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Introduction

Review

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Advent means coming - and in advent we remember how they OT saints waited as we wait now for the second coming of Jesus.

We intentionally go back to help us be able to look forward as we also wait.

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Rekindling the wonder of Christmas is being captivated by God - awestruck - as we see him working in the lives of men and women throughout the centuries, unfolding his masterful plan to save a people unto himself.

On the first Sunday in Advent, we saw in that

showed us

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Only from deepest darkness does the True Light shine most brightly!

So faith in the Lord and his promises is the only helpful approach to life however great the crisis.

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Jesus would come humanly to meet us where we are.

Jesus would come as deity to accomplish what we could not.

On our second Sunday, point us to Bethlehem where we see that

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God delights to choose the weak and despised/lowly things of this world (you and me) to shame the wise and strong.

So we rekindle the wonder of Christmas by boasting in the Lord.

By God’s transforming mercy and power our imperfection, our weakness, our lives that, and let’s be honest here, aren’t that impressive on our own, are used to point to the strong and caring Father in Heaven, the all-wise Holy Spirit, and the sacrificial brotherly love of our Savior, Jesus.

Advent means coming - and we remember how they OT saints waited.

We intentionally go back to help us be able to look forward as we also wait.

We wait on the Lord in dark days, and we stand in awe as we see God working in the lives of people: saving, bringing renewed desire and focus on living to see Jesus magnified above everything and everyone, even ourselves.Oh,

I pray that these truths warm your heart as your thinking is saturated with the greatness and majesty of God and helps you rekindle the wonder of Christmas this year![

pause ]Transition: Today we turn to the NT to look more closely at the greatest miracle of Christmas...

And last week we saw

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The Righteousness & Kindness of God seen in the Virgin Birth

God sent His only Son into the world because he is righteous and sin cannot go unpunished.

So either God delivers the punishment we all deserve, or Jesus had to come because only in Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (100% God and 100% man), is it possible that sin and death are able to be defeated.

And we see God’s kindness also in the virgin birth because He chose to live among us, to condescend and wear the trappings of our humanity so that he could live a righteous life.

Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor because He lived to feel our pain and more.

Only a God like this would display such a kindness.

And it is that kindness, in fact, that leads us, to repentance.

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​ ESVThe book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,

Todd Driessen sings “Matthew’s Begats”

SLIDE(Love me some Andrew Peterson sung by Todd Driessen!

Thank you, brother!)The Righteousness & Kindness of God seen in the Virgin Birth

Today in our fourth Sunday in Advent we’ll turn our attention to the story we read often from .

And we will see

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Mary’s Treasure

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Luke 2:1-20

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As we’ve seen, so we see again, God revealed himself to shepherds.

Now we tend to romanticize shepherds.

We think of David who was a shepherd.

We re-tell this story and think of shepherds as a special group the Lord went to.

But a shepherd’s vocation kept them from being able keep the ceremonial law, so they were treated as unclean folk.

As we’ve seen, so we see again, God revealed himself to shepherds.

Now we tend to romanticize shepherds.

We think of David who was a shepherd.

We re-tell this story and think of shepherds as a special group the Lord went to.

But a shepherd’s vocation kept them from being able keep the ceremonial law, so they were treated as unclean folk.

Even worse, they were assumed to be liars and thieves.

There word, their testimony was no good in a court of law - it was inadmissible, in fact.

Aside from lepers, shepherds were the lowest class of men in all of Israel.

Shepherds were the the working class.

They are you and me.

Aside from lepers, shepherds were the lowest class of men in all of Israel.

Shepherds were the the working class.

Shepherds were the the working class.

They are you and me.

They are you and me.

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Through the birth of the Messiah, God extends his favor to people who have done nothing to deserve it.

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comes to mind immediately,

“God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?”

, which we looked at a couple weeks ago further reinforces this incredible reality.

Here the weak of the world are called before the Mighty One.

The last are first, and the first last.

The weak of the world are often called before the mighty.

The last are often first, and the first last.

Notice the message they received.

Key in on the words they are given:

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:

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The darkness which the people had lived in for nearly four-thousand years (and which we saw in ) was about to be illuminated by the true Light of the World, Jesus.

The darkness brought about by sin, which began with Adam and Eve and extends through every man, woman, boy, and girl and is felt through our pain, grief, anxiety, abuse, deceit; turning God’s gift of sex into ungodly passions b/t those who aren’t married or perverting it to something unnatural b/t two men or two women; our incessant craving for more stuff; greater approval from others instead of looking to please God; fear of man that is at the root of our unwillingness to do what’s right, though hard; complacency in the heart of even God-fearing people who can be far-too-happy warming a chair for 70-min a week rather than experience the overwhelming joy of pouring our their lives for Jesus and his rescue mission to the world.

All of these and more represent the darkness into which the true Light of the World had just shone and this is the good news of great joy the angels, God’s messengers, came to speak to the least of these - the shepherds - to you and me.

J.C. Ryle says this so well:

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The way to pardon and peace with God was about to be thrown open to all mankind.

The head of Satan was about to be bruised.

Liberty was about to be proclaimed to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.

The mighty truth was about to be proclaimed that God could be just, and yet, for Christ’s sake, justify the ungodly.

Salvation was no longer to be seen through types and figures, but openly, and face to face.

The knowledge of God was no longer to be confined to the Jews, but to be offered to the whole Gentile world.

The days of heathenism were numbered.

The first stone of God’s kingdom was about to be set up.

If this was not “good tidings,” there never were tidings that deserved the name.

The way to pardon and peace with God was about to be thrown open to all mankind.

The head of Satan was about to be bruised.

Liberty was about to be proclaimed to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind.

The mighty truth was about to be proclaimed that God could be just, and yet, for Christ’s sake, justify the ungodly...The days of heathenism were numbered.