Thank you, Carl. As I've said before during this series, we're looking at the first chapter, two chapters of Luke's Gospel primarily, but you'll be well served to read the entirety of Luke's Gospel during this time. Today we lit the Shepherds candle, and in your bulletin, the text is indicated where the Shepherds are talked about from Luke's Gospel chapter 2 starting at verse 8. I won't read those verses, but just please note that that's where the Shepherds are mentioned. I want to answer the question a little later this morning. Why did the angels announce the birth of Christ's first to Shepherds? And the answer can be found in the verses I will read, that is the verses in chapter 1 of Luke's Gospel starting with verse 46. These are the verses we know as the Magnificat, reflecting the Latin in the first verse, where Mary responds to Elizabeth's greeting, she responds, my soul exalts the Lord. So let's look at Luke's Gospel. The first chapter beginning in the 46th verse and reading through verse 55. Here's God's Word, and Mary said, and my spirit has rejoiced in God in my Savior. For he has had regard for the humbleness for behold from this time on, all generations will count me blessed. The mighty one has done great things for me, and holy, and his mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear him. He has done mighty deachery, he has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich. He has given help to Israel, his servant, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to her fathers. To Abraham and his office, morning, David was to see what his reign crucified. You know, sometimes you ask your parents a question, and they come back with a really quick response mark, or they got that answer somewhere else. He answers the questions from their parents, and parents share those answers with each other too. Don't get the upper hand on it. It occurred to me there was fathers day and there's mothers day, but why isn't their children's day? We're poor people who don't have become weak. Last week we looked at Jesus coming as the king, and what it meant this week, I want us to understand what that means for us, how we're supposed to respond to this kingship. God's kingdom, bird which means good in the kingdom of mentioned two weeks ago, a Jill John, the law, is of the kingdom. There's a Jesus last week we looked at, and how they are to research kingdom, and therefore, why is it that God announced first of all the shepherds? Well, a couple of things are possible that they lived out. They followed their herds around, took them to different pastors, and as a result, they couldn't maintain the kind of ceremonial clings that's required of them, so they were ceremonially or religiously unclean, unfit. Style they were, no, it Jesus was born today, the gospel would probably be in our gypsy. The shepherds were just worthy enough that their and that's who it's to first. Gospel, we find Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, we find him, we find people like the prodigal son who are restored back, is had regard for the humble state. It couldn't be noted here of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 2. Hannah was found to be with child through her husband, Elcana, and that child ended up being Samuel, and she praised the prayer that most scholars think the model for Mary's prayer here, but Mary regards herself in the same place as Hannah, and somebody who is humble, somebody who is low. In fact, she calls God my Savior. Now that should go against any conceptions of Mary as somehow a distinct saint or somebody special class of person. She calls God by the same name that we must all call God, my Savior. But it's the key to see in verse 53, he is filled hungry with good things. It's an odd case of where the son would feed the mother, therefore it can have hope. A few months back, my cordless phone wasn't working at my house, and I messed around with it and tried to reset it, and unplugged it, and plugged it back in several times, and finally got it working. And shortly after I did, there was a knock at the door, and it was laid on a saturday night, so I peered through the people, and I saw, did you call 911? When I'm asked a direct question like that, comfort to me, I three left, to think that somebody would be so close at hand if I really needed them, willing to come and lay his or her life on the line to come to my rescue. It's simply a call that we just an initiative, that God takes to lay his life on the line, but it's an initiative where God does get his life for people who need him. He comes, who are these humble people? It's not just people who have no self-esteem. It's people who have a dilute chapter two, you see, lutes version of the sermon on the Mount, who are blessed are described in various ways that describe the humble person.
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weak now, for you shall laugh. These are people who understand their place before God. They see God it for who he is, they understand their own condition, and therefore they have a certain attitude, not only about their position in life, but with respect to their position before God. Well, speaking tells it to do anything, I've decided to do in my life what I can't do, and there are many things I know even if I decided to do I can't do. While positive thinking would lead you the other direction, the reality thinking leads you to this poverty of spirit that Luke talks to people who have really messed up in line, that Jesus comes to in Christmas. If you sit here this morning and somebody who's made some great mistakes in your relationship, you have things you have done to people that you deeply regret pursuing things that now in light of your understanding of God, you grieve over the time gospel comes to those who are poor in spirit before God. But really messed up in life not only do people have a real true understanding of themselves, but humble people are those who really are in need. It's interesting to note that in Matthew's gospel, Jesus, Jesus quoted saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, but in Luke's gospel, Luke's is simply right, blessed are the poor. See, Luke doesn't want you simply to write this off spiritually, just spiritualize it. Some of you here this morning are in great material need. You don't know where the next rent check is going to come from. You don't know if you're going to have enough to keep food on the table, let loan put presence under the tree. And many more of you have had those times don't have them now. But take a say to God, if you come to him humbly, you can go and ask God to the way. Give us our daily bread like a life insurance policy to cash in becomes your provider. And even though you don't have as much as you would like sometimes, you can go and depend on God and you can acknowledge when he provides for you to think that it's your hard earned wages and buy that food. But when we pray giving thanks in dinner, I often, I try to remind myself to pray. God, thank you from your hand because of the regularity of a paycheck or the cushion of a bank account we can forget that we don't have anything. Those are things that characterize the kind of people to whom the gospel is good news. Jesus came to help those in trouble. He also came to make trouble for those who aren't in it because if you look the second thing I want you to see this morning is that God's kingdom in Christ brings down the exalted and therefore the exalted must fear the kingdom. You see the good news is not good news for everyone. The good news is bad news for some people. You see it in verse 51, he has scattered those who are proud of the thoughts of their heart. In verse 52, he has brought down rulers from their thrones. Verse 53, he has sent away the rich empty handed. Simeon said about this baby and he said, Simeon said, hum will be throne or fold in a few years ago wrote a book called, everything I ever needed to know. Think about that, you know, the closure I think that is her totter. You learn in kindergarten that on a teeter totter when someone goes up the good news of the kingdom of God a playground piece of wood it is a cross beam of wood on which the son of God was crucified. Paul says this is where being saved it is the power of Jesus said in Luke chapter 20. He said people problems. It is a problem for many that God would take upon himself a human nature that he would humble himself to problem to most of the world that they must come, meet Jesus bring as well as raising up. How do you know if you fit in that category? Well look at how you handle authority and wealth. There is no authority in this world that is not derived from God's authority. There is no wealth in this world that does not derive from God's wealth. Do you do your wealth and authority in life for your advantage over other? Look at the examples that are given here in these verses. Verse 51. He has scattered those who are proud. It is not just people who have economic and authority over economic and authoritative advantage over other people. It is people who are proud. These are the kinds of people that Jesus cast after 12. Jesus talks about the fool who decided he needed bigger barns but then died that very not be required and don't fear
those who have authority to kill you and cast you into hell. The coming in his king and Christmas is not good news for everybody. Those who live for themselves, those who appropriate God's riches and authority for their own good are those people who will find themselves enemies. Although they be on the right side of God by having faith in Christ yet in their stewardship of things. Glory before men they have, they will have had their glory in full and will have no reward before God. Whatever we do for ourselves out of pride, out of self protection, out of self love, whatever we do for ourselves will one day need to be a source of great sorrow to us or a source of God's judgment toward us. In Christian service even we see pride entering in by seeking our reward before one another by seeking power in the church by seeking influence and authority or seeking the esteem of other Christians by doing spiritual things before one another. But those are the kind of things that God throws down in his kingdom order. Luke said the first will be last and the last will be first. And therefore when you look at what happens to the exalt and when Jesus comes you see what happens to you if you are full of self love and pride and envy and arrogance. And what a relief it is to understand that you no longer have to live in some preservation but that you can become lowly and be in foreign spirit in order to hear the good news at Christmas. Well when Christ comes in the kingdom of God the lowly are exalted the exalted are made low but thirdly I want you to understand this morning that God humbles us to make us objects of his mercy and we should be happy about that.
That God humbles us in order to make us objects of his mercy and therefore we must be happy about that in an happens. Where do we get this? Well in verse 53 Mary quotes a song. He is filled the hungry with good things. Psalm 107 and we read it in our response of reading this morning and the response of reading shows you a pattern in Psalm 107. It shows a pattern of how God's people become arrogant and foolish and how God humbles them and then how they cry out to God to deliver them and how he hears that for our and how they respond in gratitude and thanks and it's repeated three or four times in that song. It tells us something about the nature of the kingdom because that God will be merciful and gracious to us to humble us. I'd be low before him that we might be exalted by the kingdom. Now it's only 10 days till our children will run wild because of sugar and all kinds of sulfide keeping gifts upon them making them think they deserve all these good things and then right now that the night and when they do they will be so great. So glad that they will be humble recipients of these glad. Well we're not going to do that are we but we're tempted but you see that's what God did to us through the law through the law which we could never keep through the law which was just and right in which God had every right in himself to expect from us we could never satisfy it. Christmas approaches we know through our striving before God that there is no way we could fulfill
and we are getting no Christmas and then Christmas comes and we find out that because we're broken because we see how far short of what God expects from us how far short we fall and then at Christmas we can't have reason. Luke 18 is a great example. We know from Matthew's gospel it's part of Mayas, although Luke doesn't tell us his name but as Jesus is headed toward Jericho the crowd is following him and there's a blind beggar by the road. A blind beggar has no choice in life except to sit by the places where people pass by and beg people to give him what he needs to live. And he hears the crowd coming by and his hearing is pretty acute and he understands that it's Jesus and he starts to cry out Jesus son of David have mercy on me and the religious crowd turns to him and tells him to be quiet and he cries on all the more Jesus son of David have mercy on me. Jesus and he said your sins are forgiven but in order that you might know that the son of man has authority to forgive sins I give you sight and the crowd was perplexed by this whole thing and Luke is telling us about the irony of the kingdom of the teeter-chotter kingdom of God he says the kingdom of God is one in which blind people see and which seeing people are blind. This man was born blind so that he might see the Christ who he was because he was so needy so desperate he had no choice but to turn and to plead the mercy of God and God has so faith that he will push our faces down in the mud so far that we have no choice but to cry out son of David and the mercy. It's when you admit your blindness when you come to the end of your row when your bank accounts empty when your stomach is rumbling hungry it's at that point that you see Christ for me the one who raises up the lowly brings down your house the Roman centurion he was somebody who understood authority he said I know authority he said I tell people to go and they go I tell people to come and they come to Jesus Luke tells us in chapter 7 and he went to Jesus and he said I am not worthy for you to conservate this is it say the word
here was somebody who was an authority somebody who was an oppressor somebody who had every reason to be brought low by Christ but he comes to Christ in humility understanding that Christ is the great authority and Christ honors that humility how do we cultivate that in our lives how do we rejoice when God humbles us well we rejoice in when God humbles us first of all by understanding who God is by dwelling upon who he is as he is revealed himself it is said of one person the Bible he was the most humble man that ever lived you know the problem with humility prices anybody who accepts them is disqualified anybody who nominates himself is not even considered but yet in numbers we're told that Moses was more humble than any man of face of the era why was Moses more humble than any man of face the era well I think it's because it was also said of Moses he spoke to God face to face as a man speaks to you when you see God for who he is when you dwell upon who he is as he is revealed himself in his word you have nothing to offer to God you simply hand him what is already his and you would bankruptcy in your own soul and you are glad to do so and relieve and relieve and you don't have to
cultivate this kind of poverty by seeing God face to face we also do it by the Luke's gospel Jesus said whoever would be the greatest must be the least we cultivate this kind of poverty of spirit by depending upon one another and not holding back our needs out of fear self-reliance but opening ourselves before the body of Christ I want another Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12 that the weaker members are necessary why are the weaker members necessary Paul says it please God to put weaker people within the body why well so that we might rely and depend upon one another for one thing but in the weakness of one another we see our own weakness before God don't hold back your needs from one another don't deprive your brothers and sisters serving you because when you do not only do you deprive yourself of God's aid but you deprive others of seeing what they really are apart from God's mercy we see the cultivation of this kind of humility glad humility in childliness the disciples rebuked the children for coming to Jesus and Jesus rebuked them and he said don't keep them away he said unless you're like one of these you can't see the kingdom of God fair bet without saying anything bad about me and you it's a fair bet that more true worship is being rendered to Christ this morning on the other side of this wall then on this side because on the other side of this wall for all those children you saw leave those worship warriors who don't have one problem believing they need Jesus say that for their sins who don't have any trouble believing that God put that food on the table to the 8th this morning and it came from God what they'll eat today it just said unless you're like one of these you shall not enter the kingdom so it made sense he has ordained praise out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants he's ordained praise for his childlike God is merciful to humble us James 1 chapter 1 verse 9 said let the brother and humble circumstances glory in his high position in that great that the brother and humble circumstances glory in his high position we see it reflecting in our relationships with one another Paul said have the same attitude that was in you in Christ Jesus have that same attitude in yourselves though he existed in the form of God he didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but instead he emptied himself he took upon the form of a servant and he in our relationships toward one another just like I told Mrs. Reeves kindergarten class last year in the kingdom of God the end of the line goes first there ought to be among us a man right for the end of the line the kingdom of God comes as good news to those who are humble it's bad news to those who are assaulted on their own efforts but God is merciful to humble us so that we might be objects of his mercy
in my mind there are two marks of a good Christmas toy a good toy will have either one of these but a great toy has both the first mark is the potential of being able to overdo it if you can't overdo it with something it's not worth doing if you're a child the other mark of a good toy is it might put your eye out and a great toy is one you can overdo and it might put your eye out when I was a boy I got a great rifle it's a toy rifle it couldn't put your eye out but you could overdo it it made a great sound something like I real rifle and I played cowboys and indians and army and everything I could and I shot my brothers all the time and it made a really good loud popping noise and one time I got it out to play with it it didn't work and I have to be careful about this my mom's here this morning I don't want to make any accusations and it may have been day I don't know or could it's been a coincidence but I you know I'm always it's not something I've got held against them but I still think about pick that rifle up and it didn't make any noise and I can only assume that I overdid it Hannah in that prayer but I mentioned that that Mary models her prayer on Hannah says that the bows of the mighty are shattered but the people are on the street Christmas is a time for broken Christmas toy for God's shatters what we would rely upon to keep us becoming children of Christ thank God for broken Christmas toys not just the bows aimed at us against which God defends us but the ones we aim at God yeah Peter says this it's on the front of your bulletin to death