Go Tell It On the Mountain.

Steve Gentry

[0:04] Music

[0:10] How can I make sure that what I do as a physician demonstrates the love of God, and the mercy of God, and the hope of God?

[0:23] Music [0:24] From an early point in my childhood, I can remember watching the first moon landing on a black and white TV and thinking, I want to do that job. So I just pursued that. [0:37] Then was able to get into an aerospace medicine residency program to work for NASA as a flight surgeon, providing health care for the astronauts and their families. [0:46] It really was a dream come true, but in many ways my identity was not as a follower of Jesus Christ, but my identity had become, I’m a flight surgeon working for NASA. [1:00] I really didn’t think that I would leave NASA. God said, you need to make a choice. [1:07] It was in our living room. I said, Amy God, this job is cool, but I don’t need it. I need you. Whatever you want to do, I’m ready.

[1:20] When he finally came to me and told me that this is what he felt called to do, I just said, I’ve been waiting.

[1:30] God moved us to the country of Uganda where we served for 12 and a half years. From there, moved south to Lesotho, and then God brought us to Kigoma Baptist Hospital where we’ve been serving for the last seven years.

[1:44] In western Tanzania, it literally is at the end of the road because we’re right on the Lake Tanganyika. God has placed us in an area that is predominantly Islamic. [1:53] In healthcare in our part of the world, there is a great limitation on resources that are available. We have patients that are admitted with severe malaria dysentery. [2:02] Every year we have an outbreak of cholera. We don’t have the adequate numbers of resources and personnel on the field to be able to meet all the needs. [2:11] But we have partnerships with a number of different churches and on various levels. [2:15] When a church comes in and partners with us to provide that kind of care, it literally changes the people’s lives, both physically but also spiritually.

[2:28] Using healthcare strategies is like a key that opens the door to get into a village that we might not have access to. Not far outside of the town that we live in is a small village. [2:40] Completely unreached on the fringes of town. [2:43] We met with local leaders and we asked permission to come to that village and do a week-long medical dental eye clinic. [2:51] Through that opportunity, God used that to start a new church plant. [2:56] That village has been a huge impact. [2:59] Growing in their faith in Jesus Christ and being discipled. Just this past week, one person came and repented and said, no, I need this Jesus.

[3:13] The kingdom of light is coming in Tanzania, bursting through the darkness like we’ve never seen before.

[3:32] Well, W.A. Criswell was a pastor in Dallas, Texas for many years. [3:36] He’s one of my heroes and he used to say to the audience on Sunday mornings, he would say, this morning our church was represented in East Asia and Southeast Asia and the continent of Africa and all of Europe and to the farthest reaches of the world. [3:53] And he said, we’re doing that because of our partnership with the International Mission Board. [3:58] And so what that video was really about was today for us is a day that all of the partners with the International Mission Board, we have what’s called the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. [4:09] And so what we’re doing today is we as a church are going to designate 100 percent of everything that we take up in our offering today to go out of our church to the International Mission Board. [4:21] And I want to bring some of my friends from Village Kids up here.

[4:25] And my sweetie pie is one of them. [4:27] That’s my daughter is one of them. [4:29] She knows she’s grinning right now. [4:31] And as much as a gentry can grin. [4:33] But we know it’s not unknown. [4:38] But they have been working and doing chores.

[4:43] Come here, sweetie. [4:44] I’ve been doing chores around the house and selling hot chocolate. [4:48] My kids, I have three of them. [4:50] They all sold me multiple packets of hot chocolate. [4:53] But then they drank it all. [4:55] So I feel like I was schemed or something.

[4:59] But they have been working so hard. [5:01] And this is the class that that raised raised the most money and in total Village Kids was able to raise over seven hundred and fifty dollars. [5:11] Yeah, that’s right. Good job, guys. [5:13] To give to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering and Lottie Moon is a missionary from many years ago who gave her life to reaching people in China with the gospel of Jesus Christ. [5:26] And that’s who this offering is named after. [5:28] And here’s my challenge to you.

[5:29] And I’ve challenged all three services in this way. [5:31] If our children can take out trash and do chores around the house and sell hot chocolate that they plan on stealing.

[5:43] How much can we sacrifice to generously make the gospel known amongst people who do not have access to the gospel in the same way that we do? [5:55] You see, if you’re a professor, hello. [5:57] If you’re a professor of Jesus Christ, you profess faith in Jesus Christ, your neighborhood and your town is considered reached by virtue of you living there. [6:07] Well, friends, what a blessing to have that said about us. [6:10] But there are places all over the world where that can’t be said, where there isn’t gospel witness. [6:15] And the beauty of the IMB, which I consider the best missions organization in the world, is that we’ve built an infrastructure to make it possible to go further and further with our gospel witness.

[6:27] So that all of the bureaucracy behind sending people to other countries and the fundraising can be done so that people can stay in the countries longer and go further. [6:38] Just like these medical missionaries have gone with the gospel for many, many years in their lives. [6:44] There are two callings that Christians have. [6:46] There are people where international missions is concerned are called to go. [6:50] And I’m sure God is going to call someone in this audience to go to a foreign land and commit your life to reaching people with the gospel. [6:59] But if you are not called to go, you’re certainly called to send.

[7:04] And a sender is called to be generous with the materials that God has so richly provided us with so that we can support those people and make it easier for the very hard task of going to other cultures to reach people with the gospel. [7:21] I want to thank my friends up here, especially my sweetheart, for coming up. [7:26] You guys can go ahead and you can play and and honey, you can teach them all the theology that I’ve taught you. [7:32] Go ahead. No, you go. You want kids? No, no. [7:37] And thanks. So but I didn’t know what she wanted. [7:40] She wasn’t being clear with me.

[7:42] It was a joke about the theology. [7:44] She doesn’t know any. But but guys, we have such a great gospel. [7:52] The song Go Teller on the Mountain is one of my favorite Christmas songs because it is a unique Christmas song. [7:57] It’s when I was growing up and and I’ve said many times, I was I was blessed enough to grow up in a Christian home. [8:03] And and I’ve spent all 38 years of my life in the local church. [8:06] And it was one of the first Christmas songs that was unique.

[8:10] And I paid more attention to it because every other Christmas song was either, you know, have fun this time of year, you know, have a great time or look in the manger and, you know, see the baby Jesus. [8:22] But this one was totally different because it was unique in the fact that it’s one of very few songs that captures the mission of Christmas. [8:32] And so the first half of the title is Go Tell. [8:36] That’s what Jesus told us in Matthew twenty eight. [8:38] He said, Go make disciples of all nations. [8:42] That is our great commission mandate from our Savior that we’re to go and tell the nations the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news.

[8:52] But then it says on the mountain. [8:54] And that’s the unique part that can be glossed over and misunderstood. [8:59] Because if you think about it, OK, if I’m going and I’m telling what in the world do I need to climb a mountain for? [9:05] But it’s not about the activity of climbing a mountain. [9:09] It is about the scope of the mission of Jesus, that if you want a message to be heard by the greatest number of people, you will climb to the highest peak. [9:21] And that way, your message will be heard by more people in the land below.

[9:27] And so Go Tell it on the Mountain is about the mission that God has given us and the lengths that that gospel message is meant to go by God. [9:39] And the message of Jesus, the mission of Jesus and our culture, it has it has really reached us. [9:45] And the most popular message that I want to use this morning is Luke two. [9:50] Many years ago, my kids have no interest in Charlie Brown. [9:54] The cartoons that they like make no sense. [9:57] But in Charlie Brown Christmas, Linus is trying to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about because Charlie Brown spent all his time trying to figure out what Christmas is all about.

[10:06] Linus hits the stage and he recites Luke two. [10:10] This is a great moment in the history of television, I think, because it is a moment where the word of God was read to really probably the largest audience that it could possibly be read. [10:19] And they heard the story of the birth of Jesus. [10:25] But so often we kind of gloss over it in sentiment because it’s a traditional story. [10:32] Maybe if you were raised in a Christian surrounding or in any type of church setting, reading Luke two is something that you’ve done every year. [10:41] Maybe on Christmas morning, your family gathers around and you read Luke two.

[10:46] But Luke two is actually something that is so filled with the mission of God and his mission for us in this time of year that we need to get past some of the things that we look over. [11:00] And we also should probably try to get a little bit past just as long. [11:04] A cutesy little baby one squeezes cheeks so much laying in that manger, which is a horse trough. [11:09] And that’s kind of gross. [11:10] But but it’s just a cute story. [11:12] And so I want to read it with you, but maybe think about it in a couple of new ways this morning.

[11:16] And here’s what Luke writes. [11:17] He says, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. [11:24] And that shows us the power of the Roman government in that time. [11:29] This was the first registration when Corinthians was governor of Syria and all went to be registered, each to his own town. [11:37] 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, his betrothed, who was with child. [11:52] And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

[11:56] And she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. [12:06] Here you have the humiliation of Jesus. [12:11] And I call it the humiliation of Jesus because Jesus became a baby. [12:18] And it’s a fascinating story. [12:20] And many, maybe you were in Sunday school when they had the flannel graphs and they would throw the flannel graph of a nine months pregnant woman riding a donkey. [12:27] I don’t know if she actually read a donkey.

[12:29] That wouldn’t have been my choice of transportation. [12:31] But they had to go from where they were and they had to go to Bethlehem. [12:37] And so all of the events around it are something that we really think through. [12:41] We think, well, they went into this hotel. [12:42] There’s no room. [12:43] They can’t even go in the janitor’s closet.

[12:45] So they’ve got to go out into the stable, which is really just a hewn out cave that they would put mostly just donkeys and camels and sheep and goats. [12:55] They just throw the animals in there. [12:57] And so Joseph and Mary had to sleep there. [13:00] But we seldom think through the sentiment of how this tradition makes us feel to the acts having actual reasons and purpose behind them. [13:15] If you think through the power of God in this passage, you look and you see that a decree has gone out from Caesar Augustus, who controlled the known world at that time. [13:27] And this decree was for the purpose of making sure everyone that needed to pay taxes was paying taxes.

[13:35] And so everybody had to go not to their hometown, but to the place great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. [13:42] Grandpa was from the place of their family’s origin. [13:47] And for Joseph, this was Bethlehem. [13:51] And what’s fascinating about this is when you think about the purpose for which Jesus was born, you see the power of God behind the moment that Caesar did not just come up with this plan on his own, but God moved history. [14:07] And he bent the most powerful nation of that time to his will for the specific purpose of the location of Jesus’s birth. [14:18] And Micah chapter five, verse two, there’s a prophecy that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.

[14:26] And so God moved the greatest kingdom of that time for the specific purpose of the birthplace of Jesus Christ. [14:35] And Jesus wasn’t just born to any old family. [14:39] He was born to the lineage of King David. [14:42] If you read Matthew chapter one, if you read the Old Testament prophets, it is told that Jesus, the Messiah, would be born to the family line of King David. [14:53] And Joseph is of that line. [14:59] You see, friends, you do not just have a humble birth.

[15:04] You do not just have this sentimental moment of these people that are down on their luck. [15:10] There has to be purpose behind the circumstance. [15:15] You see, Luke two is a great juxtaposition of John one because Luke two shows the humility of Jesus. [15:22] John one shows the glory of Jesus Christ. [15:26] And John chapter one, it tells us that he was the word. [15:32] And in the beginning, the word was with God.

[15:35] And in the beginning, the word was God. [15:38] And nothing that exists, exists outside of him making it. [15:49] You see, this little child that was born in that stable, in that specific city, at that specific point in time, to those highly inconvenienced parents, is this very God. [16:07] And when we think about it, it means it has to mean that the choice that God make for Jesus to be born in this specific way, this specific time, under these specific circumstances, aren’t by accident, but they have to have purpose. [16:22] Because Jesus could have very well being the eternal God over all of creation who has the power to literally speak. [16:32] And worlds exist.

[16:36] He could have just revealed himself in all of his glory. [16:42] You see, if you know anything about the scriptures, it tells us that we were designed by God for a specific purpose in this world. [16:50] And that purpose was to show his worth. [16:53] That we were to show how great he is, that we were to show how holy he is, that we were to find our very satisfaction in him. [17:02] And none of us have lived up to that standard. [17:03] Not a single person that’s ever been born has lived up to that standard.

[17:08] And so this word that was God could have revealed himself in all of his eternal glory, which there has not been a film made with a glorious power that could potentially match the glorious power of this God. [17:27] And he could have just made us extinct. [17:31] He could have judged us for not living up to his standards for our sin. [17:37] And he could have justly and righteously condemned us under his wrath. [17:44] And when you think through the events of Luke 2, when you think through the birth of this baby in the most humble and uncomfortable of circumstances, [17:58] you have to think this is no accident.

[18:01] He is trying to tell us something about his mission on this earth. [18:06] I’ve been through three deliveries of babies. [18:10] I was a bystander. [18:12] I chose to stand there because I’m not a doctor and I’m not a nurse, nor do I ever want to be one. [18:17] And I wanted the entire time to go somewhere else. [18:22] I did not have any fun.

[18:24] People told me that it was going to be this miracle, that it was going to be this beautiful thing. [18:29] I was ugly. [18:30] It was super gross. [18:31] It was disgusting. [18:33] And it changed my life forever.

[18:38] I feel for every father in here because I know what you went through.

[18:45] And you went through what your wife now does every time we talk about your pain. [18:51] She acts like hers was so worse.

[18:56] But think about Joseph. [18:58] I had the glory of living in 2018. [19:01] And it’s wonderful because we have technology. [19:04] We have doctors. [19:05] If anything goes wrong, they run in and they take over. [19:09] And I can just stand there exhausted.

[19:11] But no one’s depending on me for a thing. [19:15] And man, that was awesome. [19:17] That if this went bad, you can’t blame this guy. [19:22] I’m just here. [19:24] And people say, do you want to take a picture? [19:25] And that’s where I stepped up and I knocked the home run that day, friends.

[19:30] I took a picture of each of those children. [19:32] It’s wonderful. [19:33] Wonderful. [19:34] [19:35] But Joseph is there. [19:36] And then this is so humble for the creator of all that is puts himself in a position where he depends on Joseph.

[19:46] To coach Mary into bringing him into this world in a stable outside of an inn where there wasn’t room for him.

[19:57] Imagine being the owner of that in and finding out in eternity who you turned away. [20:03] That’s embarrassing. [20:04] But this humiliation shows that God wants to do something among us. [20:11] And I think that it serves as great evidence of God’s desire to redeem us. [20:16] Because Christmas, number one, this morning is a season of redemption. [20:20] It’s a season of redemption.

[20:22] If God chose to mask his glory in being born, it shows that he had a distinct purpose to live in this world for a distinct set of circumstances that are shown the older that he gets and the more that he reveals about himself. [20:41] Because we find out that the reason that he chose a vehicle of the Virgin Mary to be born was so that he could be fully man, but also fully God. [20:52] See, he was of Joseph’s lineage because he was betrothed to Mary, but he was not Joseph’s biological child. [20:59] He was born to a human and he was human. [21:03] But the miraculous nature of his birth shows that he was also fully God. [21:07] Why?

[21:08] See, in his humanity, that made him sufficient to substitute himself everywhere where I fall short. [21:17] See, I cannot be righteous because I am not righteous. [21:22] I have disobeyed God in so many ways in my life, but Jesus never disobeyed the father a single time. [21:31] He substituted himself to be obedient in every area that I am disobedient. [21:37] To the extent that when the father called him to lay his life down as a sacrifice to mine, he did it. [21:45] And he had to be human so that in that death he could substitute himself for me.

[21:51] And he had to be sinless so that in that death he didn’t have any sin of his own to die for. [21:58] Jesus is the only righteous one ever and he was fully human. [22:03] But he needed to be fully God so that in that substitution, when he died, he would possess the power to rise in resurrection. [22:14] And only God has that power. [22:17] You see, friends, his birth, while it is such an amazing story, it is more than a story. [22:25] It is the narrative of how God brought peace with man.

[22:29] Because number two this morning, Christmas is a season of peace with God. [22:36] Christmas is a season of peace with God. [22:38] Verse seven ends by saying there was no room for them in the end. [22:43] And then you expect a little more background on that. [22:47] But verse eight turns a corner and begins to tell us a different narrative altogether. [22:52] One that is kind of unexpected.

[22:54] It goes out into the fields, which must have been on the outskirts of Bethlehem. [22:59] And it begins to tell us a narrative of shepherds. [23:02] And here’s what we read. [23:04] And it says, in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. [23:11] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. [23:14] And they were filled with great fear.

[23:17] I mean, wouldn’t you be? [23:19] Have you ever had an angel band confront you? [23:23] Don’t answer that. Some of you are crazy. [23:26] Verse 10, and the angel, somebody’s mad now. [23:29] They’re like, it did happen. [23:32] And it probably didn’t. That’s all I know to tell you.

[23:35] It didn’t. You should see a counselor. [23:38] And the angel said to them, that was free. [23:43] For behold, excuse me, fear not. [23:46] For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [23:50] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. [23:57] And this will be a sign for you.

[23:59] You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. [24:03] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying. [24:11] So it went from weird to weirder. [24:14] Now it says there are a multitude of angels. [24:17] And when I think multitude, I don’t think like a dozen. [24:21] I imagine hundreds, if not thousands of angels in the night sky singing the most beautiful chorus that you have ever heard in your life.

[24:33] Glory to God in the highest and on earth. [24:38] Peace among those with whom he is pleased. [24:42] I love that section of scripture for a few reasons, [24:45] but it is the awkward nature of it and the unexpected nature of it that I appreciate the most because it tells us that the way we would announce a birth is we would find some really nice card stock, maybe put a picture of the baby on the scales in the delivery room, send it out to all of our family and friends. [25:06] And Jesus, his announcement is a little different. [25:09] There’s an angel band that appears to announce his birth.

[25:14] But note that the bay that the angel band doesn’t appear to nobility. [25:19] The angel band doesn’t appear to the priesthood. [25:22] The angel band doesn’t appear even to the high priest. [25:25] The angel band appears to shepherds. [25:30] And it’s probably only your misconception of what a shepherd was like in this era that makes you not think that’s odd. [25:37] Because we have for good reason a glorified view of shepherds.

[25:42] We think of it in the biblical sense because God is called our shepherd and we are his sheep and the shepherd provides for the sheep. [25:52] But that’s not what shepherds in this era would have been like. [25:56] So from everything that we know from history, we know that shepherds were probably the most anti-social people you could meet. [26:07] They were a lot like sailors in the sense that they had pretty bad mouths. [26:12] They were known as thieves who would only present themselves in town for the purpose of buying or taking supplies that they needed in the fields. [26:26] And so people didn’t want the shepherds around for this very reason.

[26:30] They would have taken their children cross to the other side of the street. [26:34] And it wasn’t that the shepherds were this, you know, class of people that deserved better. [26:39] No, they usually lived up to about what everybody thought of them, that they were, if you invited them over for dinner, they weren’t just going to take your food. [26:46] They were going to take some of your possessions as well. [26:50] And they also, to be shepherds, to get sheep to stay with you, they needed to smell a certain way. [26:59] And that was the way of a sheep.

[27:01] And maybe you think sheep have this beautiful wool all over them and it’s pure white. [27:06] You’ve never been to a sheep farm. [27:08] Sheep are dirty and gross and they smell terrible. [27:13] And shepherds needed to match them. [27:16] And sheep were really dumb. [27:18] So if you didn’t smell like the sheep, they would follow any wild animal that did smell like them to their doom.

[27:28] And we, in light of who God is, that’s why we are called sheep, because we are so easily distracted from our Creator. [27:36] But don’t follow their hygiene habits. [27:38] Go bathe. [27:40] And so when we think about shepherds, we need to think about them as they were. [27:46] And that is a people that you would not expect God to choose to have the privilege of hearing the best news that anyone has ever heard. [27:58] The glory of God has appeared.

[28:00] And it is for our benefit.

[28:06] And I think that’s why he chose the shepherds.

[28:12] Because if you are thinking about someone who doesn’t please God, you’d think about the shepherds. [28:18] Because I mean, think about this. [28:19] He tells the shepherds two things that don’t make any sense. [28:22] The angel does. [28:23] First, he says, fear not.

[28:27] Then he says, peace on earth among whom God is pleased. [28:33] Second, if you were to think about the type of person that would please God, you probably wouldn’t have thought about a shepherd. [28:41] See, all of us, no matter what background we have, no matter what type of culture that we were a part of, all of us have a measure of what we think righteousness looks like. [28:53] If I were to ask anyone off of the street and I were to say, what do you think would please God? [29:00] Your response is, I think, undoubtedly going to be some version of morality. [29:08] Whether it is the morality of scripture, or it is the morality of the culture that you come from, or if it is some type of morality that you have created on your own to really just make you happy.

[29:21] You have some vision for morality in your life. [29:25] All of us do. [29:25] And if you were to present to me what you think would be a life that would please God to make peace with him, I really don’t think these shepherds would have measured up. [29:39] Which makes the angels pronouncement, fear not, so unusual. [29:47] Because if peace only goes to those with whom God is pleased, those shepherds had to know it ain’t me. [29:54] The fact of the matter is, that’s why God chose the shepherds.

[29:58] Because it’s none of us.

[30:01] There is not a single person in this room, myself included, there’s not a single person in this county, in this state, in this country, who has lived a life that pleases God. [30:15] You say, how do you know that? [30:16] And I say that because there is no culture, there is no person who is the standard by which God measures being pleased.

[30:26] God measures himself as righteous. [30:30] And everyone that falls short of him is displeasing to him. [30:34] So how could these angels look to them and say, fear not, if the creator God, who is not pleased with them, has made himself known, then they have lots of reason to fear. [30:47] Unless there was a mission of redemption behind God’s appearing.

[30:53] You see, that is why you cannot gloss over what the angel tells the shepherds to do. [30:59] They say, go find Jesus.

[31:03] Because to please God is to find the one in all of history that has lived up to God’s standard. [31:13] The one throughout history who has lived a life pleasing to God. [31:19] The one throughout history that every time God says don’t, he didn’t. [31:24] And every time God said do, he did without question, with the right motivation, just impeccable character. [31:34] And that person was the one that the shepherds were desperate to find. [31:40] The one, Jesus Christ.

[31:43] You see, friends, when we think about peace with God, many of us spend our entire life pursuing what we think will be a lifestyle of peace. [31:55] When God is telling the shepherds, you need to find the person who can bring you peace. [32:00] And that person was in that manger. [32:04] It was Jesus Christ himself.

[32:09] And the scripture tells us that they did go. [32:11] But what do we do with that? [32:14] You see, Jesus didn’t just live up to the circumstances behind who God said he would be. [32:19] He lived up to the life that God said he would be. [32:22] You see, in Isaiah chapter 49, the prophet tells us this. [32:27] He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel.

[32:38] So it’s interesting is that God looks to Israel and he says, you are not enough. [32:43] This is I want more is you cannot live up, number one, to what I want. [32:49] But your vision for what I want is too small. [32:53] Your vision is for one country, for one ethnicity, for one people group. [32:59] And that is too light of a thing. [33:02] He goes on and he says, I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

[33:14] And if you look back at John, chapter one, verse four, speaking of Jesus, his glory in him was life. [33:22] And the life was the light of men. [33:26] The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. [33:31] You see, Jesus is that light of Isaiah 49. [33:36] Then in Isaiah 52, he says, how beautiful upon the mountains or the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. [33:53] Friend, there is no gladder reality than a right relationship with God.

[33:57] See, when I talk about Christmas being about the peace of God, I’m talking about reconciliation with God. [34:07] And reconciliation literally means to make peace.

[34:11] And there is no greater peace than gospel reconciliation has to offer, because gospel reconciliation says not only is peace with God possible, [34:23] not only is it attainable, but peace with God is a reality. [34:31] Peace with God is here. [34:34] Peace with God is found in Jesus Christ. [34:40] And when the shepherds were told, go find Jesus, because peace belongs to those with whom God is pleased, [34:48] he is telling the shepherds, if you find Jesus, you will find peace with God.

[34:59] And thirdly, Christmas is a season of mission from God. [35:07] Christmas is a season of mission from God. [35:10] In verse 15, it says,

[35:24] In other words, they didn’t hesitate. [35:27] They left the sheep.

[35:30] And they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. [35:34] And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. [35:39] Do you imagine the comfort that Mary must have had when these guys say, hey, we were a couple of miles away and we saw like a thousand angels and told us to come here. [35:51] And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. [35:56] Think about this. [35:58] The shepherds come from the field and they find Jesus.

[36:03] And so what they found was a holy moment. [36:06] I would say there’s no more holy of a moment than you find the creator of the universe lying in a manger. [36:14] That’s the holiest of moments. [36:16] And their response is not, well, we need to build a temple here. [36:23] Well, this is a holy land. [36:25] This is a place unparalleled.

[36:28] We can never leave this moment. [36:31] No, they come to the baby Jesus and they’re like, hey, here’s what happened. [36:35] This is why we’re here. [36:36] This is amazing.

[36:39] All right, we got to get going. [36:41] They’ve got to return to the field. [36:43] But note that it says that all who heard it wondered. [36:47] In other words, they didn’t just tell Mary and Joseph what had happened. [36:52] They told as many people as possible on the way back to the field everything that they had experienced. [36:59] And the amazing point of that is that these anti-social outcasts who had to live in the fields with their shepherds were transformed in this moment to guys who were engaging a crowd to let them know just how significant this birth of this Jesus who brought peace among everyone who will ever trust in him.

[37:26] How amazing this moment was in the gospel accounts. [37:34] It tells a story a few chapters later that once Jesus entered into his earthly ministry as an adult, he took three of his disciples up on top of a mountain. [37:44] And it says that he was transfigured in front of them and that a few of the prophets of the Old Testament appeared with him. [37:52] And these three disciples were amazed because they got to see a glimpse of the glory of who Jesus was eternally. [38:00] And their response was to look to Jesus and say, Jesus, we need to build three temples, one for each of you. [38:08] And this place, this moment is so holy, we’re never going to leave.

[38:14] And Jesus looks to them disappointed. [38:17] And he says, that is not my mission. [38:20] That is not what I’m here for. [38:21] That is not what I’m going to send you for. [38:24] The message of what happens on the mountaintop always has to go to the people below every single time. [38:31] And what’s so amazing is that these shepherds who the scripture never tells us that they met the adult Jesus, it just says that they saw the baby.

[38:41] They understood what the disciples didn’t. [38:44] That good news is meant to be known by as many people as possible. [38:49] And they were transformed to the degree where they took a mission of Jesus to as many people as possible in their lifetime. [38:57] In Second Corinthians, Chapter five, the apostle Paul is writing to a messed up church, a church that had every problem you could ever find. [39:08] They were immoral. [39:10] They had church government issues.

[39:12] They were suing each other. [39:14] I mean, they even were trying to pick people who were types of pastors that shouldn’t be picked. [39:21] And it was a messed up church. [39:23] And the apostle Paul doesn’t look to them and simply say, you need to root down in some personal discipleship and you need to just absorb yourself and be a navel gazer who once your life is right, you can do something good for me. [39:37] But over the next couple of years, you’re out. [39:39] No, he looks in Second Corinthians, Chapter five, and he says, God has reconciled you to himself, not counting your sins against you.

[39:46] And the answer to your holy problem is that you need to realize you’ve been entrusted with a mission, a message of reconciliation. [39:57] Because Paul understood that without mission, people fail. [40:01] That the moment that you turn the gospel of Jesus Christ into something that is all about you, that is where you lose holiness. [40:13] That is where you lose the holy moment. [40:15] The gospel is given to you for the sake of other people. [40:22] I’ve heard it said so many times.

[40:25] Preach the gospel always. [40:27] Use words when necessary. [40:30] That’s stupid. [40:32] It’s dumb. [40:33] And maybe you’re like, that’s something that gives me comfort at night. [40:36] Well, you’ve got the wrong kind of comfort.

[40:37] All right. [40:38] And even if a saint said it, it’s wrong. [40:41] And he didn’t, by the way.

[40:44] Use words always. [40:46] Why? [40:48] Because it’s a message of reconciliation. [40:52] When it becomes good deeds of reconciliation, that is just you trying to earn redemption. [41:02] That is just you trying to impress someone else. [41:06] See, but the shepherds were told the simplest form of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[41:11] They were told you need peace with God because you are afraid. [41:15] And if you want to not be afraid, go find this baby because he is the one who is righteous. [41:22] He is the one who will do the work. [41:25] He is the reconciler. [41:28] So many of you are struggling to believe reconciliation. [41:34] So many of you are struggling to believe that redemption is found outside of you.

[41:40] And so you are living your life for the benefit of no one but you because you haven’t proven to yourself that God has peace for you yet. [41:53] Friend, you’ll never find it. [41:56] Friend, you can spend your entire life looking inside of yourself and you will not find peace. [42:04] You will not find the love that you were designed for. [42:08] You will not find life that is light. [42:13] It is only when you can point outside of yourself to Jesus that you will know what peace is all about.

[42:25] That you will know what love is all about. [42:28] That you will know what life is all about. [42:34] The shepherds found life that day. [42:37] And anyone that finds life will spend their lives taking it to other people.

[42:47] Every Sunday we reflect with what is called the Lord’s Supper. [42:53] The bread on the tables in the front and the back of this room represents the broken body of Jesus. [42:59] The cup represents His shed blood. [43:02] And when we eat and drink, what that symbolizes is that we have been reconciled with God. [43:09] We have peace with Him and Jesus has earned it. [43:13] And Jesus said this is a picture of the relationship that you through faith in Him can give you.

[43:21] Friend, if you have that faith, if you’ve trusted Jesus as your Savior, these tables are open to you. [43:28] Come, eat, drink, profess your faith. [43:32] If you do not have faith in Jesus, friend I ask that you abstain from this because I don’t want you to lie. [43:39] This is for people who have faith. [43:43] But I do want to invite you to something this morning. [43:46] I want to invite you to put your faith in Jesus Christ.

[43:49] I want to invite you to find what the shepherds found. [43:53] The angels said fear not because peace with God is here. [43:59] And that peace that you need with God is only ever going to be found through faith in Jesus Christ. [44:06] He loves you. He gave His life for you. [44:11] Turn to Him today. [44:13] When you’re ready, come.

[44:31] You