Luke 2:1-20 Sermon for Dec. 24, 2025

What a wonderful time of year it is! Yes, there are some gloomy days and yes, there are distractions left and right, but to be able to take tonight and just reflect on the reason for the season brings joy to me. To, in the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, “Ponder all of these things” is worth doing. Tonight, we ponder. Tonight, we treasure up the story of the birth of Jesus. So, since we are in the Gospel of Luke for quite the journey, we will look directly at the Christmas Story from Luke 2:1-20 tonight. If you’ve got your Bible, let’s find our way to that passage and, like the last couple of weeks, I’ll be bringing us through this passage section by section. So, here we go! Luke 2:1-20 CSB “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. So, we all know who Caesar Augustus was (the first emperor). Julius Caesar was a dictator, not an emperor. So, who was Quirinius? He was a Roman General and an Administrator. Born near Rome in 51 BC and later became consul in 12 BC. He led major military campaigns and launched these campaigns from Syria, where he operated with authority from. During times of war, August would point 2 officials in a province. One was to handle internal, domestic things. The other was a special imperial legate who would handle military affairs and other like stuff. This was Quirinius. The connection is a bit complicated, but what we do know is that he served as a special imperial legate during times of war from 8-4 BC and then as a formal governor in AD 6. Jesus would be born between 6-4 BC. Ok, let’s move on here. In Scripture, it says, “Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves” (Romans 13:1-12). That’s what we’re seeing here. So, the question you might ask is this: is there ever a time when it’s ok to resist authority? We ask this because Scripture is very clear that we have an obligation to obey all authority. However, since God’s authority is higher than man’s authority, and if the two collide, I would use Acts 5:29 as a principle: It says, “We must obey God rather than men.” In other words, if the two collide, you have an obligation to obey God over man. Time doesn’t permit me to go through the full nuances of this, but we will definitely be touching on this soon in Luke. But, you see the Hebrew midwives disobeying Pharoah’s order to kill infants? Why? Because murder is wrong, womb to tomb. You see Daniel refusing to obey laws that forbid prayer. You see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. You see Esther risk her life to confront unjust laws. If the big government commands sin, forbids obedience to God, or acts unjustly to the vulnerable like the unborn, you resist. Let’s continue. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.’ Here, you see the shepherds responding with afraidness. Why? Well, you have to understand that this was a sudden, overwhelming eruption of divine glory. They were sleeping. It was dark out. They were attending sheep. Very dark. Very quiet. Suddenly, there is this radiance that breaks into humanity. It’s the same as the overwhelming radiance that f illed the Temple in 1 Kings 8 and Isaiah 6. And since this was not a common occurrence, it was unexpected. And since the shepherds were considered lowly, smelly folk and they knew that angels should probably appear to the priests and all that, they were shook when they, instead, appeared to them. Now, the good news is that they have no reason to fear. Why? Because God’s glory was coming to bring good news of great joy; not judgment. Let’s continue. Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors! Peace. We all want it. We all chase it. We all would prefer to have this if we’ve got nothing else, right? But, let me bring us to a common Christmas Hymn. It’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Glory to the newborn King: peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” Peace. It’s right there in the stanza. Yet, what’s also there is God and sinners reconciled. You can’t have one without the other. It’s impossible. Why? Because sin is an enemy of peace. When sin entered the world, it put this massive gap between us and a holy God. That gap is what causes chaos. It’s the absence of peace. Only God can bring it. Peace comes from when we are made right with God, which is why Jesus came. Jesus came to do for us what you and I couldn’t do for us and that’s to redeem us. Redemption is what brings peace. Unfortunately, we’re all chasing peace in the wrong areas. You see, we want family peace for the holidays. Yet, it won’t happen until Jesus redeems everyone in the family. Why are the holidays so difficult for many? Because they are holy days and holy days remind us that there is tension between in our what our flesh chases and what God demands. You can’t buy peace. You can’t secure peace. You can’t earn peace. You cannot drink away your problems to obtain peace. You literally cannot do anything to obtain a peace that transcends understanding. It has to come from being made right with Jesus. And when that happens and life sort of falls apart, you can still be at peace in your soul because you are declared righteous to God through the person and work of Jesus in your life. Also, what if you are made right with God and you’re not experiencing peace? Oftentimes, it’s one of two things: either you’ve taken your eyes off Jesus and need to recalibrate your life to the will and purpose of Jesus OR you’re living in sin and suppressing the Holy Spirit’s work in your life and you feel major tension between light and dark. Either way, Christmas season is a good time to get right with Jesus and re-focus on the things that matter. Let’s continue. When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.” There are two things I want to extract here for you. First, what’s your response to what Jesus has done in your life? Is it like the shepherds, where you go and report the news and share with everyone what you’ve seen? Do you reveal it or do you conceal it? I want to challenge you here in saying this: have you lost the priority of Christmas? Has it become about the gifts, parties, traditions, and pleasing family over obedience to Jesus? Have you allowed the distractions of cultural and commercial Christmas to eclipse the true reason for the season? I say all of this with love. I hear people all the time get sucked into the miserable side to Christmas and where people are so exhausted by Christmas and where people do all of these Christmasy things and yet they still feel empty. Why do you think that is? Christmas devoid of Christ is exhausting, futile, meaningless, and dangerous. The second and last thing I’ll share as I invite the worship team back up is that Mary treasured all these things in her heart. The Greek word for treasure is syntereo. It means literally to keep safe, preserve, and guard carefully. As she’s looking around at all that’s going on, she is deeply pondering. She’s connecting the dots (Gabriel’s message, Elizabeth’s blessing, the shepherd’s testimony, the Scriptures she knew, and now the baby she is holding in her arm). It’s all coming together, so yes, Mary did know. And yet, she also embraced mystery. She carried mystery without demanding immediate clarity. It’s a very deep Jewish posture to take: to carry the mystery until God reveals its meaning. Look at Luke 2:50 where it says, “But they did not understand what he said to them.” That was after searching for the 12-year-old boy Jesus. If we look at Scripture, the disciples knew the teachings of Jesus and all that but didn’t really KNOW until after He was resurrected and then ascended. Does that make sense? To know and to KNOW are two different things and it’s a sweet, holy posture for Mary to treasure these things in that moment. How about you? Have you taken time to treasure the Christmas story in your soul? I would challenge you to intentionally find time and do this. Separate you and your family from the commercial Christmas and ready the Christmas Story in the Bible. Talk about it. Sing carols. Sing those songs about Jesus. Worship. Watch the Nativity. Journal and reflect the Scriptures here. Whatever it takes, find time to ponder and treasure the Christmas story and carry that habit year round as we spend week in and week out heaving in the Word of God. Let’s stand and worship King Jesus.