Christmas Eve Service - The Unexpected Birth of the Unexpected Savior pt 3: An Unexpected Birth - Pa

Well, good evening. Merry Christmas to everybody. I'm glad you're here.

What do you say we get started? You guys want to go ahead and stand with me?

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Lord, to be in your house this evening, Lord. To worship you, Lord. To spend time in your word. And Lord, to draw closer to you as we celebrate the time of your birth. The time that you willingly left your throne in heaven, Lord. To be among us. So, Lord God, as we celebrate tonight,

I ask your blessing upon this time. As we sing these carols, Lord God, and as we open up your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat if you like. We just want to adore you. Lord, we do adore you. We lift praise to you. We lavish praise upon you this evening, God. For you are worthy of it all. You are King of kings. The Lord of lords. Amen. What a night it must have been

when you left your throne and came to earth. And Lord God, as we open up your word this evening, Lord, I just pray that you would bless us. Lord, move mightily by the power of your Holy Spirit. Be with Pastor Ryan. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you brought a Bible with you, if you would please open up to the book of Luke, chapter 2. Luke, chapter 2. So the approach we've taken this year with the Christmas story

is that we have looked at the unexpected birth of the unexpected Savior. And we kind of looked at it from three different perspectives. The first thing that we looked at is we, we looked a couple of Sundays ago at the unexpected family. That ultimately the line that Jesus came from was probably a family that none of us would have chosen to be the one that would bring the Messiah because ultimately it was a pretty broken family.

It was a pretty twisted story that Jesus came from. And yet God chose to redeem a broken family and broken people in order to bring about his Savior because God redeems the broken. The second thing that we looked at is we looked at some unexpected circumstances. With the unexpected announcement that came to Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus and unexpected celebration of the first one to celebrate the unborn king was actually an unborn child in John the Baptist as Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist.

And then the last thing that we saw with that unexpected circumstances is we looked at an unexpected discovery as Joseph discovered that his soon-to-be wife was actually pregnant and ultimately had to have it explained to him that it's okay, this was the work of the Lord and you can trust what she's telling you. Well, tonight we look at the unexpected birth. And so starting in Luke chapter two, verse one, it says this. Now in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

And this was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census each to his own city. And Joseph said, Joseph also went up from Galilee from the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and the family of David in order to register along with Mary who was engaged to him and was with child. Now there's three things I wanna look at with this unexpected birth tonight.

I wanna look at an unexpected journey, which is the first thing we'll look at here. We'll look at an unexpected city. And then I wanna look at the unexpected visitors. So the first thing that we see is we see an unexpected journey. And I wanna look at a little bit that it was during the time when Caesar Augustus was ruling. He was the emperor of Rome at that point in time.

And some would have called him probably the greatest emperor that Rome ever had. As a matter of fact, Caesar Augustus won a great deal of battles to find himself in the place of being in charge of the Roman empire. He was so great that the people, many of the Greek writers at that point in time actually referred to him as the savior of the world, which is kind of interesting because the guy who thought he was the savior of the world was actually paving the way for the birth of the savior of the world. And so Caesar Augustus needing to pay for his wars decided it was time to tax the people.

Only the best way that he could go about that is he decided to institute a census, not only for military service for the Roman people, but also for taxation purposes. Only Caesar was a wise politician. And so he decided to couple something not fun, the thought of paying taxes with something that the people might enjoy, a family reunion. And so he said, there's gonna be a census in order that I can pay for the war.

And so he said, there's gonna be a census in order that I can pay for the war. Now, you know who all is to pay the taxes, only I want you to go back to your hometown. I want you to go back to your hometown and have a family reunion. And while you're there, sign up and you can start to pay your taxes. And so that's exactly what he did. And so with this guy named Caesar,

who thinks he's the savior of the world, thinking that he ultimately is in control, he's actually playing right into the hand of God in this moment. Because little did he know, there was an unknown man and an unknown woman living in an unknown city in Israel called Nazareth. And their names were, mary and joseph who had already received an unexpected announcement and an unexpected discovery well mary and joseph were of the house in the lineage of david and so they were to go back to their hometown which was bethlehem now we don't often think too much about the fact that they made this journey from nazareth to bethlehem but it was a pretty long journey at that point in

time if you were to look at a map of israel you would see that towards the north is the city of nazareth and a region around the sea of galilee called galilee itself and then bethlehem is all the way towards the south of jerusalem of israel just outside of jerusalem it was about 80 to 90 miles apart and so at that point in time it would have been anywhere from a four-day journey to a seven-day journey and if you're making it with a pregnant woman i know this from experience it was a seven-day journey okay because i'm just saying they had to stop to go to the bathroom and so so they make this journey now there's some question as to how far along mary was at this point in time she was at least three months along because she'd already spent three months

with her cousin elizabeth we learned that last week or sunday morning but i think that she was either in the last trimester or she was in the last month of her pregnancy in the ninth month and during this time they decide that they have to make a journey to bethlehem where they will have to probably walk there some of the pictures paint her on a donkey probably not the case because this is a pretty low-income family they didn't have a means of transportation they probably would have walked and they have to walk the journey that would have taken anywhere from four although probably seven days now when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter i went on a job

interview all the way from kansas city down to nashville and she was within about two months of having violet and i remember we had to talk to the doctor to make sure that it was okay that we could take a 10-hour car trip with her being that far along and he said yes you're great you're going to need to stop a lot which we knew was going to be the case not only because of the bathroom needs but also to be able to exercise the ankles and all those kinds of things so i know what it's like to take a journey that far along can you imagine what it must have been like to be mary and joseph in this moment because this wasn't a journey that they were taking for fun this was a journey they were taking out of necessity

and when you look at this you go what an unexpected time to make an unexpected journey to what we'll talk about in just a moment it's a very unexpected city and while it was completely unexpected to mary and joseph it was not at all unexpected to god as a matter of fact we'll talk about this city in just a moment but god needed them to make it to bethlehem and so god orchestrated history because the savior was to be born in bethlehem god orchestrated history to where mary and joseph a couple who would have in any other circumstance have never left nazareth would end up going all the way down taking that seven-day journey to bethlehem they took an unexpected journey

at an incredibly unexpected time well the second thing that i want to talk about is i want to talk about this unexpected city we're told that they went to bethlehem which was called the city of because they were of the house and of the family of david now in and of itself bethlehem's a pretty insignificant town there's a handful of things that are kind of interesting about bethlehem if you were to go all the way back into the old testament you would find that the book of ruth actually takes place just outside of bethlehem you would find that there was a famous king from bethlehem he's been mentioned already his name was david but other than that bethlehem was an

incredibly insignificant town it had no political power there were no other things that were other great people that had come from there it was just a little hamlet outside of jerusalem where they raised sheep but there's a couple of things to pay attention to about bethlehem the first comes out of micah chapter 5 verse 2 which is kind of interesting because it says this but you bethlehem ephrathah though you are little among the thousands of judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in israel whose goings forth are from everlasting you bethlehem of ephrathah are little among the thousands of judah you know what the word little there in the hebrew means the word little means

insignificant in other words bethlehem you may be insignificant as far as all of the rest of the history of israel goes you may be insignificant as far as your political power goes you may be insignificant as far as your history goes but this insignificant little town is going to be used for an incredibly significant thing and i didn't intend to make this point but i want to make it for just a moment maybe you in your life feel like you're fairly insignificant maybe you don't feel like your life has a great deal of value maybe you don't feel like your life has made a great deal of impact maybe you just feel insignificant as a person well can i just tell you that those that feel the most insignificant in their own eyes are often used the most

significantly in the eyes of god because everybody else looked at bethlehem and thought good things can come out of bethlehem as a matter of fact the city that jesus is from nazareth everybody did say can anything good come out of nazareth and yet god took the insignificant and plastered it all over the pages of history to now every year for the past two thousand years we have talked about a boy who was born in bethlehem and so we see that there's an unexpected city now there is one significant thing about bethlehem that i want to talk about and that's what its name means the name bethlehem literally means house of bread house of bread beth is house hem is bread bethlehem house of bread it's a fascinating name the reason why it's fascinating

is this because when jesus walked on top side of planet earth he said several i am statements i am this i am that and one of the things that he said is i am the bread of life in other words i am the bread of life and from the house of bread came the bread of life because god had a plan to bring about something significant out of the most unexpected city possible the city was so unexpected in fact that that a couple of years later a year or two later there's a group of gentlemen that show up they're referred to as the wise men we usually think there's three but there were probably more than that these wise men show up because they they see the star in the east and

so so they show up looking for a king and when they show up looking for a king they didn't show up to bethlehem they showed up to jerusalem because in their minds if there's going to be a king he would come from a significant city like jerusalem and they had to search and say where is the king of the jews supposed to be born and they had to search and they had to say well he's going to be born in bethlehem who would have expected that well it's an unexpected journey to an unexpected city the last thing that we want to look at is we want to look at unexpected visitors notice what it says it says while they were there the days were completed for her to give birth

and she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end and in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the lord shone around them and they were terribly frightened but the angel said to them do not be afraid for behold i bring you good news of great joy which will be for all of the people for today in the city of david there has been born for you a savior who is christ the lord and this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger and

suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising god and saying glory to god in the in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased when the angels had gone and the angels had gone and the angels had gone and the angels had gone and the shepherds began saying to one another let's go to bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the lord has made known to us so they came in a hurry and they found their way to mary and joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger and when they've seen this they made known the statement which had been told them about the child and all who heard it wondered at the things which they

were told by the shepherds well before we get to these unexpected visitors we should probably talk about the birth of christ can we talk about the birth of christ and the birth of god and the birth of we all agree that luke maybe does the poorest job possible of telling us about the birth of christ he's like oh yeah and jesus was born too by the way right like could he have given more detail i have questions do you have questions i have questions how did joseph react in this instance right like how nervous was he did he load up the donkey no they were already in bethlehem did he find them a place to say no jesus was born in the manger how did you how did joseph respond to this

how did mary respond to this what was the situation like i have more questions he doesn't give us any answers it's actually a question of how did joseph react to this how did mary respond to this how did he react to this how did joseph respond to this how did he react to this how did mary respond to this

that's all he has to say we've been a handful of things could be possible here if it truly was just that in the mind of christ that in the mind of christ was a stable it wasn't what we think of of like a a wooden barn for them to be born in lumber was pretty hard to come by in the middle east at that point in time and and quite frankly it would have been a a cave hewn out of some stone towards the edge of town if he was born in a stable it could be that he was born in like a town square like there's kind of a commons area where all of the animals could come and feed and maybe he was born just right out there in the open can you imagine being mary in that situation how embarrassing right giving birth right out in front

of god and everybody could be that that this stable or this uh manger was was on the ground floor of a home because oftentimes at this point in time animals would actually live in a portion of the home with the family we don't really know much about the place where jesus was born other than the fact that he was laid in a manger and can you imagine the very one who created the heavens and the earth the very one who created all of the animals being laid in a place where the animals would ultimately feed the bread of life being laid in a manger where normally animals would eat but that's what jesus did jesus was born right there and as he was born in that manger it was time to bring in the first visitors so the first people

that were told about the birth of jesus was a group of shepherds shepherds were a pretty interesting group of people because oftentimes we think of them as very high character people that's the very opposite of what shepherds were at this point in time first of all shepherds were the lowest class of people living in israel it was the job nobody wanted these were not royalty these were not the people you looked up to these are the people that you looked past these were the most insignificant people in all of the land of israel at that point in time the second thing that's true about shepherds is that shepherds were very untrustworthy and they were considered to be unclean because of always being out amongst the animals ceremonially speaking they were

unclean so the first people that were told about the birth of jesus were first of all the most insignificant people in the countryside at that point in time the most untrustworthy people in the countryside at that point in time and the most unclean people in the countryside at that point in time and it's kind of interesting because the people that were told first about the birth of the savior were the people who probably needed to hear the message the most because the message of salvation went to the people that needed to hear it the most now i don't know how you picture this in your mind i have a vivid imagination and imagine what it was like being out in the middle of the field in the middle of the dark right

dark time night time some stars shining maybe a moon out there being kind of bright who knows we don't really know the time of year that it was maybe it was cold maybe it was kind of like tonight it was a really warm night whatever it was they're out in the field doing their thing right keeping watch over the flocks the sheep are all getting bedded down they're probably making their camp maybe a little campfire that they're gathered around there so sort of paint this scene and all of a sudden one little angel shows up out of nowhere maybe he was a big angel i don't know i don't know what he looked like i always like to think about what that must have been like was he like the guy with the wings that we always picture i don't know

why these are wings for me but these are always wings for me it looks more like a hummingbird than an angel i don't know i can't do it anyway so so one little angel pops up and the first thing that the angel says is he says same thing he said to everybody else when he showed up don't be afraid why because they have good news you know what the word gospel is translated to be good news so essentially what this angel says is don't be afraid i'm bringing the gospel and it's good news for all people i don't know why but that's never stuck out to me before until i studied it this time look at it again i want you to look at that verse i think it's really important verse 10 but the angel said to them don't be afraid for behold i bring you good news

the gospel of great joy which will be for all people why did you why did the angel start to say off at the bottom of the barrel because if you start off at the bottom of the barrel then the gospel must be for everybody if you start off at the bottom of the barrel that means there's no ceiling anybody can have the gospel this is good news for all people for unto you is born this day in the city of david a savior who is christ the lord and this angel pops up and gives him this news he says and this is how you're going to find him you're going to find the baby wrapped in clothes and he's going to be laying in a manger now if you raise sheep what are you used to seeing

mangers right that's a pretty common sight for you he says you know the thing that you're the most used to seeing in towns the manger the thing that you probably clean out all the time that's where the savior is going to be and they were like well we can find one of those we know where all of those are in bethlehem and so they're given this incredible news now i want to tell you a couple of significant things about shepherds first of all david the king who came from bethlehem he was a shepherd matter of fact that's how he learned how to be a king is by first being a shepherd when jesus arrives on the scene he will refer to himself as the good shepherd and outside of bethlehem which is just outside of jerusalem

where they were raising these lambs tradition tells us that the lambs that were being raised outside of bethlehem were none other than the passover lambs themselves that these would be the lambs that would be taken into town at the time of the passover and would be used for the passover sacrifice which is incredibly fascinating because the very first thing that john the baptist said about jesus when he saw him when he began his earthly ministry as he said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world in other words behold the passover lamb and so the first people of the lamb of god were the people raising the sacrificial lambs for god isn't that fascinating

these unexpected visitors were exactly who god anticipated being the ones who would herald the news of jesus first well so the angel shows up and he gives him the news and and they're they're sort of freaked out about it which makes sense because i'm if i'm laying out in the field camping out and something pops up into the sky and talks to me man i don't care i don't know i'll drink alcohol but i would be like what's in my coffee tonight right like what is going on and i'm like what's going on in this situation and then pretty soon it says a multitude of the heavenly host joined in with him now i looked up the word multitude you know what the word multitude means

it means a multitude right like that's there's a whole bunch of them right like the whole sky is just full of angels all of a sudden this this hallelujah chorus begins up in the sky and it's and it's just an incredible amount of singing and i i just picture like like everything being so bright like the brightness of god's glory is shining and they're like as all of the brightness of these angels are singing glory to god in the highest and on earth peace on to those who god's favor rests upon and as quickly as they show up they leave everything goes away the sky goes back to being dark and the shepherds are left there to process for a minute can you imagine what it was like can you imagine being in that situation all of a sudden

you're going what did we just see what was happening with that as they kind of look at each other they kind of talk a little bit they're like no one's going to believe us but let's go find him anyway so they go to bethlehem and they find jesus i want you to notice what it says it says in verse 15 when the angels had gone from them into heaven the shepherds began saying to one another let's go straight to bethlehem then then see this thing that has happened which the lord has made known to us so they came in a hurry and they found their way to mary and joseph as he lay and the baby as he lay in the manger that word found in the greek is an interesting word that word found means found after a search in other words them dudes went

house to house until they found jesus right now who were the most untrustworthy people in the area at this point in time shepherds right everybody be knocking on your door in the middle of the night group of shepherds like dude you guys stink what are you doing here is jesus here we're looking for a manger would you get out of here and so they go house to house all over the place for him until they finally find him and can i just say can i just say for those of us who the gospel the the good news of great joy that's to all people for those of us that that whose hearts have been gripped by the gospel that's what we do too right we search and we search and we search until we can find a little bit more out about jesus you see that's the effect

that the gospel has on people one of the things i've learned this year one of the many lessons i've learned in a pretty difficult year the gospel is more powerful than i've ever given a credit for because i have watched the gospel of jesus christ take hearts of people who would have nothing to do with jesus any other way turn their hearts to jesus until they find themselves searching until they can find out more about this good news that has brought great joy to all the people that's a response to the gospel and so these These guys go and they search and they search until they finally find Mary and Joseph. Now, again, I've been in a hospital room twice with a woman that's just had a baby.

And I'm here to tell you right now, if a bunch of dudes we've never met before, I get in trouble enough for talking to people I don't know, right? But if I invited a bunch of dudes I'd never met before, like, hey, we heard you had a baby and the angels told us to come see them, I'm sorry, right? Like, I'll invite anybody in to talk to me at any point in time because I just like talking to people. But at that point in time, I'm like, probably not.

Like, probably that feels like the wrong thing for you to do. Can you imagine? Of course, if they're in an open town square, what are they going to do? Be like, get out of the town square. These guys show up and they finally find Mary and Joseph and they're like, you're not going to believe this. And Mary and Joseph are like, try us, right? They're like, these angels showed up and Mary goes, let me guess, don't be afraid.

Yeah, we've heard this story before. And they're like, man, they told us we're supposed to find this baby. Yeah, a savior who's Christ the Lord. Did they also tell you we named him Jesus? They tell everybody we've named him Jesus. Like, yeah. And that's why we're here. I have more questions. Do you have more questions? I do. What did they talk about? How did they share this story?

How long did they stay? Did they stink while they were there? Was Mary like, bro, like, come on now. We'll dial. Going to help somebody out at this point in time. But they stayed and they worshiped this king. I can't prove this scripturally. This is just something that takes place in Ryan's own mind. I think we're going to see those. Shepherds in heaven. Because I think the gospel took its hold on their life.

And it changed these untrustworthy, low class, common, unclean men. And to children of God. And they became born again that day. And here's why I think that. Notice what they did. And when they had seen this. They made known the statement. Which had been told them. About the child. And all who heard it wondered. At the things which were told them by the shepherds.

In other words, they pondered. They tried to figure out what kind of message these guys were bringing. See, they became the first preachers of the gospel. God took the most unexpected visitors. The shepherds. And turned them into the most unexpected evangelists. And that's who they became. These unexpected visitors started telling everybody. About what they had seen.

Well, I want to close out. With two points here. How am I doing on time? Oh, we're doing fantastic. Two points that I want to close with. The last lessons of the unexpected birth. Of the unexpected savior. Number one. What is unexpected to us. Is not unexpected to God. What is unexpected to us. Is not unexpected to God. I think that's just a really good one for us to pay attention to.

Because, listen. In my job, I continually have people come to me. With news. That they have received. Whether it be news that they've received from a doctor. Whether it be news they've received from a job. Whether it be news they've received from a child. Or from a parent. Or from a friend. And that news has taken them off guard. And it has punched them in the face.

And they find themselves going. I didn't expect that. But listen. God did. Mary and Joseph did not expect. That they were going to be the ones. Who would bring the savior into the world. Mary and Joseph did not expect. That at the absolute worst time possible. They were going to make a long journey. To a place they didn't really want to go. At a time they really didn't want to go there.

All because that was exactly where the prophecy said. Jesus was supposed to be born. Mary and Joseph didn't expect. That the Caesar who had nothing to do with them. Would actually help orchestrate their position. For the birth of Jesus. They didn't expect that Bethlehem was the right city. They didn't expect that the. That the shepherds were going to be the first ones to show up.

And yet. God did. And I tell you this. Because we live in an unexpected world. And as I've said before. Sometimes those things catch us off guard. And we find ourselves going. Lord. What was that? I don't understand where that came from. And he says. It was unexpected to you. But it wasn't unexpected to me. Because I'm already in tomorrow. Because I already know.

How I'm going to use this. And I don't know. What I'm going to use the word for tonight. But I think somebody needs to hear it. Number two. The unexpected Savior. Was exactly the Savior that we needed. The unexpected Savior. Was exactly the Savior that we needed. You see most of Israel at this point in time. Was looking for a much different kind of Savior. Most of Israel at that point in time.

Because they were under the occupation of a foreign government. They were looking for a Savior who would come. And who would set them free from the occupation of a foreign government. So they were expecting him to be born as a kingly individual. They were expecting him to be born as a majestic individual. They were expecting him to be born as a leader. As a military man.

And what they got instead. Is a man who was born to an insignificant family. In an insignificant town. In an insignificant manner. Heralded by the most unexpected people possible. But he was exactly the Savior that we needed. Because they didn't need someone to set them free from Rome. They needed someone to set them free. They needed someone to set them free from sin.

And the same is true today. I'll bet some of y'all came here because your parents drug you here. Or because your wife drug you here. Or because you're making your mother happy. I actually would think that's probably the biggest one right there. You made mom or grandma happy. By showing up to church tonight. And you didn't expect to hear the gospel. You didn't expect to be confronted with the fact that you need a Savior.

So you weren't looking for Jesus. But I'm here to tell you right now. If you want your marriage to be healed. If you want your addiction to be dealt with. If you want your depression to be healed. If you want to find peace in your anxiety. If you want to find hope in your hopelessness. Stop looking forward in all the things in the world. And start looking forward in Jesus.

Because he's the only one that can heal your marriage. He's the only one that can restore broken relationships. He's the only one that can make sense of the story. That you don't understand how you ended up here. Or why. Or why any of the things in your past have happened. Because he's not the Savior that you've expected. But he is the Savior that you've needed.

And there's nothing better. At the time when we celebrate the fact that. Christ was born to be the Savior of the world. Than to realize that Christ was born to be the Savior of your world. Because he may be unexpected to you. But he's absolutely what you need. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now when these shepherds left. They took the message of the gospel with them. And they spread it to everybody else around them. They made sure as many people as possible knew the message of the gospel. And so tonight, in just a few minutes, just a minute here, they're going to turn all the lights off.

And there's going to be one other than these. sweet spots that we have up here there's gonna be one shining light right here and that light represents the power of the gospel of jesus christ and we've got some shepherds that are going to go out they're going to they're going to spread the gospel to everybody else and hopefully everybody received a candle this is the time when i say if you have a small child please help them hold their candle um they're going to spread the message of the gospel to where by the time this is all done a dark sanctuary will be lighted by the light of candles as a reminder of the power of the gospel of jesus christ amen father we come to you now and lord i thank you for this season i thank you for the reminder

that you came to save sinners of whom i am the chief and so lord may this message of the gospel not only ring true in our hearts in our families and ring true in our community father we thank you and we praise you in jesus name