Christmas Sunday - I'll Take the Lamb Luke 2:1-7

Well, good and blessed morning to you. We're going to be kind of venturing into the passage that Tristan just read for us here. And that will be an introduction. We'll proceed on from verse 1 to verse 20. And before we do that, though, I just want a reminder we have the electives, believe it or not, starting two weeks from today. And so if you signed up for those already, thank you. If you haven't yet, please do so. And we have them out on the bulletin board there in the lobby.

And so these three, Great Doctrines of Salvation and the Book of Galatians, and then a Questions and Answers, which will be miscellaneous questions and answers. I'm very questionable, so I'm sure you'll enjoy that. OK. The theme for today's message is, I'll have the lamb. And I know that sounds like ordering from a restaurant menu. It's not. And we'll see the significance of it as we step our way through the passage here.

Now, Matthew and Luke are the two Gospels out of the four that give us the details about Christ's birth. Oh, there's some insight from the other Gospels and other places in the New Testament, but in terms of any significant details, it's Matthew and Luke. Those are the ones that give us the insights into what took place in the events surrounding Christ's birth and the personages and people involved. And one of the things that might be helpful to keep in mind, the magi are wise men. are in the book of Matthew.

And so if you want to find out about that, that's where you go to look. Luke tells us about the shepherds, which is of course where we're going to be today. And if it's any sort of a handy memorization tool, a memory aid, Matthew Chapter 2 is where it tells us about the Magi, right? And Luke chapter 2 is where it tells us about the lambs. And of course, lambs remind us of shepherds, and the end of Matthew is with a W, and so that's Wiseman, and I better stop or I'm going to get you confused. Okay. It was supposed to be helpful. Sorry about that.

Anyway, Matthew and Luke both provide unique but compatible accounts in these first two chapters. They each tell us something a little different. That doesn't mean that they're telling a conflicted story. They are not. But they're telling us each something about our Lord's birth that the other one does not, as well as having some things that are in common. Between the two, we can get the details pretty well.

And both of them, immediately after this account, start in the third chapter with the ministry of John the Baptist. So they have that point in common there. Luke focuses on the birth of John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1. You see the account of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and even Mary going to visit a relative, Elizabeth, It turns out that John the Baptist is six months older than Christ and obviously years later the two of them would cross paths substantially as scripture records and as both Luke and Matthew record in chapter 3.

Dr. Luke begins his unique pattern here of reporting. I think this is something for us to take note of. He reports as a pattern, miraculous births, healing, and raising to life of only one son or daughter. He makes note of some very unique circumstances as no other gospel or other New Testament author does.

And I bring that to your attention because if you have ever been in a circumstance where you have wished for a child, Luke is the one who wrote. about your circumstance. If you've ever been in a circumstance where the birth of a child has been difficult or come with some difficult circumstances, Luke wrote about that. Interestingly, and we give the references there in chapter 7, chapter 8, and chapter 9, in those three chapters in sequence, Dr. Luke is the one who writes about, in each of those chapters, an only child, an only child, an only child, who was somehow miraculously either healed or restored to life, to this life, by the Lord.

Luke is the one who makes notice of that. Even further on, and we won't go into detail, but even further on, Dr. Luke addresses issues of, you know how it is when the kids get older, the issues don't stop. As my grandmother used to put it, when the kids are little, they walk on your feet. When they get older, they walk on your heart. And Luke even addresses those issues. We won't have time to get into that, but as I read through it, I am very impressed by how sensitive Dr. Luke is to these issues as he writes about them. And so that's something I would invite you to begin exploring here, perhaps on your own time.

At any rate, proceeding through here, one of the things we're going to see, and we're going to kind of sweep past it for the sake of focusing on our passage, both in Matthew chapter 1 and in Luke chapter 1, we find that Mary is told, I'll have the Lamb, that she will have the Lamb. She will have the One who saves the nation of Israel is their Savior. She is even to name him Jesus, which means Savior. Yes, Mary realizes that she will have the lamb. And Joseph too is told that yes, Mary will have the lamb.

Let's see what Dr. Luke has to say about the shepherds. We won't jump immediately into that because we want to pick up some details in the account. But we'll get there. First, it starts like this in the first verse. In the first seven verses of Luke 2, which Tristan read for us, Dr. Luke gives us a big-picture historical account.

I mean, he even talks about the, here's what's happening with the empire, here's what's happening with the governors, and this is one of the first census events that are declared for the Roman Empire. What's very interesting is this was about the time of the very first census, and it's also about the time that tax rebellions began to take place starting in Galilee, in the area where Jesus was from, actually where Mary and Joseph are from. So Mary and Joseph actually had an issue, do I comply with the Romans or do I join the tax rebellion? Well guess what they did? He complied with the Romans here. This is a portion of a Roman census declaration we'll take a look at in a bit. This is a mandatory Roman census, ordered by the emperor himself. The emperor does not give any special exemptions. His version of a special exemption is, where would you like the sword put? That's his idea of a special exemption. He's not into that.

It turns out that we have, from that time, a great many copies of Roman census declarations. And this is one. I'm sure it didn't originally have all the holes in it, but this is a copy of one. We actually have hundreds and hundreds of them from different times scattered throughout the various decades and centuries of the Roman Empire. This was most definitely an historical event. It was something that most certainly happened. The Jews would come to recognize it as just a fact of life. You're going to have to deal with this.

Augustus, the Roman emperor, doesn't care about inconvenience, hardship. There wasn't any, you know, hey, can I go next year because my wife's pregnant or anything like that. That's going to be rough on us this year. They don't care. OK? No special conditions. This is the time. This is the place. You're going to be there. No exceptions. Everyone must go to the place of their family ancestral home to register. Everyone. No exceptions. You're all going there. Have a nice vacation.

So to Bethlehem they go. They head off to Bethlehem and Joseph takes Mary as we'll see in the circumstance. They are betrothed at this point. Now we need to make clear the way the Jewish wedding customs went. At first there was an engagement and there was an official setting up and an arrangement that had to be made. That was stage one.

Once everything was official and the arrangements had all been completed and actually legalized, then the two were called betrothed. Interestingly enough, at that stage, although it was completely forbidden for them to have sexual relations, They were called husband and wife at that point. But it was thought of as adultery to have sexual relations even though it's a legal arrangement and even though they were called husband and wife at this stage. It was considered profoundly shameful to have a pregnancy during this period. Everybody would say, you've been jumping the gun. And were it not for the fact that the Romans came in and said, we alone have the right to take life, it would be a basis for stoning to death of both the man and the woman.

So to Bethlehem they go, Joseph and Mary, by either one's lineage. They were both descended from David. So they're both going to go to Bethlehem, even though Mary's time to deliver her baby was imminent. It was going to happen very soon. As a matter of fact, my guess is the travel would initiate that, since it was even more likely. Joseph's lineage was from David.

We find that in the first chapter of Matthew, first 17 verses. Mary's lineage was from David as well. That's recorded in Luke chapter 3. And it's interesting, scripture is very consistent on this point, all four of the Gospels make some reference to it, obviously Luke and Matthew giving genealogies, but even Mark and John referring to Christ as son of David. You'll find a similar record in Acts, Romans, 2 Timothy, Revelation, as we've quoted here on the screen here, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. Christ's own claim is recorded by John there in the last chapter of Revelation.

So scripture is clear. They are both descended from David is unquestionably a descendant of David. Anyone who disputed it could go to the temple until 70 AD and check out the record for themselves. There was no doubt about it. So now Joseph, who was legally engaged to Mary, and although they were not allowed to have relations, they were called husband and wife, took her with him to Bethlehem. Now, mind you, they've gone out of the frying pan into the fire.

What do I mean by that? Imagine yourself in Nazareth, a town of somewhere between 80 and 300 people. Little, okay? I went to high school in a little town where everybody knew everybody and before long everybody was related. And by my older brother getting married, I am too, okay? Somehow or another, everybody's related.

And it's amazing how there gets to be even more than one last name. In these little towns, you can imagine what it's like once it's discovered Mary is pregnant. With the most disastrous and disgusting set of circumstances. Of course, it's said about town, no doubt.

Joseph and Mary have been jumping the gun here or some other terminology to that effect. And so you can imagine Mary and Joseph, it might even be somewhat of a relief to get out of Nazareth for a little bit. Wouldn't it seem like that? Not so much. We'll explain why in a little bit. But Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. And so we see now why the circumstances came about as they did.

Micah 5.2 says that's exactly where he must be born. Seven centuries before. Oh, by the way, the donkey is doubtful. Joseph, as a small town carpenter, not certainly, but likely, could not have afforded it.

So Joseph with Mary went up from Galilee. Galilee was about 700 feet below sea level to Bethlehem which was about 250 feet above sea level. So you've got about a 3,000 foot climb except that they would likely have gone down the Jordan River which would have been a drop of about five or six hundred feet and then climbed up. So closer to 4,000 foot climb from Jericho up to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Quite a climb. Why all that going down into the valley only to climb up more?

To avoid Samaria, the place where the mongrel and mixed and hybrid Gentiles and Jew population was located. Now, while in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. This is how it's summarized there in the passage. We have to remember something, though. And that is, as David went down to Bethlehem, he was likely not a stranger to all the people in Bethlehem. Likely not a stranger. Excuse me, Joseph, yes. Joseph went, he was likely not a stranger.

Why? The reason is because since the time of Nehemiah, each of the different groups within the tribes were assigned a certain time when they were to cut wood for the temple. Because according to Jewish law, the temple fires must never go out. Always they must go. Continue. Never to be let burned out. Always kept with wood. So the tribes would rotate between them, each going to their ancestral home to cut wood and bring it to the temple so that the temple had continuous fire.

Even aside from the various feasts and festivals which would take Joseph down to Jerusalem, just about six miles to the north of Bethlehem. Even aside from that, David would likely from his childhood have gone to Bethlehem annually to have sort of a family reunion for the woodcutting. So when he showed up here at Bethlehem, not very likely a stranger, but someone they had essentially seen grow up from his youth. And so when he showed up with Mary, and when it was discovered that they were having this baby from a time out of wedlock and quite possibly, if not probably, still not married at this point in time.

It was a very shameful event. That's why I say he went out of the frying pan into the fire. Shameful in Nazareth. Shameful in Bethlehem. But nonetheless, it was the Savior Mary's Savior, Joseph's Savior, our Savior who was born there in Bethlehem. This newborn Jesus was wrapped in tight bands of cloth.

They would typically take like an olive oil and salt mixture and wash the baby with that and then wrap up the baby tightly in bands of cloth. The custom was partly with the idea that somehow that was supposed to make the baby's bones straight. I'm not sure why. I don't think it helped. Certainly the baby may have felt constrained. But they took this newborn baby and laid him there in a manger. The manger likely looked something like this without the water in it. Yes the hay that probably went in there too.

There are many other insights and details that we're going to talk about either tonight. at tonight's production or on Christmas Eve, so leave him for that. Bethlehem, however, likely did not have an inn, as we are prone to think of one. And so likely not anything like that.

However, it did have in each of the homes a little place, typically four or five feet high in the ceiling, just big enough next to the home and sometimes is included in the same airspace, next to the home where they could bring the animals in and get them out of the weather. That's the place that was called the inn in each of the homes. There were about 800 homes as we'll see. The manger was almost certainly not made of wood as is common in many of our little manger scenes actually but out of stone. Wood would have been one, expensive and two, It wouldn't last very long.

The stone would last for centuries. You could pass a manger on down for generations. That was my great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather's manger, right? Now, imagine these shepherds. For them it was the same old, same old. Now how long had people been shepherding? Oh, for centuries. These shepherds, very likely, you know, the father had been a shepherd, the grandfather a shepherd, and on and on. Shepherds would watch over their flocks day and night, as they had for many centuries. David himself had done this before, oh, about a thousand years prior, just before he was anointed king. That account is given for us in 1 Samuel 16.

Back then, when Samuel came to see all of Jesse's sons, Jesse showed him all the sons except for David. Why? Oh, he's not even of any consequence. Why? He's a sheep herder. We don't even count him. Samuel had to ask specifically, do you have any others? None of these are the ones I'm supposed to anoint. But David, the one who they would rather have forgotten about. David, the one they would rather had not come to be with them. That was the one that Samuel anointed. Shepherds spent lots of time with the sheep. Now I can tell you I've spent some time with sheep, but you're probably glad I haven't spent lots of time with sheep. They would spend lots of time protecting the sheep, guiding them.

No, go this way and not that. leading them, rather than simply saying sheep go this way, they would have to take them the places that they were supposed to go. Seeking pastures. Bethlehem was a place where they would not stay all the time because certain times of the year would not be a good place to be. So they would look around and seek other pastures.

Is there good water at the place and time where I'm going to have the sheep? Selecting a path. No, we don't go that way because it's too dangerous along the edge of that cliff. We'll lose a sheep or two if we do that. Correcting the path of some. No, don't go that way. That path is not a good one. Go this way. Rescuing.

Going after a particular sheep who got lost, wandered off, and bringing that sheep back. Mending wounds and illnesses, dealing with sicknesses. I've had to do some of that myself, and it's not fun. So whatever the shepherd needs to do, they do whatever needs to be done. Very good at it.

Now, lambs can be cute, but the shepherds not so much. It depends on the shepherd. It can be a little difficult. Lambs can be cute, the shepherds not so much. As far as most of the folks in town were concerned, the shepherds spent way too much time with the sheep. The problem with that is spending lots of time with sheep. They were lacking in social graces. They were lacking in tolerable odors. They just weren't great to spend time around and they spent time around these awful terrible sheep And just tough to get along with. Here is an example of why the shepherds would be rough people. This is a cave just outside of Bethlehem and very likely a centuries old shepherd's home. That's it. Basically, the shepherds lived a little better than cavemen. They were cavemen.

Their social skills and their social appeal, to most people, not so appealing. Greatly lacking. And so most folks didn't hold shepherds in very high esteem. It was a byword. It was a way of saying, that one is like a shepherd. We don't want to hang around that guy. We don't want that fellow in our home. Go away. Stay away. Don't come close to us. You're not welcome here. Those would be common.

But there may have been something very special about these shepherds, nonetheless. And here's why. Bethlehem was close to Jerusalem, oh, about a half dozen miles to the south, almost directly south. And since Bethlehem was so close to the Jerusalem temple, it's likely that these shepherds raised as a significant part of their occupation the lambs that were used in the temple ceremonies and sacrifices.

These were the lambs that would have to be without blemish. So you can't have a lamb get scarred up. You can't have a lamb that has a problem or an illness or some kind of disfigurement. You have to have a perfect lamb and you have to watch them all the more carefully.

Why? Because those lambs, those lambs are the ones that go to the temple. Those are the ones that get used as the sacrifices. Here in the inner court of the temple, we see first in the foreground the court of women. This is where basically all Jewish people were allowed to go with a few exceptions. And that's in the foreground. Then through the gate that you see there in the middle, the men were permitted to go back where the priests were doing the sacrifices.

This was the place where the qualified lambs, the lambs without blemish, were taken to be sacrificed. So here through this gate and in that area, the males, somebody like Joseph, Mary's husband, could go into that area, and that's where the priests worked.

If so, if this is the case, if these lambs that these shepherds were raising were indeed the ones used in the sacrifices, and it's very likely that they were, then the birth of God's once and final lamb in the town nearby would be a huge and momentous news. How long had they been raising these sacrificial lambs? for many centuries. It's something that their father and their grandfather and their great-grandfather and on and on had done. Now here would be God's once and final lamb. The lamb toward whom all the other lambs pointed. No other generation of shepherds heard an announcement quite like the one we're about to read about.

It says there, starting in the passage from 8 to 14, an angel of the Lord appeared. Now, as with most angels in scripture, we don't know this angel's name. What's interesting is scripture talks about myriads and myriads of angels, multitudes of angels, as we see in this passage. We only know the names specifically of two, at least two unfallen angels. That's Matthew and Gabriel. Gabriel is the one who was assigned to talk to Mary. Those are the only names we know. So we don't know this one's name either. But there's something that was very clear. Pardon? Michael. My wife has the gift of interpretation. It's pretty bad when your wife has to keep you doctrinally straight.

As with most appearances of an angel, this angel is going to scare the daylights out of these shepherds. They'd seen lots of things, all sorts of circumstances, but truthfully, most events just went by no big deal. The shepherds were the kind of people who had hours and hours and days and days of pretty much boredom, interspersed by moments of complete terror. They were used to that sort of thing. After all, these shepherds were not easily scared. They'd see many fierce predators in their day.

And I don't know about you, but I would not want to go after a bear with a stick and a sling. I would not want to go after a mountain lion, even if I had a spear. I've seen a mountain lion twice in my life. Saw them over near my folks' ranch. Each time I saw the mountain lion, it was only after I saw them for a brief second that I realized I had seen them. They are that fast. I would not want to try to get one with a stick. But these shepherds, nonetheless, they'd been through this sort of thing, that was no problem.

They'd also seen fully armed Roman soldiers, that is, these Roman soldiers ride from Jerusalem, half dozen miles to the north, and from Herodium, which was a rather awesome mountaintop fortress, about five miles to the east of Bethlehem. You could see it from Bethlehem, and it was a rather imposing fortress, and is in fact the place where Herod was ultimately buried. And Roman soldiers went between Herodium and Jerusalem all the time. Right past Bethlehem, right past where the shepherds were, they'd seen them. They'd seen the bears, they'd seen the lions, they'd seen the Roman soldiers, they'd seen them, but they'd not seen anything like these angels before. So in the midst of this blinding light, They hear, do not be afraid. Oh yeah. But you know, that's what a lot of the angels say in the Bible. First thing they say is don't be afraid. I'm not sure how much it helps, but that's what they said.

For behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, Bethlehem, that town right nearby, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This is the Anointed One. This will be a sign for you. Now, two things to look for, and these are actually significant.

You'll find a baby wrapped in claws. This tight binding was for newborns. So first thing, that the angel's telling them, you're going to find a baby, it's definitely going to look like a newborn. It's going to be a small little baby born today and it's going to be wrapped up with newborn clothes. So first signal, okay? This is a newborn baby. You're going to be able to tell it by its appearance of being newborn and by its wrapping. Second thing, it's in a manger, okay? Now that's, they might find a little puzzling. Why do they tell them that?

The angel is telling them, you're not going to find this baby in the house. You're going to find the baby in the little stable that all the little houses had on the side of the house. Kind of partly underneath, depending on how they were configured. So here's all the houses having this little stable. How are you going to tell this baby? It's going to be a newborn. It's going to be wrapped in this tight clothing. And you're not going to find it in the house, you're going to find it in the stable part of the house. So they can tell. There's not going to be a lot of those in Bethlehem that night.

Now, so the birth had just taken place, a newborn, right? The shepherds were told in such a way that it was clear that they were in search for the child. It wasn't just, hey, there's one there and isn't that nice? But you're supposed to go look. They were not told to look for him at the inn. That would have been easy.

But this little stable place, this little stable place that would be the place that they would find in each one of the houses there. They were there to look for the new kid in town. The newest kid in town, as a matter of fact. He would be wrapped tightly in cloths, particularly lying in that manger, in that little area underside there.

Now archaeologists tell us there would have been something around 800 homes. Oh boy, this is going to be fun. With 3,000 inhabitants plus many guests. Why the many guests? The guests are all coming in because they've all, being descended from David, been forced to come into town at the same time. Bethlehem is packed. Everybody is full.

The only room where they have that's extra in most of the homes is going to be one of these stables. So every house has a stable full of guests. But you're going to find this child, this little baby, in the guest room, off in this little stable area, one of the 800 homes.

Start looking. Now, this is going to be a real challenge, especially when all these people in 800 homes discover that it's a shepherd. A shepherd is coming to my door. A disgusting, shameful shepherd. is coming to my door. Somehow we still sing Silent Night. I'm not sure. I think there was a lot of eww, yuck, or some sort of a Hebrew equivalent. You know what I mean.

After the angel had said this, it says, there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts. All these great many angels, this multitude of the heavenly hosts were saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. Now this is often quoted, peace among men, and there it stops. And by the way, this isn't males, this is mankind, all kinds of people, male and female. Men with whom he is pleased. men in whom there is goodwill. This is peace among those who love the Lord. This isn't just a guarantee that everything's going to be great for everybody.

Though the angels are often pictured and sung about as if they were singing, the passage actually says they just said something. And here's something very interesting. While it seems very nice to have an angel chorus, and sing rhymes with king, and it's just poetic as can be, right? But the real thing, I think to note here, scripture actually says the angels said. And something my grandfather told me I thought was very observant.

He says, what you'll find is that the ones most often in scripture who are singing are the redeemed. Not that the angels never do, but this is a case in point. The angels are saying, it's the redeemed who sing. The shepherds seem to have said nothing until the angels went back to heaven, and you can certainly understand why.

What do you say to this angel? Do you strike up a conversation? Do you tell shepherd stories? No, that's probably not the right thing to do. As a matter of fact, once the angels all disappear, they're probably not telling shepherd stories to each other. They're very quickly overwhelmed with what they've just seen. First of all, making sure that none of them had dreamed this.

Right? Did you see it? Yeah. Do you see it? Yep. Okay. Let's confirm that. But then they've said, let's go straight. Okay? And I'm not talking about going on a straight road. I'm not talking about taking any fork in the road. Okay? Let's go straight to Bethlehem. As soon as these angels had left, the shepherds went to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was nearby, they could see it.

The custom was that there were not a lot of high and big windows, but nonetheless there would be windows and there would be candlelight at a minimum in each of the houses. What's interesting is we're not told at what time of night this is. I can imagine a lot of folks would be really upset that they were being approached by shepherds at whatever hour it happened to be, especially by shepherds at whatever hour it happened to be. But the scripture doesn't go into what the reaction in town might have been. We can only presume.

What's clear is that however long it took, however many shepherds were searching, They did find the newborn infant Jesus, and I'm sure the first shepherd that found Jesus and Joseph and Mary called all the others up on the cell phone. Of course, right?

But somewhere or another let them know. My guess is that they all went around and went to different parts of town, and as soon as one found the one who found Jesus and Joseph and Mary started yelling, which of course was very welcome to everybody else at night, right? Now, As others heard what the shepherds had been told, and some might have thought, well, let's listen to these guys, or I'm awake now, you might as well tell me, right? And as they heard, they began to wonder. But then you begin to think about, what was Mary's thought?

What was in her mind? And you know what's interesting? I told you before about Luke is one who records things consistently about babies and children and older children and all that. But Luke is one who records consistently these things. And what's interesting is as we go through this chapter, Luke begins to record and continues to record Mary's thinking.

And here he records in Luke 2.19, but Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. Isn't that interesting? She didn't just, oh, that's cool. She treasured them. She pondered them. She thought about them. You see, for Mary, this was a learning process.

Mary was likely in her early teens, maybe only even 13, and yet She'd seen a lot of amazing things go on for a little small-town girl. She had had an appearance by one of the two angels, for which we have a name. She was told that she was giving birth to the Savior. And so now when shepherds come and say, hey, a whole bunch of angels came and told us that we're to find you here. That was something she treasured. She said, I'll remember that.

What I suspect, because Luke is actually the one that records the last recorded occurrence of Mary, and that's Acts chapter 1. What I suspect is that Luke actually sat down with Mary and talked about these things. And this is how Luke is able to record it. Again, he pays amazing attention to detail. And by the way, as a doctor, He pays attention to medical detail as well. But he says Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. What was Mary thinking?

Now, it so happens that a little more than a month later, Jesus was to be taken to the temple. That was only about six miles to the north of Bethlehem. taken to the temple, and here we are again looking at this inner court of the temple. The outer court of the temple, by the way, that whole temple area was about the size of six football fields, just to give you a sense of scale. All packed together. I don't think the packers were anywhere in here, but they're all packed together.

And so here in this temple, the law said that Joseph and Mary were to take Jesus as an infant here to the temple. And as they did so, and they were to have a sacrifice on all that Joseph could afford, which tells you how well off he was financially. Instead of the different options of a larger animal, what he could afford was a little turtle dove to be sacrificed.

Mary was allowed to go into this inner court. And this is called the Court of Women. And all Jewish people, with some exceptions, were allowed to go into this inner court. And so she would be there with Jesus. Joseph could pass through this door to get one of the priests and have one of the priests come out and then have the dedication then of Jesus there in the temple court. Well, while there in the temple, That was the time that Dr. Luke records that Simeon, Simeon was the one who saw Christ there.

And it's amazing to ponder, to think about, here's this Simeon who had been looking for the Messiah all his life. And here he sees the Messiah. This is a particular piece of artwork. I've got a print of this in my office, this particular one. And just to kind of imagine Simeon and what his thoughts were.

And particularly in that, what were Mary's thoughts? Well, as a matter of fact, Luke writes about that too. and Joseph's as well. And his father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed.

Look for opposition. And a sword will pierce even your own soul. This is going to hurt Mary. This is going to hurt. To the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. So what was Mary thinking? She had some things to treasure. She also had some pains to wince about. Pains of heart. But Luke isn't done. Luke is the one who also tells the account of Jesus when at about the age of 12, which is the timing approximately of the Jewish Bar Mitzvah, and they had similar kinds of things in those days as well.

And Luke 2.51, it says, and he went down with them, Jesus did, Joseph and Mary, and came to Nazareth, and he continued in subjection to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart. She continues to treasure these things in her heart and to consider What is the Lord doing with this one? You can imagine Joseph trying to figure out.

He's just a small-town carpenter. How do I be a father to the Son of God? I've got a bunch of kids. How do I treat this one that is absolutely perfect the same as the rest? What a challenge. You can envision what a huge, huge challenge that was to parent as a father and as a mother.

The Messiah, the Son of God, the one Savior of the whole world, the creator of the world, birthed in a little stable in Bethlehem. So Jesus amazed them all. In Hebrews chapter 10, it spells out there, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, the lambs again and again and again and again, which can never take away sins.

We keep doing this again and again and again and again, but it keeps picturing Christ the Lamb. But it only pictures. It doesn't do the job. It can never take away sins. But he, Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, the one lamb that counts, Verse 14, for by one offering is perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Let's talk about that.

Perfected for all time is emphatic. The way that word is written, it uses the word perfected, and then it uses the perfect tense, which means it's a completed past action, ongoing results into the future, and implying permanence. And then that's not enough, so he has to add to that for all time. It's a triple emphatic.

The offering that Christ was, this Lamb that Mary had, was the final and completing sacrifice, the Lamb. We are in the process of being sanctified, is the way that is written. Isn't it interesting? By that one offering, He has perfected you for all time, those who believe, even though you're right now in the process of being sanctified and made holy. From God's standpoint, it's a done deal. God's not stuck in a time tunnel like we are.

So this Christmas, I hope you have a merry one. I hope you have a blessed one. Remember the sacrifice. Remember the lamb. Remember the one who was buried and raised for us as well. And I'd encourage you to say, I'll have the lamb. I'll have the lamb. Not as a menu option. Not that at all. But the one who is your Lord and Savior. And the one to whom, as we talked about, Mary and Joseph were betrothed.

Right now, if you're a believer, you're a part of the church which is betrothed to Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that as we look at this passage, you are immensely faithful. What a stunning contrast that the creator of the universe would step into a precarious and vulnerable and even dangerous situation. A place with no honor, born under circumstances without honor, visited by people without honor. And in the midst of that, Lord, that is your lamb, your appointed one, the one without blemish, the one that you had sacrificed for us, all by grace. We give you thanks. And yes, Lord, we'll have the lamb. Amen.