December 24, 2024

Luke 2:1-20

Advent Proclaimed

Sunday Sermons

Wonder, Worship and Witness

Disenchantment. It’s a word that describes much of our modern and post-modern ennui. We live in a world that has turned away from transcendence and perhaps that is why wonder has been eclipsed by cynicism, worship is given to ephemeral pleasures, and witness so often feels hollow and hypocritical.

In Luke 2:1-20, we find an antidote to this disenchantment. The birth of Christ draws us into a story that rekindles our sense of wonder, redirects our worship, and compels us to become witnesses of God’s glory and grace.

Join Pastor Jim as he leads us out into the ordinary fields of the shepherds, down into the Bethlehem stable, and into the greatest story ever told about when God became one of us.

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Series

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 2:1-20

Topics
Worship

Sermon Notes

Luke 2:1-20

Advent Proclaimed

Pastor Jim Thomas

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein, “The World As I See It”, Forum and Century 1930

1. The birth of Christ restores wonder to a disenchanted world.

“Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

2. The birth of Christ redirects our worship to the God who came near.

“Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.”
Eugene Peterson

3. The birth of Christ compels us to witness to the good news of great joy for all people.

“As we meet the incoming tide of refugees from the meaning crisis, the church needs both apologists in the academy and storytellers in the arts. We need people in the mold of C. S. Lewis, showing not only that the story is true but why we have wanted to believe it all along.”
Justin Brierley, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

“These Gospel narratives are telling you not what you should do but what God has done. The birth of the Son of God into the world is a gospel, good news, an announcement. You don’t save yourself. God has come to save you.”
Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas

Discussion Questions

  • Read the passage together: Before today’s sermon, what did you already know or believe about this passage? Did anything in your understanding shift after hearing the message?
  • Challenge and Reflection: Was there a part of today’s message that was particularly challenging or surprising for you? Why?
  • Unpacking the Message: Pick a quote from today’s sermon notes. Discuss what it means to you. 
  • Personal Impact: What’s one specific way you feel called to change or grow after hearing this message?
  • Practical Application: What’s one step you can take this week to put today’s message into practice?
  • Connecting Scripture: Are there other Bible passages or stories this message reminds you of? How do they expand or confirm this teaching?
  • Gratitude: What aspect of God’s character stood out to you in today’s message? How does it inspire praise or gratitude?
  • Pray the Scripture: After hearing the message, is there a specific area where you feel led to pray? How can we pray for one another in light of today’s teaching?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“Angels We Have Heard On High” by Text: Trad. French carol Music: GLORIA
“Sing We the Song of Emmanuel” by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Stuart Townend, and Keith Getty
“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” by Music: Stralsund Gesangbuch (1 665) Words by Charles Wesley, Arranged by Keith Getty, orch. by Paul Campbell and John Langley
“The First Noel” by Davies Gilbert and William Sandys
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” by Gerard Moultrie
“O Little Town Of Bethlehem” by Phillips Brooks and Lewis Henry Redner
“O Come All Ye Faithful” by C. Frederick Oakeley and John Francis Wade
“Go Tell It On The Mountain” by John W. Work
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #200369

Call To Worship

Leader: Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men.

People: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.

Leader: Through the tender mercy of our God, The Dayspring from on high has visited us;

People: To shine on us in our darkness, to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Leader: Our eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people;

All: Holy, holy, holy, are you Lord God, Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory! Amen!