullness of time, here it goes. I want you to go tell, I want you to go tell the shepherds. What? Excuse me? The shepherds were outcasts. In fact, we don't even get the names of these shepherds. The shepherds were ceremonially unclean and they were seen as people you couldn't depend upon. They couldn't even give testimony in court. And so the news has been proclaimed to them. I don't know who you are. Most of you, I struggle with keeping up with your names, but God knows who you are. He knows, he knows what you've done. He knows that you really think of yourself and folks, I promise you, if a room half of us or more in this room look at ourselves and say, how could that news be for you? Well, folks, the news came first to shepherds. People who couldn't even pretend to earn it. The news did not go to the White House, but to the Waffle House. Do you see? The news did not go to the top of the triangle. The news went to the bottom of the triangle. See, here's the saying, for all of us Americans, educated people, guess what? God flipped over the triangle. The news has come to us. And so that means you can stop trying to earn God's love. That means you can stop striving. That Christianity is not about doing first and foremost. The Christianity is about submitting to the reality of who Jesus Christ is for you. That's what it means. That's why everyone, everyone, everyone can have it. The news. It's news. The second thing when you see is the manger. Remember where peace comes from? It's news that's pronounced to us. It's declared whether we believe it or not. And it comes to shepherds. Shepherds, but let's look again. Where is this savior? Where is he? He's in a manger. Remember, there's no room for him in the end. How can I get to him? In other words, the shepherds outcast. This is the only place that they could go. Right? They weren't allowed anywhere. And the one place that they could get to was this place. We don't really know where this place was. Was it a cave? A lot of people think it was a cave. Some people think it was a room at the bottom of a home or a residence where you would keep animals, not people, animals. And so the shepherds could go there. Here's a sign to you, shepherds. A place where you can go. You can be there. This is where the savior, the Lord, Yahweh, the Christ is there. And where is he? He's in a dog bowl. Do you see that? I know we think the manger is this nice little thing. We have like four nativities. We have like a Lego nativity scene in our house, right? And so we see the manger is like this nice little thing. The manger is scandalous. No babies are in the manger. No babies are in the manger. Except this one. And do you know why he's in the manger? Because everyone can reach the savior. This means that shepherds and lepers and prostitutes and drug addicts and teen moms and failures and burnouts and blowouts. And weirdos and every single person from the top of the triangle to the bottom of the triangle can get to the dog bowl. That is why he's in a manger. Romans 6.23 says that the wages of sin is death. Some of you are carrying that burden around. You know exactly. You've tried to do like your own weight. It's killing you. You don't have to stop the wages of sin is killing you, eternally killing you. The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. That means that Jesus Christ is radically available savior. He is a free gift. How radically different is that from the religion that many of us grew up with? It said that yeah maybe God will save you but you need to get your act together. You need to do certain things. You need to say certain things. You need to be a certain way. You need to look a certain way. And it's worn you out. And to tell you what from my generation that's why people are leaving the church because they can't do it. But here God is saying come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. The shepherds have come and seen the Savior who is in the dog bowl. You see this table that we're about to go to. Doesn't it set the perfect thing that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he loved us to the breaking of his own body and the pouring out of his own blood available for you? And what do you do? What do you do? What did you do to get this? Nothing. Just broken and trusting and needing and full of hunger. That's why the shepherds sang. That's why the angels sang. You brought the highest and the holiest creatures. The angels and every time they showed up everyone was afraid because they were so wonderful in the book of Revelation. John is the worst of an angel over and over again because they're so glorious. But guess what? The shepherds and the angels are worshipping the Christ and they're doing it now. So what? I close with this. How does this truth change the way you see your real life right now? This is the invasion of hope. The invasion of hope. Hope has come to us that Jesus Christ has taken the wrath of God upon himself. He has taken the wrath away from anyone who trusts him. He's taken away the fear of condemnation. It's over because Christ took condemnation upon himself. It's over. And so now hope is sprung to life in the world. That's what means. That's what this verse means. That's what this passage. That's what the gospel means. And so it means this. You're struggling with hard stuff in your life. I know you are. Some of you are crazy sad today. And you're just sad. And in the words of one of my favorite songs, it takes a lot of hope to grieve. In other words, only Christians can really grieve. Only Christians can look in this and say, this is really sad. Being stoic is not Christian. You know that. Being tough. Say, I'm going to figure this thing out. We're going to be okay. We're having a fake smile. That's not Christian. No crying is Christian. Because you have hope. You have hope that this world is crazy sad. But this world has been invaded by the Savior. See, we can be really sad if we have hope. We can own this world. This world is messed up. And our families are messed up. And there are things that we don't understand. The reality that we're fallen and we're broken and we're going to die. The sad. But there's hope because Christ is defeated. Death is overcome the world. There's hope. So we can also be sad with our hope. We can also sing. You know that's what happened. That's what these shepherds are doing. And shepherds, can I be honest with you, the way that this is described here? They're out in the field. I don't think that they were the frozen chosen right here. I don't think that they were really... I don't think that they were kind of like most of us sing. Strick and smitten and afflicted. Right? Kind of sound like we'll fare a little bit. Just like this miserable unhappy person. I don't think that's what's going on in this passage. They're filled with glory. They're telling everyone around them. I think they're dancing. I think they're doing a shepherd song. Because the Savior's for them. Right? No, I think they're filled with joy and people are hearing it. They're being filled with wonder because the shepherds had received this knowledge. Hope. Here's the second thing. You can be honest. If you believe this, you can start being honest. How to conversation with a man some time ago at a different church, a wealthy, godly man who you look and said that guy's at the top of the triangle. That's the guy that we all want to be. He's got it all together. He's one of those guys. And he said, I'm so sick of playing the religious game in my life. And I don't know how to stop. I'm so sick of faking it. I'm using nice Sunday morning language. That's not what he said. I'm so sick of faking it. And if you believe this, you don't have to fake it anymore. You don't have to act like you're okay when you're not because you're not. You don't have to dress yourself up with your job or your intellect, your house or your money or your religion or your theology or any practice of self-isolation they have. You're freed from it. You're radically free. It's scary how free that is. It's scary how free that is, isn't it? How can you say it's that free? How can we be honest like that? How can we stop playing religion? It's because the message came to shepherds. It came to shepherds. It came to nobody's. And so the message God is saying here. He's saying here, Christian, stop dressing yourself up and be honest. You can stop hiding. East Corinthians, I know you because I know myself. And there's so much pretence. There's so much phoniness. There is so much brokenness behind smiles. And if we believe this, we can come out of the dark and we can sing hallelujah with the angels and with the shepherds. Lord has become of this table now. Thank you for this is the greatest application. More than anything that I've said today is that your body and your blood was for us. So Lord prepare our hearts. Let us consider what we're about to do. Would you separate these things? Would you these this cracker and this juice? Would you use them for a holy and spiritual use in our life? Would you feed your people that need to be encouraged deep down in their souls today? Would you would you give them assurance of your love? Would you give them a hope? Would you give us honesty? Would you give all of us what we need and we need you Jesus? Thank you for being so radically and scandalously available for us and your praise and your precious name we pray. Amen.